St. Bernardus Abt 12 Special Edition

Formerly brewed at St. Bernard Brouwerij
Style: Abt/Quadrupel
Watou, Belgium

Bomber. Poured a light mohagany with a very large, foamy coffee-and-cream colored hear that stuck around til the end. Aromas of dark roasted malt, molasses, brown sugar, yeast and toffee. Nice biting mouthfeel, with a good deal of sweetness throughout and some bittersweet chocolate. It’s a good beer, but IMO not anything better than the regular Abt 12.

I remove the bottle from its metallic cylinder. The cap makes a huge pop as I pop it off. The pour is a lovely turbid ruby color with 3-finger khaki head, although I am reminded that St. Berny himself looks a bit like a child molester. The aroma is caramel malt, brown sugar, figgy fruit, scotch aley oaky malt, perfumy florals. The mouthfeel is complex and hefty, with flavor notes of caramel malt, spicy fig notes, brown sugar, some bourbon, cherry, and port notes. This one is outstanding.

beautiful dark brown appearance with an off-white head. very nice malty flavor with the perfect hop finish to balance the beer tremendously. very complex, very very good

Poured from a 750 (from the tin) obtained at John’s Grocery (of course...) in Iowa City. Lively cork pop, gorgeous rich dark brown with a beutimus thick medium beige creamy head. Smell is raisins, fresh hot bread, and chocolate. Subtle carbonation with medium mouthfeel...very nice! Big maltyness with dark fruits; more raisins, molases and definate spicyness. Peppery finish with a nice warm alcohol burn (though not overpowering...). Wow, beautiful! Worth every penny.

Bottle thanks to my Secret Santa! Dark brown body with a cream colored head. Aromas of raisins, plums, yeast and bananas. Flavor of bready and caramel malts with a dry yeasty character. Nice and full-bodied on the palatte. Very good beer but just not something I wanna drink every day.

Aroma of dark fruits and malt. Underlying yeast. Reddish amber color with a serious beige head that laces somewhat. Starts with serious dark fruit sweetness. Passes to yeast and hoppy spice. There is a very nice mouthfeel, and the finish is sweet background to nice hop. Taste is worth a thousand words, and I don’t think words can adequately describe this, but see cquiroga’s essay below. There are reasons this ale rates high.

I truly loved this Abby ale. Dark compl;ex yet with a sweet almost caramel finish. This Als is one of my favorites! The finest hops in the world went into making this bottle and that is something you can taste n every delisious drop.

1/24/07. Poured out of 750 mL bottle, obtained in SecretSanta exchange on RateBeer 12/6/06. Dark burgundy-brown with orange highlights, surprisingly translucent. Light, frothy cream-colored foam that collapses into a sudsy, uneven residue. Lacing is superb-- largely uniform, tightly compacted (with some sudsy spots) and shimmering. Aroma of dark brown sugar with yeasty hints of sweaty leather, dark plum-molasses, and sweet, rustic crusty bread. Flavor is somewhat sweet (although still perhaps not as sweet as I’d have expected), malty (again, dark plums and bread), a little subdued or "watery" (methinks there’s a phenolic component that sort of blankets and muddles some of the other prominent characteristics), like a rum and coke after the ice has melted a bit. Features strong yeast character, even drying and coating the tongue a bit like eating a tuft of krausen. Almost like eating raisin skins (if I can imagine that)-- dark fruity dryness without any juicy, fleshy sweetness. Finish brings up the sweetness a bit more and has a little bit of peppery alcohol combined with an itchy, almost earthy bitterness. Some toasty artisan bread crust. Carbonation is pretty soft and a bit crumbly, body is medium-full. The retronasal alcohol apparency seems a little more prominent in this than the regular St. Bernardus 12, although since it is pretty well integrated with the hop bitterness (also seemingly increased-- some scratchy straw-like notes pair with the dark brown sugar trail in the finish) and earthy dryness, it’s about equally palatable. Very exquisitely made, but I’m still sort of on the fence about the tongue-coating-and-numbing qualities. I’d say it *seems* a bit better than the regular St. Bernardus 12, although somehow my rating ended up exactly the same. I intend to rate them each blind at some point. I may actually be selling them both short. World-class stuff.