Westvleteren 12

Brewed by Westvleteren Abdij St. Sixtus
Style: Abt/Quadrupel
Westvleteren, Belgium

330 mL bottle from St. Veronus. (Thank-you, thank-you, thank-you Roland!) The (relatively) mild aroma only hints at what is to come. The flavour and mouthfeel are as close to perfection as I imagine that a beer can be. Full and velvety, awakening tastebuds in parts of my mouth that I didn’t even know evisted. And the complexity of the flavour: dried fruit, fresh dark fruit, chocolate, vanilla, spices . . . . Even the alcohol is utilized effectively. A memorable experience.

Rating no 1000. I saved this beer 18 month so i could use it for my rating no. 1000. Bottle. Dark brown colour with huge creamy off-white mostly lasting head. Powerfull malty and spicy aroma. Sweet fruity and spicy flavor. Nice lasting finish. Best beer ever.

Bottle from a shop in Copenhagen called Barley wine, sorry it’s their last one. A deep brown pour with no head. Aroma strikes me as champagne, or a dry white wine, with spice, some dried fruit. Flavor is very dark fruity, fig and plum and raisin, a hint of nutiness and coffee, very well rounded flavor. Mouthfeel is deliciously chewy, with just the tickle of carbonation on the tongue. Finishes with the same dark fruitness, alcohol well hidden. A really delcious beer, but for what I paid for it (80 DKR, ~17 USD) it’s not the best beer in the world.

OK - it’s been a bad enough night (tail end of a 17 hour day that has no end in sight) that I couldn’t resist opening my last Westy 12 to try and change the spirit of the evening. It was either given to me by JoeinUccle or purchased @ Bier Tempel Brussels - didn’t mark them differently. Either way, Thanks, Joe. Have been lucky enough to have had a few of these since I started the RB path (lots of time in Holland and a trip to Belgium help that equation), not sure why i didn’t rate until now. Deep dark, dark brown with a mesmerizing tan head. Full of inviting little floaties. Aroma is really really telling that this is no ordinary beer - well accented raisns, figs, charred peaches and spices galore. Flavor is where the beer stands above. Mild, somehow dry (?), but with well-rounded elements of everything in the nose. Raisin and leathery fruit come to mind, and the flavor lingers on the finish. Each sip followed by a berath of air brings a little different take on the flavor spectrum, and not a bad note among them. This is just flat-out one of the most gloriously complex brews out there. Is it worth $25/btl if bought in the US? Is it worth millions of pages of hype? Not sure, but it’s one damn fine beer.

17.01.10. Finally. Pours with much less head than the 8, though this was in the fridge for a few minutes longer. Neither bottle had any sediment in the bottom, I was surprised by that. Deep dark brown, and a seemingly identical aroma as the 8. Is something wrong with me? The heavens aren’t parting. Concord grape, cola nut, plum. The beer’s not cold, maybe 50 degrees. Some dark raisin, but nothing unique and nothing in the way of pinnacle. And the sip. Dark cherry, damp dust, raspberry syrup, and alcohol fuel. I’ve had a few moments where a single beer has changed the way i look at beer as a whole and I was expecting this beer to do that again. Fireworks. It’s not fair to the monks. But I really think that in a blind taste test I would feel the same way. Nearly sticky, not as hot as the 8. I’m so thrilled to finally be drinking this. It’s a goal I didn’t know I had until I started goofing around on this great website. Thanks to Ratebeer I’ve become aware of this beer and received a bottle from my Secret Santa. I am forever grateful. I want to thank Al Gore for creating the intertubes.

Reviewed on 3/9/2009... BBD is 12.02.11 (2/12/2011 for us Yanks). 33cl bottle into St. Bernie’s chalice. Out of fridge for about 10-15 minutes and breathing a few more minutes before pouring. I wanted to let it breathe a bit longer but I pop the cap and it’s happy to see me as it slowly froths above the top of the bottle so I pour a little bit into the chalice. The foam keeps coming so I get the rest in there. The pour as mentioned is extremely well-carbonated and yields a slightly murky raisin brown. Active carbonation yields a 1/2-finger head in the chalice; it dissipates but leaves a wispy ginger-colored film resembling a solid Kosher rye. Whoooaaa, camel...first impression is clove, ginger and rum raisin ice cream. The beautiful bride notices prunes and a bit of chocolate...she’s spot on. Prunes definitely abound; there’s a dark leather scent...even a bit of soapy plums. Very complex with a mild to moderate booziness that’s carrying ginger notes and aided by the solid carbonation. I’m getting a little bit of floral soapy notes at first, followed by mild gingerbread, a little clove and then some raisins. It’s amazing what 5 more minutes of warmth does for this. The floral soap veneer thankfully burns away and we’re back in solid Quad ground. The leathery fruitcake spices, the deep dark dried plums, dates and chocolate covered cherries bring this another level of complexity. Surprisingly austere on the finish...much more dry than expected. As the BB indicated earlier, mild baking/bittersweet chocolate emerges with warmth. Prunes, too. Still, a tad of lingering floral soapiness. For some reason I expected a big mild spice and raisin bomb. I’m really surprised at the pleasant dryness of this offering. The construction is so well-done that there’s not a lot of mess left behind. The excited carbonation may indicate that the yeast in this deal may have eaten everything they could wrap their cells around. Still, that floral soapiness still lingers. Maybe it’s the thought of enjoying this for the very first time but this dows go down very quickly. It definitely takes a while for that one off-flavor - the floral soap - to burn off its weirdness. Note no real mention of booziness on the taste or palate profile - after the initial rum raisin ice cream scent it simply isn’t an issue. My guess is that I should probably invest in a case of this some day to evaluate over time because merely one bottle isn’t enough. With many extreme offerings the flavors and notions are in your face so that there’s no mistake. This treasure is definitely more subtle and takes a little more time to figure out. Great, complex construction.