Westvleteren 12

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

I was skeptical at first, but this lives up to the hype - I can absolutely see why this is the #1 beer in the world. HUGE thanks to Bobby91w for including this as an extra - I couldn’t be happier. Pours a murky deep brown, with a smaller head than its SB brother, but it’s still really thick. Dark fruits abound - figs and dates - with a lot of brown sugar, caramel - even a bit of fresh (not roasted) hazelnuts. Very sweet, but my God there’s a lot to it. The palate is perfect - just enough carbonation to keep it clean, but the flavor lingers forever, and this is so delicious that I think I uttered "wow" after every sip. Aside from the looks (I thought it would be a bit darker), this is absolute perfection. I’m truly not sure I could enjoy a beer more.

Smooth, lightly fizzy and shifts from light to dark. Slightly fruity and fizzy at first, then goes buttery, deep and dense. "Meh" aroma -- sweet, but almost not there and too obviously molasses with no masking -- but beautiful to look at: dark brown at the bottom, becomes red and visibly clouded at the top. Small head.

Trappist Glass (Thanks kmweaver...gotta love relatives). Pours a dark mahogany color, looks gorgeous in the glass. Light tan head, huge and lingering. Delicat spotty lacing. Aroma of yeasty malts, hints of dark fruits, boozy promises. Flavor is explosive, huge boozy malt hits first, with some raisins, currants, milk chocolate, and sherry. Foamy mouth feel, smooth and thick. I kept putting off trying this beer...was worth the wait, just wish I had a few hundred more bottles.

Bottle at Beer Mania, Brussels. This is the holy grail. Little foam, heavy on alcohol but you can barely notice that. The brew is licorice colored. Then, the taste is complex, dense, carbonated and highly sweet. Finishes very softly and the taste remains for a long time afterwards. Perfection.

Big thanks to Cletus for the bottle! Consumed on Christmas day. Pours a murky dark brown with a head that actually grew in size over time. First it was a little circle of foam in the middle of my glass, then after 10 minutes it was a full head, dark eggshell in color. Aromas of dark fruits, plums, dates, raisins, some yeast and slight alcohol burn. Flavors are spicy, yeasty, dark fruits. Rich. Very long finish. Good, great even, but I need to try this a few more times before Im convinced this is the worlds greatest beer.

100 Baby! Thanks to Bitbucket for trading way back. Was saving for 100. Brownish murky body. Definitely dark fruit notes...along with chocolate. Beautifully carbonated. Brown sugar is there, I can see how people say it has earthy qualities. Not my favorite style, but awesomely made and extremely tastey. Can definitely vouch for the hype.

Bottle thanks to golubj, who has come up huge tonight obviously. Aroma of dark fruit, prunes, toasted earth, licorice, brown sugar, and a bunch of other crap. Flavor was dominated by dark fruits, brown sugar, and earthy, leather type elements. Extremely complex flavor, but I do not know if I actually really am a big fan of the flavors. Something about it was somewat offputting. It was a real pronounced earthy, type leatheriness.

Bottle, thanks to BBG. Burgandy cloudy pour with a film of beige head. Aroma is dark fruit, some toasted earthy sugar, black licorice and pepper. Flavor is very full; some bubblegum sweetness, other dark fruit and dates, and some earthy / peppery yeast in the end.