Westvleteren 12

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

Rating #100! The elusive, unicorn of a beer, got it in a trade from deepsouth. Pours a mahogany brown, with very small head, and a murky body. Aroma is of dark fruit, brown sugar, and alcohol. Taste not as great as the aroma would indicate. Taste is of dark fruit, strong alcohol, and a bit of acidic/medicinal bitterness. Unless I got a bum bottle, it’s good, but not the greatest by any means. I put St. Bernardus Abt 12 well above it. Update: I shared the 2nd bottle I acquired in this trade last night at Kuhnhenn Winter Solstice. It was much better than the first bottle. Incredible aroma, and richness of taste. So I am upping my scores to reflect this. Great stuff!

Not a fan of the style, but a very good beer top to bottom. Fits the style perfectly. Aroma is very pronounced and complex, just like the malty flavors. There is a LOT going on in this beer.Thanks for the bottle Aledude!

It doesn’t get any better than this. Like liquid candy. Everything about it is just spectacular. Mmm good.

Dark amber in color with nice head. Delicate aroma that’s hard to catch. Great, silky flavor, with lots of complex flavors. A little expensive, but whaddya do.

I drunk it directly in the pub in front of the abbey. When I need a tasty beer I take my car and run to St Sixys Abdij. I think it is by far the best beer that I have ever drunk, a different experience, it is soft smooth and strong. The best combination is with the pate’ and the bread that the monks prepare themself.

Date on bottle says best before 11/1/09. Poured into a Rochefort chalice. Poured a really dark amber brown with an off white head that stayed throughout the glass and left some lacing. Smell is a little lighter than I expected, but still plenty of dark fruits and spices, with a little bit of a sour smell detected. Taste was much of the same, didn’t really detect any sourness that I found in the nose, also I couldn’t detect the alcohol. Even with my expectations of this beer being very complex, it still caught me a bit offguard, it was very nice, nearly perfect. Medium bodied, with a light to medium amount of carbonation; it was smooth with a slightly dry finish to it. Drinkability was incredible, alcohol was not to be found and it seemed to go down just as easy as a 3.2% cask ale, I had to hold myself back from drinking this too fast. The best beer in the world? Maybe. My favorite beer? No, maybe with some age though. A damn fine beer worth seeking out? Absolutely.

It was good to finally try the beer with all the hype. For the most part it lived up to the hype. The beer was better then average and better then I thought it was going to be. It has all the smells in it like a belgium beer does fig, plum, molasses, etc. It starts smooth and warms as it goes. If you ever have the opportunity to try this beer do. It was worth every penny. This beer can get very pricey. But once never killed anyone. Especially for one of the best beers in the world

Very drinkable beer. It pours dark amber in color. It smells of molasses, cinnamon, caramel, and a little nutty. The taste is very close to a combination of these flavors. IT truly was a great beer.