Westvleteren 12

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

[1173-20080302] Bottle. Mild fruity aroma has hints of malt and roast. Hazy, dark dark brown body with a long-lasting creamy light tan head. Flavour has some fruity malt but mostly is roasted malt with little bitterness. Full body. Impressive and muted like its brothers and still very nice, especially as it warms. (7/5/9/4/18) 4.3
(@ In De Vrede; Westvleteren, BE)

[1312B-20080419] Bottle. Mild vine grapes aroma has boozy green leaf grains and a strange oxo cube background. Murky, dark brown red body pours a big medium-lasting creamy off-white head. Sweet green twigs and fruity mild malt flavour has toasty grain sweetness and booooze. Medium body. Bonus for the experience in Canada. (7/4/8/4/17) 4.0
(w/ DuctTape, jerc, TheRoot)

My first Westy 12! Dark brown with a creamy tan head that disappears into a ring. Huge thanks to Old Style Cub fan! Huge and beautiful aroma of cherries, brown sugar, raisins, figs. Amazing flavor, fresh and strong, yet extremely complex. Has a strong vineous quality. Finish is beautifully smooth and sweet. There’s a lot going on in this beer. It’s worthy of its top beer titile!

Rating #500! It’s an honor to have the Unicorn of beers for this milestone. Bottle courtesy of Shyam. 33cl bottle has no label, engraved in the glass is the word "Trappist", otherwise the only identifying mark would be the bottle cap. Pours a deep, cloudy, nearly opaque nut brown with a head that was initially foamy and active, and settled to a healthy, creamy, tan ring with tight bubbles. The aroma is mild, all things considered, but if you search you can sense the complexity. There’s a deep, sugary malt presence, yeast, grain, bread dough, raisins, dried fruits, dates, figs and a touch of lemon grass. The aroma is good, the flavor is truly remarkable: brown sugar, chewy bread dough, raisins, grapes, butterscotch, cookies, biscuits, Belgian candy, coffee with cream, cane sugar, a little bit of earthy spice and a little bit of mild milk chocolate. Buttery and soft on the palate makes this so easy to drink with the kind of lingering sweetness that could make it a session beer. What a session that would be. Very well balanced and the consistency of the beer is probably a reflection of the care taken when making it. While not THE best beer I’ve ever had, it’s one of the best and certainly worthy of being labeled the best beer in the world.

Greatest beer ever..worth the crazy price. This is the best beer in the world. I would drink this exclusively if not for the price.

So I have nominally the best beer in the world in front of me. Always though I would be then nervous or fascinated, but at the moment I took it as a normal beer, like every other, sincerely, without any biases. Even didn’t expect too much from it, maybe of bad biometeorological situation :) Allright, let’s head to the beer!
I got a 0.33 l bottle from belgianshop.com. It Poured just a bit hazy dark brown body with medium bigger brownish head. Strong, impressive aroma, yeasty with dark fruits (berries, plums, ) caramel. Some orange peel as well, with caramel and chocolate. Wow, can’t stand to try it now! At the first sip it seemed a bit light, bittersour caramel and some alcohol, but nice. After two or three its complexity started to show up, probably as the palate gets used to. Yeasty fruits with malty caramel produce some nice flavors, ranged from chocolate filled with blueberries to irish coffee, as alcohol is also felt a bit. Very nice, but not near perfect, somehow leaves a feeling alcohol is hidden in a bit wrong, unbalanced and I would deer to say cheapish way. Finish is very pleasant, very sweet, caramel and plum dominated. I am constantly bothered by that strange bitterness from the flavor, but otherwise would be perfect beer. Although surely one of the best beers I’ve ever had in my life, it’s not the best and I can say I’ve actually expected more.

Tasted this beer first hand at ’De Vrede’ right next to the abbey. Can’t get any better! Rich flavor, aroma, color all that you need in a beer. I do feel a sad that it needed to take the commercialism of the western world to get to know this beer. I would suggest to every beer ’snob’ to save your money for a plane ticket rather than spending it on postage!

Bottle, HUGE thanks to Dough77 for sending this guy my way. I’ve been saving this for my college graduation, and I’m glad I let it sit for a few months before cracking it. The aroma is so interesting - doughy, yeasty, picking up some raisin notes too. To be honest, it smelled like bread, or pizza dough (in a good way). Absolutely delicious flavor. Lots of fruit: raisin, lightly roasted coffee, some caramel, honey, and vinuous notes too. Beautiful lingering malty finish, perfect body. The alcohol is there, but just serves to warm the throat on the way down. I was a little nervous before opening this one because I was afraid that it wouldn’t live up to the hype. Fortunately, it definitely did. It’s a unique and incredibly complex beer -- I’m glad to have finally tried it.

Wow... Some people think there really is no such thing as the "perfect beer". I disagree. While it is basically non-existent, this beer does achieve that status. The holy grail of beers! Thanks to my good friend for getting me a couple of these on his trip to Belgium! Pours a cloudy dark amber/brown with a medium tan head that dissipates very quickly. This thing is like drinking pure nectar! Figs, licorice, chocolate, raisins, and maybe a slight bit of coffee and that’s just the beginning. There are so much more complex flavors to this thing! It is ever so slightly sweet and it lingers forever... I now understand why they call this the holy grail of beers! The abv in this beer is very well hidden. You could drink a few of these things without realizing how much you’ve had! What else can I say, Everyone needs to get one at least once in their life! Only wish I had more... Maybe when I win the lottery I’ll head over and grab a case for myself! Cheers!