Westvleteren 12

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

MY 1000TH RATING!
Location: 33 ml bottle from NickD717 via trade, 12/4/09

Aroma: This one has quite the nose, really complex, its got lots of complex fruitiness (plum, apple, raisin), and lots of other stuff too, some caramel, chocolate, pepper, and alcohol. I’d keep going but I think that gives the general gist.
Appearance: The pour is a hazy brownish color with a slight red hue, just a couple of bubble around the edge of the glass (perhaps due to the bottle getting flattened)
Flavor: Taste is more then moderately sweet, a nice big flavorful beer for sure. You can really feel all of those different components that make up the nose.
Palate: It’s hard for me to give a great judgment of the palate due to the beer being quite flat, but it does have a very nice mouthfeel and a semi-full body
Overall Impression: So the hype is here for sure, and I couldn’t help but save this one to be number 1000. Thanks to Nick for hooking me up with this rare treat! You were correct my friend, the bottle does appear to have gotten a little flat, but all the wonderful components seem to have survived. When I opened this bottle, zero choirs began singing, my life didn’t change, and I didn’t find the meaning of life, but I did find one heck of a beer. One of the more complex and enjoyable beverages I have ever had the privilege of enjoying. Anyway, I’m excited this was the beer I used to mark off my 1000 rating on Ratebeer.com.

what can i say..drank it young, drank it 1y old, 2y old, even 11y old(still have one left, my god, this is way beyond beer, and this is why my top score)..it’s then you know words are ubsolete..when its young its way too sticky sugary for me, but when age(after a year, it gets interesting) takes that away you have the best beer ever. The myth of all beers is true and it is called Westvleteren 12! I have to say, there are some beers that come damn close and can more easely be found..

11.2 ounce bottle, brewed in 2009. Pours mahogany, semi-cloudy, with a medium tan head that leaves only a little bit behind. Awesome aroma of dark fruits (plum, date, raisin, fig), caramel, malts, spices, and faint alcohol. The flavor lives up to the nose, with the same dark fruits, caramel, and malts, as well as mild spices, nuts, wood, and warming alcohol. Medium bodied, really smooth, and alcohol is pretty subdued for being 10%. It’s hard to find flaws in this one- maybe the body is thin for the style, and the color isn’t the most beautiful shade of mahogany. But those are just tiny observations that mean virtually nothing compared to this beer as a whole. I never thought this could live up to the hype, but it absolutely satisfied all expectations. I can’t wait to visit the place someday and try some there.

2004 bottle. Thanks Jason and Julie from Brusin’ Ales!!! Awesome aroma of sour green apple and figs. Perfect dark amber color with a thin head that lingers and is balanced. Nice medium mouthfeel, carbonation not overly noticiable. Taste is awesome with a mellow apple taste and other complex flavors. A very crisp beer for such a high abv. In a word: awesome

330ml Bottle: Complex aroma of malts, nuts, slight raisins, slight dark ripe fruit, light yeast, slight wood, slight toffee, and the slightest hint of cocoa. Poured brown in color with a tiny, tan head that lasted around the edges only. Cloudy. Very slightly sparkling. Full of small and medium-sized particles throughout. Complex flavor is lightly sweet and slightly bitter. Tastes of malts, nuts, light toasting, wood, light yeast, slight raisin, slight cocoa, slight tobacco, and a hint of toffee. Full body. Viscous, coating texture is lightly dry. Soft carbonation. Malt, nut, wood, yeast and slight tobacco finish is lightly dry. A real sipper.

Deep brown body with an almond head. Strong nose, brown malt and vanilla. Complex in its own right. Malty, tones of vanilla, prunes. Sweet and delicious. Finishes as everything you’d imagine! Only mistake I made was following Imperial stouts with this so it mildly ruined the flavor for me....still a very good beer

Bottle from BelgianBeerGal - thanks Amy! So this was probably the first beer that I was almost nervous to drink. Ok, not nervous, but I was very aware that this is the holy grail of beers and I really wanted to do it justice. Because of the hype I wanted to make sure I didn’t overrate or underrate it--just drink it and give an honest opinion. Contrary to popular belief, angels didn’t sing and monks didn’t chant upon opening the bottle. I poured it into a Duvel tulip, and it formed a nice foamy tan head above a cloudy caramel brown pour. The nose was a little sharper than I expected (though it is 10.2%) with bready cherries and a bit of sharp booze. The taste, however, was fantastic, complex and lasting. It’s yeasty sweet bread on one sip, syrupy, caramel sweetness the next. Tried to pick out what I was tasting, but it was hard. Found some cinnamon, honey, faint chocolate, and some lingering yeasty breadiness after the sip was long down my throat. It’s smooth as hell, pretty chewy, and just coats the glass. There’s a touch of sharpness on the finish, but that doesn’t detract too much. While it wasn’t a religious experience, it was a fine beer that I’d love to lay down for a couple years.

Bottled 0,33L. Bulky and incredibly creamy head, much resistant and long-lasting one. Black intense color, dense, impenetrable, solid, fraught aspect. In mouth it’s explosive. Extremely creamy and liquery with overbearing and intense alcoholic content. Much complex to describe. It introduces however optimal aromas of braced malt, wine, stum, roast caramel.