Westvleteren Extra 8

Brewed by Westvleteren Abdij St. Sixtus
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Westvleteren, Belgium

2 yr old bottle leftover from my bday case...thanks boys!! pours a deep brown with a medium lt. tan head taht dissipates quickly but returns with agitation...nice lacing...some sediment throughout. aroma is subtly sweet with hints of raisin, candy sugar...maybe some fig. also has a touch of crisp, earthy and spicy hops. flavor is more hoppy than the aroma suggests...balanced nicely and not too sweet at all. definite candy sugar and raisin with crisp hops...slightly leathery...that dry out the finish nicely. mouthfeel is medium and lively...finish lingers nicely. very nice beer!

Bottle. Wow, a surprise from a friend. 3 way blind taste test alongside pannepot grand reserva 2006 and pannepot reserva 2006. Wild yeast aromas, quite barn like with lots of hay. Nice orval like taste, very wild and funky tons of fruit as well, cherries mainly. Some spice. Slightly sub par palate, kind of fizzy, but this beer was very young.

Bottle, thanks to a very generous friend. 12 is up next. Very dark murky brown body with a descent lasting off-white head. creamy. The aroma is almost too hard for me to explain, can’t really put my finger on it. Sweet with dark fruity notes (plum, red grapes, raisins) and some candy sugar to back. I have to admit that this style just isn’t my thing really, but the flavor is pretty unbelievable. Very fruity and sweet (but not thick and syrupy sweet like many lesser belgian beers). No hint of alcohol. Dangerously drinkable. Medium body with fervent carbonation. Overall: a great beer... coming from a belgian beer (excepting lambics) hater.

Pours a murky cloudy opaque medium dark brown with little head suffice the center and around the rims. The aroma is highly Cherry, plum, fig and other dark fruits along with maybe even a slight hint of chocolate and some bread. the flavor is also cherry, fig and dark fruits with a yeast/ bread presence. Not overly sweet extremely well balanced. The fruits come through even more as the beer warms. I may actually enjoy this over the 12 I will have to try it again.

Pours a beautiful amber to ruby red with a small foamy white head. Slightly faint but complex aroma of malt, fruits, some alcohol, and also a bit dusty. Somehow I expected more, given the ratings. But then after my first sip, the flavor hit me straight in the face. It has a lovely creamy texture that allows this beer to gently enter my mouth, after which a subtle bitter dryness kicks that tantalizingly manages to assault my senses. The best part comes actually after swallowing the goods. A lingering dry bitter finish that makes me wonder what just happened. The flavor is not very strong, just like the aroma, but really well balanced and very nice. But although I really like this beer, it still lacks something.. undefinable. Over here it is also way overpriced. But I can not really complain about that, as I could have visited Westvleteren myself.

This Belgian strong ale pours dark red/brown and is highly carbonated. You can tell that this brew re-ferments in the bottle because there is a lot of sediment floating in it, very interesting. Smell is full flavored of dark fruits, honey, and all kinds of malts. The taste is pretty much exactly as it smells and it doesn’t skip on the smoothness. The Westvleteren 8 is by far the smoothest Ale ive ever had. Also it hides the taste of alcohol very well, and this is no weakling coming in at 8% either. Overall it has a very bold and strong flavor with a bitter sweet frothy aftertaste. Very good.

Bottle thanks Brett. Pours cloudy brown with tan lasting head. Bananna clove spice malt aroma Complex balance of flavors with spice, fruit, yeast. Nice!

330 ml bottle shared with tasting group (approx. 10 year old bottle): Pours a slightly hazy deep amber color with some floaties and a beautiful large fluffy beige head. The aroma on this is something to savor. Big candy like sweetness, caramel, brown sugar, port, slightly oxidized but not in a bad way, and dark fruit. I had to pause and take all of this in for a moment. The flavor is first class as well. There was some consensus with my tasting group that this was even better than the Westy 12 we had tasted earlier. It has a very sugary caramel maltiness , vinous and port-like, multiple fruits: plum, dates, black cherry, all well integrated with each other. The alcohol is non existent which makes this dangerous if I had more around. Mouthfeel is medium full and silky smooth. This was a real treat picked up in an early trade with alldaydrinker.