Westvleteren 12

Review Date 3/24/2023 By John Staradumsky

  Style: Trappist Quad   Brewery: Sint-Sixtusabdij van Westvleteren   Country: Belgium   State: N/A   $ Per OZ: $6.93 (B)   ABV: 10.2%

I am ashamed to admit it, but in all my decades of beer hunting, I had never tasted a Westvleteren beer. One of the original trappist breweries, Westvleteren has always been the hardest to find. They have never distributed in the United States, at least that I have seen. I have always wanted to try their beers.

Rest assured, I am very familiar with the other 5 original trappist brewers. Chimay? That was the first of them I ever tried, way back in the 80s. Orval? First tried that one in the 90s. Westmalle? Yes, cannot remember when I first tried their beers, but they are readily available here in Georgia. Koenigshoeven? Who doesn’t love a La Trappe beer? Rochefort? Just love their beer.

Never, though, Westvleteren. My introduction to all of these beers came, of course, from the Beer Hunter Michael Jackson, except for Chimay which I first tasted thanks to a savvy liquor store owner in West Warwick, Rhode Island, of all places. Still, Jackson was my main inspiration, so wouldn’t it be keen to drink a Westvleteren beer to celebrate his birthday?

As fate would have it, I got that chance.

It was a bit later than mid-March when I got the alert from Craftshack: They had Westvleteren beers for sale! I had seen these beers sold online before, direct from the brewery, but pricey indeed at $100 or more a six-pack, plus shipping from Belgium. I never pulled the trigger on that, and when Covid came, that source dried up entirely.

I believe that you can buy beer direct from the brewery again, but Craftshack had a vendor in Washington, DC, and you could buy singles. The downside was you could not buy any of the other beers on the Craftshack website without paying another shipping fee. At least, I could not find any. I had birthday cash to spend, the 14^th having just passed, and with luck, the beer would arrive just in time to toast the 81^st anniversary of the Beer Hunter’s birth. Who better to toast with a bottle of Westvleteren than the man who inspired me to seek out trappist ales in the first place?

He would not be the only one I toasted, however. My beer arrived just in time to celebrate, on Saturday the 25^th of March. That day was the 108th anniversary of my grandfather's birth, and he taught me a lot in life (and loved his beer). I would drink it and toast Jackson on the 26^th (a Sunday), the day before his birthday but also the 196th anniversary of the passing of Ludwig Van Beethoven, whose works instilled in me a lifelong love of classical music. I listened to his music as I enjoyed the beer.

But what beer did I enjoy on that day? Clearly, it was a Westvleteren beer, but they brew several. I decided on Westvleteren 12, their quad, because I love dark malty quads, and was eager to try this one above the blonde and dubbel.

From the brewery website:

This Trappist, also referred to as the Flemish Burgundy, has a dark amber colour, a stable, strong lacing and a white head. Westvleteren 12 is a masterpiece in its complexity but wonderful in its simplicity. The exquisite smooth taste of caramel and chocolate goes perfectly well with the sweet raisin and nutty notes in the aroma. Together with the firm alcohol percentage, it results in a pleasant full-bodied, long-lasting and warm aftertaste.

Now we come to the price. I will confess I paid more for this beer than any bottle of beer I have ever bought before. One 11.2 ounce bottle of this beer was running $55.99 on Craftshack. I did have a coupon code that discounted it by $8.39 to $47.60, but shipping was $19.99 and I paid a $9.99 insurance fee to boot. Normally, I skip the latter because CraftShack vendors do pack their beer very carefully. I was taking no chances with this one, however. That brought my total to $77.58, still cheaper than the current price from the brewery of €48.80 plus €15.00 empty goods fee. At today’s exchange rate that equals $70.26, but shipping would put it well over what I paid. Still, that is almost $7 an ounce.

Westvleteren 12 has an alcohol content of 10.2% by volume. It is truly a sipping beer, and that is just what I did. My cap is marked with a best by date of 07.12.25.

Westvleteren 12 pours to a murky brownish black color with a thick, very creamy tan head of foam and a nose of light molasses, brown bread, raisins, spice, figs and funky yeast. Taking a sip, the beer is rich in mouthfeel and full in body. I am not getting the molasses in the palate but everything else is here, the brown bread and raisin, the fig, clove spice, plum and the Belgian yeasty funk. There is chocolate and banana as well, and rye spiciness, too, and the beer is warming with alcohol in the finish. Phenols are present as well.

With this beer I have now had a beer from all six of the original trappist breweries.  It was worth every penny for a once in a lifetime experience and a complete-your-collection trappist beer. Would I buy it again? If I saw it in a store I would, though I think I would try their other two beers first. If you get the chance, you should experience this beer as well.