Westvleteren 12 (XII)
(has 29 batches)

Bouteille 330ml, 2012, gracieuseté de Wilco, Thanks Mike! Couleur brune foncée opaque, mousse beige foncée fuyante laissant un anneau sur les parois du verre. Arôme de dattes, figues séchées, malt caramélisé, soupçon de cannelle, cassonade, levure, alcool, prunes, pain d’épices. Goût de malt caramélisé, fruits séchées, alcool, levure, épices, un peu âcre. Carbonatation élevée, corps moyen-dense.

Pours copper, almost clear, slight carbonation. Aroma is getting richer as it warms. There is alcohol, some candy sugar and caramel, alcohol spike also. Belgian definitely, amazing.. Well. Taste is more of the same: caramel, clean and warming candy sugar. Bitterness is high but it does not cover the overall caramel and Belgian yeast. I am not that much into the style but I could quite enjoy this one. Not really worthy of the hype (for me) but I am glad that I could taste it.

Because of the standing of this beer, I was expecting something great or at least really good. But as with most top 10 or top 50 RB beers, this was simply another let down after tasting more than 4500 other beers, I know there are so many other great tasting beers out there that I’m not sure how this gets to the top of the list, perhaps the difficulty in acquiring it comes into play? I am finally beginning to realize that I must not like really good beer, go figger. From a bottle this beer poured a darker brew but not real dark, more of a lighter brown. Had a decent head that faded rapidly to a thin creamy foam which provided nice lacing. Initial taste impression was strong yet smooth and somewhat civilized and this is nothing out of the ordinary for many lower rated beers. Warming sensations as it transversed my mouth to the gullet. Some unexpected bitterness in the session, I thought it could have a few more manners. However, for 10% it did not provide an alky impact that was in yer face, tho it certainly was apparent and somewhat volatile on the olfactory -I guess that was a good thing. Flavors were simply alky laced old country trappest beer, nothing more. Decent co2, but not half the effect of a good Orval. The finish was the kind of feeling that you get when you drink a medium good trippel or even a misbehaved dubbel. So, overall, another letdown. I waited 10 years to try this and the build up to this night’s tasting was not worth it but I was finally glad to get this off my bucket list. If you want a good quad experience, Sierra Nevada Ovila Quad is much better than this brew, JMHO. Quite a letdown. Bottle brought back from the old country by Martin’s nephew, for Martin who shared it with me. Big thanks Martin, I owe him big! Evidently the cost of this bottle was about $15.