I've wanted to try Westvleteren for a long time now. It was the only trappist I haven't tried and one of them is ranked as nr 1 at Ratebeer and another as nr 12. Me, my brother and father shared the three bottles.
But before I present the result I'm gonna give a quick background to the brewery:
It is the smallest of the trappist breweries. They brew three different beers, however they don't use the classic trappist grading system of Dubble, Tripel and Quadrupel. They make a Blonde and two dark strong ales. If I where to but them in the trappist system I would say they are both closest to Quadrupels. The monks brew a very limited quantity of beer and according to their website it's fairly complicated to buy the beer. However if you do happen to pass by the brewery and have requested a purchase by phone, you can buy a crate (24 bottles) for only 25-36 euros. I would call that a bargain.
From left to right: Westvleteren Blonde, 8 and 12.
The caps are the only thing seperating the three beers at a first glance. Can tell you that we where a bit confused when we started pouring the beers in 9 different glasses.
Westvleteren Blonde 5,8% (Bottle)
It poured a hazy golden liquid with a medium sized foam that left no lacing. There was also some yeast in the liquid.
It had a strong smell of citrus, orange, yeast, honey and spices. A fairly promising start.
The first thing I noticed while tasting this beer was that it had some honey in it. Besides that it was very fizzy which hid the flavor. After letting the beer rest for a while some more sides emerged, it had a spicey and dry taste, yet smooth and easy to drink. It had a small body which made it seem a bit watery and boring. But it was still a fairly solid beer even though it couldnt match up to it's bigger brothers.
Total: 3,5
Westvleteren 8 8% (Bottle)
It poured a dark liquid with some tones of red and brown and a small foam that left a little lacing. There was also some yeast in the liquid.
The aroma was strong with chocolate, red berries, coffey and spices. Complex and very nice.
The first sip was very fizzy. So fizzy in fact that I didn't sense any flavor at all. After waiting a bit and let the fizzyness reside a bit I started to get a better grasp of the beer and it improved allot. It had a spicey flavor with some chocolate, red berries, nuts, orange peels and dried fruit. It also had a bite to it that I actually enjoyed, normally that would have been a bad thing but in this beer it really worked.
Total: 4,3/5
Westvleteren 12 10,2% (Bottle)
It poured a dark liquid with some tones of red and brown. The foam was small and left no lacing. After a closer inspection I also noticed that there where some yeast in the liquid.
It had an aroma of chocolate and something fruity, some red berries and something else which I couldn't distinguish. It was also spicey with some alcohol that was fairly well hidden. The aroma wasn't as strong as with Westvleteren 8.
Just as with Westvleteren 8 the first sip was just way to fizzy and it clouded all the nice flavour this beer turned out to have. It had a taste of nuts, chocolate and red berries. It was not as intence as Westvleteren 8, although a bit smoother. But I actually prefered the roughness and spices in the 8. It was all very round and well balanced with a warm alcoholic finish.
Total: 4,2/5
I'm actually a bit dissapointed and I think I had too high expectations on these beers. As you can see from my score they where not bad, but I had expected something better, probably around 4,5-4,9. But at least they had one thing in common, they all improved allot with less fizzyness. However I have a feeling these beers improves over time and that we might have opened them a bit to early.
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