Traveling around Belgium and The Netherlands offers enjoying the best beer in the world.
Description and Taste Profile
Westvleteren 12 is a dark amber beer with a stable white head and strong lacing. It has an alcohol by volume (ABV) of 10.2% and pours with lively carbonation, offering aromas of sweet toffee, caramel, prunes, raisins, and nuts. The flavor is full-bodied and smooth, featuring notes of caramel, chocolate, dark fruits like plum and raisin, and a touch of phenol, leading to a warm, long-lasting aftertaste without being overly sweet or cloying. It’s bottle-conditioned, meaning it undergoes secondary fermentation in the bottle, which contributes to its evolving taste—many enthusiasts note it improves with age, developing even more depth after a few years of storage. For optimal enjoyment, serve it at 12–16°C in a chalice glass, pouring carefully to leave the yeast sediment at the bottom (which can be drunk separately if desired, though it may add bitterness).
Brewing Details
The beer is crafted using just five natural ingredients: water, barley malt, hops (locally sourced from Poperinge), yeast (from Westmalle Abbey), and sugar (including candy syrup and invert sugar). Brewing takes place within the abbey walls by a small team of monks, adhering to strict Trappist traditions—it must be produced by monks in a monastery to bear the “Authentic Trappist Product” label. The process includes cold conditioning and refermentation in the bottle for natural carbonation. Production is intentionally limited to about 475 kiloliters annually (unchanged since 1946) to sustain the monastery and support charitable causes, rather than for profit.
History and Reputation
The Saint Sixtus Abbey was founded in 1831, with brewing starting in 1838. Westvleteren 12 was first introduced in 1940 as a strong dark ale (originally called “Abt”). From 1946 to 1992, it was brewed under license by the nearby St. Bernardus Brewery, but production returned in-house in 1992 to comply with Trappist certification rules. Its global fame exploded in 2005 when
RateBeer.com named it the world’s best beer based on user reviews, despite limited prior exposure (only about 150 reviews at the time). This led to massive demand, traffic chaos at the abbey, and over 100,000 calls to their “beer phone” reservation line for just a few hundred cases. It held the top spot on RateBeer until 2008 and has consistently ranked highly on sites like BeerAdvocate and RateBeer, with many drinkers calling it their favorite. The hype has made it a sought-after “holy grail” for beer enthusiasts, though some argue similar beers like St. Bernardus Abt 12 (brewed with the same yeast strain) are comparable and easier to obtain.
Availability and Labels
True to Trappist principles, the beer isn’t advertised or widely distributed—the monks brew only what they need. It’s sold primarily through online reservations on the abbey’s website, with pickups at the brewery (one or two crates per person every 30 days, tied to a phone number and license plate to curb reselling). A crate of 24 bottles (33 cl each) costs €56 at the abbey. Limited quantities are also available at the abbey’s In de Vrede café, and since 2023, about 10% of production is shipped to the Netherlands to combat grey-market prices (which can reach €20 per bottle vs. the abbey’s €2.33). Rare exports, like gift packs sold in the US in 2012 for abbey renovations, have occurred, but resale is discouraged and often illegal.
Historically, bottles had no labels since 1945, with details only on the crown caps (yellow for the 12). However, simple labels were introduced in August 2022, including the best-before date (three years from bottling) and batch info. The label in your photo matches this updated style, which may include pricing or additional details for certain markets.