Westvleteren!

Tonight was a special night.

I've only been in Belgium 2 weeks and I already got to sample Westvleteren 8º and 12º.

Some of you know the significance. If not, read on.

Westvleteren is one of seven breweries in Belgium allowed to be called «Trappist»: made by monks, for monks. Well, made for you, but the proceeds go to the monastery. They're like the 501(c)(3) of the monastic beer-brewing world, if you will. You might recognize some of these Trappist beers, like Chimay, Orval, or Westmalle. You might not recognize Westvleteren, since it is the smallest and rarest of the Trappist beers. How rare? Well. I quote from the website (yes, monks use the Internet too):

Our beer is sold in limited quantities and the reservations which we accept are always for a particular type of beer. Since we want to serve as many customers as possible, orders are limited to one order per car per telephone number within any given month.

(Bold in the original) Yup. One order per car per telephone number. Oh, you want to go in the next few weeks? Sorry, no more spots. You're starting to see. Oh, I almost forgot - they'll probably take legal action if you actually get a hold of some and try to resell it.

You yourself must be the consumer. The receipt stipulates that the beer is not to be sold commercially to a third party. We reserve the right to prosecute offences.

Yeah. They're serious. But enough about that: does it matter if the beer isn't good? Does rarity equal excellence?

In this case, yes. It's amazing. It's wonderful. I'm sorry to glow, and I'm sorry that you probably didn't have a 8º tonight, but hopefully you will someday and you'll love it. I was lucky enough to have both the 8º (the Westvleteren Dubbel, 8%) and the 12º (Abt / Tripel, 10.2%), courtesy of my friends Bill and Laura. They went to great lengths to procure this magnificent tipple, and for that I salute and thank them. And owe them. Big time.

First, the 12º. Wow. Big and dark, brown and warm, caramel and brown sugar, with a deep, rich maltiness that I've never tasted before. Yeasty cloves. Nuttiness. Rich. Did I say rich? Yeah, that. And no one would guess 10% ABV. Did I say wow? Yeah, that.

The 8º. Rich, sparkly, creamy, lovely flavors of figs and dates, shared the 12º's rich brown malt body. The yeast came through better, maybe - the lighter body let the esters really shine. Toastiness, chocolate. Bananas with nutella on toasted whole wheat bread topped with raisins.

Maybe I'm drunk on the ABV and the hype of the rarity. Maybe unicorns actually did brew this beer with 24 karat gold figs and hazelnuts they roasted on their horns over a burning bush that is never consumed. Who knows? I might not be blessed enough to visit the brewery and see for myself. But I sure as hell know I love the beer.

«Tintin»