TRAPPIST WESTVLETEREN 12 – NOT TOO SHABBY

Well, I did it. I drank the TRAPPIST WESTVLETEREN 12 that was so kindly provided to me for evaluation purposes. Hey, it was a Friday, and Fridays are for kickin’ the weekend into overdrive, am I right? Before I did so I took a gander around the www and found that bars in NYC were selling a 12-ounce bottle of this for $55 a pop, and they were going on eBay for about half that (which is actually quite a bit less than I expected). And don’t forget that it’s absolutely and without doubt the greatest beer in the history of the planet. So yeah, I considered myself lucky to try the most unduly hyped beer of all time. I took a few pictures – ah yes, the ceremonial “hold it up to the window” photo; the “wow, that’s got a big foamy head” photo and so on.

Dispensing with all the snark, let me state for the record that TRAPPIST WESTVLETEREN 12 is an excellent, delicious, well-crafted quadrupel. I totally enjoyed every sip, and there’s no doubt it’s going to be making it onto the Hedonist Beer Jive 75 next time I update the thing. It’s an aromatic, very yeasty dark Belgian ale with a slight cola taste; i.e. a little thinner than I’d expected and consequently it’s actually very easy to put down. By “put down” I mean drink. Really smooth, very fruit-packed (raisins, dates) and bready. Those who care deeply about how a beer “feels” in the mouth (the cult of the mouthfeel) will be all over this one if they can ever find a bottle. I’m guessing this guy, the most recent post on Beer Advocate about this beer, is one of those fellas:

You have to be brain dead to not like this beer. It was a religious experience, it smelled like a church, tasted like heaven and had the body of the Holy Trinity.

It smelled like a church. That's a good beer, hunh? Hey, this is a beer that inspires hyperbole. Scoring it any less than a 10/10 will likely invite invective and abuse, so HBJ’s going to say this is a great goddamn beer and then call it like we see it: 9/10.