I was wondering if anyone knows where I can find some Westvleteren 12 for a wedding present? I know that you can’t “get” it here in the US, but I was just wondering if anyone had some extras…
Thanks,
hari
A few years back, my brother met a guy through E-bay and got a sixer each of red,blue, & yellow caps. He even got a Westy crate. The beer was cheap but the freight was “OUTRAGEOUS”. Then again, if you have the money, I’d say it’s worth it to try one of the most reclusive beers in the world.
-J.K.L.
A better value is flying your own butt over there and trying them where they’re best.
Still very hard to find in Belgium, though. Even bottle shops have to do the “call them at the magic time and then go wait in line” schtick. How’s that for a distribution model? You want it? Come and get it. But only when we tell you to.
You also have to realize how hit-or-miss this beer is too. If it’s on, it really is the best in the world. If it’s not, it sucks. I mean, undrinkably sucks. Hard to tell they are even the same beer.
Alternatively you can go to the pub across the street from the brewery where they have it on draught. Supposedly. I dunno if they still do this.
An’s the beer guy at my favorite beer bar/Vietnamese restaurant in Richmond, VA…Mekong.
The problem with the the pub, In de Vrede, is that the beers are served absolutely fresh. No maturing time at all. We tried all three, and none of them were ready to be served.
+1 Same experience. Except they didn’t have the 12. The 8 was about a month old, and way too young to be served.
With very, very rare exceptions, Trappist beers aren’t served on draught. How did I know the 8 was a month old? I looked at the date code on the bottle cap.
Bought a 12 from a bottle shop in Brussels in December of 2009… just drank it to celebrate passing the NY bar… pretty good, but no better than Rochefort 10 or St. Bernardus 12, IMO.
I agree on the 12. It’s a bit overrated. The 6, on the other hand, doesn’t get nearly enough attention.
How close are the St. Bernardus beers to Westvleteren’s line-up?
IME pretty close. Part of the allure of W12 is how difficult it is to procure. If it was on the grocery store shelf on every corner of American would people still crave it? I suspect the answer is no…
When I have had Westvleteren it has been a banana bomb. I haven’t had enough (2 12’s and an 8) to be confident that I have the entire range of quality but every Rochefort I have bought off the shelf (dozens) has been better to me than every Westvleteren I have had. All Westveleteren were grey market offerings at beer bars in North America.
Keep looking. It’s worth it once you get one that is good.
If you have a bottle in your hands but haven’t bought it yet, I found that a good indicator of quality is whether it has noticeable floating flakes in it. Hold it up to a light and take a look. Not haze, not particulates – flakes. When a beer has that, I’ve found that it’s gone off (some kind of oxidation, by taste). The beer will taste harsh, thin, and more bitter. I use that approach when looking at Westmalle Dubbel and DeKoninck with success too.
I’ve had maybe two dozen of these beers, and maybe a handful were that amazing quality. I had some back luck with buying the grey market beers in the US; those are mostly the ones that have been crap. Anyone go to my talk on Belgian Dark Strongs at the AHA Conference in Chicago? I had a case of that beer, and it had that problem. Bought it local in Chicago at Sam’s (now Binny’s).
It’s a fragile beer.
No Chicago for me. I’m a newbie.
My wife and I have agreed in, in principal, to go the Belgium next year. The problem is I hate to fly international for a trip less than two weeks and we both work a lot so it is a little hard to schedule those trips. We managed Germany last year but probably won’t leave the country (on vacation, I am in Japan now for work) this year. When we get to Belgium I will definitely make getting case(s) of Westvleteren via the beer phone a priority. Then I can bring it back, know it is fresh, store it well, and try them over time.
I am probably done with grey market as it tends to be about $15 and I’ve been burned every time. Not that $15 breaks the bank but the places that have some Westy in the back usually have a lot of good fresh stuff in the front.
We get that over on this side of the pond as well. I got a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale that had lots of particulate in it. Unfortunately non-drinkable. You wanna talk sad, though - I ordered a bunch of Pliny (I have a case of 9 at home for Sunday’s “Hopmageddon”, but I wanted to have 11 or 12) and had a coworker order two extra because of the shop’s 2-bottles-per-customer limit. Well, he got his address wrong. Bottles were marked as undeliverable and have been on their way to be ‘returned to sender’ for about 4 weeks now. Two bottles of uber-fresh Pliny, sitting in a hot warehouse somewhere, now that’s sad.
I was at Pivovarsky Klub in Prague last year. Basically a US style brewpub (amazing how many places you’ll find those now, Tokyo has a few, I think the hallmark of the US beer culture is variety almost more than hops). They had Sierra Nevada bottles and, as I did the math in my head, about $10 a bottle. No thanks. But I imagine it is quite a novelty for the locals.
Ouch, 10 euros a bottle? I paid 6. Still not worth it.
I think $10 USD is about 6 Euro these days…
Prague is fairly expensive these days though, I think. My wife’s parent’s were stationed in Germany in the 90s while she was in school and she visited and said a beer was like 30 cents US or something. When we went last year it was like $5 for a Pilsner Urquell or whatever, $6-$7 for a pint of basically craft beer draught at Pivovarsky Klub and then $10 for a bottle of Sierra Nevada.
Viva la velvet revolution, I guess. Basically US prices. Tokyo is like US prices * 2, so no complaints.
I suspect you’re right, but I can’t say for sure because I’ve never had any of the Westveteran beers. I figure that any Westy beers I get in the U.S. are gray market products imported by people who care more about profit than the beer itself, so they’re likely to be in poor shape.
Also, while it might be a royal pain for beer geeks, I respect St. Sixtus’ decision to keep production small. Their beer, their rules. Until I find the long green needed for a trip to Belgium, I’ll stick with St. Bernardus.
That hasn’t been true for a couple years now, pubs in Brugge,Bouillon,Antwerpen and a few bottle shops all had Westvleteren for sale. Amsterdam has a couple places to buy too.
http://www.crackedkettle.com/store/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=66_69
Has some but at a huge price and don’t even ask about the shipping…
http://www.beerplanet.eu/index.php?cnt=0
None for sale but they will add a bottle to your order…
I’ve had enough Westvleteren 12`s to know they need a few years of aging before coming into great beer, 3yrs is just hitting its stride.
That just might happen based on this old news report>
The article says that, due to the high costs of recent renovations, they are in talks with Belgian supermarket Colruyt to introduce their beer in stores throughout the country. This would be the first time that the beer is sold outside of the abbey itself (and the adjacent pub). Supplies will probably increase, even worldwide. The beer will probably be sold in a box of 3 (large?) bottles & a glass