Sometimes you work really hard to be able to do things you have dreamed of doing and sometimes they just fall into your lap. Westvleteren #12 is a storied brew and perhaps one of the rarest in the world. It is a Belgian quad that you can only get by going to the abbey in Belgium where the monks make it and picking it up in person. This beer has been ranked the best in the word independently by about a dozen major beer organizations as well as by Michael Jackson who while alive was the most respected beer critic in the world and somehow wrote over a dozen number one hit songs (ok, different Michael Jackson). The only way to get it legally is to make an appointment about a year in advance with the monks and then show up at a little window in the Monastery driving the car with the license plate you gave them a year ago. You are then allowed to buy a maximum of 1-2 cases of this beer under promise that you will not re-sell it and then you cannot re-apply for a couple months. About 1-2% of those who try to get this beer succeed. Despite demand, the monks refuse press and have not increased production in over 60 years claiming, “We make the beer to live but we do not live for beer.” While it feels a little bit like the set up for a beer drinking DaVinci Code spinoff, as a brewer for over 15 years I had dreamed of some day tasting this beer and then….
Westvleteren 12 Appears Like the Glittery Kiss of a Unicorn
A good friend of ours is a Pulmonologist and generally a bad ass. She was visiting us in Colorado and talking about her recent trip to Belgium for a work conference. While there, she had met some people at a bar and had a crazy night that ended with drinking some beers on the roof of a parking garage under the stars. Someone had gifted her some beers that were supposed to be a “big deal” or something but as she said “I’m not really that into beer.” My eyes got huge and I told her about my Belgian beer love and she promised to check out the bottles and see what she had brought back.
A week or 2 went by and I got the text out of the blue that one of the bottles was indeed the Westvleteren #12! “It’s yours,” she said and then we just had to figure out how to get this beer from Minneapolis to Denver. Fast forward another month or 2 and she’s back in Denver and we are enjoying a bottle of Westvleteren #12 at a friends Oktoberfest celebration with people gathered around the bottle to share in the experience. The smoothest quad I’ve ever tasted, super well balanced. I could compare it to chocolate or caramel or various fruits but I’ll spare you the food porn and just say that this was a damn fine brew and even better shared. Sometimes life gives you gifts.