St. Bernardus Abt 12

I guess it's just me but I found the St. Bernardus Abt 12 a little ho-hum. Sure it was a little phenolic, plummy/raisiny, and slightly sweet and alcoholic but... eh. For some reason it just didn't do it for me, it almost tasted like a Chimay Blue clone rather than an extension of the same style. I thought the Westmalle double was much better, and even though it's a different "style" the Westmalle triple to be better still. Plus I really love murky plummy phenolic alcoholic beers in a range of styles: Aventinus, Chimay Blue & Red, Corsendonk, Leifmans Goudenband, etc.

Some people on the beer ratings boards just go nutso for it though, oh well. I also poured out the super popular Samiclaus (1996) which I thought twas plain nasty. Talk about soy sauce!

_Randal

You sure it didn't taste like a Westvleteren 12 clone instead?

The St Bernardus line started as the St Sixtus line; they had a contract with Westvleteren that allowed them to use the St Sixtus name, and basically cloned the Westvleteren line. That contract hasn'b been in effect for several years, but the only substantive effect was to cause the brewery to rename the beers to St Bernardus.

What I would really like to do is a side-by-side tasting of St Bernardus 12 with Westvleteren 12 and Chimay Blue.

That's a really interesting bit of information! However, I have never had the privelege to try Westvleteren anything unfortunately. Isn't it "not supposed to be imported" or some such mystique-creating viral marketing beer-geek brainwashing thing? Monks are clever. And funny. And considerably less frightening than clowns on the whole.

_Randal

Used to come in pretty much gray market. The monks don't export it, they don't see a need. But people see a chance to make money, so they buy the beer retail and export it to the U.S. That's all the mystique. They make it, it gets here: that's all I need to know!

The monks at Westvleteren's St Sixtus abbey don't make enough for export, no. They barely make enough for domestic demand.

Here's what is known: *every* receipt given with the purchase of those cases of bottled Westvleteren states that the purchase is final, and the beer isn't supposed to be resold. Of course, that statement is widely ignored. The appeal of getting something so hard to obtain - and so very good - tends to supercede matters like having the integrity to respect the monks' wishes. Doesn't matter to me; I'm not religious.

The other five Trappist breweries all have import agreements with American importers. Merchant du Vin just added Rochefort to its portfolio, making it the only American importer with three Belgian Trappist ales in its catalog - Orval and Westmalle are the other two.