Still one of the best?
Five years ago I picked up a brick of Westvleteren XII -- six bottles, two glasses, eighty bucks. I gave one bottle to my dad. I submitted one to a blind tasting against St. Bernardus, Rochefort, and La Trappe. And then I had four more which I rationed out over the years. There were ups and downs, but it’s always an interesting beer.
Last week I read about Lehe, an Estonian Brewery, which entered Westvleteren XII in a beer festival as their own quad. The reviews were, shockingly enough, quite negative. Many drinkers failed to appreciate it’s subtly, or maybe Westvleteren isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, or maybe it’s all about context.
Westvleteren is supposed to be an experience. The beer is only available at the monastery. It comes in simple, unadorned bottles with no labels, just a blue crown. It has it’s own special glass, a chalice. It’s rare. It’s special. It’s treated with reverence. Any beer with that sort of mystique is going to taste phenomenal.
When you drink beer at a festival it often comes in a plastic mug. A plastic mug that’s already held five beers, in all sorts of style categories. The beer comes from out of an unmarked cooler, served by a dude with a beard who barely knows what it’s called. It’s nigh impossible to properly evaluate a beer in that context. At best, people have a gut reaction. It’s good. It’s bad.
Sitting at home watching the sunset, chalice in hand, it’s hard not to wax poetic about Westvleteren XII. The color, brown with ruddy highlights -- it seems to glow from within. The scent, fruity esters -- ripe cherries, red grapes. The flavor, warm cookies, dried figs, a vinous quality. Topped by dry, sophisticated finish.
But this is an old bottle. It’s full of random yeast floating around. It’s murky as shit. At times, the body is literally chewy. If I saw all that from a new brewery in Portland, I’d throw the whole place under the bus.
Westvleteren though, those monks get a pass, because this beer is delicious. It might be an illusion, it might just be hype, but I am here for it.
