* Basic Information:
Beer name: Trappist Westvleteren 12 (Yellow cap, Bottle-Conditioned)
Brewery: Brouwerij Westvleteren (Sint-Sixtusabdij van Westvleteren)
Alc. by volume: 10.2%
Best Before Date:
Tasting Date:
Notes: It’s great that finally I get the right excuse to try this legendary ale, on my birthday! The BB date of this bottle coincides with my birth-date, albeit in a different year of course:
* Appearance (4/5): Very dark brown with purple-ish hues, chunks of yeast sediments keep floating in the nectar due to the light fizziness in action, topped with a semi-dirty dark beige froth that settles slowly to a thin blanket to last.
* Aroma (4.5/5): Intensely malty and estery, witnessing good work of the candy sugar and yeasts; the aroma is full of fat dessert dates, fig jam, sweetened berries/raisins, treacle, and surprisingly light honey-ish note, all elements are rolled into one integrated aroma on top of a rather refreshing touch of relatively light brown malts. Not a wee bit of alc. is detected on the nose, even after several serious swirls. Not terribly complex; or, the complexity reveals itself in the most subtle way.
* Taste (5/5) & Mouthfeel/Palate (5/5): An effortlessly enticing foretaste mixed of oily toffee, caramel, longan-fruit soup, raisins, and brown malts with a touch of toasted nuts comes in full swing, laced by sweetened roasted tea, roasted malts, honey-coated walnuts, then slowly transforming into an remarkably dry & spicy-estery aftertaste where a high level of bitterness of hops flows elegantly & freely vis-à-vis a generally herbally-spicy backbone. Here, my taste buds can still pick up lingering undertones of candy-sugary maltiness, albeit more in terms of aroma than taste; these mildly sweet elements seem to linger as a reminder of the body and depth of a giant malty brew. the texture is blissful, incredibly satisfying and rounded, with utterly smooth carbonation to complement a full (but never thick) body…
* Overall Remark (5/5): All in all, there’s no drama here, no BIG flavours or overpowering elements to dominate the scene; only a brilliantly structured, evolving flavour profile proceeds from one stage to the other just seamlessly. I can’t work out how dry and bitter it could smoothly transform into in the rounded finish given the oily malty foretaste, while consistently there’s neither any trace of big alc. nor sticky sugary mouthfeel. This might have been the smoothest and harmonious Quadruple that I’ve had the luck to try – if it could be obtained at a much lower price (I was charged US$18 by the “Belgian Shop”!), I wish to sip one bottle of this ale a month, just to remind myself how blissful and tranquil the beer world can be, without much pretence and loudness.
-- 堯 (07/03/09)
