Westvleteren

[BBoozer]

Wesrvleteren is a good beer they call the Abby of beer so the church of beers

Westvleteren is a great beer, but Rochefort 10 is great also, and Sint Bernardus 12 is surely more than decent, and those beers don't need making an appointment weeks in advance and waiting in line to get a crate. Again, Westvleteren is great, but part of its myth is based on 'playing hard to get'.

[peetie44]

Wesrvleteren is a good beer they call the Abby of beer so the church of beers

Westvleteren is a great beer, but Rochefort 10 is great also, and Sint Bernardus 12 is surely more than decent, and those beers don't need making an appointment weeks in advance and waiting in line to get a crate. Again, Westvleteren is great, but part of its myth is based on 'playing hard to get'.

Those are both good. I also like Achel and Westmalle (the town of Achel, with it's namesake abbey/brewery, is the next village over from mine). I've lined some beers up and done a few blindfolded taste-tests with some local musician buddies (no one sees the bottles poured or knows which glass they're drinking from) and the WV has always won more times than any of other beers I've tried.

By the way...my manager watched a beer show on Belgian TV and told me that the Sint Bernardus 12 is supposedly brewed from the same recipe as the WV 12. And they do look and taste similar...until you try them each at the same time. Then it's like night and day.

But you do have a point about the lack of availability adding to WV's mystique -- not to mention the ridiculous prices charged away from the abbey. And when your talking beer in Belgium, it's like wine in France, bourbon in the States and single-malts in Scotland. You'll spend more time deciding on a favorite than you will worrying about running into a bad one.