Brewery: Brouwerij Westvleteren (Sint-Sixtusabdij Westvleteren)
Country: Belgium
ABV: 10.2%
Style: Belgian Quadrupel
Other Notes: Gold cap. Trappist beer
Brewer Description: Not much info on their website and obviously even less on the bottle.
My rating: 4
My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.22
My ratebeer.com rating: 4.1
Intro: A 330ml bottle with a cap date (bottled +3 years) of 1st September 2019. Poured into a Chimay goblet glass.
Appearance: After a careful pour to leave most of the yeast in the bottle, a clear brown colour with a copper red hue and a just over one finger off white head that had great retention, but eventually settled to a very nice self replenishing cap while leaving great lacing around the glass.
Aroma: Strong fruitiness, apple, plum, dates, fig, toffee with light clove and banana notes.
Taste: Sweet, plum, dates, fig, banana bread, toffee, yeast and a touch of spice.
Mouthfeel: Creamy, medium to full bodied, with moderate carbonation.
Overall: I’m not a huge fan of sweetness, and this definitely leans on the sweet side, perhaps overly so for me. I prefer both Rochefort 10 and St. Bernardus Abt 12 over this. It’s still good, and not by any means bad, but if I had to pick a special Westvleteren beer, it would definitely be a fresh bottle of the Westvleteren Blond, as that is just one of the best Belgian Pale Ale’s ever.