Where does everyone get their Westvleteren 12 from?

Got one off of eBay a few years back and then was able to grab one in a bar this year. It's tasty.

 

I went in with a buddy for the brick when it was sold in the US. I still have 1 in my cellar if you're interested in a trade.

 

The store I go to regularly has it, but its 30$ a bottle...Never bought one from them. Not sure what usually going price is.

 

we got on the plane. got a room. picked up car. called beer line. got reservation. went to cafe drank a few, got in line, got my 1 to 3 cases. (3 cases was long ago). the key is time, and money

post benelux forum some there will send you some, for trade or cash. buy online, pay allot for it. not worth it imho, unless u got to tick it

u can just up and buy some also sometimes, they let u buy a few to go, i hear.

 

The Abbey

 

Black market so to speak until the special release last year.

 

Tons of people trade for them. Kind of like Heady Topper, most buyers tend to full-on stock up when buy from the source. From there, extra bottles tend to go to trading groups, resellers, and even a few online stores.
For a long time, Westy 12 was THE rare beer people wanted to try, so a lot of those reviews go back to the mid 2000's. Now that attention is spread amongst dozens of other hard(er) to get beers.

 

I lived in Brussels for awhile. You can buy it on the gray market in a lot of countries surrounding the monastery, though, so if you're anywhere in Western Europe you can probably get your hands on it for $10-$15 a 33cl bottle. Most of the touristy beer stores in Brussels had a pretty sizable stock of all three varieties.

 

It was all over eBay before they shut down beer sales. However, the well-known online stores in Belgium usually have it in stock for purchase. I have no doubt also that there are stores and bars in the U.S. that have mules which go and buy it and ship it stateside. Plenty of stores in Belgium also sell it locally, probably to tourists most of the time.

More legitimately, the bricks gave a lot of people access to it, although some say (I am one of them) that the bricks were an inferior product. I currently have 10 in my cellar, purchased from In de Vrede, the cafe across the street from the Abbey. I think this method of getting it is more common than you would think.

 

The monastery. Call me old school. You can get a 6 pack per person to go without calling the beer phone, and you're welcome to drink as much as you please on-site.

 

i been told by many in benelux forum, that u can walk to the beer line door and buy up to 6 beer s there, maybe more. i been to the cafe 50+ times they Never had any left forsale and i been there at doors open time! of course i have terrible luck

 

Yeah mine all came from the brick and still have 4 left that I'm aging/trading. Additionally, if you're ever in Brussels or something you can always pick up Westy 12 there is just a large mark-up on it.

 

I bought 3 bottles at a liquor store in Vancouver one time. Some guy that works there brought them back from Belgium bc they were unlabeled.

 

Got 4 in a trade from papaholmz, got 1 as an extra in a BIF. You can buy them from belgiuminabox as well.

 

I visited In De Vrede itself and drank one there. I also found a bottle shop in Brussels where I bought a bottle to bring back to the states.

 

A couple years ago, I found a six pack on greEdBAY consisting of 2 bottles each of the Blond, 8 and the 12. Gouged the VISA for $130 delivered to my door but split the bill and the bottles with my buddy and we had one excellent night of sampling.

 

I traded two bottles of NG VSB for three bottles of BCBS Cherry, it was in the box as an extra. I did a small jig since get to cross it off my beer bucket list this weekend

 

There are websites that sell it too...

...but keep in mind that you are shipping something heavy (glass + liquid) from Europe. This is the biggest deterrent (for me) in terms of buying online, because it gets costly in a big hurry. And when I say costly, I mean unless you order a really big quantity, you're likely going to pay almost as much in shipping as you do in cost for the beer.

 

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