St. Bernardus Day (August 20, 2022)

Finally busting out my St. Bernardus (that I only managed to pick up earlier today) and I'm trying out the Tripel first, and this one is insanely drinkable and delicious. Sweet and malty with a light hop bitterness and a nice strong but very very smooth blegian yeast character. Definitely tastes and feels like a regular strength belgian pale ale. This is dangerously good. Not to mention, the head actually grows after the pour instead of shrinking.

 

Lack of experience and distribution in my area. Just a quick Google search showed the bottled wit as having a more boring and standard silver label, and I didn't know what watou meant until some research, and the canned version with the design prominently pastures watou and the bottles are less obvious.

 

Finally sitting down to enjoy a beer. Even better, it’s an Abt 12! Thanks @FBarber for hosting.

This is a 2016 bottle from the cellar and is drinking just dandy.

 

A late night, for me anyway, my closer. After pub crawling around downtown Houston, and seeing the masterful Joshua Redman play. Though, got one left in me for the night, and it has to be a St. Bernardus Abt 12.

Always excellent.

 

So based on past cellaring experience I would say that for me personally the sweet spot for St. Bernardus Abt 12 (which is one of my favorite beers) is between 3-5 years which makes sense based on their 5 year best by date bottle dating. But I had a 2010 bottle get lost in the mix in my cellar and now seems like a good time to compare that 12 year old bottle with one that is in it's prime at 3 years. Drank at cellar temperature.

The 2010 bottle is on the left, the 2019 on the right. The 2010 is a little clearer, I guess maybe some solids have settled out during the decade+ sitting in my cellar. Head retention is much better on the 2019 which is no surprise. Aroma on the 2010 is heavy on the raisin, plum, black cherry as time and oxygen has worked on those dark malts. 2019 aroma is brighter, toasty bready malts and a bit of herbal clove-like Belgian yeast phenols. Taste of the 2010 is definitely a bit past it's prime as it's a little dull but not unpleasant. pretty dry. 2019 is a bit sweeter but only by comparison as it finishes off-dry. Some nice mild toffee. Mouthfeel on 2010 is a bit thinner. 2019 is nice medium bodied and creamy smooth mouthfeel.