Westvleteren 8!

I totally agree. I've only had 8 once and 12 twice, but 8 blew it out of the water, in my opinion. It pretty much blew me away.

 

A great beer for sure. Checked my score and gave the mouthfeel a 5. I do prefer the other Westy beers to it but not by much.

 

I've had the 12 once, and it was awesome. Never tried the 8. Maybe somebody should send an 8 my way.......hint hint.........

 

A 5 year old Westy 8 was the best beer I ever had

That means it beat fresh, 1 yr, 3 yr and 7 year old westy 12s

 

Not sure it is better but its certainly about as good as the 12 and deserves sheds more recognition.

 

Well as one that has had allot of this beer, its a great one and in my book its a 5 with the 12.
in Fact it and the blonde and the 12 are 5's in my book, perfect beers, along with Orval.

Every time we fly into Amsterdam the first thing I do is hit the beer store and by a few. Sure its not cheap, but its mighty tasty. Which holds us over until we make it over to the source.

 

The blonde sure is good. Especially after about a year in the bottle. Pretty much the best I have ever had.

 

yea they always think I am nuts at the cafe when we sit down I order 6 beers for 2 folks, lol

 

The Blond and the 8 both tend to go unnoticed, but both are phenomenal beers. It's unfortunate that they're so difficult to acquire, but I could definitely drink the Blond all day.

 

8>12

Really enjoyed the 8, 12 is a damn fine beer but the 8 just goes unhearlded.

Cheers!

 

All the Westvleteren variants are basically the same base beer, with added gravity by reduction the stronger you go, and more caramel coloring. The Westvleteren 8 is really nice and middle of the road, but still a vastly overrated beer for me, so I needn't go into much detail as to what I think about Westy 12. I massively prefer the Rochefort line over these.

 

****News Flash***

Blond is the best of the bunch especially when fresh. It doesn't age well however. I have notice a lot of white chunky yeast in Blond bottles that were 1-2 years old but not with fresh bottles. Westy 12 is way to hot and boozy for me when fresh. 5-10 years in the cellar is different story however. I actually prefered the 8 over the 12 fresh too. The 12 just gets all the hype around here.

 

No wonder, since the blond is the base brew that gets tampered with.

 

The Blond is the base beer for the 8 and 12? I am not questioning you but that is very suprising to hear as they look totally different. Very interesting indeed!

 

Yeah, apparently the brewers along with the monks are very open about this. For the higher grav they just boil it for longer and add E150 caramel coloring. Doesn't use any roasted malts. So far for the romantic image of monks trodding around and stirring the beer in big casks with giant wooden spoons

 

wow I thought I was alone. I would buy the 8 before the 12 9 out of 10 days.

 

Haha... Myth bustin! I would have thought that they were adding bats breath or eye of newt.....

I think a lot of the Hype for Westy is due to the fact that it is made by Monks and somewhat hard to get. Mystery and rarity add value. I can name 2 quads better than the Westy 12 that are brewed within 10 km of the monestary to be honest. Pannepot and St Amutus are better IMHO and I can buy unlimited Pannepot at my local store. Not to mention St Bernies, Roch 10, Chimay Blue ect.

 

I don't have a strong preference between the 8 and the 12 - both are excellent, though I think the 12 is better with a few years. I wouldn't say the 8 gets no respect - it is reviewed here at 100, and is the top rated Dubbel in the world, by far.

The difference in scoring between 12/8 is extremely common though across all the trappist/abbey brands. Rochefort 10/8, Bernardus 12/8, Chimay Blue/Red, Achel Extra/Bruin, and on and on - the strong beer just seems to always score higher around here.

 

I've only had 8 and 12 once and they were side by side. I prefer 8 as well but they both have distinct flavors that are great.