Trappist Westvleteren 12: Quad Blind Tasting

For this write-up I wanted to do something a little different than a straight review. A bottle of Westy 12 was generously gifted to me, and I wanted to seize the opportunity since it is not everyday that you find yourself in possession of one of the world's most sought after and hyped up beers. If you are unfamiliar with Westy 12, good. The beer is brewed by the monks at the Trappist Abbey of Saint Sixtus in Vleteren, Belgium. The brewery makes three beers: their Blonde, 8, and 12. These beers are only available at the brewery in Belgium, which has added to the beer's hype and mythology. The Westy 12 did have a limited American release (for charity), and was absurd and a total shitshow. Since then, the trade value of Westy 12 has crashed like the US housing market. 

Having a bottle of this rare and sought after beer in my possession is like owning the Ark of the Covenant. You feel like a God, until the hype machine melts your face off. Anyway, here was the blind tasting lineup:

Trappist Westvleteren 12
Brewed By: Westvleteren Abdij St. Sixtus in Westvleteren, Belgium  

ABV: 10.2%

St. Bernardus Abt 12

Brewed By: St. Bernardus Brouwerij in Watou, Belgium  

ABV: 10.0%

Destihl Quadrupel

Brewed By: Destihl Brewery in Bloomington, Illinois  

Quad Blind Tasting 

ABV: 11.0%

Delirium Noël

Brewed By: Brouwerij Huyghe in Melle, Belgium  

ABV: 10.0%

Rochefort Trappistes 10

Brewed By: Brasserie Rochefort in Rochefort, Belgium  

ABV: 11.3%

Chimay Bleue (Blue) / Grande Réserve

Brewed By: Chimay in Baileux, Belgium  

ABV: 9.0%

Ommegang Three Philosophers

Brewed By: Brewery Ommegang (Moortgat) in Cooperstown, New York  

ABV: 9.7%

There wasn't a ton of thought behind this lineup of beers. I could have added more beers, but I wanted to keep the lineup shorter to avoid palate fatigue. I put the Destihl beer in the lineup to give the Midwest a chance. I wanted to end up saying, "local brewery does okay." Unfortunately, the Destihl Quad was clearly among the worst of these beers. Spoilers. The Abt 12 and Rochefort 10 are both easily available and I enjoy them a lot. The Chimany Blue is a classic. The Noël is a crowd favorite that I don't get. And the Three Philosophers is my favorite, readily available, American Quad. With all that said, let's see how these beers stacked up.

My blind, final ranking: Ommegang, Rochefort 10, Delirium Noël, Chimay, Abt 12, Destihl, Westy 12

My brother: Delirium Noël, Rochefort 10, Ommegang, Chimay, Abt 12, Destihl, Westy 12

My girlfriend: Ommegang, Abt 12, Delirium Noël, Chimay, Rochefort 10, Destihl, Westy 12

Average/Mean position of each beer (w/ standard deviation): 

Woo, statistics!

This was a simple tasting with just three people. And this is about as deep as I want to go. The results are pretty clear...the Three Philosophers was loved by everyone, and that doesn't surprise me. It's a top-notch Quad, despite being on the sweeter side of the style. The Delirium Noël was a total dark horse that we all enjoyed, and I'll pen some tasting notes on each of these beers in a minute. The Rochefort 10 should not shock anyone. I debated putting the Rochefort 10 in my number one spot, and my brother was right behind me in loving it. My girlfriend is hop-aversive, and we all agreed the Rochefort 10 had the most hop punch. The Chimay was middle-of-the road for ALL of us. It's a good standby, and you can buy it anywhere these days. The Abt 12 had a bit of variation in its ranking...I wonder about the bottle age. The Destihl was universally panned compared to the top beers. And then we had the Westy 12...all the way at all of our bottoms. When we were doing the blind tasting, we all thought the Westy 12 was the Delirium Noël or the Destihl.

Some tasting notes: 

Trappist Westvleteren 12 - oxidized, aged, apples, saffron, smuckers jam, phenols, leather, medium-bodied; harsh finish

St. Bernardus Abt 12 - Phenolic, banana, cherries, dark fruits, brown sugar, full-bodied; crisp; light fruity flavor, cardboard

It's just beer...

Destihl Quadrupel - sweet, light, fruity, apples, cherries, saffron, fruity/caramel, not complex; bland; harsh, not clean

Delirium Noël - Rye, spice, bread, some vinegar/soy sauce/umami, oxidized dark fruits, raisins, intensity and complex; very fruity, apple juice; raisins, very clean

Rochefort Trappistes 10 - HOPPY, resin, dark fruits, brown sugars, hop candies, BIG, not sweet; cookie dough; some alcohol

Chimay Bleue (Blue) / Grande Réserve - cherries, fruit, dark fruits, sweeetness, lighter, thin; apples and pears; smooth

Ommegang Three Philosophers - Bananas, phenolic, perfume, brown sugar, cherries, candies, candy sugar, thick, sweet, not boozy; bananas; slightly bitter

Results/Discussion/Conclusion/Final Thoughts

What to make of these results? I really don't know. First off, Belgian Strong Ales are one of my favorite styles of beer, if not my absolute favorite style of beer. Having said that, I think tasting these beers in a blind tasting format is restrictive in some ways. By the end of the tasting, my palate was whacked and I was having a hard time discerning between beers. There's some meta commentary there about the hoarders on Ratebeer that tick 200 beers a day, or go to festivals and rate 40 beers using 2oz pours. People are both the best raters of things like food and drink, and also poorly tuned instruments. There are so many biases at work -- your mood, your palate that day, how many beers you had before, etc. -- that I just can't take tickers seriously. What I am proposing is a premise/argument that the ticker on Ratebeer with 20,000+ ticks is contributing meaningless content and is wasting time. But hey, if they are happy, good for them.

These are ALL nuanced beers. The Abt 12 has different complexities than the Rochefort 10. The Delirium Noël is way different than any other of these beers. I would argue that none of these beers are bad. You could go into the store and walk out with any of these beers and be okay. However, for my palate, I'm quite content knowing that I can buy an Ommegang Three Philosophers or a Rochefort 10 at just about any liquor store, and get that authentic dark strong ale experience without having to jump through any hoops. I've rated both the Three Philosophers and Rochefort 10 very high in the past. 

The Delirium Noël is the real dark horse in this tasting. Many "what the fucks?" were made after it scored so high. My theory behind the beer's success is that it is complex, has these awesome bread/rye notes, and pulls out some serious raisin punches. The vinegar/soy/umami that I was tuned into (my tasting partners were not) suggests to me that the beer has suffered from some autolysis...Delirium bottle-conditions all of their beers, and you can pour out some really nasty yeast chunks if you aren't careful. Who knows how old that bottle is.

Why did we all pan the Westy 12? I have no idea. I didn't pan it, initially. I actually had it ranked in the 4th spot before finalizing my rankings. I think the bottle I have might have some age on it. But also, the Westy 12 wasn't as assertive or bold as the Rochefort 10 or the Ommegang Three Philosophers. I won't speak much to the hype...because this blind tasting was limited. We only had one bottle. And there are biases at work. So maybe in another blind tasting we would rank it higher. Maybe in another blind tasting we would have a bottle that tastes different. There is definitely bottle variation with this style of beer. So there are a lot of unknowns and limitations at work here. Also, our sample size was too small and hardly significant. To legitimize this tasting, we would ideally have 20 people tasting these beers. That should provide more useful data...but I did what I could.

And that's all I really have to say. This blind tasting was fun, and I recommend that people jump on this ship and start blind tasting beers themselves. Beer reviews ARE bullshit. But blind tastings add an element of credibility to what is otherwise a lot of words. Words. Ratebeer. 20,000 ticks. Tick tick tick tick. Tick.

Random Thought: WHAT?!!?! No review score? Duh. How the hell am I supposed to rate these beers from a blind tasting? Also, I can't speak for my compadres.