For those new or just following start with this thread: Westvleteren 12 Group Brew & Swap

This swap & competition is for people who are participating in the project, or meet some criteria outlined at the bottom of the post.

Its about that time!
Hopefully if you brewed on time your beers should be in, or almost done with, the "lagering" or conditioning phase and you are getting ready to carbonate. I'm looking to start receiving bottles September 25th, that is a full 7 weeks from now, which should be plenty of time.

I will hold the tasting/competition with some other VERY experienced local brewers, and probably do some kind of live chat from the event. It's not going to be a full on competition, but we will critique the beer knowing who submitted it. The date of the judging may not be until the middle of October, but we'll see. The idea is to do an open discussion/judging of how the beer rates on its own (BJCP style), and also how it compares to the real deal.

I have two bottles of Westvleteren 12, and some of the guys I'll be tasting with will have an additional bottle or two we will use for comparison at the tasting.

One of my bottles of Westvleteren 12 I am going to give as a prize to the person who gets closest to the real thing, as agreed to by the judges.

Please state your intentions of participating in the judging and swapping. We will arrange the swap after the judging is done in case you have multiple entries and only want to swap the one you feel is the best.

I'll work up a paper form to rubber-band to your bottle(s) and a brewing notes sheet to fill out with your entry. The brewing notes will be important as most people are doing things a little different and on their own, and these differences might help us track down the best way to reproduce this amazing beer.

Depending upon how successful this event is, it could become an annual HBT regular non-official competition

What to Enter & How Much

I think two (12oz to 16oz) bottle entry per brewing attempt will be sufficient for this, if your beer isn't 9 weeks old per the fermentation schedule outlined by Brother Joris (1 week ferment, 8 weeks lagering, 2 weeks bottle carbonation) by Sept 25th, don't worry! I'd say if your beer is at least 6-7 weeks old and you can get it bottled and shipped to me by Sept 25th that will be a fine entry. Grolsch swingtops are fine (and might be ideal if you are doing a higher carbonation level).

If you did not participate in the group brew/swap thread but have a Belgian Quadrupel/12/Dark Strong Ale style beer that closely matches the Westvleteren 12 in the following categories you are welcome to enter.


1: Uses WLP530 yeast
2: Somewhat similar grainbill as the New World or Traditional recipes outlined in the previous thread
3: Followed as best as you could the fermentation schedule outlined by Brother Joris of Westvleteren, see previous thread for info.

Please post with what you are entering, I will update the first post with the list of entrants and what the entries are.

1: saq, New World, Traditional *ENTRY CONFIRMED* *BOTTLES RECEIVED*
2: Bokonon, New World, Traditional *ENTRY CONFIRMED* *BOTTLES RECEIVED*
3: KingBrianI, Traditional *ENTRY CONFIRMED* *BOTTLES RECEIVED*
4: Sigafoos, Traditional *ENTRY CONFIRMED* *BOTTLES RECEIVED*
5: juninious, Traditional *ENTRY CONFIRMED* *BOTTLES RECEIVED*
6: Freezeblade, Traditional *ENTRY CONFIRMED* *BOTTLES RECEIVED*