I CANNOT believe what I just drank- wow

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Cyclman

Cyclman

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At an awesome bar in Toronto, they just happened to have this on the menu.

Upside Utopias, one of the most transcendent beers I have ever had. Besides the hype, it is incredible.

I think the secret is very very dark candi sugar. I can't wait to do another clone, mine before have been very good, but not as rich or dark as the real thing. :ban:

West 12.jpg
 
Wow, very nice and I'm sure you were surprised to find it on the menu. I can imagine it wasn't cheap. I've picked up bottles in Amsterdam and they usually run over $20 US per bottle.
 
An excellent beer no doubt, although I'm still partial to Rochefort 10 and my own Quad (which faired quite well alongside rochefort, westy12, and chimay in a blind tasting party I had)


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TwoGunz said:
An excellent beer no doubt, although I'm still partial to Rochefort 10 and my own Quad (which faired quite well alongside rochefort, westy12, and chimay in a blind tasting party I had)


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Click to expand...

Send me some of your Quad, I'd be happy to give comparative notes!:tank:
 
Alas, it finally ran out! Which means I need to brew another as it was hands down my girlfriends favorite brew. I made a Dubbel to stand in as the quad really needed a little age to shine


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It's a great beer, especially when aged. Don't know the date on that one (it might be on the cap there but can't read it). I still have two bottles left from 2012. A friend told me, and my experience agrees, that it really hits its peak around 12-18 months old. Fresh was good, A year was great, 15 months was downright incredible, and then at 22 months it had plateaued and gone down a bit, still great, better than fresh, but not quite as good as the year old bottle. That's my impression at least. But still a fantastic beer.

I don't know if I'd call it transcendent per say, and it's definitely worth hyping, don't know if I'd give it quite as much hype as it gets. I did a side by side with Westy 12 alongside Rochefort 10 and St. Bernardus Abt 12. I'd rank the Rochefort 3rd, and it's ultimately a tossup between Westy and St. Bernardus. Although if I understand correctly, St. Bernardus uses the same yeast and is based off of an older recipe for Westy 12 (or is the the current one? Don't recall).

That said, I'm curious how that was at a bar in Toronto. Gray market somehow?
 
Qhrumphf said:
It's a great beer, especially when aged. Don't know the date on that one (it might be on the cap there but can't read it). I still have two bottles left from 2012. A friend told me, and my experience agrees, that it really hits its peak around 12-18 months old. Fresh was good, A year was great, 15 months was downright incredible, and then at 22 months it had plateaued and gone down a bit, still great, better than fresh, but not quite as good as the year old bottle. That's my impression at least. But still a fantastic beer.

I don't know if I'd call it transcendent per say, and it's definitely worth hyping, don't know if I'd give it quite as much hype as it gets. I did a side by side with Westy 12 alongside Rochefort 10 and St. Bernardus Abt 12. I'd rank the Rochefort 3rd, and it's ultimately a tossup between Westy and St. Bernardus. Although if I understand correctly, St. Bernardus uses the same yeast and is based off of an older recipe for Westy 12 (or is the the current one? Don't recall).

That said, I'm curious how that was at a bar in Toronto. Gray market somehow?
Click to expand...

It appears to have a faint date of 9.15 on it, can't make out anything else. The bartender said they'd had it for a year. I assume it was grey market. They wouldn't sell me the glass, unfortunately. I think the St. B is also awesome, and highly available, a testament to how lucky we are to have such a great beer so easily available.
 
There was a legitimate sales release last year and for a short while you could get it in the states. I'm not sure if it was available elsewhere as well but I suspect so. The glass and cap look like the branding I had seen associated with that release. The bottles I had bought in Amsterdam a few years ago were unlabeled except for a simple cap - which I think was green but is have to go back and check. I had gotten some other Westvleterens at the same time and they each had a different colored cap.


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TwoGunz said:
There was a legitimate sales release last year and for a short while you could get it in the states. I'm not sure if it was available elsewhere as well but I suspect so. The glass and cap look like the branding I had seen associated with that release. The bottles I had bought in Amsterdam a few years ago were unlabeled except for a simple cap - which I think was green but is have to go back and check. I had gotten some other Westvleterens at the same time and they each had a different colored cap.


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Click to expand...

That would make sense. Just checked the bottles that I have. This is the cap of the 6er I got during that legitimate release (it was Dec 12, 2012, so almost 2 years ago).

So it looks like yours was probably from that release, and definitely gray market, as those bottles were not for resale at bars, I know that for sure. As far as I'm aware, DC in the only place in the US where that's legal. I don't know about Canada distribution laws.

And I thought that Westy 12 was the yellow cap. Their other beers (8 and Blonde) were the blue and green caps.

20141019_202217[1].jpg
 
Pretty sure it's from the legitimate release ~2 years that has already been mentioned. There were sizeable lineups at our government liquor stores on the morning of its release.

Which bar in Toronto did you find this at?
 

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