Westvleteren Beer (the story)

Westvleteren Beer, the 'unicorn' of beers to try before you die. Trying to get them is almost impossible, and when you can get them you are usually restricted to only getting a six-pack, and that is after phoning the trappist monk beer hotline and finding out which date/time you have to drive up to the abby, hand over some money through a hole, and get your beer....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westvleteren_Brewery

Well, during a random meeting of a bunch of like-minded MTB riders, and being invited for a 'beer' back at his place, we got talking about riding/beer and then I hear a single word overheard in a converstation that I wasn't a part of, and that word was "Westvleteren"....


I dropped out of my conversation, and like a muted ghost, said "pardon'. Marc replied, have you heard of Westvleteren beer? I said yes, I knew the story of how hard it was to get, that I had really wanted to find some when I was in Belgium last year but couldn't find any etc etc etc etc.

Would you like to try some?

I said yes straight away, I was excited and nervous. They went to the cellar and bought up 6 beers that were left out of a crate. Everyone took great amusement in how serious I was, in-fact they got a newspaper out, just so I could get a photo of the top of the bottle with the date!!

Like a crate of sunshine and rainbows!

I had my hands finally on a Westvleteren Beer, maybe even two if I was good, and it was a moment I wanted to savour. I was shown how to open the beer, how to pour the beer and told to let it settle just a little bit.

And then finally, the moment came......the first taste!!

I hate to use the words 'smooth' and 'velvet', but thats the only words I can use to describe this beer. They are served slightly below room tempreture, and in a very big glass (like a red wine glass), and that taste is just like those two words. I won't lie or hide my smile, I had two..........

Maybe once in a lifetime, but I had them, and now thats another tick off my 'life' to-do list.