‘If I wanted to write a beer review for the launch of the website’, he asked. ‘Just a few paragraphs, in which you describe the beer, explain why you like it, etc.’ ‘Sure’, I replied. ‘Hey, you know what: I’ll write about La Chouffe.’ La Chouffe is the favorite beer of most of my volleyball teammates, and through the very necessary after-volleyball drinks - due to my impeccable empathy skills, or perhaps my wretched inability to resist peer pressure - I came to love this beer as well. ‘Great’, was his response, ‘turns out our beer of the month is La Chouffe, so that works out perfectly’.

This conversation, that had taken place online, popped back into my head two days ago - only a few days before the launch - as I was brushing my teeth and getting ready to go to bed. Shoot. I hadn’t had the opportunity to drink La Chouffe anymore. The last time that I went to play volleyball, the sports bar had run out of it, and was promoting to drink Tumulus 800 instead. I definitely did not want to devote my first beer review ever to Tumulus 800, an extremely bitter beer - the bitterness is caused by the addition of a large amount of hops, my teammate explained to me - brewed by the University of Leuven. Myself nor any of my teammates liked this beer, which is an unusual precedence to occur and should therefore give you an idea of the very peculiar taste of this drink.

Then again, the deadline was getting close, and I had nothing yet. While I was pondering what to do, even getting a bit stressed, suddenly a great idea hit me. It was so simple, I could not believe that I hadn’t thought of it earlier. Basically, the object of this great idea had been sitting in my fridge since December 20th of last year - the date of my PHD defense, when a very agreeable collegue gave it to me as a ‘congratulations’ present - waiting for the perfect moment to be opened. A bottle of the ‘beer of all beers’, worshipped by most Belgian men (and women!) between 16 and 66 years old. The trappist that compares to other beers the way Oprah compares to all other talk shows (I wish I could write a sports metaphore here, seems to be more appropriate, but unfortunately the field of sports and everything that relates to it remains a mystery to me). Why does everyone seem to like this beer? Is it because of its delicate taste? Or because of the enigma created by the monks, who brew and sell this beer only in limited amounts, making it very difficult to get your hands on it? I could not yet answer these questions, as I only had one sip of this ‘magic liquid’ before, which unfortunately appeared not to be enough to recall the taste later.

Since that date in December, I had been taking the plain-looking, unlabeled bottle out of the fridge a couple of times already, watching it, contemplating in curiosity. But I always put it back, because of my patient pursuit of the right moment to drink it. After all, it is a Westvleteren: you cannot just drink this on an ordinary night! Imagine laying on the couch, watching the next one-hit wonder perform their heart out on Idool while drinking a Westvleteren! No, a grand beer requires a grand moment, and I decided that moment had come at last. I would drink the Westvleteren in honour of the launch of wordbeercollection.com.

That is why I am currently sitting at my kitchen table, with a Westmalle glass filled with Westvleteren 12 in front of me (I am not so lucky to possess a real Westvleteren glass – does that actually even exist? - but since it is a trappist, I decided a Westmalle glass should do), pondering about the best way to drink this bad boy considering my current role as a ‘professional’ beer taster. This thought distracts me for a moment, taking me back to a particular evening in the past, when a few of my former collegues invited a representative of the Bosteels brewery into work to get us acquainted with the Bosteels beers. What a fun night that was! I vaguely remember this person thaught us the best way to taste beer, but unfortunately, after having tried a few pints of Kwak, tripel Karmeliet and Deus before supper, the details of his explanation had disappeared in some kind of blur.

But, it is time to get to business, so assuming that it is probably quite similar to tasting wine (am I allowed to say this at a beer website?) I place the glass under my nose and take a big whiff. It smells fresh, rich, a little sweet. The smell definitely invites to take a sip. Doing so, I am immediately impressed with the smooth and strong taste of this beer. The taste is most present in the back of my mouth and remains for a while – I notice a vigorous aftertaste. In fact, the fries I eat after drinking (I chose a meal of Belgian fries and ‘curryworst’ to eat with this beer, which seemed most appropriate for this occasion) appear to take over the taste of the beer, that’s how powerful it is. It is delicious. The beer does not taste bitter at all and, even though the cap announces a 10.2% of alcohol, this is not very noticeable in the taste. Actually, the taste of this beer is so particular that I cannot really connect it with any other beer, or with any other taste in general. Could the monks have managed to invite a whole new taste, beyond compare with anything else in this world? Or are the many sips that I have taken by now, in my attempts to intricately describe the taste, getting to my head?

Whatever it is, I have to say I do enjoy this beer. I am not entirely sure whether I would like to drink it after volleyball though. To me it feels more like a beer that you would drink in a dark pub on a cold winter night, on a quiet night out by yourself or with a couple of good friends. As for looks, I would rate it a 7 (out of 10): the monks put no effort into making the bottle look attractive (but, in a way, this fits the veil of mystery surrounding this beer) and the beer itself has a dirty-brown color, too dark to qualify as amber but not dark enough to get a chocolaty look. As for taste, I would rate it a 9. This is definitely a quality beer. Do I like it as much as I like my favorites – La Chouffe, tripel Karmeliet and Omer? I am not sure. Obviously, to draw definite conclusions on that matter, a comparative study of these beers would be necessary… (hm….).

By Hanne Op de Beeck (Contributing Blogger)