(Westvleteren, BELGIUM) – As many readers probably know by now, I’m relatively young so I don’t recall the last time that Westvleteren beers have been legally available outside of the abbey or the nearby cafe…if ever. So this is a special moment for the monks who make Westvleteren XII. For most of the past decade, XII has been regarded by the two largest web communities for beer, RateBeer.com and BeerAdvocate.com, as the best beer in the world.
It is a ‘one-time only’ event. From what I’ve translated from Dutch news reports, those who purchase a new issue of either The Standard, Le Vif or Knack Magazine when they hit newsstands on November 2nd will find a voucher giving them the opportunity to purchase one Westvleteren XII gift box beginning the following day. The gift boxes will be available for pick-up exclusively at Colruyt retail stores.
What I can’t tell is whether there is a voucher in every copy and the boxes are first-come, first-serve until sold out or whether only some copies will contain a voucher.
93,000 boxes have been produced, each containing six bottles of the beer and two glasses. At 25 euros a box, the abbey stands to receive 2.3 million euros in revenue from the project, a portion of which (minus all costs incurred to produce and sell these) will be put toward restoration of the abbey.
It was sold in the US about ten years ago by D & V Imports
wish these were somehow going to be available to the US (other than trading/ebay)
I picked it up at Sam’s in Chicago back in early 2005, D&V labeled bottle.
Actually, summer of 2004.
This won’t be the best beer in the world after more people experience it, as some of the hype will wear off. I’ve had it, and can safely say that I don’t even think it’s THEIR best beer! That honor goes to Westy 8, which is delicious. That said, I think it’s fantastic that the monastery will be repaired with these funds.
I will have to respectfully disagree with Bryan. Since moving to Belgium a few years ago I have had the opportunity to try all of the Westvleteren beers several times — if you keep your eyes open, you can find them on the “gray” market semi-regularly — and the 12 is the one I keep coming back to. I have a Colruyt literally around the corner from me, and my wife and will both be there, vouchers in hand, the moment they open on November 3!
Westvleteren is of course a really good beer. It would be silly to deny the quality of the product.
The -best- dark beer in the known universe, of course, is Rochefort 10, also made by monks, which roundly kicks Westvleteren’s ass in a blind tasting test. Anyone here who’s ever done this will nod their head in agreement.
Having said that, the monks are doing this, and this article doesn’t mention that, because the monastery is falling to pieces [as in: actually crumbling apart] and the monks need to raise enough money to rebuild the monastery.
I’m guessing it’ll take about an hour to sell-out the stock.
I mentioned it toward the end of the article. And they won’t sell out in an hour because people will have the vouchers already so they can just go in late in the day if they want (I think that’s how it will work?).
@Adam: indeed you did. Odd that I missed that. Now, the vouchers are in one of the main newspapers. The typical run of the newspaper is slightly less than the number of boxes offered.
Anticipating that more people will want to buy the newspaper because of the special occasion there will be more newspapers printed that day [revenue, sweet sweet revenue!]. So, people who bought the paper for the voucher won’t know for sure whether the Colruyt in their area will have enough stock to accommodate all customers. If you buy the paper and say to yourself: “What can happen, I’ve got my voucher!” and wait to go to the store until sometime later, you’re going to find a big hole in the inventory where lots of beer used to be mere hours before.
Westvleteren is not commonly available in stores, it’s not even common in bars [I saw it on the menu in Redbones in Boston and I thought “getthehellouttahere! No way can they ever have that on stock.”]. You have to make an effort to get it.
That one rare time that there is more of the beer available, including two Westvleteren beer glasses [very rare], if you wait to buy it because you’re safe in the knowledge of having a voucher, the only thing you’ll end up with is having your voucher.
If I hear stories of guys going into a newsstand and buying all the De Standaard newspapers, just to get the vouchers, I won’t be at all surprised.
Ah, good point. About those newspapers selling out quickly and hoarders being the culprit! Some boxes will surely end up on ebay.
Hey Adam– I think the last sentence is a little misleading. The total revenue of sales of this product is 2.325 million euro, but a significant portion of the revenue goes towards distribution and retailing of the beer. I would guess that Westvleteren nets 1.1 – 1.3 million euro in gross revenue from this.
In any case, I want some!
Thanks, Patrick. I was actually thinking about that as I wrote the sentence. Must’ve been late because I kept it over-simple.
Asjusted: At 25 euros a box, the abbey stands to receive 2.3 million euros in revenue from the project, a portion (minus all costs incurred to produce and sell these) of which will be put toward restoration of the abbey.
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The special moment has come and gone.
You can still get your box here: http://www.colruyt.be/colruyt/static/1024/assets/vi2211/project_xii/westvleteren_201111031500_nl.pdf
they have not al sold out but some stores, including near where I live did indeed sell out in a big hurry. By my count they sold about 75,000 boxes.
I caught one in the wild… http://www.flickr.com/photos/67161392@N08/6309870801/in/set-72157627921567377/