The best beer in the world!

St. Sixtus Abbey is well known for making the best beer in the world...Westveleteren #12. 

 

 

 

And it is, indeed, quite excellent!

 

 

 

"Westvleteren 12 is a Belgian Trappist Ale that has consistently been voted the single best tasting beer in the world. All major beer rating sites agree that this is the pinnacle of beers, including: Beer Advocate, Rate Beer and Beer Pal."

 

"That's a little over 2,300 beer experts saying that this is the best beer, anywhere.  Located in the western corner of Belgium, the St Sixtus Abbey (or Westvleteren Abdij) is home to the Trappist Westvleteren Brewery. The Brewery was founded in 1838 and is owned and operated by the monks of the St Sixus Abbey." 

 

"The 8 and 12 are bottle conditioned and have a long shelf life, with some drinkers preferring the taste when the beers have been stored for several years. This means that the beers age almost like wine. All together this Trappist brewery produces roughly 500,000 cases of beer per year. That means that they produce roughly 160,000 cases of Westvleteren 12. That is a very small production volume for the #1 rated beer in the world. For this reason, its hard to find and usually very expensive."

-quoted from http://www.westvleteren12.com/

 

 

 

While visiting the café near the abbey, you can buy and enjoy the "best beer" and decide for yourself.  For my dad who loves Rochefort 10, the Westvleteren 12 might make you realize you have a new favorite!   I guess we'll have to take you there to find out. 

 

Also depending on the day, you are able to buy two 6-packs per person from the café, but on the day we were there, the supply was out.  The day before, a Saturday, they had some and sold out.  Of course, Mike was bummed.  Darn, I guess we'll have to go back and try again.  :)

 

 

We read on the St. Sixtus website that there are some hikes around the abbey, so we decided to do a 7.5 km hike after we fortified ourselves in the café.    Since Spring seems to have arrived in Belgium, it seemed like a great thing to do on a Sunday afternoon. 

 

Beautiful Grotto at the start of our hike

 

 

 

with beautiful Stations surrounding the Grotto

 

 

The hike took us through sludge-filled farms, but we were prepared in our wellies and water-proof boots.  The countryside was gorgeous. 

 

 

puddle jumping...sometimes it's the little things in life that are the best!

 

 

So, we thought we were on track because we were following these guide posts that counted down from 7km to 2km.  After we sludged through this farm, we ended in what we were hoping would be near the abbey.  Instead, we ended in a small village town and couldn't find the #1km post.   We talked to some nice locals who told us we were pretty far from the abbey.  (Guess that walk wasn't the one around the abbey!)  The nice man gave us a ride back toward the abbey, but dropped us off at his house.  We continued to hike in the direction he told us, and a couple miles later ended back at the abbey. 

 

We figured we earned ourselves a nice dinner, so we headed into Ypres for a meal before driving the 1hr 20 min back home.    More on Ypres another time.

 

 

 

 

Needless to say, we slept well!