Remember when Toronto beer aficionados lined up to buy a $75 six-pack of Westvleteren 12 at the LCBO? What if I told you that you could have a very similar beer for way less money? Is that something you might be interested in?
The near-copy is the St. Bernardus Abt 12, and the main difference between it and the Westvleteren 12 is the marketing. Monks have been making beer for centuries, and they occasionally sell it to support their monasteries and charitable works. By the middle of the 20th century, increasing demand and other factors led many of the monastic orders to enter into licensing agreements with commercial breweries for off-site production.
After WWII, the Saint Sixtus monks of Westvleteren outsourced their brewing to a company now known as St. Bernardus. The monks provided their recipes and yeast strain, and for almost 50 years the public could buy the same beer the monks drank — Westvleteren 12, essentially — minus the romance of monastery brewing.
Eventually, the monks realized that people would pay for this romance, so they decided to reclaim their beer production and market it under the protected “Trappist” trademark. Westvleteren 12 is now made with a slightly different strain of yeast, but St. Bernardus continues to use the Westy 12 recipe and the original yeast strain for the Abt 12.
This beer pours a dark, chestnut amber with a full, but quickly dissipating, cap. Its aroma is all malt and yeasty esters with darker hints of earth and leather in the background. The medium-sweet flavour is balanced by a slightly bitter, hoppy finish, along with notes of dark or dried fruits: raisin, prunes and figs. There is plenty of palate-cleansing carbonation.
Quadrupels — the Belgian abbey name for what is essentially known as “barley wine” in the U.K. and the U.S. — are great candidates for cellaring because of their relatively high alcohol content and live yeast in the bottle. This one is no different. The St. Bernardus 12 is perfectly fine to drink now, but it will mellow after a year and become more complex (though it will lose some of its carbonation between years one and five).
This is the perfect accompaniment for quiet contemplation, such as considering whether the monk on the bottle’s label — who looks like he’s in rather festive spirits — is meant as an homage or cheeky satire.
St. Bernardus Abt 12, $8.95 for a 750 ml bottle, LCBO #346197
In addition to covering beer, new restaurants and food trucks for Post City, David Ort writes about food and drink for several Toronto publications including his own site, Food With Legs. He is also the author of the upcoming Canadian Craft Beer Cookbook. For more of his thoughts on food, beer and life in general, follow him on Twitter or get in touch at info@foodwithlegs.com.
