I’ve Had a Lot of Beer. Westvleteren Is NOT Overrated!

Trappist beers have been among my favorites since my fake ID was no longer necessary in college. (Hi, Mom and Dad!) 

Despite any brain cells I may have killed along the way, I can still remember the first time I tried a Chimay Bleue. A beer bottle with a cork?!? Yes, please!  

I was then very excited to visit Belgium for the first time a few years back to be a co-officiant in our friends’ wedding. The thought of some of the world’s best beer, minus the exorbitant import taxes, made the pandemic-era travel rules well worth the trip. 

OK, I was very happy my friends were getting married, too. 

At the reception, I saw dark beer bottles with no labels, only green, blue, and yellow caps. The beers were from a Trappist brewery in Belgium that I had not heard of: Westvleteren. 

What followed was a night of singing, dancing, and enjoying what I learned later was one of the highest-rated beers in the world. My tipsy dance moves would certainly agree, but did I think this beer was deserving of such a high honor? 

Let’s get real about whether Westvleteren beer is overrated or truly one of the best in the world.

What is Trappist beer?

Well, to put it simply, they are beers produced by Catholic monks of the…wait for it…Trappist order. 

This particular religious order was founded in La Trappe, France, in the 17th century, and originally brewed beer at their monasteries to help feed the local community. 

Thirteen Trappist monasteries still produce beer today. To prevent abuse of their name, eight of them got together in 1997 to form the International Trappist Association.

They created an Authentic Trappist Product logo that is assigned to goods like cheese, beer, wine, etc., that follow specific production criteria. 

For the beer specifically, the criteria are as follows:

• The production must be within the abbey. 
• It must be brewed by the monks themselves or under their supervision. 
• Brewing must be of secondary importance to the monastic way of life.
• Profits should cover the needs of the monastic community or be set aside for development projects and charitable works. 

These rules allowed 10 out of the 13 to slap the Authentic Trappist Product logo on their beer. The Westvleteren brewery at the Saint-Sixtus Abbey is one of only five of these breweries in Belgium.  

What kind of beer does Westvleteren make? 

Westvleteren makes Trappist beers, duh! 

More specifically/seriously, though, Westvleteren brews only three types of beer:

• Westvleteren Blond: This one is lighter in color and 5.8% ABV with a green cap.
• Westvleteren 8: This is a dark/amber dubbel and 8% ABV with a blue cap.
• Westvleteren 12: This is a dark/amber quadruple and 10.2% ABV with a yellow cap.

The 12 has become known as one of the best beers in the world based on ratings from sources like BeerAdvocate or Untappd, and those lucky enough to get their paws on it. 

Curious how Westvleteren stacks up against Chimay, Rochefort, and other Belgian classics? I tasted them blind to see if my longtime favorites actually held up:

Is Westvleteren beer overrated?

No, Westvleteren beer is nowhere near overrated.

Beer ratings are a funny concept to me, though. One person’s go-to brew might be another’s idea of a flavored beer-water. 

Note: I still see you, though, High Life, the Champagne of Beers. 

For example, the top beers currently listed among the top 250 on popular site BeerAdvocate are (drumroll not necessary): a stout, another stout, yet another stout, for some reason another forking stout, and finally an IPA. 

I’m changing the name to StoutAdvocate in my mind. 

Personally, I also find reviews that say things like, “I taste notes of tobacco, fruity fig, cinnamon, chocolate, with a creamy mouthfeel” SUPER pretentious.

My general rating system for beer (and wine, and pretty much any food) is this: if it is better than bad, I’m probably going to like it. 

That being said, I can confidently say that Westvleteren beer is still some of the best beer I’ve ever tasted, Trappist yeast or not.

If you like beer, and especially the Trappist-style beer that is readily available worldwide, you should be very pleased when tasting Westvleteren. 

Why have I never heard of this brewery? 

That’s a good question. I’m guessing that you may be either located in the United States or haven’t had the fortune to travel across the pond to Belgium yet. 

READ MORE: Ready to change that? Here’s our guide to the best of Brussels.

Even if you’ve been lucky enough to travel or taste Trappist beers like Chimay from your local Binny’s, this might still be your first time hearing about this brewery. I fancy myself pretty knowledgeable about beer, and I’d never heard about it until that wedding.

There are a few reasons for this. 

They don’t advertise. 

Westvleteren actively avoids publicity. The beers were not well known outside of Belgium at all until sites like BeerAdvocate started rating them. 

Fine, those sites do have some utility. I’ll revert to their original name begrudgingly.

You can’t get it anywhere else.*

Until very recently, there were only two ways you could purchase their beer in the way God (literally) intended. They are monks, after all, I don’t make the rules: 

1. You make a reservation on their website, purchasing up to four crates of what is available.
2. You could drive there sans reservation and visit their “In de Vrede” meeting center to purchase whatever six-packs they had available on your day of pilgrimage. 

*I added a caveat here because they began deliveries recently in Belgium. In addition, to discourage black market sales in the Netherlands, there are a few liquor stores that are allowed to sell them there.

Note: To stay in their good graces, though, I am not going to tell you where, but your favorite search engine will eventually lead you to glory, I’m sure. 

For the most part, though, you will need to go to Belgium to purchase their beer. Sure, you can probably find them on eBay or other black market sites, but the monks discourage this practice. 

READ MORE: There’s more to Belgium than beer, I guess. Here’s a guide to the best of Bruges in one day.

They only brew in limited quantities. 

Westvleteren is the smallest of the Trappist breweries in Belgium. Their production is fixed and amounts to approximately 6,000 hectolitres annually — that’s 5,000 barrels — spread over only 42 brewing days. 

Fun fact: For comparison, Anheuser-Busch InBev is approaching 600 MILLION hectolitres of their flavored beer-water globally. 

What makes it so special? 

Probably Jesus. 

But seriously, this beer tastes like it’s made with the kind of care you’d expect from a product that’s been made the same way since the 1800s. Let’s get into the main reasons why this is such a special beer for so many.

It gets better with time.

The beers are designed to “ferment” in the bottle for months/years after your purchase. The monks say you can safely store them for a year or two after you buy them.

Peruse any of the online ratings, and you’ll quickly find happy customers who’ve opened them much later than this. 

Unfortunately, Jesus did not bless me with a patience gene, so I can’t usually wait that long. I did hide some from myself in our storage cave to test this theory out with the latest run.

You’re drinking for a good cause.

The monks don’t live to brew. They brew to live. To maintain traditions (and rules) under Trappist brewing, they aren’t able to make a profit. Any extra is donated to a charity of their choice.

In addition, they provide local jobs for the small communities they are located within, so you can help monks afford to be monks and help locals afford to stay in their hometown. 

I’m also pretty sure it counts as a “Hail Mary” for confession when you buy one.

It’s not pretentious.

I’m going to apologize in advance for my upcoming rant in this section because the pretentiousness of some U.S. breweries pisses me off to no end.

I’ve also seen several U.S.-based reviews of Westvleteren that confuse “pretentious” with “it takes me effort to get the beer,” and it makes me sad. 

OK, caveats aside, let me begin my rant with two examples of my personal experience with beer around the world. 

Let’s start with Brewery 1, which is not pretentious. You have to travel to Belgium because it is an abbey first, and a beer producer after that. You have three choices of beer. That’s it. 

It actively avoids publicity, sticks to its basic lineup of beer, and brews for a time similar to the number of days in Lent each year. 

They did not have a website until 2019, and didn’t even have labels for their beer until 2022.  Words printed in Latin on their goblets loosely remind me of the phrase, “We work in order to live, not live in order to work.”

Now let’s talk about Brewery 2, the pretentious clowns. 

Brewing is primary to their business, but they create scarcity in their products anyway. Their T-shirts have 17 reminders of how you are supposed to drink their “precious” beer. 

Speaking of rules, if a retailer wishes to sell their beer, this brewery slaps dumbass rules on them like:

• You have to be X amount of feet from the door to the fridge, and it HAS to be sold from the fridge. 
• You can only allow customers to purchase two at a time.
• We WILL send our minions to your store to make sure you are following these rules.
• We WILL cancel our contract if you have the audacity to let someone purchase more than two of their beers or sell them outside of the fridge.

This brewery is also going to pretend one of our beers is so special that they can only brew it once a year. Good luck getting it because they are the beer version of Ticketmaster.  

Yes, I’m calling you out specifically, Russian River. 

A brewery that operates secondary to religious calling, actively avoids marketing, and sends any profits above operating costs to charity is the opposite of pretentious. 

Sometimes I feel like the internet was a mistake. 

It’s not THAT expensive.

I’ve also seen some complaints online about how expensive their beers are, and I would have to politely disagree. Part of the price of your purchase goes to the wooden crate and bottles, so I suppose that does make it seem more expensive. 

You receive that deposit back when you purchase your next order, so the price per beer does not end up being that bad. You could also purchase a six-pack at their store across the street, and those are no more than a Chimay Bleue would cost you in the States.

I’ll consider it part of my tithing and ignore the trolls.  

Drinking it feels like an experience.

While you never interact with the monks, there’s something to be said about the pilgrimage aspects of the experience.

Westvleteren is off the beaten path, and just getting there is part of the experience, whether you pack your car up and drive or bike your way through Belgium like many do. 

Fun fact: The monks aren’t the ones loading up your beer. Someone said this online, but it’s not true!

It tastes good.

The 12 is considered the global superstar, even with that high alcohol content. If you have ever tried the aforementioned Chimay Bleue, you will recognize the dark/amber color, and your taste buds will appreciate the smooth flavor you are about to try.

Do not hold out on their other two beers, though. Whether your preference is a lighter blonde ale or a dark amber, your taste buds will appreciate what you just purchased. 

I would suggest not chilling this in the fridge as much as you do your normal beers, though. The flavors are best served at temperatures between 12-16 degrees C, which is more like what you suggest for a red wine. 

This last part was very appalling to one American at the wedding we officiated. He kept going to the caterers loudly yelling why no beer was on ice, causing a funny scene to watch, at least for me. 

Tips for Getting Your Hands on Westvleteren Beer

You already know you can’t walk into your corner liquor store to buy this stuff, so you’re likely planning a trip to Belgium to make this happen.

Here’s what it’s like if you’re a visual sort of person:

Here are a few more tips outside of what I’ve already shared about getting your hot little hands on some Westvleteren beer:

• Their website is pretty straightforward, and that is where you’ll make a reservation for crates of their beer. Select the type you want and the day you wish to pick up. 
• Sales are listed about a week at a time, but you don’t have to plan far out. For example, I just checked on a Wednesday, and the pickup times are for the following Saturday through the next week. 
• If you find yourself at the abbey by accident, you can pop by without notice at the on-site cafe, In De Vrede, and have yourself a glass of beer there. 
• If you’re picking up crates of beer, you’ll be asked to provide your car’s license plate number. You may not have that yet if you’re renting a car, but no worries. You can provide that info later.
• You can buy other stuff there, too! Agnes likes the nun-made jams they sell there from regional convents, and we’ve gone hard on the cheese in the cafe. The beer is all that’s made at the abbey, though.

More Belgian Beers We Love

Westvleteren 12 is at the top, but we’re spoiled for choice when it comes to Belgian beer, living in France. Here are a few of my favorites that rival this special beer:

• Saint Bernardus 12: The owner of our local Belgian restaurant swears that this beer is better than the Westvleteren 12. It’s a worthy alternative regardless. 
• Chimay Bleue: This dark beer will always hold a special place in my heart, being my first entry into Trappist beers. 
• Rochefort 10: This is another strong beer, rivaling any of the listed options, and is definitely more readily available. 

How to Get to Westvleteren

To start sipping, you’ll need to get on the road. Driving yourself there is by far the most efficient way to get to Vleteren. Honestly, the public transit options are QUITE complicated, and if you’re picking up crates, you’ll need to get there by a specific time. 

If you’re starting in Paris, you’ll get to the abbey in about three hours and 30 minutes. (Toll roads can get you there a little quicker, at just over three hours.) Brussels is even closer. Expect to get to the abbey from Brussels in under two hours.

If you insist on taking public transit to the abbey, don’t. I just looked it up, and it’s ridiculous. Just promise not to drink and drive and/or have a designated driver handy if you’re tasting on-site.

Where to Stay Near Westvleteren

You can certainly plan a day trip from your base, as we did from Lille, but you can also stay closer to the source. If that sounds nice, check out the map below for your options:

If you speak Dutch and want to learn more about monastic life at the abbey, you can also book a stay at their guest house. Visitors are expected to spend time as the monks do in silence and quiet reflection.

Beer fans, you’ll want to try this one at least once.

The trip to Westvleteren for a Westy (I didn’t make that up) is definitely worth it for fellow beer fans, even if you aren’t going JUST to tour all of the Trappist facilities.

You’ll get to see a little bit of the beautiful countryside, experience some smaller European towns, and appreciate the monastic way of life more than you did before. In any case, pun unintentional, putting this on your bucket list won’t disappoint. 

Planning travel in France? Check out these guides:

• Love Castles? Visit the Loire Valley
• How to Plan Your First Trip to France
• Do You Need to Visit the Palace of Versailles?
• How to Visit the Christmas Markets in Colmar
• Nice to Cannes: Plan a Fun Day Trip

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