Recommended wines: Westvleteren 12 (yellow cap), Westvleteren 8 (blue cap)
 
Trappist beer is undoubtedly one of the brightest pearls of Old World beer, and this high-alcohol beer brewed by monks still has countless fans. Trappist refers to the Cistercian Church, a spin-off of Catholicism, whose monks had a tradition of self-sufficiency and began brewing beer as early as the fifth century AD, in addition to producing cheese, bread and other products.
 
In 1997, in order to distinguish itself from other breweries that brew monastery beer instead of monasteries, eight Trappist monasteries in Europe united to form the ITP (International Trappist Association), which stipulates that only the beer produced by ITP members can obtain the authoritative hexagonal label and be called abbey beer in the strict sense. As of 2018, ITP has 13 monasteries brewing and selling beer.
 
The abbey of Saint Sixtus, which produces Westvleteren, is a member of the ITP, and the monks here have been brewing beer since 1838 and selling beer to the public in 1931. The Abbey of Saint Sixtus produces only 3 beers in total, Blond, 8 and 12, all of which have no labels on their bottles, and all the information is printed on the caps, which are distinguished by the color of the caps.
 
Among these three beers, the most noteworthy is Westvleteren 12, which has been the top beer in the world for many years, with an average score of 4.43 on Ratebeer with an overall review score of 3500, which is very high in the minds of many beer lovers. This abbey-style four-spice beer has a dark brown color, covered with a rich head of milk coffee, and can be vaguely smelled of malt, caramel and figs, and because of the addition of sugar during brewing, there is a pronounced sweet aroma in the mouth, the body gives the mouth a delicate and smooth taste, and the alcohol and malt sweetness maintain a stable balance, compared to other four-spice beers, W12 has outstanding drinkability, rich but not irritating, and even makes people ignore its 10.2% alcohol content.
 
Maintaining the appearance and aroma of the W12, Westvleteren 8 is also an excellent abbey beer, with a balance of 8% and a caramelized and fruity aroma, which is very smooth on the palate.
 
Unlike other more commercialized monasteries, all of Westvleteren's beers are brewed by the monks themselves, producing less than 4,000 barrels per year. Getting a bottle of Westvleteren is not an easy task, you need to call the monastery 60 days in advance to order it, and pick it up in person on the stipulated day. At the In de Vrede pub near the abbey of Saint Sixtus, you can sample fresh W12 draught beers and, if you're lucky, maybe a small number of bottles from stock.
 
Of course, you can also buy W12 in the domestic market, but theoretically speaking, all Westvleteren beers on the market are resold by buyers, not from monasteries and regular imports, which is why it is not surprising that the original price of about 12 yuan a bottle of W12 is often listed at nearly 150 yuan.