After only being in Belgium a few months, we decided that we needed to try the best beer in the world, which according to critics is made here. This style of beer is called 'Trappist' which is made by 7 different Abbeys, but WestVleteren Abbey in the Flanders Region of Belgium is regarded as having the best Trappist beers. There are 6 Trappist monasteries in Belgium (Orval, Chimay, Westvleteren, Rochefort, Westmalle and Achel) and 1 in The Netherlands (Koningshoeven) that produce this beer. As this beer is quite difficult to attain, I spent a few hours trying to get through on the eer phone, while Shannon was working. They only have their phone lines open when they are selling their beer and they only brew it when the monastery needs money. They're not like your other breweries which are quite commercialized. Anyway, a group of us went up to the Abbey to get our cases of beer. We felt like we were at a fast food drive through because there was a long que waiting to pick up each person's 3 cases of beer. The way they identify your order is by your license plate number and each person's license plate number can only be used once every 3 months. We purchased the Westvleteren 8. They also offer a number 6 and 12 beer, but were not available this time. After we picked up our beer, we enjoyed a few hours at their local beer cafe. On a side note, all bars/cafes serve each kind of beer in it's own special glass; thus, WestVleteren has it's own beer glass which you can see above. At the end of the day, we all agreed that WestVleteren beers were at the top of our list! I've attached their website if you're interested in hearing more about them. http://www.sintsixtus.be/eng/brouwerij.htmOur 3 crates of Beer!
In front of road sign to Westvleteren
Group of us who went to Westvleteren
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