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Not your average brewski: Belgian strong ale fetches $16 a bottle

By: Geoff Kirbyson

Posted: 08/29/2012 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

The MLCC's Alun Bowness carefully holds a bottle of Westvleteren 12. Fewer than 200,000 bottles are made every year. (COLE BREILAND / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS) Photo Store

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IF you'd like to try what many connoisseurs consider to be the finest beer in the world, you'll have to get out your wallet.

A six-pack of Westvleteren 12, a Belgian strong ale with 10 per cent alcohol, will set you back $85 (including a pair of beer glasses) at a Manitoba Liquor Control Commission outlet, or a little more than $96 with taxes. That works out to more than $16 per 330-millilitre bottle.

"It's definitely the most expensive beer we have ever sold," said Al Bowness, manager of specialty purchasing.

If you're suddenly thirsty, you'll have to move quickly, too. About 35 MLCC stores around the province received 400 of the six-packs last week and already half of them are gone.

Westvleteren 12 is so expensive because fewer than 200,000 bottles are made every year and almost all of it is sold in Belgium. "You have to make an appointment and go to the brewery to buy it. They allocate it. You can't buy 25 cases. They tell you what you can buy," Bowness said.

There are only seven beers in the world that carry the Trappist monks' logo and six of them are from Belgium. Bowness said the MLCC typically carries about four of them at any one time, but Westvleteren 12 is the most difficult to get.

"We never thought we would ever carry it. This is a one-time production (for export) in order to make money for renovating their monastery," he said.

When the announcement was made that Westvleteren 12 was going to be made available in Canada, Bowness thought the MLCC was too small to merit any consideration. So, when he got the call offering him 100 cases, he didn't hesitate.

"I said, 'When? Whatever you can give us, we'll take it,' " he said. "Typically, I would have balked at $85 for beer but I just knew all the beer guys would be lined up for this."

Local connoisseur Ben MacPhee-Sigurdson said it is no Budweiser.

It pours a "hazy, walnut" colour with a thick beige head and the nose brings "beautiful brown sugar, raisin, toffee, lightly roasted malt and a hit of spice without seeming sweet."

"It's easily one of the best I've ever tried," he said.

geoff.kirbyson@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition August 29, 2012 A2

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