BYCU
End-of-year tax planning and related issues have left virtually no time for the peaceful waiting of Advent, much less for the peaceful drinking of Advent or hungover blogging of Advent. Fortunately, I don't need to spend much time blogging this morning. A loyal TDE reader sent to me Wednesday perhaps the best beer story of the year. Herewith a generous excerpt:
Westvleteren XII is produced by Trappist monks in Belgium and sold at the abbey of Saint Sixtus in the Belgian countryside. The beer can usually only be purchased by reservation at the abbey - and reservations are extremely hard to come by.
But when the abbey found itself hurting for money for an expensive renovation, the monks reluctantly made the decision to sell the beer outside of the walls of the monastery on a one-time-only basis.
"I think it will be the last [time]," Westvleteren Brewery spokesman Mark Bode told NPR. "They say, 'We are monks, we don't want to be too commercial. We needed some money to help us buy the new abbey and that's it,' Back to normal again."
Beginning today, limited quantities of the beer are being sold in the U.S. and abroad. A number of stores have been sent "bricks" of the beer, which include six bottles and two glasses from the monastery. The gift box retails for $84.99.
Your Amazon patronage is always appreciated, but if you'd rather send me a gift box of this stuff, that'd be fine, too.
