Qualla: Westvleteren Brewery https://qualla.com/westvleteren-brewery en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:32 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/1/c/westvleteren-brewery-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Westvleteren Brewery https://qualla.com/westvleteren-brewery Westvleteren Brewery: Introduction https://qualla.com/westvleteren-brewery/ Photo credit Jamie Lantzy, CC BY 3.0. To buy a case of Westvleteren 12, you must do this. Go to the abbey's website. Refresh until the order portal opens, which happens at random intervals. Reserve a slot, supplying your license plate number and your phone number. Wait several weeks. Drive yourself - personally, in the registered car - down a narrow road in West Flanders to the gates of Sint-Sixtus Abbey. Hand over a printed receipt. Receive your one case. Drive away. On the bottom of your receipt, in Dutch, the monks have printed three words: Niet verder verkopen. Do not resell. This is the official distribution chain for what beer drinkers around the world keep voting the best beer ever made.

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]]> Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/1/c/westvleteren-brewery-wp/u11c-westvleteren-brewery-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Westvleteren Brewery: We Are Not Brewers https://qualla.com/westvleteren-brewery/ Photo credit Jamie Lantzy, CC BY 3.0. Sint-Sixtus is a working Trappist monastery. The community was founded in 1831 by monks from Mont des Cats, across what is now the French border. Records show beer being brewed here in 1838, and the king of Belgium issued a brewing license in 1839. The monks have been at it ever ...

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Image: Jamie Lantzy | CC BY 3.0

]]> Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/1/c/westvleteren-brewery-wp/u11c-westvleteren-brewery-we-are-not-brewers.mp3 0:06 2 full Westvleteren Brewery: Three Beers, One Hand https://qualla.com/westvleteren-brewery/ Photo credit Jamie Lantzy, CC BY 3.0. The brewery makes three beers, and only three. The Blonde, with a green cap, is a 5.8% pale ale introduced in 1999 to replace the monks' old table beer. The 8, with a blue cap, is an 8% dubbel that used to be called the Extra. The 12, with a yellow cap, is a 10.2% quadrupel intro...

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]]> Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/1/c/westvleteren-brewery-wp/u11c-westvleteren-brewery-three-beers-one-hand.mp3 0:06 3 full Westvleteren Brewery: Best Beer in the World https://qualla.com/westvleteren-brewery/ Photo credit Jamie Lantzy, CC BY 3.0. In June 2005 the user-voted website Ratebeer.com ranked Westvleteren 12 the best beer in the world. The international press picked up the story, and the second part of the article - the part about the impossible buying process - made it irresistible. In 2014 Ratebeer voted it the...

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]]> Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/1/c/westvleteren-brewery-wp/u11c-westvleteren-brewery-best-beer-in-the-world.mp3 0:06 4 full Westvleteren Brewery: The Beerphone https://qualla.com/westvleteren-brewery/ Photo credit Jamie Lantzy, CC BY 3.0. For decades, the only way to reserve beer was the beerphone - a single telephone line at the abbey that the monks answered for limited hours, in rotation. Anyone trying to buy beer dialed at the appointed minute on the appointed day, redialing through endless busy signals like a ...

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]]> Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/1/c/westvleteren-brewery-wp/u11c-westvleteren-brewery-the-beerphone.mp3 0:06 5 full Westvleteren Brewery: In de Vrede https://qualla.com/westvleteren-brewery/ Photo credit Jamie Lantzy, CC BY 3.0. Across the road from the abbey gate sits a cafe called In de Vrede - In Peace - run as the abbey's only public-facing operation. Here, if you have not reserved beer for take-home, you can at least drink a Blonde, an 8, or a 12 at table, alongside abbey-made cheese on bread and a ...

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]]> Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/1/c/westvleteren-brewery-wp/u11c-westvleteren-brewery-in-de-vrede.mp3 0:06 6 full