Dog Gone Westie

This is a short tail of woe!

A short time ago you (hopefully) read with interest about my trip to Belgium and the highlight of the visit, when I finally made it to St Sixtus Abbey. It was a chance finally to taste and source some of the wonderful and oh so rare Westvleteren beer produced by the abbeys Trappist monks who live and work there.

Whilst there I brought home some supplies of beer, glasses etc, but also a gift set for my Belgian father in law.  He loves his beer and obviously is proud of his Belgian beer heritage in particular. He now lives in England, but is well travelled, including regular trips to his homeland where most of his family still reside, the thing is though he’d never been to that area of Belgium before and although knew about the abbey beer, had never tasted Westvleteren personally..

He was therefore understandably very excited when I presented him with the St Sixtus gift box. It contained one bottle of Westvleteren 12, two small branded sharing glasses and an insert written in Flemish explaining about the ethos of the abbey and how the pack was designed for the owner to share the beer with a loved one..

He decided that the Champions League final between Barcelona and Manchester United was a fine occasion on which he was going to enjoy his prize. To make sure that the beer was served at it’s best he researched how to pour it and the optimum temperature it should be served for maximum flavour. As the game was about to start he took out the sharing glasses and carefully poured the beer, placing it on the coffee table in front of the TV and popped back to the kitchen for some match time nibbles.

When he came back a few minutes later, beer was not the only thing on the table…..

Now as the dog (Jess) had not done this before ever, (it would never get the chance again..), what can we deduce about Westvleteren 12, it tastes grrrrrrrreat maybe?

I’d be interested in your theories and comments?

The moral of this story is, you should always guard your beer doggedly….