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The Brother Community of Westvleteren applies a specific policy with regard to their brewing activities,
which limits the distribution of the Westvleteren beers to a restricted sale at the gate of the Abbey only.
After some ‘progressive insights’ the Brothers of Westvleteren decided to consider the idea of matching the
brewing with the construction activities in order to fill the financial gap of the construction of the
new monastery. The Westvleteren Community clearly defined the boundaries on which this exclusive offer
would be elaborated:
- it would concern an exceptional unique and one-time offer (temporarily more ‘labora’ than ‘ora’);
- the regular sales would remain valid and mandatorily remain valid as the
only commercialization method in the future, afterwards.
In order to match the ‘short term’ financial objective, with the ‘long term’ image and equity of Westvleteren,
the project group was confronted with 4 important challenges:
1. The project had to contribute;
2. with a limited one-time offer;
3. based on proximity for the consumers;
4. with the reward of the total project experience.
Based on this framework, it became clear that a special look & feel needed to be developed in order to make a
clear cut once the project sales would be ended. This would also enable the collector’s item value of the
offer for the consumers and because of that the brew-to-build-box was created, since this reflects the idea of buying
a share in the new abbey. The artwork uses the original bricks (size, shape and color) of the new monastery in order to underline
the statement of ‘having helped to build an abbey’ (Ad Aedificandam Abbatiam Adiuvi).
To make the experience complete, an exclusive tasting glass was developed, since Westvleteren
can be considered as one of the crown jewels of the Belgian Beer industry and its culture is known
for serving every beer in its appropriate glass.
The Westvleteren Trappist 12 was chosen because of the election as Best beer in the world in 2005 and because it is the most sold of the three varieties.
Westvleteren XII is best stored upright in a dark, cool place (preferably not the refrigerator).
For more information about the project, the construction works and the brotherhood of the Abbey of Westvleteren, check
The abbey of Saint Sixtus of Westvleteren.
We could go on and on about this beer, and why you should buy it.
But others more eloquent than we have been there first,
and we’ll let you read their words instead:
Thirsty for this beer? Pre-order NOW!
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