For a couple years, one of my friends has been bugging me to try St. Bernardus Abt 12, a beer out of Belgium with a 10.5% alcohol content. Most beers in the states have less than half of that and, to be quite honest, that may be one of the reasons I put off sipping this brew for so long: I was intimidated by the Belgians.

The Brouwerij St. Bernard describes their St. Bernardus Abt 12 as their top of the line brew. And a lot of work goes into making this sucker. They pump water up from 150 meters below the earth, accessing rainfall from the days of Jeanne d'Arc. (They really say that -- check it out!)

The bottle opens with a pop when you pull out the cork, much like champagne. Perhaps this is an indication that St. Bernardus Abt 12 is really the champagne of beers and not Miller High Life. Of course, nothing against High Life -- I just prefer my champagne (of anything) to have a little more pizazz. And a pop definitely does the trick.

However, once all the excitement was over, I had to worry about the overflow. I set the bottle in the sink and reached for a glass from the cabinet. After a few minutes, the geyser had not stopped so I simply poured some into a goblet glass (the recommended glassware for this beer). Of course, this resulted in a very tall head on the beer but at least I wasn't losing precious drops of it down the drain anymore.

Once in glass, the color of the beer was much more noticeable: a dark brown even mahogany tint dominates this thick, opaque brew. The aroma is quite strong at this stage as well: full with hints of the fruit used in fermentation.

Upon tasting, the beer was very rich and malty but tasty. The fruit was also quite prominent in the flavor hinting at raisin. For a very heavy beer, this concoction was quite easy to drink. The swigs went down easy but this was not a beer to chug. I drank it slowly and only took one full glass.

The rest of the twelve ounce bottle was shared with my boyfriend who also enjoyed the drink. But he's far less analytical about beer than I am.