Joe Sixpack: WORLD'S GREATEST BEER?

COMING TO America in 2012: The World's Greatest Beer.

It's Westvleteren 12, a Belgian rarity brewed at the tiny St. Sixtus Trappist monastery by a brotherhood of notoriously secretive monks.

Packaged in a plain brown bottle with no label, Westvleteren 12 has consistently ranked as either the No. 1 or No. 2 brand over the past decade at RateBeer.com and BeerAdvocate.com.

Along with its less potent (but equally delicious) sisters, Westvleteren Blonde and Westvleteren 8, it is typically sold only at the monastery and only under a bizarre set of rules designed to protect the monks' privacy.

For example, normally one must call the abbey's "beer phone" during a weekly two-hour period to reserve a single crate. You give your car license number, then make an appointment to pick up your beer. Only one case may be purchased every 60 days. Your receipt is marked Niet Verder Verkopen (Do Not Resell).

And do not plead for an exception. As the monastery's website notes, "Any such attempts will receive no response."

There is no marketing, no advertising and no authorized exportation. Naturally, the sales restrictions keep the beer in short supply; fewer than 60,000 cases are sold each year, about a fifth of the production of Philadelphia's Yards Brewing.

The limits are intended to allow the monks to concentrate on their sacred priority: prayer.

But in a shocking development earlier this fall, the monastery, claiming it needed funds to pay for rising costs and repairs, said it would release just under 100,000 six-packs for sale in Belgian supermarkets. Additionally, it plans to send a stash of 7,760 gift packs to America. Each pack contains six bottles and two glasses.

Naturally, the announcement was greeted with shock and excitement, with beer lovers calling it the Westy Gold Rush of 2011.

When the beer hit the shelves in Belgium on Nov. 3, there were traffic jams around markets and near-brawl conditions in the aisles. Supposedly more than 60,000 gift packs were scarfed up at 25 euros (about $34) each in just three hours.

It was exactly the kind of commotion the monastery had hoped to avoid.

Worse, there are already reports of price gouging in the secondary market. Individual bottles have sparked bidding wars on eBay, and one popular online Belgian beer store last week began offering gift packs at an astounding $320 apiece.

How much will Westvleteren 12 cost in America?