Of course, it’s not just any old beer. It’s Westvleteren XII, made by monks of the Trappist Abbey of Saint Sixtus of Westvleteren and often regarded as the best beer in the world.

The beer is usually only available at the brewery itself and an abbey-owned cafe, but the monks needed to raise a little cash to fund renovations at the monastery in Vleteren, Belgium, so they teamed with a Belgian retailer to sell gift packs of six bottles of beer and two commemorative goblets.

About 15,000 gift packs were sold at select retailers in 23 states yesterday (Westvleteren XII on 12/12/12…get it?), including Total Wine & More stores, which has a location in Rancho Cucamonga.

Even at around $84.99 a pop (or more), most stores sold out within hours.

The monks will receive about $800,000 from U.S. sales.

Here at Dine 909, we love our beer, but we’d have a hard time justifying spending $85 for a six-pack, even if it did come with a couple of glasses.

The Daily Breeze’s Nick Green covered the buying frenzy in his article.