Trappist Breweries

Leave it to monks to crank out some of the best beer in the world. Over the past few months Robyn and I have visited all seven Trappist monasteries that brew - six in Belgium and one in the Netherlands.

First, to qualify for an official Trappist label, the following conditions must be met:

1) The products must be produced inside the monastery or its immediate vicinity.
2) The operating plant must demonstrate an indisputable relationship of subordination with the monastery and exhibit a corporate culture that is in keeping with monastic life.
3) The work must be carried out by monks or by laypersons operating under the monk's supervision.
4) The proceeds must go to the monastery's upkeep or to charitable causes.
5) The product must be of impeccable quality.
6) The product must be sold under the name or brand of the monastery.
7) The product must satisfy all legal standards regarding health, safety and consumer information.
8) All advertising campaigns must do justice to the religious dimension of the name "Trappist".

What follows are my impressions of the monasteries, the beer as well as some other tidbits.

Westvleteren
(pronounced west-fleet-ur-in)

Westvleteren's beers consistently make it to the top of the ratings on beer sites (http://beeradvocate.com/lists/top, http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/top-50-custom/) and so I was happy to get the chance to try them out. Since you cannot buy the beer in stores (in fact you have to call ahead to reserve a case to pick up from the abbey, but they are nearly always sold out), we trucked over to the cafe across from the abbey to enjoy a few.

The cafe is very nice and tasteful and all that. You can buy the beer in a souvenir pack of four with a glass. They also sell cheese and local products as well as "Trappist Tablets" which, as near as I can figure, are tablets of the brewing yeast to be taken as a health supplement.

Westvleteren is the second smallest of the Trappist breweries, producing only 350,000 liters a year. I think this adds to their mystique. However, after tasting, it was clear that these bros know their stuff.

Blond - I like blond beer. I think it's nice. This is probably the best I have ever tasted. It is fruity and bitter and good. It rolls in at 5.8% alcohol by volume (ABV) so Belgians make fun of it and don't really consider it a beer. I do. I like it a lot.

8 - I don't remember the 8 too well. I know I liked it, it was a cross between sweet and bitter that worked well - it has 8% ABV.

12 - This is the one. The mother of them all - if stupid people were beer, this one would be Sarah Palin. If ridiculous cars were beer, this would be the "wiener mobile". If books were beer, this would be Ulysses. If... ok, I'll stop. It's dark and thick and rich and nutty and warm from the alcohol (10.2% ABV). When I mentioned to our B&B host that we were heading to Westvleteren, he advised me not to waste my time with the Blond or the 8. And, probably because I was born in a trailer, I like the Blond better. Don't get me wrong, this is a great beer. But that Blond...

EDIT- Ok, so I tried another 12 after letting it sit in my garage for 4 months and it was spectacular. Seriously. Probably the best beer I ever had. I hate it when these beer snobs are right.

Visit Rating: 9
Beer Rating: 10
(1 = poor, 10 = Super)

Rochefort
The first monastery we visited was Rochefort in Belgium, not far from Luxembourg. It is definitely the most inward facing of the ones we visited. There is no cafe, no store, no tours, no visiting the grounds and, near as I can see, no one there. Fortunately, the towns around it are pretty cute and we ended up going to a supermarket to buy a rack of the beer - which is very, very good.

6 - The lightest of their beers, the six I would say is also their strangest. It is the hardest one to find and I have never seen it in the stores in Luxembourg. It has 7.5% ABV and is the oldest of their three beers. It is pretty darn complex and confuses my simple palate. With that said, it is also very much worth trying.

8 - The eight was originally brewed as a Christmas beer, which makes sense to me. It contains 9.5% ABV and I found it sweeter and less complex than the 6.

10 - The ten is probably Robyn's favorite of the Trappist beers we have tried. It contains 11.3% ABV, but it manages to be quite smooth and drinkable. It has a caramel flavor to it and the alcohol flavor comes through in the end.

Rochefort is a pretty small brewery (2,100,000 liters per year) and I think it is their intention to keep it that way. They make three great beers which have a level of complexity that you do not come across too often.

Visit Rating: 2
Beer Rating: 9
(1 = poor, 10 = Super)

Westmalle

Westamalle was the second Trappist brewery we hit - it is located near Antwerp not far from the Dutch border. They are one of the heavy hitters of the Trappist breweries, churning out 12,000,000 liters of the good stuff each year. Like Rochefort, you cannot really do much at the monastery (which makes sense, given that it would be hard to be a monk with a bunch of dumb-ass, half-drunk tourists wandering about), but they do have an incredibly nice cafe that serves the beer and also some food made from other products that they make. You can also wander around on trails around the abbey and (being near the Netherlands) there are plenty of bike trails.

Dubbel - The Westmalle Dubbel is served on tap at the cafe and the real connoisseurs will argue that it is a different beer than the one that comes out of the bottle. My primitive nose cannot sense the difference, so we will call one entry good. The Dubbel is a dark beer that is full bodied and both dry and sweet at the same time. I liked it quite a bit. It contains 7% ABV.

Tripel - This guy is known as the mother of all Tripels, and it is pretty much legendary. Truthfully, (I am probably giving myself away as a fraud by writing this) I didn't like it too much. I should give it another go, but it was complex and crazy and reminded me of a batch of homebrew that went bad (ABV 9.5%).

Half and Half - At the cafe they sell also sell a mixture of the two they cleverly call Half and Half. This was my favorite. The Dubbel mellowed out the Tripel and the Tripel cut the sweetness of the Dubbel. Good stuff.

The cursed monks also brew a beer that they call Extra, but they only serve it in the monastery for meals.

Visit Rating: 7
Beer Rating: 6
(1 = poor, 10 = Super)

Koningshoeven (La Trappe)

This is the only Trappist brewery outside of Belgium and I have to say that despite being only a few kilometers from Westmalle and Achel, it has a distinctly different feel to it. I am told that you can tour the brewery (unlike the Belgian ones - more on this later) and they have a lovely store that sold bread, beer, cheese and religious stuff as well as a spectacular cafe. You could also wander around the old "Woman's Garden" where female relatives used to visit their monk kin.

For a while Koningshoeven Brewery was run by the Artois company (think Stella) who bought the contract so that they could have sole rights to distribute to cafes in the area. The monks didn't seem to like that too much, and they have now entered into an agreement with the Bavaria company. The monks brew 3,500,000 liters per year in the facility while the Bavarians brew 7,500,000 of their own beer. The brothers seem to be more in charge these days as they can once again use the Trappist label on their bottles.

Originally they were very unique in the area as their first monk brewmaster was trained in Munich and preferred bottom fermenting or lagering methods, as opposed to the top fermentation that has always been popular in Belgium. I think that they are top fermenting their brews these days.

They have eight types of beers, and I will do my best to remember how they tasted.

White: This is the only Trappist white beer in the world and I think if you are into white beers than you will like this guy. Like most white beers it doesn't have enough taste to offend anyone. It contains only 5.5% ABV, which for a Belgian beer is close to nothing. Overall an excellent white.

Bock: This reddish brown beer is pretty complex and a little strange. I liked it, but I am not a huge bock fan - for some reason it tastes too nutty to me. It contains 7% ABV.

Blond: I haven't tried this dude yet, but I have three sitting in the garage.

Dubbel: This beer had a nice fruity coffee taste that was pretty smooth. 6.5% ABV.

Tripel: This beer has a light color and almost no scent. It is quite bitter and complex and I think I like it better than the Westmalle Tripel. 8% ABV.

Quadrupel: This 12% ABV behemoth is thick, alcoholy and oddly good.

Isidor: I haven't tasted this one, but like the blond I have three in my garage.

Puur: The Puur is an organic brew that is crystal clear, slightly bitter and super fresh tasting. It almost has hints of a Pilsner in there.

Visit Rating: 10
Beer Rating: 9
(1 = poor, 10 = Super)

Achel

Achel is the smallest of all the Trappist breweries (producing 90,000 liters per year) and I think my favorite. These guys had their copper brewing equipment swiped by the Germans in WWI and only started brewing again in 1998. Their cafe is on the grounds of the monastery and the place has a really easy going feel to it. You can see the brewing equipment through a window in the cafe and two of their four beers are only for sale on tap in the cafe. Unfortunately, we went on Sunday so their beer store was closed, but the cafe was open so I go to taste the ones on tap and...

I remember liking them a lot, but I do not remember them well enough to say anything informed. The ones on tap are a blond and a dark 5. In bottles they have a blond and dark 8 I think. More research must be done.

Visit Rating: 9
Beer Rating: 9
(1 = poor, 10 = Super)

Orval

I read last April that you could only tour one Trappist brewery in Belgium and that they only run tours for two days a year. Fortunately, they still had a few spaces left, so we booked a tour for 9 am (they had nothing later) on September 18th. After six months of waiting we headed over to Orval with some friends to see what the monks were up to. The tour was great and we enjoyed learning about the ins and outs of producing this very famous beer. The good monks brew 6,500,000 liters a year - their beer is disliked by many due to the fact that they add local yeast to the fermentation process which gives it a distinctly sour taste. I didn't like it at first, but it has really grown on me since.

Orval only brews one beer (except for the one they serve the monks) and as I mentioned earlier it has a bit of a sour taste. It also is a bit fruity and slightly bitter.

Visit Rating: 10
Beer Rating: 8
(1 = poor, 10 = Super)

Chimay

Chimay is one of the big guys, brewing 11,000,000 liters a year. Their brewery is still located on the monastery grounds, but they truck the beer down to a plant in town and bottle it there. They have an interesting philosophy about brewing as they see it as a gift to the local economy and they are duty bound to brew a lot to help out as much as they can. You can wander around this monastery quite a bit and visit their chapel and cemetery. There are no signs that they are brewers on site, but about a half of a kilometer away they run a little inn with a bar. They serve their beers on tap or out of the bottle and have a bunch of cheese for sale as well. Very nice place.

Blue - This guy has 9% ABV and is thick and rich. It is a bit sweet, and also chocolaty. Good stuff.

Red - The red has 7% ABV and is a bit more mellow than the blue.

Tripel - This is my favorite tripel ever. It clocks in at 8% ABV and is very smooth.

Doree - This is the monk's beer that they sell at the inn. People give it a hard time since it is "more watery" than the rest of the trappists, but I have to be honest by saying that it is actually one of my favorite beers ever. It was light and very drinkable. Props to Chimay for sharing this one with us.

Visit Rating: 8
Beer Rating: 10
(1 = poor, 10 = Super)