MdV: Merchant du Vin beer
e-newsletter – Tuesday, October 11, 2005:
Trappist Ales
Two
beautiful seasonal beers, Ayinger Oktober Fest-Marzen and Samuel Smith’s Winter
Welcome Ale 2005-2006, are available now across the
The
New York Times ran a detailed article about Trappist beers on Sept. 21,
'05, selecting Westmalle Trappist Tripel as tops in the tasting. All three of the Trappist breweries imported
by Merchant du Vin were in the top 10.
Beer
festivals, dinners, and events are offering beer lovers all across
http://www.merchantduvin.com/pages/1_about/news.html
Beer Chat from the
We have noted with great interest that Trappist beers have
been in the mainstream media quite a bit lately: the New York Times, CNN, ABC online, Yahoo news, many regional papers
nationwide, and USA Today on Monday,
Oct. 3, ‘05.
So what is a Trappist beer?
“Trappist” is not a style – all Trappist beers are ales, and
they tend to be strong, but they range in color from the bright gold of
Westmalle Tripel to the deep brown of Rochefort. The body can be rich and thick, or light and
effervescent. They can have forward hops
& significant bitterness, like Orval, or have the hops in the background,
like Westmalle Dubbel. (In fact, tripels
& dubbels – which are styles –
are brewed by Trappist and non-Trappist breweries alike.)
“Trappist” is not a promotional or marketing catchphrase. “Trappist” is not an adjective meaning
“quality.”
“Trappist” is a shorthand term for an order of Catholic
clergy know as Cistercians, or more fully: The Cistercian Order of the Strict
Observance. The order began in the sixth
century AD, and today there are about 2500 Trappist monks around the world (and
about 1800 Trappistine nuns) who follow a life of “simplicity, hiddenness, work, prayer, service and hospitality in a
particular monastic community.” There is
a wealth of information at the web page of the Cistercian order, http://www.ocso.org/
As part of a reflective and thoughtful life, Trappist monks
work. Some teach, some farm, some make
cheese; Our Lady of Guadalupe Trappist Abbey in
As applied to beer, the term “Trappist” is a very specific
“appellation,” or indicator of origin: Trappist beer is beer made in a Trappist
monastery.
In historical times, many communities or estates had small
breweries – often as part of the kitchen.
Monasteries were no exception: they brewed beer for consumption within
the walls, and eventually began to sell their beer to local people around the
abbey. Proceeds from the sale of
monastic products – cheese, fruitcake, or beer – went to support the expenses
of the abbey, with profits going to charity.
Today, this is still the case; moreover, monks are free of the mandate
to increase their personal wealth, to drive sales, to cut costs, to build
market share. To be sure - they brew
beer as a means of income, but their personal motivation comes from within, and
from above – not from sales managers and cost accountants.
Beginning around 45 years ago, the Trappist abbeys that brew
& sell beer began to enforce standards for manufacturing and labeling Trappist
beer. (Previous to this time, some
non-monastic breweries were using the name “Trappist” – remember, this is the
name of a religious order – on their beers.) To be labeled “Trappist,” a beer
must be made in a brewery that is within the walls of a Trappist abbey; the
direction and ownership of the brewery must be by the monks; and the profits
must go to charity. Lay (non-monastic)
employees frequently work in Trappist breweries, but they do not have
ownership.
There are six Trappist breweries in
In Flemish-speaking Flanders, in the northern half of
-Abdij der Trappisten Westmalle, brewers of Westmalle Dubbel
and Westmalle Tripel;
-St. Benedictus-Abdij, Achel;
-
In French-speaking Wallonia, southern
-Abbaye Notre-Dame d’Orval, brewers of Orval;
-Abbaye Notre-Dame de St. Remy, brewers of Rochefort
Trappistes 6, 8, and 10;
-Abbaye Notre-Dame de Scourmont, brewers of Chimay.
In
-Abdij OLV van Koningshoeven, brewers of La Trappe.
The products from these breweries are held in
high regard by beer connoisseurs due to their very high quality and beautiful
flavors. Merchant du Vin is the
A note on the term "Abbey Ale":
The term “abbey” or “abbey ale” has no specific meaning on a beer label,
although it generally does imply a strong bottle-conditioned ale of quality,
brewed with a Belgian yeast strain. The term is undoubtedly an homage to
the beers from
Here are three archived previous Merchant du Vin
e-newsletters on related topics that may be of interest:
-Orval, July 2004
-Bottle Conditioning, Feb. 2004
-Tripels and Dubbels, Jan. 2004
They
can all be found in the archive at:
http://www.merchantduvin.com/pages/1_about/enews_archive.html/
And the best resource of all: order a
Merchant