Posted on 01/16/2014 12:14:59 PM PST by mgstarr
SPENCER, Mass. -- For more than a century, Catholic Cistercian monks known as Trappists have been brewing and selling what many beer lovers consider some of the best in the world. Eight monasteries - six in Belgium and one each in Holland and Austria - produce the only beer recognized by the International Trappist Association as authentic Trappist beer.
And starting Thursday, the 63 brothers of St. Joseph's Abbey - about an hour's drive west of Boston - will join them, selling the first Trappist beer brewed outside Europe.
Their ambitious venture was hardly met with enthusiasm by their exacting Trappist brothers in Europe.
After all, for nearly 60 years the monks in Spencer, Mass., had been selling jams and jellies to help support their community. Now they were interested in the real family business: beer.
The journey from jams to beer started almost five years ago when St. Joseph's sent two monks on a fact-finding mission to the Belgian Beer Fest in Boston. Within hours, their European brothers were alarmed to learn of the inquiries.
"The original skepticism was because we were outside of Europe ... and Americans," said Father Isaac Keeley, the bald, jovial former potter who has been at St. Joseph's for 35 years and now directs the brewing. "And the fear we would go too big too fast."
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
Sounds ”tempting,” but I think I’ll just stick with my recently discovered favorite...Yuengling beer. America’s Oldest Brewery. Still family owned & operated :)
I’m waiting for the brothers to buy Budweiser and teach them to make good beer.
Royalties over here... Remember where you heard it first!!!! I want a paycheck outta this!!!!
Ha!
I agree. I find Chimay ale undrinkable.
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