Trappist Brother Jonah Pociadlo prepares to pour Spencer ale (CNS)
Posted on 05/21/2015 2:19:52 PM PDT by NYer
Two members spent six months learning the art in Belgium
A Trappist brewery has opened for the first time in the United States.
The new brew, Spencer Trappist Ale, is made at St Joseph’s Abbey in Spencer, Massachusetts, by Cistercian, or Trappist, monks who wear the distinctive black and white habit.
Brother Jonah Pociadlo told Catholic News Service: “It’s got a wonderful smell to it. I hesitate to describe it, because it’s something I think is pretty subjective. But I can almost taste it without it even touching my lips.”
The association requires all beer with the Trappist name to be brewed at a Cistercian monastery, either by monks or lay people supervised by monks.
Trappist breweries must be monitored to assure the quality of the beer is impeccable and the brewers are required to observe business practices that keep the monastic way of life at the forefront, meaning no profits are to be made.
Trappist Fr Isaac Keeley, director of the Spencer Brewery, told CNS: “They’re very protective of the Trappist beer brand and they always want to ensure that a brew with that label meets the high standards they’ve set for it.”
The income earned is intended to support living expenses for the monks and maintain the buildings and property at the monastery. All money left after those expenses are met must be donated to charity.
Once the association approved the Spencer monks’ business plan, architectural designs and beer model, they were able to send two members of their community to one of the brew-house monasteries in Belgium for six months of technical training and immersion in monastic beer-making culture.
In the meantime, construction began on the Spencer Brewery facility, their first beer (Spencer Trappist Ale) was refined, the monks were trained and the enterprise began to take shape, Fr Keeley said.
The brewery employees include eight monks from the Spencer monastery, four lay workers who are also employed in the Trappist’s 60-year-old preserves business, and a brewmaster, Larry Littlehale, who was trained in Germany.
St Joseph’s Abbey is a contemplative monastery, making the mission of the Trappist different from many Catholic religious orders that oversee ministries in parishes, schools, universities or other social settings.
Their monastic community doesn’t oversee such ministries. Their primary function is to lead a life of prayer, meditation and study, and to sustain that existence they add a manual labour component.
“We have a very explicit commitment to being self-supporting,” Fr Keeley said. “Traditionally, we’ve been farmers. We came to Spencer in 1950 in order to really continue as dairy farmers.”
Ping!
Doing God’s work.
A double dose of spiritual feeding.
Beer ping.
I have tried it and I didn’t like it. YMMV. It’s also insanely expensive - about $18 for a four pack of 12 oz bottles.
And the beer wars commence in 3...2...1...
Beer salute!
Hamms beer rules!
(Runs and hides)
In these parts we have wonderful brew from
Ommegang Brewery in Cooperstown. It’s brewed
in the style of the Trappist Monks, but lay
people run the mill.
It is expensive and it IS wonderful!
Cheers!
If they employ Germany’s purity laws, they’ve got a steady customer. Beer is made of malt, hops, sugar, and water. Nothing else. American breweries leave something to be desired by adding cheap grains like corn, rice, and wheat into the malt. The American brews taste like a cheap imitation which they are.
Let’s hope these guys are better. Let’s hope they hold to the German purity laws.
And God made whiskey to prevent the Irish from taking over the world.
What is the malt made of?
Malted barley, hops, yeast and water.
Waiting for their beer...their jellies are good...
Belgian beer doesn’t follow the Reinheitsgebot (German Purity law, 1516). It’s not unusual to add candi sugar to bigger beers, like doubles and triples, to get get the specific gravity of the wort up and increase attenuation of yeast. It’s common to add other adjuncts, like fruit, spices, etc.
They also use spontaneous fermentation to produce some of the most amazing beers in the world-—lambic!
My Bro and I just shared a bottle of Three Philosophers this past weekend. It’s a very nicely done Quad.
I would love to visit Ommegang. It’s on the list!
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