The Naked Pint (29 page)

It is a badge of honor for any beer aficionado to have tasted some or all of the Trappist beers. They are becoming more and more popular (sometimes to the monks’ and our chagrin) and, as a result, are becoming more available in the United States. However, Trappist monasteries still regulate the amount of beer sold, sometimes making them extremely hard to get and notoriously hard to stock in craft beer bars and specialty shops. Sometimes an importer or distributor may get only one or two shipments a year of certain beers. On the other hand, we just saw four different Trappist Ales at Whole Foods. Yes, the times they are a changin’. But it is still feast or famine with these special beers. Our modus operandi is that when we see a Trappist beer, we buy it. These beers are great to have on hand and are fantastic as collector’s items because many Trappist Ales are even better after aging (see page 173). It’s amazing to explore the different ales from these highly respected breweries. Here are our favorites from each of the holy Trappist breweries:

Now wait just a minute. Haven’t you seen a million beers out there with a monk on the label? You know that there are way more than seven beers that were brewed at the Abbey of Such and Such and made by Father or Pater or Brother So-and-So! These beers sport a figure of a monk, or the outline of a robe, or a picture of an abbey. So why aren’t these Trappist breweries?

Well, even though there are only seven Trappist breweries today, there used to be a lot more. And many of the monasteries that brew beer aren’t necessarily of the Trappist order. Over time, these monastery breweries stopped production for whatever reason and, in many cases, were taken over by secular breweries that have bought the rights from those monks and are licensed to use their abbey and beer names, brewing methods, recipes, proprietary yeast, and sometimes even the equipment and brewery buildings. Affligem and St. Bernardus are examples of breweries that have these kinds of arrangements. Beers brewed under these circumstances, based in true monastic breweries, are called Abbey Ales.

There’s another category of Abbey Ales that aren’t necessarily brewed under a monastic license. Many of these breweries are named after defunct monasteries that perhaps never even had a brewery. Some Belgian breweries are also named after saints and other religious symbols but have never been under the control of any religious organization. Most beer connoisseurs call beers from these breweries Abbey-style ales instead of Abbey Ales, to denote the difference. Even lower down on the name-game ladder (not to us, but to some) are the American beers that are made in the monastic style. These beers, no matter how skillfully crafted, are relegated to being called Belgian-style beers. Try these amazing beers and see if the Trappist stamp really makes the difference to you.