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Of the eleven recognized breweries run by Trappist monks in the world, six of them are dotted across Belgium. These include: St. Sixtus Abbey in Westvleteren, Abbey of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart in Westmalle, St. Benedictus Abbey in Achel, Abbey of Our Lady in Orval, Abbey of Our Lady of Scourmont in Chimay and Abbey of Our Lady of Saint-Rémy in Rochefort. A large part of their profits go to charity.
The Guardian columnist William Little says: “Many of Belgium’s finest brews can not be bought outside the region in which they are made. So a trip is essential if you take beer seriously, and many Belgians. Trappist beers are in a league of their own, rightly feted for their complex flavors. The monks brew with an eye for quality, rather than quantity, and this is what makes them so special. A typical pils lager takes three days to brew, but a Trappist can take two to three months, with secondary fermentation taking place in the bottle.
Belgium’s six Trappist breweries are spread across the country – three in northern Flanders (Achel, Westmalle and Westvleteren), and three further south in Wallonia (Orval, Chimay and Rochefort)”.
Our story about one of the monastic and brewing centers – Abbey Notre-Dame de Saint-Remy in Rochefort.
This is the monastery that brews one of the best beers in the world, the Rochefort Trappist beer.
The Notre-Dame-de-Saint-Rémy Abbey of Rochefort, generally known as Abbey of Rochefort, is a Trappist abbey located 5 km north of the city of Rochefort, Belgium. Founded in 1230, it was secularized in 1792 during the French Revolution. The abbey revives as a monastic community in 1887 with the installation of monks from Achel Abbey.
The last abbot, Armand de la Pierre, born in Brittany in 1732, doctor of theology of the University of Paris, became parish priest of Rochefort in 1803 and died on 18 December 1809.
The source of Tridaine.photo:abbaye-rochefort.be
Monks extracted various ores, mainly lead and iron. We even say that we had hoped to find gold. The hope was not altogether imaginary since, by dint of digging the hill, the Tridaine sprang from it; according to connoisseurs, its water gives a unique flavor to the beer “Trappistes Rochefort”. Gold was there, in a form waiting for monastic alchemy.
In 1887 a group of monks from Achel went down to Rochefort to take possession of the old domain of the abbey and restore the monastic life there.
Thus, after a century of interruption, monastic life resumed at Rochefort. Under the new abbot Anselme Judong, as early as 1892 new buildings were erected and are restored those that can be: the porch of the sixteenth century, the farm of the seventeenth century and the barn and water mill of the eighteenth century.
Following the construction of the neo-Gothic abbey in 1900-1902, itself replaced in 1991-1993 by the current neo-Romanesque church.
On December 29, 2010, a fire broke out around 6.30 pm, caused by a deficiency of the electric generators installed to compensate for the electrical problems caused by the abundant snowfall of the month.
photo Reuters
The fire ravages four buildings, but without reaching either the library and the brewery.
To nourish their prayer, the monks generously give themselves to lectio divina. As prescribed by the Rule, the monks, according to the seasons and the liturgical times, devote a more or less long time to the lectio divina, that is to say to the meditative reading of the holy books. For Benedict, there is only one authority in the monastery: the Word of God. When he scrutinizes the Holy Scriptures, it is the face of God that the monk seeks, tells the site of the Abbey.
Photo: abbaye-rochefort.be
“The first Cistercians gave their monasteries the name of scola caritatis – school where one learns to love. …All ascetic prescriptions have no other objective than to soften the will to make the monk capable of loving in truth…. All the monastic labor consists in letting the petals of his heart open under the radiance of the divine Sun, Christ.”
“The first duty of the monks demands that they apply to the spiritual and interior work of their conversion. But they must also be concerned about the realities of this world. It is here also that the seriousness of their contemplative process is verified. The whole monastic tradition, from the beginning, emphasizes the importance of work, whether physical or intellectual.
Traditionally, Cistercian monks, especially the Trappists, hold in great esteem the manual work, especially the work of the land. The economic changes of our time have oriented monastic work in other directions. Abbey Rochefort abandoned agriculture in 1960. From now on, the entire economy of the monastery is centered on a small brewery.”
Around fifteen monks live at Rochefort Abbey, where the first brewery was founded in 1595. Monks have been brewing beer at Rochefort since the sixteenth century, providing much of the income for the monastery.
The water for the beer is drawn from a well inside the monastery walls. Rochefort uses Pilsener and Munich-type malts, and Hallertau and Golding hops.
The brewery’s annual output has been increasing steadily for a number of years.The brewery manufactures more than 35,153 hectoliters (about 30,000 U.S. barrels). The brewery has roughly doubled production in the last ten years.
Address of the Abbey
Abbey of Our Lady of Saint Remy
B-5580 Rochefort
Such. : (32) (84) 22.01.40
Destination station: Jemelle (bus to Rochefort)
Authentic Trappist Products
Products that appear with the official Trappist label mean they “measure up to the quality and traditional standards rooted in the monastic life of a real Trappist community.”
photo belgianbeerroutes.com
Belgium Beer Road Trip
If you’re looking to plan a Belgian Monastery beer tour road trip, pick up a Belgium beer route map. You can find these in many of the beer stores or download one for your computer online from Belgian Beer Routes Map. As you’re traveling between the monasteries, there are a number of other great breweries you can stop at as well, reported Our Tasty Travels.
Belgium’s Trappist Breweries
The six Trappist breweries in Belgium are:
- St. Benedictus-Abbey (Achelse Kluis) in Achel, Belgium – Achel Beer
- Abbaye Notre-Dame de Scourmont in Chimay, Belgium – Chimay Beer
- Abbaye d’Orval in Villers-devant-Orval, Belgium – Orval Beer
- Abbaye Notre-Dame de Saint-Remy in Rochefort, Belgium – Rochefort Beer
- Sint-Sixtusabdij in Westvleteren, Belgium – Westvleteren Beer
- Abdij van de Trappisten van Westmalle in Westmalle, Belgium – Westmalle Beer
The six breweries have their own websites:
achelsekluis.org;
trappistwestmalle.be;
sintsixtus.be;
trappistes-rochefort.com;
orval.be;
chimay.com.
Religious Tourism
Sources:
- theculturetrip.com
- theguardian.com
- ourtastytravels.com
- abbaye-rochefort.be
- fr.wikipedia.org
- drinkbelgianbeer.com
Photo AFP