THE LAST TRAPPIST

All of this writing is thirsty work. We hosted a small barbecue a week or two back for amongst others, our self appointed beer tasting panel, Geoff Semon, Mike Foster and yours truly. The weather didn’t cooperate for the barbecue though; windy, cold and raining. Perfect Trappist beer weather.

There are 7 Trappist monasteries in Belgium and Holland that brew beer to finance their good works and so on.  I have enjoyed the products of  Orval, Chimay, La Trappe,  Westmalle and Rochefort but Westvleteren and Achel have eluded me. Part of the problem is being 20,000 kms away from the source.

Westvleteren is a tough one because their beer is in such demand that it has to be ‘reserved’ and then picked up from the monastery’s cellar door. They don’t ship anywhere. The demand, particularly for their Abt 12 brew, considered by many to be the world’s best beer, is so high that this isn’t a problem for Westvleteren but is a problem  for Aussies who want to partake on the other side of the world. A solution to that is in hand thanks to John “The Big Unit” Tsalos and I will report when the the beer eventually arrives after TBU picks it up.

Which leaves the topic of this post, the products of the Brouwerij der Sint-Benedictusabdij de Achelse Kluis or Brewery of St Benedict Abbey of Achel the Safe if you prefer.

I haven’t ever seen any Achel brews for sale is Oz but when Mike arrived he had  bottle of the Achel Bruin no. 8. The Achel monks also make  an Achel Blonde no.5, Bruin no. 5, Blonde no. 8  and  an Extra  with the number being the alcohol percentage by volume, excepting for the Extra which is a blonde 9.5% tripel. So what was the Bruin no. 8 like?

Not as syrupy as many dark Belgian beers, but in a nice way. Dark red brown in colour with a hugely addictive clove, peppery herbal hint to the drily sweet  (if there is such a phrase) slightly burnt raisin flavour. All in all a wonderful beer for a cool day which it was. I’ve since mentioned this beer to a few Belgian friends who tell me that there is some variability in the quality of the brew from time to time. Mike appears to have bought a good one and I hope I do the same because this example was a cool weather beer par excellence with that engaging, hard to describe, lightly bitter, herbal after taste.

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