Micro-brews have been popular for many years running now, with a myriad of choices, some serious, some odd-ball and gimmicky, flooding the market to the point of absurd over-saturation. Every long-bearded hipster from here to Portland can likely tell you everything you need to know about the proper hops-to-yeast ratio in a perfect IPA.
But there has been one “micro-brew” that has been around for centuries, made not by fancy baby-men in plaid shirts and dungarees, but by a little-known enclave of weirdo Christian monks.
Trappist beer.
Originating in La Trappe, France, the Trappist order was formed when the Abbot of La Trappe believed the Cistercian congregations in the area had become infatuated with liberal ideals. Not having any of that nonsense, the Abbot instituted new rules known as the Strict Observance. The title says it all. The year was 1664.
The primary tenet of the Strict Observance was that the monasteries needed to be self-sustaining. No more alms or collections or gifts from the very people your are supposed to be serving. How to survive? Brew beer, good Christians! Brew beer.
300 years later there are eleven Trappist breweries active across Europe. Austria and Italy each have one. The Netherlands have two, and Belgium boasts the highest count, with six Trappist breweries working today. There’s one in the United States, too, because of course there is.
There are several types of Trappist beer and different breweries use different systems of classification.
The most commonly known system uses name classifications.
DUBBEL
A fruity, grainy brown ale with a fairly high alcohol content of between 6%-8%.
TRIPEL
Developed in the late 1930’s, Tripel describes the strongest beer in the Trappist range, with a 8%-10% ABV.
Patersbier (father’s beer) is a weaker beer typically reserved for the monks themselves and cannot be bought commercially.
A second system classifies types using a color-coding scheme: red, white, and blue. Red is the weakest, while blue is the strongest. This system was created back before bottles had labels and the color of the bottle itself had to be used to identify the contents.
Thirdly there is a numerical system, which seems self-evident (and a tad dull).
I wrote this post mainly because I like the thought of drunken monks running around medieval Europe, giving away casks of tasty beer because it was the Godly thing to do.
Amen!
