Journey to Westvleteren in search of the elusive 12

When I lived in Richmond, Virginia, in the late ’90s, I frequented a small bottle shop that always stocked new and exciting beers. On one visit, the shop owner encouraged me to buy one of the bottles of Westvleteren 12 that he had recently brought back from Belgium. I had never [...]

Journey to Westvleteren in search of the elusive 122018-10-18T13:28:11-07:00

On Trappist beer … and the newest Trappist brewery

May 2015, the International Trappist Association (ITA) approved the eleventh Trappist monastery brewery, Tre Fontane in Rome, Italy. There are now six Trappist breweries in Belgium (Rochefort, Westmalle, Westvleteren, Chimay, Orval, and Achel), two in the Netherlands, aka Holland (La Trappe/Koningshoeven and De Kievit/Maria Toevlucht of Zundert), one in Austria (Gregorius [...]

On Trappist beer … and the newest Trappist brewery2018-10-18T13:28:18-07:00

The Business of Making the World’s Best Beer

Everyone knows the Trappist monks make awesome beer. In the mid 2000s a little monastery, called Saint Sixtus of Westvleteren, rose to fame when it's quadruple style 12 was ranked as the best beer in the world by Ratebeer.com. The fame has never left, as they are again on RateBeer's best of [...]

The Business of Making the World’s Best Beer2018-10-18T13:30:23-07:00
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