US Monks produce first trappist beer brewed outside Europe

• published: 31 Jul 2015
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LEAD IN: For more than a century, European Catholic Cistercian monks - known as Trappists - have brewed and sold alcoholic beer considered by some to be the best in the world. Now, an Abbey in the United States is joining them - creating the first Trappist beer to be brewed outside of Europe. STORYLINE: Here, at St. Joseph's Abbey - around an hour's drive west of Boston - for nearly sixty years, monks here have sold jams and jellies to their community. Now, the sixty three brothers are turning their attention to stronger stuff, having begun plans to brew their own Trappist beer almost five years ago. But, having hatched a fact-finding mission to Boston's Belgian Beer Festival, their original plans were met with scepticism from European counterparts. The only beer recognised by the International Trappist Association as truly authentic Trappist beer was then brewed by eight European monasteries - six in Belgium and one each in Holland and Austria. Similarly, here at the monastery, some brothers weren't sure of starting a project that amounted to the most expensive enterprise ever undertaken by the abbey. But, with 85 percent of the monks here eventually voting to go ahead with the project, Father Damian Carr says it was done to secure the Abbey's financial future. "We see it as a 50, 100 year project," he says. "As we're standing on the shoulders of those who came before us and built these buildings and supported the way of life. Hopefully future generations will be stand on our shoulders, what we're doing. And we see the brewery as part of that." Having warmed to the idea of American Trappist beer, European monks then began giving close counsel to their Massachusetts brothers - ensuring the recipe wouldn't damage the Trappist brand. The European monasteries recommended they build a state-of-the-art brewery, hire a skilled brewing engineer, and brew just one type of beer for the first five years. The St. Joseph's monks then set about financing and then building this multi-million-dollar brewery - a structure that would be the envy of almost any micro-brewery in the world. The European monasteries also put the St. Joseph's monks in touch with Brewing Engineer, Hubert de Halleux, who had previously worked at Chimay, the Trappist brewery at Scourmont Abbey in Belgium. De Halleux says that at first fellow Belgian brewers had doubts about the project: "At the beginning of this project, when I heard about this project and was chosen for this job, people were saying what? Monks who are going to be brewing in the United States?" he says. After more than 20 trial batches, these monks settled on a recipe for what would become Spencer Trappist Ale, a "refectory ale" of 6.5 percent alcohol content. Having secured unanimous approval from their European counterparts and with a US distribution deal signed, on New Year's Day - their annual holiday - the brewery team tapped a keg of their final product for the whole of the St. Joseph's community to enjoy. Recalling that moment, Brewery Director at St. Joseph's Abbey Father Isaac Keeley, can barely hide his emotions: "The keg was pouring beautifully," he recalls. "We had this great head on the beer and the monks were coming back for seconds at least. And it just struck me like... in a certain sense we have, we've made it." Sales of the Spencer Trappist Ale are currently limited to their state of Massachusetts, but they plan to expand nationally and eventually even internationally. You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/012a539101b9b628271a107d71e233c3 Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork