Why Belgium's Trappist Beer Is Considered One Of The Best Beers In The World

It's one of the most coveted beers in the world. Trappist beer, brewed behind abbey walls. Scormont Abbey is located in the south of Belgium, close to the village Chimay, which is also the namesake for Scormont's famous beer, officially known as the Christian Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance. The monks are also called Trappists. They have been living here for around 170 years, and have been making the Chimay beer ever since. But today, the monks don't brew it themselves anymore. The brewery is still located within the monastery walls, and the Chimay beer is still brewed according to the traditional recipe and quality standards of the monks by employees, explains brand manager Fabrice Bordon. The yeast gets working in these tubs. The first step of fermentation takes four days, turning the sugar into alcohol. Then, the beer is left to sit for 10 days before it goes through another phase of fermentation, this time for three weeks in a bottle. The monastery produces enough beer for about 55 million bottles per year. Most Trappist beers can be bought in stores like this one in Brussels. Only around a dozen monasteries around the world brew this specialty. Jeff Vanden Steen has visited them all and written a book about the monasteries and their beer. He knows all the secrets that make Trappist beer so special. They brew still today the old traditional way, of course with modern equipment, with modern installation, but still the same way as it was before. They give the beer the time, the time to ferment, the time to lager, the time to re-ferment in the bottle, so the second fermentation in the bottle. So how can you recognize an authentic Trappist beer? This little label is very important. That's the difference between the Abbe Ale and the Trappist. That's the proof this is the right one. Taste-wise, Trappist beer is different from regular beers too. It's not sweet. It's important. It's not sweet. It was never sweet. You have a little bit hoppiness, a little bit, but most important is malt. You taste the malt with that little touch of coffee too, but only little. The second fermentation process in the bottle requires a lot of time and space, says beer expert Jeff, and monasteries usually have plenty of time and space. But life at Scormont Abbey doesn't only revolve around beer, says its abbot, Damien de Basieux. Here you are in a monastery. The reason for being in this place is monastic life. The church is the center of the monastery, it's not the brewery. So it's a monastery where there is a brewery that allows us to live economically and that allows us to have a certain number of actions around us, and that's very good. Keeping in line with Trappist rules, the proceeds are used to cover maintenance and living expenses, and whatever remains is donated to charity. But the abbot reveals that every once in a while, especially on religious holidays, the monks might have a beer themselves too.