Last orders? Belgium’s Trappist beers under threat as vocations run dry
The country’s oldest Trappist brewery faces an uncertain future after a decline in people entering monastic life
For nearly 190 years the monks of Westmalle in northern Belgium
have been involved in making beer. They began brewing in this corner of
Flanders in 1836 to have an alternative to milk or water with their
daily bread. Today, Westmalle is an international brand, producing 40m
bottles of three varieties of beer a year, mostly for Belgium and the
Netherlands, but also enjoyed by beer connoisseurs in Britain, France,
Italy and beyond.
Yet uncertainties
hover over the future of Trappist beer production in this traditionally
Catholic country, where fewer people are drawn to a life of monastic
contemplation.
Those questions became more acute in January when Belgium’s Achel beer
lost its Trappist status after being taken over by a private
entrepreneur. The new owner has vowed to keep the recipe unchanged, but
after the severing of ties with monks, Achel can no longer call itself a
Trappist beer. “It must be admitted that the state of most monastic
communities is precarious,” said Brother Benedikt, the abbot of
Westmalle, in a rare media interview in which he answered the Observer’s questions in writing, translated from his native Dutch.
According to the International Trappist Association (ITA),
beer, cheese or other goods can bear the “authentic Trappist product”
label only if made inside an abbey, under the supervision of monks or
nuns, with all profits destined for the upkeep of the religious
community, the wider Trappist order and charities.
At Westmalle, Belgium’s oldest Trappist brewery, staff are thinking
about the future. “Nowadays, we don’t have a lot of vocations,” said
Philippe Van Assche, the secular managing director of the brewery. He is
not confident people will be seeking to become monks in 10 or 20 years’
time: “To be honest, I think there is a kind of caesura ... a kind of
break.”
Van Assche began working at Westmalle 25 years ago, just as the monks
were handing over day-to-day production to secular staff. Increasingly,
the demands of running a brewery – negotiating with retailers or
marketing – were seen as incompatible with a monastic life that prizes
the discipline of silence.
The monks, however, remain in charge. Alongside
four secular independent administrators, they form a supervisory board
to oversee the brewery, led by Brother Benedikt, who does not use a
surname.
Westmalle is part of the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance, which traces its origins to 1098 and follows the Rule of Saint Benedict, a 6th-century book of precepts.
Founded
in 1794 by monks who had fled the French Revolution, Westmalle went on
to survive the hostile rule of Napoleon and flourish. Today, while
numbers of Trappist monasteries in Africa, Asia and South America are
growing, the situation in Europe is in decline, with a few exceptions.
Monasteries with the “most severe” rules and
routines “are nowadays the most successful”, said Van Assche, but
Westmalle is only “a bit strict”.
Here the
monks rise at 3.45am for a precisely ordered day of prayers, labour and
Bible reading, punctuated by regular communal meals, the daily
eucharist, chores and a little free time. Bedtime is at 8pm.
“For
someone with a true vocation, it is not really difficult [to become a
monk] – at least no more difficult, I think, than any other life
choice,” said Brother Benedikt. “However, today’s society offers few
starting points that can give rise to a monastic vocation. Religious
life is no longer considered important and is seen as mysterious, with a
negative connotation. Joining a monastic community has become a big
step in that respect, but in itself it is a much richer, more meaningful
and fascinating form of life than one might suspect.”
Westmalle
is now one of only five Trappist breweries in Belgium, alongside
Chimay, Orval, Rochefort and Westvleteren. These, along with foreign
Trappist beers, remain “some of the best in the world”, said Luc De
Raedemaeker, director of the Brussels Beer Challenge,
an international brewing competition. He rates Westmalle Dubbel as one
of the finest beers, for its combination of sweetness, lively
carbonation and lingering bitterness from the hops.
Trappist beers are determined by their ethos, rather than taste. “[A
Trappist beer] can be anything. A Trappist brewery can make a pilsner,
it can make an IPA or a triple [a strong beer]. It can make a white beer
or whatever you want,” said De Raedemaeker, although he points out the
traditional Belgian Trappist beers were doubles, triples – a reference
to their alcoholic strength – or blonds.
Meanwhile, the Belgian Trappist beer world is holding discreet discussions about the future.
Westmalle,
which is part of an ITA working group on future Trappist identity, is
considering becoming a foundation to secure its future. “If one day
another monastery would just cease to exist, what are we going to do
with this legacy, with our tradition, with the values we have been
living for?” Van Assche asked. “How can we still be loyal to the values
of what Trappist [monasteries] stand for and preserve this unique way of
running a commercial activity for future generations?”
Westmalle also wants to secure the jobs of its staff: 51 lay people work
in the modern, consecrated brewery, while eight make cheese, or work on
the abbey farm or bakery. But Van Assche is not convinced that ITA
rules – determining what makes a Trappist product – should be watered
down. “If that happens, then we will just be abbey beers,” he said,
referring to ancient religious houses that have lent their names to
large drinks companies, such as Leffe, which is owned by Belgian
multinational Anheuser-Busch InBev, or Grimbergen, which is controlled
by Alken-Maes in Belgium and the Carlsberg group elsewhere.
Belgian beer expert Sofie Vanrafelghem, however,
is optimistic about the future. She expects monks will come to Belgium
from other parts of the world where Trappist monasteries are still
expanding. “I think the Trappist monk communities may be more
multicultural and more diverse,” she said.
And
in a country where new breweries are opening every year, with 1,500
brands jostling for attention at the bar, Trappist beers remain highly
prized.
“The most special part is that it’s not brewed for profit,” said Sofie Vanrafelghem. “The quality is really high.
“If
they take extra time to make a perfect beer, who cares? They’re not
there to make profit. They want to make a true and pure beer.”The
brewers of Westmalle, for instance, use flower hops, rather than
industrially produced pellets. “So that’s more expensive,” Vanrafelghem
said. “But that gives the beautiful bitterness at the end.”
She
added: “If you put Belgian beer experts in a cafe and you don’t give
them a menu, they will order a Trappist because they are sure of the
quality.”
