Last weekend we decided to venture in to Brugge and attend their annual beer festival. With more than 65 breweries and 300+ beers there was a lot to see and sample! With a massive variety of blonde, brown, amber, and red beers it was hard not to find something to your liking. Some flavours even extending to banana and coconut for the more adventurous. But the highlight had to be trying the Westvleteren 12. Holding the reputation for years now as the best beer in the world we could not pass the opportunity by to give it a go. How was it you ask? Well it sure was flavoursome, and as far as darker beers go pretty easy drinking. Maybe not something I would consume on a regular basis (especially when you come across it in a bar it costs a cool €30 a bottle) but a tasty beer no less. I think the real gold behind this great beer is that it has a brilliant story...
The Westvleteren Brewery is a Belgian brewery which was founded in 1838 inside the Trappist Abbey of Saint Sixtus of Westvleteren. The quantity of beer brewed is only enough to financially support and run the monastery, no extra will be produced regardless of demand. So if you were thinking it might make it to a store near you soon you are sadly mistaken.
"As every man we must be able to live. So we have to try to earn our living and let others share in what we have to abstain from. Indeed, we have to live 'from' and 'with' our brewery. But we do not live 'for' our brewery. This must be strange for business people and difficult to understand that we do not exploit our commercial assets as much as we can. We are no brewers. We are monks. We brew beer to be able to afford being monks." Father Abbot, Westvleteren Brewery.
The Westvleteren Brewery is a Belgian brewery which was founded in 1838 inside the Trappist Abbey of Saint Sixtus of Westvleteren. The quantity of beer brewed is only enough to financially support and run the monastery, no extra will be produced regardless of demand. So if you were thinking it might make it to a store near you soon you are sadly mistaken.
"As every man we must be able to live. So we have to try to earn our living and let others share in what we have to abstain from. Indeed, we have to live 'from' and 'with' our brewery. But we do not live 'for' our brewery. This must be strange for business people and difficult to understand that we do not exploit our commercial assets as much as we can. We are no brewers. We are monks. We brew beer to be able to afford being monks." Father Abbot, Westvleteren Brewery.
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