Back in the fold (Koningshoeven)

Dutch Trappist brewery Koningshoeven has been accepted back in to the Trappist fold after a long-standing ‘excommunication.’ Roger Protz found out what happened

Healing a family rift is hard at the best of times, but it’s devilish difficult when the family in question is the brotherhood of Trappist monks.

Trappists – if you’ll pardon the pun – tend to keep their traps shut and meetings that involved the seven monastic breweries in Belgium and the Netherlands must have been terse in the extreme when it was decided to excommunicate the Koningshoeven abbey near Tilburg for its too close association with godless commercialism.

The rift brought sadness, not only to the Trappists, but also to beer lovers for whom monastic brewing in the Low Countries is a cherished icon, a symbol of dedication to tradition in a world increasingly dominated by global brewers and their international brands.

It is rare for Trappists to get together. They prefer to remain within their isolated communities, praying, living off their own produce and attempting to win converts to the faith. But in 1997 a crisis drove them to form the International Trappist Association that placed the seal ‘Authentic Trappist Product’ on their beers.

The crisis was the result of the rising flood of ‘abbey beers’ produced by commercial brewers in the Low Countries. The best known are Grimbergen and Leffe, owned respectively by Scottish & Newcastle and InBev, but there are many similar beers, some produced in agreement with nonbrewing abbeys, many with no religious connections at all.

Abbey beers, often with labels depicting churches and stained glass windows, confuse drinkers .....

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By Roger Protz

Section : International Brewery

Page number : 16