Monk-y business
Last night’s meet and greet at Monk’s Café with Father Isaac, prior of Abbey De Koningshoeven in the Netherlands, turned up one news tidbit: the monastery’s brewery is close to getting its “La Trappe” name back on bottles of its abbey beer sold in America.
The only Trappist brewery outside of Belgium has had its ups and downs over the years. At one point its beer was made by Artois. In 1999, it lost its rights to use the iconic “Authentic Trappist Product” logo when the International Trappist Association decided the monks were not as active in the brewery business as required under the association’s bylaws. (Its Koningshoeven Brewery is actually a subsidiary of Bavaria-Netherlands, another, private brewing company.) It regained its certification in 2005 after making a few changes and strengthening its relationship with the brewery.
(Just as an aside here for those who imagine robed monks stirring boiling kettles of wort: forget it. All the other Trappist breweries – Chimay, Westmalle, Orval, Achel, Rochefort & Westvleteren – employ professional brewers and a sales force. Monks brew less often than Oliver Wendell Douglas farmed.)
Even after the imbroglio was settled, however, American Trappist monks objected to the Dutch monastery’s marketing of its beer with “La Trappe” on its label. That’s why bottles sold in the U.S. are labeled as “Koningshoeven” (which Google tells me means either King Farmhouses or Royal Hooves)
Which brings us to Father Isaac’s visit to America this week.
He was here mainly to promote the brewery’s 125th anniversary, which is being marked by the release of a celebratory one-off, La Trappe Isidor. (Proceeds from the sale of the beer will help the monastery rebuild a sister monastery in Uganda.) It’s a 7.5 percent amber ale that’s been bittered with hops grown on the monastery’s grounds. I enjoyed one of the first samples poured in the U.S. last night; it was light-bodied, distinctly hoppy and – unlike most ales from this brewery – exceptionally dry.
Notably, Isidor is labeled with the “La Trappe” name, following a compromise with U.S. members of the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance.
Seeing an opening, Father Isaac met over the weekend with the American Trappists at their New Melleray Abbey in Iowa. After speaking with the members, he told me, “I’m very hopeful they’ll approve our La Trappe label” for the remainder of the abbey’s line of beers.
As you might expect at the crossroads where religion meets business, this is all very byzantine stuff involving weird distribution rights and pain-in-the-ass lawyers , not to mention cloistered characters who happen to produce some of the best beer in the world.
Or, in the case of New Melleray, handmade walnut caskets.
June 24th, 2009 at 1:12 pm
[…] Note the use of the old La Trappe brand on the bottle, a name the monks had to give up in this country after local Trappists objected. Russell has the skinny on that. […]