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(Image © Engelszell Abbey)
A famous Trappist brewery is facing its possible end due to fewer people being drawn to life as a monk.
Here’s the deal…
Trappist beers are beers brewed by Trappist monks, a monistic Roman Catholic religious order that originated La Trappe, France in the 17th century as an offshoot of the strict Cistercian order.
Trappist Monks live a cloistered and contemplative life dedicated to study, prayer and a variety of trades that help afford the monasteries some degree of financial support and sustainability.
And some monks turned to brewing, crafting complex ales behind their walls ales that captured the attention of the world.
But all that could be ending as fewer individuals are being drawn to the monistic life.
In March, the abbot of Westmalle Abby (home to some of the most coveted beers in the world, told The Observer: “It must be admitted that the state of most monastic communities is precarious.”
According to the Drinks Business, the “Achel Brewery in Belgium is no longer considered to be of Trappist status since it does not have any living monks working there, despite its beer recipe remaining unchanged.”
And now last four Trappist monks at the Engelszell Abbey, the only Trappist sect in in Austria have announced their intentions to step away, leaving the brewery in a precarious position.
The monastery was founded in 1925, according to the Drinks Business, when Trappist monks resettled in what had formerly been a Cistercian monastery in Engelszell on the Danube, where the religious sect made significant strides in pastoral care and brewing for more than 100 years.
A good part of the abbey’s income came from beer tourism and its brewery which was newly built during Abbot Hauser’s tenure. Its beers quickly developed into a valuable Trappist beer export but all that is threatened by the monks’ announced departures, leaving the brewery’s future in question.
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