Tonight's beer is another to come from one Belgium which is easily one of my favorite brewing nations in all of planet earth. Coming from the rural stretches of western Flanders, St. Bernardus is a Belgian trappist abbey ale, a style of beer that has become exceedingly popular in Belgium over that last couple of centuries. Trappist beers are named after an order of monks that originated to the Cistercian monastery of La Trappe, France. Trappist monks held themselves to extremely high standards of living, and one of their most imporant ideals was that they should remain almost entirely self sufficient. Originally the trappists brewed beer solely for their own consumption, but today most trappist breweries sell their beer to fund various charitable causes. Because of the stringent standards by which trappist beers are brewed, there are only seven offical trappist breweries today, and St. Bernardus is no longer considered to be a true trappist beer. While I don't exacly understand the criteria of what makes a trappist beer, St. Bernardus is definitely a great example of what a Belgian style ale should taste like. St. Bernardus pours a rich, golden color and has a supple white head. Some of the trappist or trappist-esque Belgian beers that I've tried in the past have had up to a 10% alcohol volume which makes them especially bitter and sometimes unpleasant. St. Bernardus lacked the strong sting of alcohol found in many top fermented Belgian beers, and I found it pretty smooth and easy to drink. St. Bernardus reminded me a lot of a beer that I had only a few weeks ago called Maredsous 10 in terms of taste, but for my money St. Bernardus is the superior brew. It's probably a good thing that they don't offer St. Bernardus on tap at my local Belgian themed bar Brussels, because I could see myself spending a lot of my hard earned money on this one. Check it out for yourself if you can find it somewhere near you.
Op uw gezondheid and A votre sante!
Ian
http://www.sintbernardus.be
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