Patricia Stoltey

Author

B is for Belgian Trappist Beer

By:

My husband and I had the pleasure for visiting old friends in Belgium a few years ago. This is when we first tasted the incredibly rich and intoxicating beers brewed in a few of the Trappist monasteries there. Our friends served Chimay.

From our friends’ home in Wavre, we took a long drive that included parts of Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg, Germany, and France. We visited one of the monasteries and participated in another tasting.

But no matter how many times I might have been told the alcohol content of these beers, I never thought of them as being any different than any other brew…until the evening we spent in Dinant, a town between a rock and a wet place (the River Meuse). We checked into a quaint hotel, then headed out for dinner. On the way back to the hotel we stopped at a pub. Our drink of choice that evening was the beer from the Rochefort Trappist Monastery.

When we returned to our hotel that evening, I made my usual entries in my travel journal and then collapsed on the bed, almost giving myself a concussion. The bed was as hard as a rock. I suspect the mattress was made of straw packed solid from years of supporting hefty tourists. It didn’t matter. I was snoring in minutes.

The next morning, I pulled out my travel journal to make a few more notes, and found the last entry was illegible, the incoherent ramblings in written form from one more victim of ignorance and over-indulgence.

The beers from the Belgian Trappist Monasteries are delicious, and they’re available at most wine shops and liquor stores. Just be careful. They really are more potent than your favorite micro-brew.

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Comments

  1. Just stopped by as part of my a-z tour. I don’t drink myself, but this sounds like great advice to use against some of my friends. lol.

  2. Great story and since I have never been there, was very interesting for me. Your blog is beautiful. I especially like the hummingbirds in the background. I will be following you in the A-Z.

  9. LOL What a story. I guess alcohol content is something to pay attention to … 😉

    Thanks for stopping by Ramblings & More and following me. I’m following you, too! 🙂

  16. Hi Patricia .. don’t think I’ve ever had a Belgian Trappist Beer … and suspect like you I’d be in a heap .. but bet one is a good taster .. thanks for the little tour – fun .. cheers Hilary

  20. Sometimes I forget to count my blessings for having wireless at home…all week I’ll be on dial-up and it takes about four times as long to move from one screen to another. I hope everyone will forgive me for a slow start. I promise to catch up with more visits and follows and comments starting April 9th.

  23. Sounds like a very good drink. I actually have something like that in my story, even though I never thought to base it on real life.

    😀

  29. Hey, Patricia, I enjoyed your posting today, as always, and thanks for visiting my blog so regularly and for your emotional support to me. When my husband and I were in Germany in 1988 visiting with our daughter and son-in-law in the US Air Force, we had supper with their German landlord and he served Schnapps after supper. My husband was a tee-totaller and would not touch alcohol of any kind, but I had the small drink, and found it quite interesting. Thank you. I’ll bet you had a really great time. OOPS this is becoming an epistle. Bye. Ruby

  30. Pat – I didn’t know that about those beers! Interesting…. And what a great choice for the letter “B.” I am glad you had a wonderful trip to Belgium, too :-).

  31. Wow. I pretty much stay clear from alcoholic beverages of all sorts, but this is great to know in case I ever need something to knock out one of my characters in a hurry!