Belgian monks run out of the world's best beer

[Ben W]

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Monks at a Belgian abbey have been forced to stop selling their famous beer after it was voted the best in the world and was promptly sold out.

The abbey of Saint Sixtus of Westvleteren in western Belgium is home to some 30 Cistercian and Trappist monks who lead a life of seclusion, prayer, manual labour -- and beer-brewing.

A survey of thousands of beer enthusiasts from 65 countries on the RateBeer Web site (www.ratebeer.com) in June rated the Westvleteren 12 beer as the world's best.

But the abbey only has a limited brewing capacity, and was not able to cope with the beer's sudden popularity.

"Our shop is closed because all our beer has been sold out," said a message on the abbey's answering machine, which it calls the "beer phone".

And the abbey has no intention of boosting its capacity to satisfy market demand.

"We are not brewers, we are monks. We brew beer to be able to afford being monks," the father abbot said on the abbey's Web site.

Monk Mark Bode told De Morgen daily: "Outsiders don't understand why we are not raising production. But for us life in the abbey comes first, not the brewery."

http://snipurl.com/gyb7

 

[mioque]

Here is the english-language website of the abbey.
http://www.sintsixtus.be/eng/index2.html

 

[mioque]

I apologize, I just have to do this...

In Heaven there's no beer, that's why we drink it here! - old Flemish proverb

 

[Matt Black]

It's not so much that they've run out of beer; it's just that they're unwilling to increase production to meet demand.

I prefer Hoegaarden but the stuff gives me a headache nowadays.

Yours in Christ

Matt

 

[Rachel]

Now that's funny!

They shouldn't have let the cat out of the bag. Now they will have to supplement with a different beer.

 

[mioque]

I don't drink beer myself, but I've heard nothing but praise about Hoegaarden.

Rachel
They have a dramatically different worldview than you (and most other people on this board) have. They don't care about filling orders. They brew beer to supplement their income and nothing more. They discovered probably to their own surprise that they brew the best beer in the world. That's nice. Archieving excellence in any work you do is part of being a good monk and archieving such excellence in a sense glorifies God.
Getting rich because of it is a distraction.

 

[Rachel]

I don't have a problem with people drinking if they want to. Reading that tickled me when they said, "Our shop is closed because all our beer has been sold out," said a message on the abbey's answering machine, which it calls the "beer phone". and "We are not brewers, we are monks. It just struck me funny.

I thought that was neat how they aren't trying to fill their coffers with all the money they could get. I've never heard of that beer but I bet it's tasty.

Looks like they achieved their goal of excellence.

 

[FriendofSpurgeon]

M - I love that saying. Please pardon, but I will be plagarizing.

 

[mioque]

Rachel
I agree, the whole situation is quite funny.


FriendofSpurgeon
I won't mind.