Westvleteren

A few years ago, the foundations of the Abbey of St. Sixtus of Westvleteren were classified as structurally unsound, which meant a change of lifestyle for the 29 Trappist monks (average age 54) living and working at the Abbey. Four of them have been brewing the Abbey's own special beer  - Westvleteren 12 - while eleven more are involved in the bottling process, and that’s been going on that way for as long as anyone can remember.

They've been doing this just to sustain themselves over the years, like in other Trappist monasteries, but since they've needed to raise money for repairing the Abbey's foundations, they've been bending the Benedictine rules somewhat and brewing an additional batch every month. Since September 2010, then, the monks have been busy creating 163,000 gift packs of Westvleteren 12 - of which 93,000 were snapped up instantly by Belgian beer lovers. That's the local gift packs gone, then.

But what happens if you fancy a bottle or six of non-gift-pack Westvleteren 12?  Ah, that's where Belgium's own peculiar knack for finding the most complicated way of doing things comes to the fore: you can't just waltz into the Abbey waving a handful of Euros.  Oh, no.  That would be too easy.  No, first off, you have to be one of hundreds of people dialling and re-dialling the monastery's phone number to start with.  Persistence will, at some point, pay off - but it might take a while.

Assuming you get through to the Abbey, you then have to give them your phone number - or even license plate number - for identification purposes, and then arrange an appointment to pick up however many bottles you're lucky enough to have been allocated.

At which point, you'd better hope you've been allocated more than just a few, because you're not going to be allowed to return to the Abbey for another consignment for at least sixty days.

Or you could try your luck tracking down those remaining gift packs for sale outside Belgium - we're told quite a few of those seventy thousand packs are making their way to Canada.  On the other hand, there are hundreds of other fine, complex Belgian beers available for sampling either in Belgium … or even from selected outlets here in the UK. Having them available at Belgique saves somewhat on airfares, doesn’t it?

There are only seven trappist breweries left in the world - six of them are in Belgium, the other one is in Holland. To call it a Trappist beer it actually must be brewed by the monks, in the abbey and by traditional methods and recipes. The Trappist beers that Belgique serve in our restaurants are the real deal and luckily for you, they are available to buy online at www.Belgique.co.uk!