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You are here: Home / Breweries / First American Trappist Brewery

First American Trappist Brewery

October 23, 2013 By Jay Brooks

spencer-trappist
While it’s been a rumor for a number of years — I first learned about it at least four years back, but like a monk was sworn to silence — finally it’s out in the public. America is getting its first officially sanctioned Trappist brewery. St. Joseph’s Abbey of Spencer, Massachusetts will be adding brewing to its daily routine, and selling under the name Spencer Brewing Co.

St_Josephs_Abbey,_Spencer_MA

The abbey was established in upstate New York in 1950, and is part of the Catholic Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance (O.C.S.O.), better known as “Trappists.” Many reports have indicated there’s 180 of them worldwide, but I count 175 at the list on the order’s official website.

trappist-preserves

The abbey already sells preserves, and has done so for a long time, since around 1954. They also sell “liturgical vestments, and run a farm” to fund the abbey. Apparently the Scourmont Abbey, which makes Chimay, is helping the monks of St. Joseph’s in some capacity, whether through education, logistical support or just consultation I’m not sure. I also know that Dann Paquette from Pretty Things had been helping out, at least in the early stages, as he’d befriended a couple of the monks there as they gathered information and were considering the project of opening a brewery. Records indicate the building for brewing will be 50,000 square feet and their goal to brew 10,000 bbl per year. The first beer will be a Pater, a type of beer made by several Belgian breweries. Here’s how the back label describes the beer:

“Inspired by traditional refectory ales brewed by monks for the monks’ table, Spencer is a full-bodied, golden-hued Trappist ale with fruity accents, a dry finish and light hop bitterness.”

The brewery website is still empty, with just a Go Daddy holding page, and there’s no word on when the beer might be available. With the now Belgian-owned Anheuser-Busch InBev, Sierra Nevada working with Ovila, Moortgat buying Boulevard Brewing, and now this, there’s going to be a lot more Belgian-inspired, and Belgian-made, beer in the U.S. in coming years. But it’s hard not to be excited about this development.

Spencer-Trappist-Ale

And the hexagonal Trappist logo is on the back label.

Spencer-Trappist-Ale-back

Filed Under: Breweries, Just For Fun, Related Pleasures Tagged With: Announcements, Massachusetts, Religion & Beer, Trappist Beer, United States



Comments

  1. Ted Fox says

    October 23, 2013 at 7:21 pm

    Having gone up to the Abbey of New Clairvau in Vina (the monastery that SNVB collaborates with) and heard what a hard time they have recruiting men to become monks, a brewing program might not be the worst recruiting tool in the world.

  2. Gary Gillman says

    October 24, 2013 at 1:19 pm

    Excellent news. I hope though the beers will have an American taste: APA or one somehow influenced by American hops. In particular, I hope the beer avoids the raisiny/yeasty taste which most Trappists have and indeed most Belgian ales have. It’s territory well-covered, perhaps too well-covered, to need a new world version (IMO).

    Gary

    • AlfredFabet says

      October 25, 2013 at 4:41 am

      Well put Gary. I couldn’t agree with you more.

    • Brendan says

      October 25, 2013 at 11:51 am

      Right.. Because the APA style isn’t overdone at all in the US. If you’re going to make a Trappist brew, make a Trappist brew. Don’t make an American brew and call it Trappist.

      • Chris says

        October 27, 2013 at 11:24 am

        There’s no such thing as a “Trappist Brew” as far as style guidelines go. The brewery should make whatever it wants.

    • Cletus says

      October 31, 2013 at 10:13 am

      The American PA/IPA has been done, done, and done again. It’s the last new beer I’d like to see added to a pretty well saturated market. Well done American belgian-inspired beers, on the other hand, are relatively few in comparison. I’d certainly welcome a few more. Especially a solid quadrupel.

  3. beerman49 says

    October 24, 2013 at 9:46 pm

    I hope their beer will be as good as their lemon marmalade (which I’ve been buying for years when I’m in the DC area; I’ve never seen it in CA), & maybe find its way out here.

  4. francesca says

    October 25, 2013 at 5:37 am

    the hexagonal logo which certifies the product as authentic and Trappist is missing from the label, anyway…

    • Jay Brooks says

      October 25, 2013 at 6:58 am

      It’s on the back label.

      • Gary Gillman says

        October 26, 2013 at 4:21 am

        IIRC, what makes beer Trappist by the definition of their association are things like production within the monastery walls, it’s not any particular production method or taste. Orval doesn’t have the taste I mentioned for example, it’s more a brett-influenced pale ale. It’s true there are a lot of APAs. But also, current American hop production allows for a variety of tastes unique to the new world. In the end, we are talking subjective taste, and I’m just saying if they make something that is a clone of a typical Belgian flavour it’s not what I (as a potential customer) want.

        Gary

  5. TJ says

    November 1, 2013 at 9:38 pm

    Orval is an excellent bret/dry hopped ale. I would like to see a good wit(single), and a decent triple. The trappist singles are usually never exported to the US. The Chimay Dorie and the Orval Petite just to name a few.

Trackbacks

  1. First American Trappist brewery fires up brewhouse in Massachusetts | BeerPulse says:
    November 21, 2013 at 9:53 am

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