I just woke up to the news that the brewery at the Abbey of Notre-Dame de Saint-Rémy, better known to the beer world as Brasserie de Rochefort, was damaged last night by a fire that swept through the abbey. Pete Slosberg forwarded me the e-mail he received from Belgian beer writer Christian Deglas, which outlined the damage.
Bad news from the Belgian beer world. Yesterday evening there [was] a great fire in the abbey of Rochefort which [was] a big disaster. The church was saved as [well as] the Bibliothèque and the rooms of the monks, but the brewery and stables are completely destroyed. The fire started in the warm reserve places. All the new material is destroyed. There are no victims or injured persons.
Normally, the production should start again in a few weeks, but I’m afraid that [at the] moment there will be a rupture of the stock.
The BBC also has the story up now, too, and they’re reporting the following:
The Trappist (Cistercian) monks were dining when fire broke out at the abbey at St Remy-Rochefort, famous for its Rochefort beer.
The building was evacuated and it took 70 firefighters to put out the blaze. It seems the blaze began near a generator being used temporarily after problems with the power supply.
Francois Bellot, mayor of Rochefort, said he was confident that it would be possible to resume beer production within a few days.
The BBC Piece, Fire damages Rochefort Trappist beer abbey in Belgium, also has a short video of the fire.