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Achel brewery runs out of monks to make its beer 28th January, 2021 by Lucy Shaw
Belgian brewery Achel has lost its Authentic Trappist Product label after its final two beer-brewing monks at St Benedict’s Abbey retired without being replaced.
Achel brewery has lost its last two Trappist monks
As reported by
The Telegraph, Belgium’s Trappist beers are under threat from a shortage of sprightly new monks to replace their aged brewing brotherhood.
Belgium is the spiritual home of Trappist beers, and boasts around 100 beer-brewing Cistercian monks and six of the world’s 14 Trappist breweries.
With the majority of the monks now reaching retirement age, the sector faces a staffing shortage due to a lack of younger monks available to take their place.
The vast majority of the monks have already reached retirement age but fewer and fewer Belgians are replacing them, leading to fears the monastic order could die out. Achel is the first of the six monasteries that no longer has a living community. For the past four years there have only been two brothers, Abbot Nathanael Koninkx, of the Westmalle Abbey, told the
De Tijd newspaper. In Westmalle, there are still 27. I do not dare to say how many will still be there in 20 years time. If you can provide more vocations, please do. If there are no vocations, the monastic order disappears and so does the name. The beer can continue to exist, but no longer under the Trappist label.