We often joke about dutch beers like Heineken, but at La Trappe they know what they are doing. I also was pleasently surprised with Texels Skuumkoppe. Very refreshing to drink in summer
We Belgians are very protectif of our beer culture. Sint Bernardus is not a Trappist beer. Until 1992 it was the brouwery that brouwed for the Westvleteren Trappist monastery. From 1992 on Trappist beer has to be brouwed within the walls of the monastery. So they lost there licence to call it Trappist.
Thank you for the facts! One day I will re-do this with exclusively Trappist brewers to avoid confusion. In addition it is unhelpful that globally people refer to Trappist beers as a style rather than a strict designation. Always learning! Cheers!
You could talk all night about Belgian beer and their relatives, and I would just sit here and listen 😁 I don't even need to, I have plenty of experience with them in their homeland, I just love them so much. Cheers, great review 👌
I really have a huge soft spot for them too. For me it's one of those styles I won't drink weekly or even monthly, but when the time comes, that's all that will really tickle the itch! Cheers!
Enjoyed this, thank you, but you do need to get the correct glass type for the beers (and don't tip the bottle so far) Actually visiting La Trappe in a couple of weeks for a "tasting tour" - can't wait :)
This is a subject very dear to my heart, lived in south Netherlands for 3 years and spent a lot of my time sampling the rather large selection of Trappist beers, would recommend a stay in Maastricht if you get the chance!!!🍻
Thanks for sharing. I love the Trappist style but apart from a general history didn’t actually know some of the nuances. And trying to explain to others a bit easier now!
I'm glad it helped! This video was far from comprehensive but hopefully it gives the general appreciator of the style just a little more insight. Cheers!
Good review/education of the style. I have decided to take a focused walk down the Trappist road so I came back to this video to get started. Until now, I only had the style on the occasional lark.
It's such a broad term in reality that trying to pin even the specific styles down is rather hard work, however, my experience has been just to try as many different styles from as many different breweries as possible and you'll find your sweet spot...or you'll find it's just not for you! But, at least you'll know. Cheers!
I'm drinking a La Trappe Triple as I watch this, and it is 8% abv. I've enjoyed this style before but I wanted to learn some more details as I enjoyed a bottle (or three). I have conquered the "excitable" head problem mostly, just by pouring it like I'm defusing a bomb. 🙂 Nice video, Thanks! I simply looked up Belgian beer and chose yours. I'll be watching more, for sure. I've now subscribed. Edit: Today when shopping I saw a La Trappe Quadrupel and I think that label read 12%. I will check again tomorrow. I'm in Canada, and most of these styles come in larger bottles, with corks. The St. Bernardus is the exception, and we usually only see it in small capped bottles around the Yule season.
Ah thank you! Welcome aboard! Some of our larger bottles are corked but the majority we get are the 330ml versions seen here. We don't get a huge number stocked in our regular stores but because shipping directly from Belgium is relatively inexpensive due to the close proximity, thankfully that allows many small independent and specialist stores to get a decent collection on offer!
@@TheCrumbyBeard the amount of % determined the amount of X's. One X (enkel) was drawn on the weakest beers, 'tablebeer'. XX was writen on the second level 6-8% and XXX was reserved for the heavy beers 8-10%. Quad beers are quite recent and invented by la trappe in 1991 and are more a marketing thing then actual use of X's. Quad beers are actually more a kind of barleywine then a proper beer.
Both the Rochefort 8 and the Rochefort 10 are quadrupel beers that date back to the 1950's. They are my favourite beers, along with La Trappe, St Bernardus Abt, West-Vleteren 12 and Straffe Hendrik Quadrupel.
4 years shelf life, is just a suggestion. I have a small collection of beers in my cellar, that i bought over ten years ago. The only bad thing that can happen is that you lose the bubbels.... And you're pouring completely wrong......
Very true! Seeing 4-year shelf life on beers in the UK is rare as many of our craft ranges are as low as 4 months, but those of course are unpasteurised and unfiltered. Any tips on how you'd pour these styles? Every day is a school day after all! Cheers!
As much as I like the famous beer brands of Belgium, I'm very happy to buy "Belgian beer" brewed in Canada and France. 1/2 the price by the time gets to me. I can wait until my next visit and look forward to it! :p
The French stuff certainly isn't bad, and has it's own signature style which I rather enjoy - Affligem immediately springs to mind as a good French brew with a lot of Belgian flair, and always goes down well. Cheers!
"Not all Trappist brewers are singing from the same hymn sheet." 🙂 Nicely put! Have you heard the lore about the monks having to pack up and relocate a monastery/brewery, and so they carted the wooden beams of the brewhouse along with them to the new site? The idea was that so many of these beers were dependent on their specific "wild" yeast which had established itself within the very wood of the structures. True or not? Interesting story for a homebrewer (me) used to sterilizing everything and using packaged yeast.
I hadn't heard that but I can absolutely believe it! I've done a small amount of home brewing myself and likewise am fascinated by how it was traditionally done as a result. There are a couple of saison and wild ferm specialist breweries in the UK, I visited one last year and they actually filled a massive open-top stainless vat on the roof of the building with their wort for some of their specials, very different and very interesting!
Taking the wooden beams along with the brewery makes sense. I'll try to find a source for that story. I read it somewhere. Prison wine recipes can involve leaving a fruit peel out, and waiting for whatever specific yeast to invest in it ... 🙂 Apple toilet wine or Orange toilet cider? Depends on the yeast. A saucy citrus or a floral bouquet? Wow, late night mycology... ? :-)
Definition of quad for me: Predominate flavors are dried fruit like prunes or raisins, and some spice. High alcohol, low perception of alcohol. Whatever the flavor profile is, I save it as an event beer such as a replacement of dessert or something to be savored on a holiday. It's an occasion in a bottle... and delicious! My palette is not that sophisticated and does not care!!
That is an excellent way to treat these beers and often find myself doing the same. I never fancy a Quad a a beer between a few other, but one to finish off a meal is superb! Cheers!
As pointed out below St Bernardus isn't a trappist beer. The rest of the explanation is good though. Could you maybe use the right glasses next time, it's kinda important for trappist beers to be drunk from their respective glasses :)
Like everyone else I’m still learning. The glass collection is a work in progress and some quality stemmed glasses designed for Trappist styles is something I must acquire! As for the St Bernardus, I won’t make that mistake again 😂
@@TheCrumbyBeard the glasses are quite easy to find in Belgium, if you ever have a need to connect just let me know. The monks and brewers on the Westmalle brewery are very kind people aswell and will gladly give a tour inside the brewery if you know who to ask :)
@@TheCrumbyBeard see, the thing is, each beer has its own glass. So Westmalle has westmalle glasses, latrappe has latrappe glasses etc there is no 'real' universal glass. In a pinch you could use a glass with quite a wide opening (traditional for trappist beers) so the glass you use is kinda the opposite of a traditional trappist type glass.
Thanks for this video Bro. Since you know about beer, I was wondering if you could give me some advice since I'm very ignorant in the world of beers, because I've always drank wines. My question is, what kind of beer brand to drink in a friendly party with colleagues of different ages and genders who don't like the bitterness of normal beer and it would be better to opt for a Dubbel beer or Tripel beer or Quadrupel beer?
You’re welcome, and of course. I think the Quad may be too intense for a party situation as it’s very much a sit and consider type beer. Out of the other two it is difficult because the double is more approachable and has less hop bitterness, but some will have roasty bitterness introduced from the darker malts. Meanwhile the triple has hop bitterness but also has a lot more other flavours going on. If they don’t like “normal” beer I think the triple offers something more different, whereas the double is just a slightly sweet and stronger dark ale. Does that help?
It is not trapist style, those are trapist beerse except sint bernardus this one is in the style of, but can not cary the trapist name. You should look to west vleteren.. Onlee beers brdwed by trapist order inside the monastery are to be called trapist.
Trappist beers are brewn within a trappist monastry. So there are no trappist beers brewn all over the world. They are abby beers. About the shelf life that is untill opened. I drank trappist that was 25 years old
For a, clearly knowledgeable zytologist, you really need the correct glas... Your explanation is spot on but these tumblers you use are just wrong. Glas is special and dedicated to every Belgian beer! You have a tumbler with closed nose and all of these beers need an open challes and for sure a foot so you dont warm the beer by gripping the glas... anyway, thx for indulsing into our culture but please, if you order beers from Belgium, buy the correct glas together. Its about 3 to 6 euro for the correct glas weir and with gift boxes, you get them for, almost, free 😊
Fear not, after the comments on this video I will certainly not be making that mistake again! The glasses used here are commonplace for beer tastings as the funnel of the opening acts in a similar fashion to a Glen Cairn glass for whisky in that it can concentrate the aromas and allow you to analyse more accurately, however, as you said, it's not ideal for casual drinking due to the heat exchange when holding etc. I'm very pleased to see how many Belgian people are so passionate about how their excellent beers are consumed. Cheers!
Ah, interesting that they don't make that massively clear from their website etc when I was researching. Thanks for the heads-up! Just shows it's even more varied and complicated to talk about these as a specific style. Cheers!
@@TheCrumbyBeardthey used to brew for West Vleteren. But the rules changed so West Vleteren is brewing a very similar beer inside the monastery. One would be very lucky to get one. You need to phone in to by, they will give you a date and hour to get a crate of beer at the monastery. They only brew what they need to pay the bills. It is not commercially available
"La Trappe" is not a belgian trappist beer (Tilburg - The Netherlands). The only 5 belgian Trappist beers are Chimay - Orval - Rochefort - Westmalle - Westvleteren
The brewery itself is in The Netherlands and I couldn't find any information to say otherwise, or that Westmalle was involved though there isn't extensive information on their ownership online that I could find. Would be great if you could share any info? Cheers!
![Trappist Beers: Dubbel vs Tripel vs Quadrupel [What’s the difference?]](/img/logo.svg){kind=logo}
