Follow Sean Inman to the best in craft beer
…is coming and I suggest you buy a bottle to celebrate earlier rather than later.
Last March, I went a’lookin’ for a bottle to pop open on the appointed day and found empty shelves at my local and at two BevMo’s.
Orval is such a fun beer and one that I should have more than once a year and you should too.
There are some books that just make you thirsty and travel the next day to Belgium. Trappist Beer Travels is just such a book.
The conceit is simple. Visit each of the Official Trappist breweries, take a bunch of photographs and get the historical record of each. Oh, and try some beer.
The three authors do a great job of concisely telling the long histories behind each of the monasteries as well as giving you the info needed about visiting. The photographs really transport your there though, finishing the seduction. There are the requisite beer glass shots but also great views of the grounds and the brewing equipment.
You could say the book is a bit pedestrian. There are some personal notes included but this book isn’t about that or long-winded beer tasting notes. It isn’t a fancy windmill dunk of a book but more of a graceful layup. Half coffee table book and half reference book.
Look like # 12 is in the works. The next Trappist brewery will be overseen by the monks of Mount St Bernard Abbey in Leicestershire.
This is still way in the early stages of planning though so don’t book travel to England just yet if you are a Trappist completist.
Monasteries in Austria, the US and Italy produce Trappist approved beer currently.