ROCHEFORT (ABBAYE NOTRE-DAME DE SAINT-REMY DE)

Rochefort 6, Rochefort 8, Rochefort 10

Here, Trappist beer is available in three versions, all of them are admirable. If the 10 is the most famous, the 6 is the rarest because it is distributed more locally. Between the two, a 8 which is the most common of the trilogy.

The strong growth of the request, boosted by the success of Belgian beers abroad, made the production double in five years of time, to reach approximately 35,000 hectolitres in 2013. The brewery remains however an ancillary activity for monks who must devote the major part of their time to reflection and prayer. Moreover, the Father Abbot strongly insists on the fact that Notre-Dame de Saint Rémy Abbaye is first of all a whole monastery whose one of the activities is beer brewing. Nevertheless, the whole production line continues to be ensured inside the abbey, including the bottling. In this monastery many times destroyed then rebuilt with the same heat, the walls sheltered until the 15th century... the nuns. These latter, undoubtedly considering the task too difficult, trasferred their abbey to monks who gave Rochefort a reputation unceasingly growing. Certain traces found within the monastery affirm that the monks really manufactured "Rochefort" in the 16th century. Far from the bustle of the modern life, the monks have exerted their brewery know-how since that time, almost without major modification. The access to the Cistercian site, of an impressive majesty, is still worthy of a way of cross for the common run of laypersons. The church, contrary to the brewery, is accessible but for the prayer and meditation; it is not a museum.