Rochefort Re-Establishes Its Trappist Brewery

In 1899, brewing was re-established at the Abbey of Notre-Dame de Saint-Rémy in Rochefort, Belgium. The abbey had a much older brewing tradition, with written records of brewing dating back to 1595, but both the abbey and its brewery had been interrupted by the upheavals of the French Revolutionary period. The renewed brewery became one of the classic Belgian Trappist breweries. Rochefort’s later identity centered on strong dark Trappist beers brewed within the abbey walls, using water drawn from inside the monastery and developing a line of beers that became closely associated with the deeper, malt-driven side of Trappist brewing.