Westmalle Monks Start To Brew

In 1836, the monastery at Westmalle was officially designated a Trappist abbey, and Abbot Martinus Dom began building a small brewery there. On December 10, 1836, the first home-brewed Westmalle Trappist beer was served with the monks’ midday meal. Westmalle describes this early beer as a light, tasty beer brewed for the monks’ own consumption. The brewery grew out of the monastic life of the abbey rather than from commercial ambitions. Westmalle’s own abbey history connects the community to Trappists who fled the French Revolution and founded the monastery at Westmalle in 1794, while later brewery history shows that beer was brewed for internal use for many years before small quantities were sold at the gate from 1856 onward. This makes 1836 a central anchor for the Trappist beer storyline and for Westmalle’s later role in the development of Belgian Trappist brewing.