Spencer Brewery Ceases Brewing

On May 14, 2022, the monks of Saint Joseph’s Abbey in Spencer, Massachusetts, announced that Spencer Brewery would close. The abbey said that, after more than a year of consultation and consideration, brewing was no longer a viable industry for the community. The closure ended the first and only American Trappist brewery less than a decade after Spencer had received the Authentic Trappist Product designation. It also reduced the small global circle of official Trappist beer producers and showed how vulnerable the Trappist brewing model can be when monastic scale, market demand, and economic sustainability no longer align.