Westmalle Starts To Sell Beer At The Abbey Gate

In 1856, the monks of Westmalle began selling beer to the public in very small quantities directly from the abbey. This marked a change from the brewery’s first two decades, when Westmalle beer had been brewed primarily for the monks’ own consumption and for monastic hospitality. The start of gate sales did not yet make Westmalle a fully commercial brewery in the modern sense. It was an early public-facing step in a longer development: demand gradually increased, the brewery was expanded in the 1860s, and wider sales through beer merchants came only in the 20th century. The 1856 gate sales show how Westmalle’s monastic brewing gradually moved from internal use toward the broader beer culture that later made the abbey one of the defining names of Trappist beer.