St. Bernardus Becomes Its Own Beer Brand

In 1992, the license agreement between Saint-Sixtus Abbey at Westvleteren and the brewery in Watou expired for good. St. Bernardus had brewed and commercialized the abbey’s beers under license from 1946 to 1992, but the Trappist breweries decided that the Authentic Trappist Beer label should be reserved for beers brewed within monastery walls. After the agreement ended, the beers from Watou continued under the St. Bernardus name. The change separated St. Bernardus from the Trappist designation while preserving a direct historical link to the licensed Westvleteren production era. The brewery’s labels also moved away from explicitly monastic imagery, reflecting the new distinction between St. Bernardus as an independent abbey-style beer brand and Westvleteren as a Trappist beer brewed at Saint-Sixtus Abbey.