St Bernardus

The Saint-Bernardus is a Bière of brewed abbey with Watou in Belgium

History

As its name does not indicate it, Saint-Bernardus is not brewed by an abbey, but by the brewery St Bernard in Watou. Ceepndant, its history is related to that of the monastery Trappist St Sixtus with Westvleteren in Flanders-Western.

At the end of the 19th century a wave of anticlericalism broke on France: the abbeys were threatened of closing. The Abbot of the Abbaye of the Mount of Cats sought refuge with Watou in Belgium in a farm which they called Refuge Notre Dame of St Bernard (here is the origin of the name “St Bernardus”). To provide for their needs the monks manufactured cheese.

In 1934, any danger being isolated the monks definitively left the Notre Dame refuge of St Bernard to reinstate their Abbey. Evariste Deconinck took again the cheese dairy.

In 1945 the abbey St Sixtus decided to give up the marketing of its beers and yielded the license to Evariste Deconinck which since 1946 manufactured its cheese St Bernard the morning and with the same team, the beer St Sixtus the afternoon. This activté double was prolonged until 1959 when the cheese dairy is yielded.

In 1992 the St.Sixtus Abbey refused to prolong the contract following the decision of the Trappists abbeys not to more yield a license to thirds. Since 1992 the brewed beers with Watou are marketed under the mark St Bernardus in reference in the name of the company.

Product

After the Mixing, the Bière matures naturally for three months, before being tapped out of bottle without being filtered. One second Fermentation resulting from the addition of Sugar and Levure confers naturally to him its content of Carbonic gas and a beautiful velvety foam when it is been useful in the code of practice

The Abbaye Saint Sixtus manufactures a range of 6 beers:

St Bernardus Abt 12 : brown ale with the very fruity flavor, delicate of a major color

St Bernardus Prior 8 : beer of high fermentation, fermented out of bottle, with the fruity taste, malt and hop, foams creamy…

St Bernardus Lord's Prayer 6 : beer of color sweet chestnut of high fermentation

St Bernardus Tripel : beer of high fermentation, amber color gilded, powerful flavor, marrowy, with malt and the hop

St Bernardus White : traditional white beer

Watou Tripel : beer with the soft flavor and the discrete bitterness, malt and hop, fruity savor with sweet orange

Beer of the caves : beer with double fermentation and high refermentée

Bond

Abbey Saint Sixtus
Brewery Saint Bernardus
To locate the village of Watou in Belgium on viamichelin

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