Today we completed our trip to Tilburg by visiting the site that put the city on our map. Just outside Tilburg is another Abbey brewery. The Brouwerij de Koningshoeven brews beer under the trademark La Trappe. When we were looking for a place to settle for Easter we picked Tilburg because of the Abbey brewery.
The brewery is relatively young. The Abbey was founded by French Monks who moved to the Netherlands in the 1880’s. They took over an abandoned royal hunting lodge. To help sustain the Abbey they began brewing beer. The beer caught on and turned into the major source of income for the monastery.
To be designated as an Abbey beer the production must meet three criteria. The beer must be produced on the ground of the Abbey. The beer must be produced by or supervised by a monk. And any profits from the beer must be given to charity.
The problem is that the number of monks is dwindling every year. At Konigshoeven there were 180 monks in the 1950’s. Today there are 18, and the average age is 66. The youngest monk is 35. Several other abbey breweries have lost their designation because they no longer had a monk on site due to death and retirement.
They produce 1 million liters of La Trappe beer per year which is a lot of beers for 18 monks. Today most of the work is done by non-monks. They also have a tie in with a corporation that causes some discomfort for purists.
At the end we were treated to a taste of the beer and it was delicious. Later in the day we did a comparison of the beer from here with a bottle we had from the Abbey we visited in Belgium. They were both delicious, and unique.
After the tour we finally started heading east and ended our day in Maastricht Netherlands, near the German (and Belgian) border. The afternoon was spent taking care of laundry which always makes us happy.