Best beer in the world is in limited supply

[paul]

Belgian monks are refusing to make any more beer despite selling out after it was named the world's best.

The trappist monks at Saint Sixtus monastery in Flanders are refusing to brew any more until next year. They have been producing the dark-brown Westvleteren beer, renowned for its flavour and strength, for 160 years. But stocks have been exhausted by unprecedented demand since www.rateBeer.com named it the best in the world.

Mark Bode, co-ordinator of the claustrum, said: "We produce only as much beer as we need to finance our little community, and not one litre more. We produce beer to live, we don't live to produce beer. Foreigners don't often understand why we don't expand production. But to us the life in the abbey is more important than the brewery."

Belgium has six Trappist beers but Westvleteren is the rarest because it has not been distributed commercially since 1941 and can be bought only at Saint Sixtus.

Paul
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[Sidesplitter]

I had a trappist beer in the porter house in Dublin. They can go from 10% up to 13/14 % and I tell you they are strong. I think its an acquired taste though as they are very wheaty.

[GregW]

[Ginirover]

It's a good point of the monks only to produce to finance their works and to stop once they have enough money.... (stand a bit up to their way of life). Ofcourse there are several other trappist beers here in Belgium and all of them are very, very nice . They are not as strong as Sidesplitter said though ! Usualy they are about 8° alcohol, with some going to about 10 ° (which is ofcourse still a lot more than the usual 5° of a 'normal' beer). And yes, we've also seen these stupid high prices abroad for a beer that in Belgium is about 1 Euro for a bottle in the shop or about 2.5 Euro in a pub...

[briggl]

At least we can still get Chimay Grande Reserve - a beer from one of the other Trappist Monasteries. This is the best beer I have had, but I haven't been to Belgium, so I haven't tried the Westvleteren.
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[Ginirover]

On the news today : West-Vleteren is starting up production again and is available again by the end of the week