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REAL Monastery Breweries in Germany

Posted by Fred Waltman on 2006-09-26 11:01:47

Well, it depends on your definition of "Real Monastary Brewery" :) In Belgium all of the "Trappist Breweries" (except for Westvleteren) use secular workers to do the actual brewing. The breweries are on the abbey grounds and a monk may walk thru from time to time, but the "brewing" is done by lay workers. As far as I know Andechs is the same. I would guess Weltenburg is the same. My understanding of Neuzeller (and I could very well be wrong here) is that is is a commercial company that rents space from the monastery -- sort of like Val-Dieu in Belgium. The Alte Klosterbrauerei Vierzehnheiligen also secular but at an abbey. Franconia has a monastic brewery -- Klosterbrauerei Kreuzberg. It is owned and run by a Franciscan order, but I don't know if monks actually do the day to day work. There are other breweries that claim to be associated with monks, but I don't know if monks brew the beer, for example, Klosterbrauerei Scheyern and even a Cisterisan abbey at Marienstatt. There is even a convent brewery (see a picture of a brewing sister at http://www.mallersdorfer-schwestern.de/mutterhaus/alltag.htm ) though the article says she has male assistants. There are a couple more breweries with monastic connections but the names escape me at the momement.

REAL Monastery Breweries in Germany by JosB on 2006-09-26 12:45:52

REAL Monastery Breweries in Germany by Treinjan on 2006-09-27 03:58:49

REAL Monastery Breweries in Germany by Eric on 2006-09-27 03:21:14