In Holland to discover La Trappe
The Onze Lieve Vrouw Abbey of Konigshoeven in Holland has the logo “authentic trappist product”.
Historical outlines
The history of the abbey started at the end of the XIX century when the abbot of the Trappist French monastery of Saint-Marie-du-Mont in Mont-des-Cats decided to move the monks to the Netherlands in an area around Tilburg called Koningshoeven (the garden of the King). The Abbey was founded in 1884 and 10 years later it could count more then 200 monks and an active brewery.
The Abbot Nivard Scherykart, son of a producer of beer, decided to start to brew a high fermentation type of beer.
Since 1891 they started to sell the product also outside the Abbey.
Today, the economy and the survival of the Abbey depends on the selling of beer, together with the production of a special malted bread and other specialities made with chocolate. The best is a type of truffle called “Quatruffel”, stuffed with… beer Quadruppel!
The beers La Trappe
The beers with the brand “La Trappe” are produced according to the traditional method, following the recipe of the Trappist monks of Konigshoeven that foresees the use or natural ingredients like malted barley, leaven and hop. Water to produce beer is extracted by five wells, 200 m deep.
Beer is bottled adding yeast and sugar, that allow the fermentation process to continue after the bottling.
La Trappe beer is produced in different versions:
- La Trappe Blond, alcoholic volume of 6.5% vol., fruit beer with a malted aftertaste and a gold colour;
- La Trappe Dubbel, amber beer with caramel notes with alcoholic volume of 7% vol.;
- La Trappe Tripel, a beer with a full-body, bitter with an alcoholic volume of 8% vol.;
- La Trappe Quadrupel, amber with an alcoholic volume of 10% vol.;
- La Trappe Witte Trappist, a white produced without adding spices, with an alcoholic volume of 5,5% vol.;
- La Trappe Bockbier, seasonal beer with an alcoholic volume of 7%;
- La Trappe Isid’or, born to celebrate the 125° anniversary of the Abbey, with alcoholic volume of 7,5% vol.;
- La Trappe PUUR, fresh Ale, quaffable and hopped with 4,7% of alcohol;
- La Trappe “Quadrupel Oak Aged” characterized by an alcoholic volume of 10% vol. and it is subjected to a ripening in wood barrels similar to those used to age whisky and other spirits.
