Westmalle Brewery is a true Trappist trailblazer, an abbey with nearly two centuries of brewing history whose work has done so much to progress the cherished monastic brewing tradition. The brothers of ‘Our Lady of the Sacred Heart’, as the abbey is known, began in 1836, with only a single, low-alcohol recipe on offer for the first two decades.

The brewery uses mineral water from the abbey’s well, combined with a unique yeast strain and, unusually, a direct flame brewhouse that causes beneficial caramelisation during the brewing process.

1856 saw the introduction of the Westmalle Dubbel, perhaps the monastery’s true claim to fame. A chestnut brown beer with stunning complexity, it is considered the first of its type, a now iconic Trappist style defined by dark candy sugar, which imparts a toffee-like flavour with a surprisingly light body.

But the monks weren’t done yet. From the 1920s, Westmalle beer was sold commercially to support the monastery. In 1934 a strong pale ale Tripel was added to Westmalle’s lineup, another much-imitated beer which has defined its own style and taken its place as another undisputed world classic.

The monk’s first priory was founded in 1794 at a farm named ‘Nooit Rust’, or ‘Never Rest’, a moniker that perfectly encapsulates Westmalle’s innovative spirit.