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Belgian Religious Community Restarts Beer Making After 200 Years
3 hours ago
Father Karel Stautemas and Abbot Erik taste beer after blessing beer tanks at the Belgian Abbey of Grimbergen, which returns to brewing after a break of more than 200 years with a new microbrewery in Grimbergen, Belgium May 26, 2021. (REUTERS/Yves Herman)
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The Roman Catholic religious community in Belgium known as Grimbergen Abbey says it will start making beer again after more than 200 years.
The clergy in Grimbergen have started a small
brewery making the alcoholic drinks that carry the abbey’s name.
By Philip Blenkinsop GRIMBERGEN, Belgium (Reuters) - Priests of Belgium s Grimbergen Abbey have begun brewing for the first time in more than two centuries, with a microbrewery making special editions of the mass-market beer bearing their abbey s name. The abbey, whose emblem is a phoenix with the Latin motto Ardet nec consumitur (Burned but not destroyed), was twice burned down and ransacked by French troops in 1798, ending a tradition of beer-making dating back to the 12th century. Karel Stautemas, the white-robed abbey sub-prior who is on the verge of completing brewing studies, said beer-making was a second life for Belgian abbeys and the community of 15 Norbertine canons was enthusiastic about its return. The core business was religion, but brewing was necessary because water at the moment in the Middle Ages wasn t drinkable and also it was a kind of payment, he said. The abbey, founded in 1128, has been tied to commercial brewers since 1958 when local firm Maes paid the monks to