"Here’s what you can do with your Westvleteren," at LouisvilleBeer.com

Thanks for reading my twice-monthly column at LouisvilleBeer.com, and to reiterate, it is my hope to do more daily blogging there in 2013.

THE POTABLE CURMUDGEONDecember 16, 2012

Here’s what you can do with your Westvleteren

Give me that old-time religion, 

Give me that old-time religion, 

Give me that old-time religion, 

It’s good enough for me. 

The merits of old-time religion seldom are displayed to better and tastier effect than the delicious ales brewed on the premises of six Trappist monasteries in Belgium, which beer lovers typically identify by the names of the nectars they produce: Achel, Chimay, Orval, Rochefort, Westmalle and Westvleteren in Belgium, and Koningshoeven in the Netherlands.

It bears noting that earlier in 2012, Engelszell Abbey in Austria was approved as the eighth Trappist brewing monastery, but of course we’ll have no idea what to make of its beers until Rate Beer and Beer Advocate tell us exactly what to think.