Advent Calendar 1/24 - Rochefort Extra Beer

Hello Hello,

Welcome to the 6th edition of the beercrush Advent calendar.

To start the festivities, we chose a beer known to everyone and almost no one.

Indeed, everyone knows the dark beers of Rocherfort, the 6, the 8 and the 10. But who knows that a new blond beer came out of the brewery's vats 3 years ago already?

And who has already had the opportunity to taste it? It's done for you this evening.

Rochefort Triple Extra is therefore a triple style blonde beer brewed by the monks of the Trappist abbey of Rochefort in Namurois.

It is in fact a renaissance because the brewery was already producing a strong blond beer in the 1920s. Its lifespan was short, only 3 years. But today the tastes of beer lovers have evolved and lager beers have clearly won the battle.

Its success is such that it inspired another Trappist abbey to release its own Extra, the Trappist Abbey of Westmalle.

Trappist beers are quality abbey beers. They are produced by the lesses or under their supervision within the walls of the abbey. They are clearly different from other abbey beers which only have the name, purchased by the brewery which produces it from an existing or former abbey but which has no specific link with it other than from itself. pay royalties each year for the use of its name.

The majority of Trappist beers are Belgian but there are also Trappist beers in the United States, Italy and the Netherlands, Austria, France and England.

In Belgium, there are 5 Trappist breweries left since the monks of Achel Abbey moved:

- Orval
- Westvletteren
- Chimay
- Orval
- Rochefort

Chimay beers are those produced in the largest quantities (200,000 hectoliters per year) while Orval and especially Westvletteren beers are sold in limited quantities and are more difficult to find.

Photo credit: (c) Guy Focant