 Abbey
beers are generally brewed under license by a
commercial brewery, using the name and recipes of an abbey that has
ceased brewing itself. Very few of them are actually made within the
walls of a monastery, and the brewery is often far from the
abbey that gives its name to the beer they produce. Some "abbey" beers
are
even simply named after an abbey ruin or local saint without any
connection with an existing monastic order.
Nevertheless, many of these
Abbey beers are of very high quality.
Like
Trappist beer, abbey beer designates a traditional segment and refer to
old receipes and methods of brewing, rather than a single style of
beer. |
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Under a typical
abbey beer brand there is usually a range
of several beers, with blonde and brown versions of various
strengths, "dubbel" and "tripel" styles.
> Dubbel are brown beers brewed with twice as much malt as would
be
needed for a 'regular' brew. Generally brewed with added candi
sugar and
sometimes spices.
> Tripel refer to beers brewed with roughly three times the
quantity
of malt used for a regular brew. Candi sugar is also added during
brewing. These beers are generally blond, they are unfiltered and
submitted to
a hird fermentation in the bottle.
 Because
the denomination of "Abbey beer" has been
widely used for
marketing purposes, sometimes by breweries not related to any existing
abbey, the Union of Belgian Breweries has introduced the label
'Certified Belgian Abbey Beer'.
>Trappist |
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