Abbaye St. Benedictus de Achel

The Monastery of Our Lady of San Benedetto is located in the Belgian Limburg, 20 km from Eindhoven, mail to just over the border between Belgium and the Netherlands. Situated close to the Belgian village of Hamont, the small village of Achel sees his monastery (AchelseKluis “the rest / shelter Achel”) rise on the banks of the river Tongelreep. The monastery is “born” in 1854 officially, but there is information that already existed in 1656 in the area of Achel a place of prayer and meditation. The “hero” of birth (or rebirth) is the Abbey of Westmalle, who sends in the region some monks, the intent of creating a stable place of a Cistercian presence. Work began in 1846 and end, in fact, in 1854. The history of the monastery is not subject to shocks initially, and unfolded quietly until the early Twentieth century. It becomes, however, somewhat troubled Between the two world wars. In 1917, the fact monks are forced to leave the monastery and the brewery was dismantled by the Germans in 1943 the monks again suffer the same fate, as they have again leave their “home”, to be able to return only after the war, in 1946. And ‘the year of ultimately rebirth and reconstruction, with works that make the monastery of Our Lady of St Benedict of Achel, to date, one of the most solemn Benedictine architecture in Europe. The construction of the brewery started to Achel after the necessary state authorization, arrived by Royal Decree of 12 July 1850. The construction ends after two years with the creation of malting. The first work is the first mastrobirraio are lay people from outside the monastery, so as the raw materials: water for production, for example, was funneled to the monastery by a underground pipes, which withdrew from the nearby river Tongelreep. The production arrives without shock to the First World War and then in 1917 the German troops occupying dismantling the production facilities and copper kettles to convert raw materials to be used later to produce of war. Are still detectable in the archives of the monastic community documents that prove the requisition and dismantling of the plant by the total weight of 725 kilograms, which were then Vivegnis transported in the province of Liege. Only in the early ’90s, the monastery decided to revive the domestic beer production: the “rebirth” is to the technical contributions of Father Thomas ed’esperienza first abbey of Westmalle and father Antoine de Rochefort, both valiant mastribirrai, which direct and stabilize production. After several experiments, currently in production at Achel there are a blonde and a brunette of 8 °, a brown extra 9.5 ° (only in bottles of 0.75), and the bar connected to the abbey a blonde and a brunette 5 ° drumming.