America's Newest Monastic Brewery Opens in Oregon

Why?

 

Great article once again @Keene . After cancelling plans, guess I'm gonna have to re-plan on going to Mount Angel Oktoberfest this weekend.

I hope.

 

And hopefully report back here and in NBS?

 

I was going to post along these lines but you said it so well I won't. I agree and would only add the profits from beer sales go to the Monastery and not into the Monk's pockets. That's not something other craft brewers can say.

 

If it's not too late to convince the better half (again), absofrigginlutely!

 

Well, you can always explain that they have facilities where folks can go to spend a quiet few days away from the demands and cares of the world and it might be worth checking those out (and visit the gift shop).

Edit: You might need to double check, but I think meals are included in the price of the room. (If she's like my wife that will be attractive. )

 

I think that's a good plan. Monks are good day care providers too, right?

 

Don't know about day care, but check out my edit above.... Not having to cook allows much more time to spend with children, etc.

 

O

This is an important point that I forgot to bring up. There are a decent amount of non-monks brewing these beers

But, the lay brewers who help in production, aren’t exactly your everyday brewery joe shmo hipster brewers. The doc showed them eating meals and attending mass with the monks. They are dudes who clearly have ideologies that line up with the monks, even if they don’t take the vows.

If anyone has any interest in these beers/breweries, I would strongly recommend the book ‘Brew Like a Monk’. I know @EvenMoreJesus is familiar with it. Great book, even if you aren’t a brewer. Stan can really paint a picture...

 

Good info

Thanks for spelling it out like that.

Still having a time wrapping my head around the Trappist piece. You brew beer. If it’s good it will sell. Never had Spencer and at the price it sells for I probably won’t. Would people pay the premium price for Spencer if it was just a beer made by Sierra Nevada or sone local and not touted as Trappist?

Either way I’m ok. The beer sounds good and having more good beer is never a bad thing.

Enjoy

 

Because.

 

Thanks!

No need to add anything more, someone else already provided a useful answer.

 

Ask a stupid question . . .

 

Well, except for the ones with corporate or private-equity ownership, where the profits go "up" and by-pass the actual brewers' and other brewery workers' pockets...

 

The monks still don't get paid which was my point. Their work is it's own reward and their commitment to it genuine.

 

That's an excellent point, one with which I can not argue.

I guess my point would be that some of the monastic breweries do take the spirituality aspect of creating an excellent product very seriously. And many take the tradition of brewing very seriously. Even if one or many of their brewers are not actual monks, the monastery itself still plays a vital role in every aspect of the operation. Does that play a factor in the quality of the beer? Honestly it may or may not, but considering some of the great monastic brews out there, I'd like to believe that it does.

 

Well, as a friend of my used to say, "If you ask a stupid question you look stupid for 5 minutes. If you don't ask, you stay stupid for the rest of your life."

 

No argument here at all. Just pointing out that a layperson's "spiritual responsibility" might be slightly different than that of a monk's.