Tilburg’s Trappist Beer – Brewed by Brothers Drank by Sisters

TILBURG Trappist beers brewed in monasteries are most often associated with Belgium. And rightly so, as the country is the world’s largest producer of them. However, Trappist beers are also brewed elsewhere. In the Netherlands, two monasteries produce Trappist beer. The older and larger of the two is located in Tilburg, in the southern part of the country.
If you love to travel for craft beer, get trapped by Trappist beer in Tilburg!

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If you prefer to read in Finnish, continue here / Jos luet mieluummin suomeksi, jatka tänne: Tilburgin trappistioluet Mikkolan siskosten seurassa

Tilburg’s Trappist Beer brewed by Cistercians

When Tanja’s sister left to continue her studies in Tilburg, we informed her that we would visit her. She has studied in several countries around Europe, and we have taken full advantage of the opportunity to visit every one of her student cities.
In the spring of 2015, it was time to head to the southern Netherlands, to North Brabant, an area previously unknown to me. From Tilburg, it’s only about ten kilometres to the Belgian border.

The Netherlands may be a small country, but even here there are clear regional cultural differences, local cuisines, and, of course, local beers. Tilburg’s speciality is La Trappe Trappist beer, brewed by Brouwerij de Koningshoeven, founded in 1884. They have five different varieties of La Trappe in total.
Unlike many other traditional beers, Trappist beer is brewed by monks, not nuns, but at least I drink it with sisters.

You don’t have to trek out to the monastery outside the city to enjoy them. We had planned to do so, but in the end our schedule didn’t allow it. So instead, we sample Tilburg’s Trappist beers in the city’s pubs and bars.
Price is no obstacle. In a supermarket, a pack of four 0.33-litre bottles of 8,0 % strong Tripel can be found for 7,99 euros.

You Can’t Get a Pint of Trappist Beer

Trappist beers, more specifically Belgian Chimay, first became available in Finland in beer bars in the mid-1990s. I tasted my first Chimay at a beer pub in Turku. At the time, many other beer drinkers and I thought of Trappist beers, and probably Trappist monks too, as distinctly Belgian.

In fact, the first Trappist monastery was the La Trappe Cistercian monastery in France.

In 1664, its abbot concluded that the Cistercian order had become too liberal and decided to follow a stricter rule in his own monastery. Central to this was the concept of self-sufficiency, which also applied to the monks’ staple beverage and crucial source of nourishment: beer.

Beer had been brewed in monasteries since the Middle Ages, but in Trappist monasteries, it became an essential part of life. As the Trappists spread both within France and beyond its borders, breweries were always established alongside the monasteries.

Over time, the Trappists themselves relaxed their strictness, except when it came to beer. In 1967, eight monasteries founded the International Trappist Association (ITA), whose task is to oversee the production of Trappist beer. Koningshoeven was one of the founding members.

According to the rules, the beer must be brewed within the monastery, and the monks must either brew it themselves or at least supervise the process. Brewing must not be the monastery’s main occupation, and profits must be used to maintain the monastery and for charitable purposes.

Trappist beers are top-fermented and undergo secondary fermentation in the bottle. For that reason, they are sold exclusively in bottles, and you won’t find them on tap.

Dubbel Beer – Triple glasses

But enough dry facts, my mouth is starting to feel dry. Time to taste some beer!

We’ve travelled straight from Amsterdam’s airport to Tilburg by train and settled into Tanja’s sister’s student apartment, on the sofa and the floor. Hunger and thirst are already setting in, so we don’t waste time indoors and head straight out.

Tilburg is a city of over 200,000 inhabitants and was first mentioned as early as 709. City rights took another 1,100 years to arrive. The town gained a reputation for its textile industry, but today it’s predominantly a student city with around 25,000 people studying at the university and other institutions.

In early April, terrace season is already underway in Tilburg, so we enjoy our first drinks in warm sunshine. To be honest, the Mikkola sisters celebrate the reunion with sparkling wine and leave Tilburg’s Trappist beers to me, at least for now.

I humbly accept the burden of mine and start boldly with a Dubbel (7%). With these percentages, one has to carry the load carefully to avoid ending up under the table.

That won’t happen today, though. We’re not planning a late night, indoors or out. The following morning we’ll be heading to the southernmost corner of the Netherlands, to Maastricht, famous for the EU treaty signed there and named by it.

A Quick Trip South and Old Friends

Once again, we board a train, this time the three of us together. Maastricht lies along the River Maas, on a narrow strip right by the Belgian border, as Tanja had previously discovered to her frustration. Germany’s ancient coronation city, Aachen, is less than twenty kilometres away.

The day passes pleasantly, wandering Maastricht’s medieval streets. On the way back, we stop in Eindhoven. Tanja’s sister first became acquainted with the Netherlands and the Dutch language as a teenage exchange student here, living with Josje and Jolanda. We meet these women on a terrace along the main shopping street.

The evening flies by. There’s plenty to talk about, past and present alike, fortunately in English, not Dutch.
The football team PSV Eindhoven is playing a match at the same time, which is evident without even glancing at the terrace TVs. You can hear a PSV goal the moment it’s scored.

The last train of the evening takes us back to Tilburg, and sleep calls the travellers.

Percentages and Atmosphere on the Rise

The next day, after a late breakfast, we head out to explore the city and sample more of Tilburg’s Trappist beers, and a few others as well.

Along the canal that cuts through the city, we find a pub terrace where the waiter brings us, at our request, La Trappist Blonde brewed with monastic devotion within monastery walls. As the evening cools, we move on to an eight-per-cent Tripel.

With these alcohol levels, we’re in dangerous waters. So we leave the water behind — mainly because of the chilly spring evening — and move indoors to a cosy pub.

If you’ve ever wondered what a truly atmospheric Dutch café looks like, it might be this: dark wooden furniture, wooden floors, friendly service, regulars at the bar, and a friendly dog stationed in the middle of the room.

Here I dare to try the 10-per cent Quadrupel. The alcohol content is already quite intense for a beer, but thanks to its balance and full body, the alcohol doesn’t overpower the flavour. It doesn’t do that in the brewery’s milder beers either.

The sisters have been drinking wine, though they’ve taken small sips from the edge of my beer glass. Both like beer, but their stomachs are less enthusiastic about it.

We move from the canal back toward the city centre. At the next pub, the selection includes a heavily hopped IPA to Tanja’s taste, so she decides to toughen up her stomach and orders a beer.

At the Heart of Dutch Winter Sports

We meet Dutch friends of Tanja’s sister, and the cultural differences between regions of the Netherlands come up in conversation.
Tilburg is where Sami Hyypiä, one of Finland’s most successful professional footballers and a long-time Liverpool FC defender, began his career. 
“Football isn’t anyhow our sport number one”, one of the friends reminds us. “Tilburg is the ice hockey capital of the Netherlands!”

I hadn’t considered that option, to be honest. Tilburg Trappers is indeed very popular locally. Being the centre of Dutch ice hockey means that the club, founded in 1938, has played in Germany’s third-tier Oberliga since 2015. Its amateur team competes in the top combined league of the Netherlands and Belgium.
The club has won the Dutch championship fourteen times and the German Oberliga three times.

If the Netherlands and winter sports sound like a strange combination, it’s worth remembering that the country is a speed skating powerhouse. In the past, recreational skating along frozen canals was a hugely popular pastime.