Hallelujah! Belgian monks can sell their beer again

Hallelujah! Belgian monks can sell their beer again

Belgian Trappist monks who brew one of the world's most coveted beers have reopened for business after a two-month break, though COVID-19 restrictions mean it's not exactly business as usual yet.

Matthew Larotonda reports.

It’s one of the rarest beers in the world, and finally the monks who brew it can start selling it again.

This is the Saint-Sixtus monastery in Belgium.

Like the rest of the world, they’ve been on a bit of a break for the last few months.

No more.

One of the monks, Brother Godfried, tells us it’s not exactly business as usual though.

"First and foremost, we work by appointment so we can control the flow of the number of people who come here.

There's also signs asking people to stay in their car and not walk around.

Also, we've put in a red traffic light so that there's only one or two people where the transaction takes place and they can keep enough distance.

There's also plexiglass installed, and there is (disinfecting) gel everywhere." "Of course, the picture is a bit distorted because at the moment, we can only sell on the Belgian market because the borders are closed.

This beer normally enjoys a certain international interest, and those foreign customers are not allowed to come here at the moment." Brother Godfried says that despite the limited reopening, they're already seeing a huge boom in demand.

Over 5,000 people have made new accounts with them in just the last few days.

They only had 30,000 to begin with.

In case you were wondering: The monks at Saint-Sixtus only brew in small batches to keep their profits low, keeping with the monastic lifestyle.

Is it worth it?

This customer thinks so: "For me, it was very important because it was actually the first opportunity to do a real kind of trip again, to have a reason to come out again.

So that's why I took the time to drive from my hometown to here, which was almost two hours."