In what qualifies as really big news in the American craft beer industry, California’s Sierra Nevada Beer Co. announced last week that it would partner with a local monastery to create the only authentic Trappist-style abbey ales in America.

The collaboration with the Trappist-Cistercian Abbey of New Clairvaux in Vina, Calif., will produce three ales beginning next year, said Sierra Nevada’s founder, Ken Grossman.

“This is something we’ve been working on with the monks for a number of months,” said Grossman in a recent telephone interview.

According to the brewery:  “This series of three Belgian-style abbey ales is made in accordance with the centuries-old tradition of the monks. Each beer will be only be available for a limited time and will rotate through the seasons. The first beer in the series, scheduled for release in March, will be a Belgian-style Dubbel brewed with authentic Trappist yeast. The second beer in the series, scheduled for release in July, will be a Saison, the traditional Belgian-style farmhouse ale made in honor of the Monk’s dedication to labor in the fields surrounding their abbey. The third will be released in time for the holidays. It will be a Trappist-style Quadrupel rich with dark fruit flavors and the unique wine-like characters of these strong Abbey ales.”

Grossman said the ales would be released in 750ml cage and cork bottles, using the special bottling line the brewery installed earlier this year to package their 30th Anniversary collaboration series.

“We’ll start doing test brews in the coming months and take a trip to Belgium for research,” said Grossman. Right now, he said the brewery was committed to three beers with the monks. “We’ll see how it goes for 2012.”

The brewery said proceeds from the beers will benefit the monks of the Abbey of New Clairvaux “in their efforts to rebuild an architectural marvel – a 12th century, early-gothic Cistercian chapter house.” The medieval chapterhouse, Santa Maria de Ovila, was founded in 1190 near the village of Trillo, Spain.

According to a release from Sierra Nevada, “Cistercian monks lived, prayed, and worked there for nearly 800 years. In 1931, California newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst purchased the abbey and shipped it to Northern California. Hearst’s plans were never realized, and the stones fell into disrepair. In 1994, the Trappist-Cistercian monks of the Abbey of New Clairvaux, gained possession of the ruins, and began the painstaking stone-by-stone reconstruction of the historic abbey.”

-- by John Holl

John Holl writes about craft beer and the culture of drinking. He may be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .