From the New York Times, Monks' Brew Showers Blessings on Belgian Town.
With his billowing white beard and black and white hooded habit, Dom Armand Veilleux, a Canadian-born monk in his mid-60's, more resembles a figure from Umberto Eco's novel of monastic mystery, "The Name of the Rose," than your average brewery executive.
Yet just across a snow-dusted garden from the room where he receives visitors, a microbrewery throbs, its six huge stainless steel vats fermenting more than 13,000 gallons of beer a day.
Only five years ago, the Trappist Abbey of Our Lady of Scourmont, where Dom Armand has been abbot for almost five years, turned out 15 percent less. But these days, Belgian Trappist beers — heavy brews, often dark and with as much as 9 percent alcohol — are surging in popularity, spreading blessings on the hilly farmland around Chimay, pop. 10,000, traditionally one of the poorer Belgian lands that snuggle against the French border.
You can read the rest of the article at the New York Times website, which requires free registration. Or you can skip the registration thing and read a reprint of the article instead: Brewery grows as Trappist beers grace more tables at the International Herald Tribune site.
The NYT version has photos, the IHT version doesn't.
More news about Trappist beer:
Brewer monks battle to protect a rare and potent ale