{"id":1380,"date":"2011-07-30T14:27:17","date_gmt":"2011-07-30T17:27:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.travelandbeer.com\/?p=1380"},"modified":"2017-06-05T11:51:45","modified_gmt":"2017-06-05T14:51:45","slug":"trappist-tour-%e2%80%93-rochefort-na-abbaye-notre-dame-de-saint-remy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.travelandbeer.com\/en\/trappist-tour-%e2%80%93-rochefort-na-abbaye-notre-dame-de-saint-remy","title":{"rendered":"Trappist Tour \u2013 Rochefort in Abbaye Notre-Dame de Saint-Remy"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\"Trappistes<\/a>Rochefort 6, <\/em>Rochefort 10, its gorgeous chalice and <\/em>Rochefort 8<\/em><\/p>\n

In addition to my visit to\u00a0Brussels and Brugge<\/a> in Belgium, I made \u200b\u200ba visit to the cities to my beloved namesake beers: Rochefort, Orval and Chimay
\n
\nMy initial plans were to also visit the Abbey of Saint Sixtus, which makes Westvleteren, but I think you have read about my failed attempt<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Itinerary<\/strong><\/h3>\n

I rented a car in Brussels and made the trip to all the abbeys on the same day. It’s easy to do everything in one day, and from what I can see, there is not much to do in these cities apart visiting the monastery \/ brewery \/ pub.
\nAll of them are set in remote areas, almost rural, so do not expect to get there by public transport easily.
\nRent a car with GPS and be happy.<\/p>\n

My itinerary was:
\n1 – From Bruxelas to Rochefort
\n2 – From Rochefort to Orval
\n3 – From Orval to Chimay
\n4 – From Chimay to Bruxelas<\/p>\n

I chose this route mainly because all these cities stand in southern Belgium, and it is easier to do everything in one day.<\/p>\n

Arriving in Rochefort<\/strong><\/h3>\n

From Brussels to Rochefort is around 120km, and it took just over 1h and 40m to get there.
\nTalking a little about this beer, I remember the first time I experienced a Rochefort 10. A quadrupel beer, dense, full bodied, a gift from the monks. I dreamed of that beer that day. Seriously.<\/p>\n

Since the first time I saw the beers of Rochefort, the simplicity of its label caught my attention. Its simplicity and reliability are a sense of maturity, of a product made in detail, without haste, driven to perfection.
\nThey achieved perfection.<\/p>\n

Rochefort 6<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\"Trappistes<\/a>The “weakest” of all beers from Rochefort, it is a dubbel (some guides put it as\u00a0 strong dark ale).
\n7,5% ABV.<\/p>\n

Rochefort 8<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\"Trappistes<\/a>The intermediate, a strong dark ale.
\n9,2% ABV.<\/p>\n

Rochefort 10<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\"Trappistes<\/a>The Rochefort masterpiece, the strongest one, full bodied and very aromatic. It is a quadrupel.
\n11,3% ABV that are extremely balanced.<\/p>\n

It’s even hard to put all the sensory experiences of the Rochefort beers, even the 6 which is “simpler”, has an intense aromatic sensation, very strong.
\nDrink all of them that will understand what I mean.<\/p>\n

The visit to the abbey<\/strong><\/h3>\n

I didn’t got much information about the opening hours of the abbey, I just got the address and went there. Guess what ?
\nIT WAS CLOSED =\/<\/p>\n

In fact, according to the monk, the brewery is never open for visitation, but in that day even that abbey was closed. The only possible thing for me to do was to buy some beers and the trappist chalice. As I had already bought some Rochefort beers, I just bought the trappist chalice that was given by the monk himself.<\/p>\n

The abbey stands in a beautiful place, surrounded by several trees. Take a look at the video:<\/p>\n

<\/object><\/p>\n

At the end of december, a problem in the energy generators caused a fire at the abbey, but luckly, just a little part of the 15th century monastery was compromised.<\/p>\n

\"InIn front of the abbey, after discovering that I wouldn’t be able to visit the brewery<\/em><\/p>\n

Even without being able to get a closer look to this abbey, it was a great time talking to the monk who spoke only French.
\nHe was very gentile, did everything to make us feel good, actually the Trappist patience reigned \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"InAt the front chapel<\/em><\/p>\n

I’m glad that I had the opportunity to visit the beautiful place before the fire.
\nIn the next post, visit to Orval!\"page-divider\"<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Trappist Tour \u2013 Rochefort in Abbaye Notre-Dame de Saint-Remy. All about trappist beer Rochefort 6, Rochefort 8, and Rochefort 10. The monks the the trappist chalice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1383,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4,3],"tags":[6,16,17,8,28,23,18,19,5,7],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.travelandbeer.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1380"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.travelandbeer.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.travelandbeer.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.travelandbeer.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.travelandbeer.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1380"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"http:\/\/www.travelandbeer.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1380\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1740,"href":"http:\/\/www.travelandbeer.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1380\/revisions\/1740"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.travelandbeer.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.travelandbeer.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.travelandbeer.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.travelandbeer.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}