La Trappe Blonde

La Trappe are one of the very few genuine Trappist breweries left in the world, which means the beer is actually brewed inside a working monastery under the supervision of monks instead of just borrowing vaguely medieval branding for marketing purposes.

Brewing started at Koningshoeven Abbey in the Netherlands back in 1884, and the whole thing still carries that lovely mix of spirituality, craftsmanship and extremely strong beer. Which honestly feels like a pretty solid life balance.

The range covers basically every classic Belgian-style Trappist category. Dubbel, Tripel, Quadrupel, Blonde, barrel-aged monsters, all packed with expressive yeast character, dark fruit, spice and rich malt depth. The Quadrupel especially became iconic enough that loads of breweries now copy the style entirely.

What makes La Trappe so good is that even the stronger beers somehow stay incredibly drinkable. Big warming alcohol, caramel, fig, banana, clove and toffee all flying around, but always with enough balance underneath to stop things turning syrupy or exhausting.

There’s also something deeply reassuring about monks dedicating centuries to perfecting beer instead of replying to Slack messages.

Very dangerous large-format bottle territory.