A few months back I was commissioned by the Continental Treat Bistro to present a video educating beer drinkers about Trappist Ales. Trappists are, of course, the small cluster of monasteries that produce Belgian-style ales. As famous as the Trappist monks are, much misinformation, confusion and misunderstanding revolves around them and their beer.

Continental Treat, known for its elegant meals and extensive beer bottle menu, including all of the Trappists currently available in Alberta, found their customers has lots of questions around what exactly Trappist beer is, which breweries are consider Trappist and how they differ from other breweries. So, they came up with an idea of an instructional video. They approached me to assist them with.

One of my per-requisites is that my role be one mainly of education. I try my best not to shill for any brewery, restaurant, liquor store, etc. Of course, that does not mean I refuse to be associated with them. My criteria is that the project needs to be primarily educational. If the company gets some secondary promotional value, that is fine.

I recently learned the video is now live on YouTube. As you can see (if you wish) it is a short (8 minutes) lecture on defining Trappist Beer and walking through the beer characteristics from each of the (then – see below) eight certified Trappist breweries. I embed the video below.

I will be the first to admit it was not one of my most spirited performances. Serious and informative likely best describes it. Chalk it up to the topic, or to the fact we were taping on early Sunday morning. Despite the lack of a Dustin Hoffman-esque performance, I think it does a good job of walking viewers through the world of Trappist beer without piling on too much detail.

Of course, one of the problems that can be associated with this kind of educational video is how quickly information can fall out of date. Case in point: in the few months since the taping there is a new Trappist brewery, and believe it or not from the U.S. Spencer is a Massachusetts-based monastery who just started brewing a single beer and earned official Trappist designation. They, at the moment, produce only one beer, interestingly a deviation from most Trappists. It is a Patersbier, lighter in body and meant more as a table beer. Obviously this beer is nowhere near the prairies, so my video still stands as accurate in the Canadian market

I also have to acknowledge Mont des Cats, a French monastery also with Trappist designation. This 10th (9th in timeline) monastery is controversial because it does not yet produce its own beer. Its single beer, Mont des Cat, is made by Chimay. That choice allows them to meet the strict standards of Trappist designation (brewed by monks, etc.), but they can’t (or don’t – the Trappist Association is not a particularly forthcoming institution) put the “Authentic Trappist Product” on their label. I knew about Mont des Cats at the time of the taping but decided it was too complicated to get into. And pointless since we can’t get the beer in Canada anyway. So I kept it simple and said there were eight Trappist breweries (which was accurate since Mont doesn’t have a brewery).

I simply say all this because the internet is forever. If someone sees this post in two years, I want to be clear what I knew at the time. Any other errors in the video, if any, I will take responsibility for.

Anyway, take the video for what it is – an introduction to Trappist beer. Surely, a deserving topic by any measure. I am sure you would agree.