Rochefort Brewery
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Rochefort Brewery (Brasserie de Rochefort) is a Belgian trappist brewery. It produces three trappist beers :
- Rochefort 6 (red cap, brown beer, 7.5% ABV). Reddish colour, almost like autumn leaves, very consistent texture with a slightly spicy aroma and an intense taste of caramel, fruit, and hints of raisins. It is only brewed about once per year, representing approximately 1% of total beer production, thus is quite difficult to obtain.
- Rochefort 8 (green cap, brown beer, 9.2% ABV). Yellowish-brown colour, with a more pronounced aroma, more fruits and a slight amount of Demi-Sec. This variety constitutes the largest proportion of production.
- Rochefort 10 (blue cap, dark beer, 11.3% ABV). Reddish-brown colour, with a very compact head and an aroma of figs, feels like honey in the mouth. The alcohol profile is a major component in the flavour of this rich ale. It is very similar to 6 and 8, but has much more of everything. Some may find the high alcohol content to be disagreeable.
The brewery is located inside the abbey Notre-Dame de Saint-Rémy, near the town of Rochefort, and has been brewing beer since 1595. There are approximately 15 monks resident at the monastery. The monks are very secretive about the brewing process, and the brewery is not open to the public, therefore much of the information publicly known about the brewery comes from only a few sources.
Like many strong Belgian beers, those produced at Rochefort age well and can be cellared for at least five years whilst maintaining quality. Each of these beers is brewed to the same recipe, with the only difference being the alcoholic content. The water for the beers is drawn from a well located inside the monastery walls.
As with all other trappist breweries, the beer is only sold in order to financially support the monastery and some other good causes. The monks will not increase production based on demand or profit motives, but only enough to support themselves, resulting in a fairly limited supply of beer availability. In practice, there is currently no shortage through regular channels.
