Rejected names for this article: "It's a Trap! ...pist" (someone thought of it already, obviously), "Out of the Frying Pan and into the Friar" (too long a vaguely dirty), "Drinking and the Hip Monks" (just too dumb, even for me), "Only you Can Prevent Florist Friars" (strangely unrelated to the content).
Well, I'll be a Monk's Uncle. There are just ten Trappist Breweries in the world, and just one of them is American. The newest Trappist Brewers, the brothers of Saint Joseph's Abby in Spencer, MA, is Spencer Brewery, and they are focused solely on producing Spencer Trappist Ale.
First, some quick tasting notes: first thing I get out the aroma is clove and breadiness. The taste is banana, allspice, and a lightly peppery finish. It has a medium mouthfeel, and a bit of hop bitterness on the back... but mostly this is a very solid beer. It's not extravagant, but it's very well made. If you want some more impressions on how the beer is, there's a lot of people out there who can do it better than me. I'd rather focus on a couple other things. Suffice to say it's a very good beer, but... dat price.
A bit has been made about the (dat) price. I paid $18 for a 4 pack, which breaks down to $4.50 per bottle... which run a bit smaller than traditional at 11.2 ounces. Frankly, in most cases that is just too dang high for me, but I can kind of get it in this case. Saint Joseph's has done a pretty amazing thing to be counted among the official Trappist Breweries of the world... assembling a dossier, travelling to Europe and learning the ropes, getting approval and following all the Trappist guidelines... and to get up and running, they built a state of the art brewery and hired on some proper help because they wanted to do things right. Let's also keep in mind that Trappist openings, if you look at the current roster, average about 2 or 3 a century, so it seems even more unlikely that Massachusetts gets to play host to this slice of history that is Spencer Brewery. And they're going to focus solely on making this particular beer and making it well.
Yeah, there's an argument to be made that we're paying for the Trappist label, or that they're trying to recoup for that shiny new brewery and brewer too quickly. I get that, and I know people who didn't buy this beer purely because of the cost. For me, and maybe this makes the beer a novelty, but I don't mind paying for it once and being... well, kind of a part of history. Then again, people have proven that they're willing to pay this price for the beer, at least for now, because it's sold out of most places it was allocated to. My home bottle shop sold out in a day, during a snow storm. I found it, of all places, at a Star Market... and I bought the second-to-last four pack. Since the demand is there, Spencer has no market incentive to lower that high price. At least yet. We'll see. But then again, I can't think of many examples of a brewery lowering prices once they've set MSRP, even if one of tenancies of Trappist Breweries is that they are not intended to be profit-turning.
I'm just very interested to see where Spencer is going to be in a few years. Maybe that's bad, because I don't think I'm alone in the camp of "I've tried it, and it was good but expensive. BBL!". But anyway, if a few years from now they're putting out some different styles, and their production warrants some price reduction based on making up costs with volume... well, it's going to be economically interesting (the best kind of interesting, amirite!?) to see how this all plays out. Especially since (fun fact!) the "Authentic Trappist Product" label is good for exactly five years. Has to be re-upped after that. For now, yeah, it's a bit of a novelty... but it is kind of cool that there's but ONE Trappist Brewery outside of Europe, and we got it in our backyard.
Eat it, Claude!
Well, I'll be a Monk's Uncle. There are just ten Trappist Breweries in the world, and just one of them is American. The newest Trappist Brewers, the brothers of Saint Joseph's Abby in Spencer, MA, is Spencer Brewery, and they are focused solely on producing Spencer Trappist Ale.
First, some quick tasting notes: first thing I get out the aroma is clove and breadiness. The taste is banana, allspice, and a lightly peppery finish. It has a medium mouthfeel, and a bit of hop bitterness on the back... but mostly this is a very solid beer. It's not extravagant, but it's very well made. If you want some more impressions on how the beer is, there's a lot of people out there who can do it better than me. I'd rather focus on a couple other things. Suffice to say it's a very good beer, but... dat price.
A bit has been made about the (dat) price. I paid $18 for a 4 pack, which breaks down to $4.50 per bottle... which run a bit smaller than traditional at 11.2 ounces. Frankly, in most cases that is just too dang high for me, but I can kind of get it in this case. Saint Joseph's has done a pretty amazing thing to be counted among the official Trappist Breweries of the world... assembling a dossier, travelling to Europe and learning the ropes, getting approval and following all the Trappist guidelines... and to get up and running, they built a state of the art brewery and hired on some proper help because they wanted to do things right. Let's also keep in mind that Trappist openings, if you look at the current roster, average about 2 or 3 a century, so it seems even more unlikely that Massachusetts gets to play host to this slice of history that is Spencer Brewery. And they're going to focus solely on making this particular beer and making it well.
Yeah, there's an argument to be made that we're paying for the Trappist label, or that they're trying to recoup for that shiny new brewery and brewer too quickly. I get that, and I know people who didn't buy this beer purely because of the cost. For me, and maybe this makes the beer a novelty, but I don't mind paying for it once and being... well, kind of a part of history. Then again, people have proven that they're willing to pay this price for the beer, at least for now, because it's sold out of most places it was allocated to. My home bottle shop sold out in a day, during a snow storm. I found it, of all places, at a Star Market... and I bought the second-to-last four pack. Since the demand is there, Spencer has no market incentive to lower that high price. At least yet. We'll see. But then again, I can't think of many examples of a brewery lowering prices once they've set MSRP, even if one of tenancies of Trappist Breweries is that they are not intended to be profit-turning.
I'm just very interested to see where Spencer is going to be in a few years. Maybe that's bad, because I don't think I'm alone in the camp of "I've tried it, and it was good but expensive. BBL!". But anyway, if a few years from now they're putting out some different styles, and their production warrants some price reduction based on making up costs with volume... well, it's going to be economically interesting (the best kind of interesting, amirite!?) to see how this all plays out. Especially since (fun fact!) the "Authentic Trappist Product" label is good for exactly five years. Has to be re-upped after that. For now, yeah, it's a bit of a novelty... but it is kind of cool that there's but ONE Trappist Brewery outside of Europe, and we got it in our backyard.
Eat it, Claude!
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