Ale Beer - Varieties of Ale - Belgian Ales

Belgian Ales

Belgium produces a wide variety of speciality ales that elude easy classification. Virtually all Trappist beers and Abbey beers are high in alcoholic content but light in body due to the addition of large amounts of sucrose, which provides an alcohol boost with an essentially neutral flavour.

Trappist beers are brewed under direct control of the monks themselves. Of the 171 Trappist monasteries throughout the world, only seven brew beer, of which there are six in Belgium. The seventh is in the Netherlands. Abbey beer is brewed by commercial breweries in the style of a trappist beer, sometimes using the name of a monastery, often one that no longer exists or in some cases one that has licensed its name to a brewery.