List of products by brand ST BERNARDUS

In the 19th century anti-clericalism in France forced the Abbey of Mont des Cats to move to the village of Watou in West Flanders, Belgium. They established themselves under the name of Refuge of Our Lady of St. Bernard and originally produced cheese to finance the abbey's activities. In 1934, it was decided to close the Belgian site and return the monastic activities to France with Evarist Deconinck taking over the cheese factory.

In 1945, the abbey of Saint Sixtus decided to suspend the sale of its beer and an agreement was reached whereby the monks would only brew beer for their own consumption but could sell it to the public at the monastery gates and to a couple of taverns linked to the monastery. They granted the license to brew beer to the cheese factory, and Sint Bernardus Brouwerij (St. Bernard's Brewery) was founded. The master brewer from Westvleteren, Mathieu Szafranski (of Polish origin) became a partner in the brewery and brought with him the recipes, his experience and the yeast strain used at St. Sixtus. In 1962, a new agreement was signed whereby Deconinck was in charge of the brewing, distribution and sale of the beers. In 1992, the agreement was broken because the Trappist monasteries decided that authentic Trappist beer could only be brewed within the walls of a monastery. Since 1992, beer brewed in Watou has been sold under the St. Bernardus brand.

The St Bernardus range of beers is the closest thing to the Westvleteren beers produced at St Sixtus Abbey, which are more difficult to obtain. In fact, the original St. Sixtus yeast is the one used by St. Bernardus.4 St. Sixtus has been using a new yeast strain since the 1990s from Westmalle.