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List of products by brand St. Bernardus
Shortly after the Second World War, the Trappist monastery of St. Sixtus decided to stop marketing their own beer. An agreement was made with the Watou brewery, which began to produce and market Westvleteren Trappist beers under license until 1992. Following the anti-clerical policy in the early 19th century, the Carlsberg Abbey Community, located in northern France, decided to move to Watou, a small Belgian village a few kilometres away. Here the monks converted a farm into the “Refuge Notre Dame de St. Bernard”, producing abbey cheese as their main activity. At the beginning of the 1930s, attitudes towards the clergy in France improved and in 1934 the community decided to leave Belgium and bring all activities back to France. Evarist Deconick took over the cheese factory and built a first building in the Trappistenweg in Watou where the cheese was also marketed. The first building was later converted into today’s private rooms, but traces of the cheese factory can still be seen in the living room. A new brewery was built next to the cheese factory and Deconick began brewing the Sixtus beers with the help of the master brewer from Westvleteren, who brought with him wisdom, knowledge and original recipes. In the early 1960s Deconick’s son-in-law Claus joined the brewery and negotiations began to renew the license. These were concluded in 1962, again for a period of thirty years (until 1992). In 1992 the agreement ended because the Trappist monasteries decided that the title “Trappistenbier” could only be given to beers brewed within the walls of the Trappist monasteries. Therefore, since 1992 the beers brewed at Trappistenweg 23 in Watou have been marketed under the new brand “St. Bernardus” in reference to the Refuge de Notre Dame de St. Bernard. At this point the range of beers was expanded by adding a blond beer, the St. Bernardus Triple, to the already existing Pater 6 – Prior 8 – Abt 12. It is currently part of the “Belgian Family Brewers” group.