Spencer Brewery
Microbrewery in Spencer, Massachusetts, United States 🇺🇸
Established in 2013
Closed in 2022
Contact
Description
St. Joseph's Abbey in Spencer, Massachusetts, is home to a community of Trappist monks and the first American Trappist brewery. Following the Benedictine tradition of ora et labora (prayer and work), the monks pursue a simple life of contemplative prayer, manual labor and hospitality. The brewery helps support the monks and their charitable outreach. The brewery, being far into the abbey's land, is not open to the public for tours or tastings.
7.1/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 8
Overall 7.5
Orange to amber colored, hazy, small off white head. Aroma of brewing sugar, spices, bit fruity, Belgian yeast. Taste is medium sweet malt, brewing sugar, some caramel, spicy and less fruity, Belgian yeast, dry finish. Medium bodied, average+ carbonation. Very good but older Trappists have the upper hand.
Tried
on 13 Apr 2016
at 09:31
6.8/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 6
Flavor 6
Texture 8
Overall 7
33 cl bottle, served in stem glass at room temperature (cool, not cold). Pours hazy honey-hued with whitish head, both fast-growing and fast-vanishing. Aroma is mild: honey, toast, caramel, pie, orange, cinnamon and cardamom. Mouthfeel is fizzy, delicate, not mouth-covering. Low-lingering finish with no bitterness.
Tried
from Bottle
on 13 Apr 2016
at 02:53
5.6/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 6
Flavor 5
Texture 6
Overall 5.5
Golden colour with a light haze and a thin head. The aroma and flavour are very spicy with clove being the dominant one. Hints of nutmeg and perhaps cinnamon linger in the background. Overall it’s light bodied, sweet and spicy. Too spicy for my taste.
Tried
on 10 Apr 2016
at 14:06
6.3/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 6
Flavor 6
Texture 6
Overall 6
Small, just off-white head; fine-bubbled metallic orange beer. Spicy, yeasty nose, perfumey, but also something as from rotting greenery. Again quite spicy, cheesy hops, runny-smelly cheese, especially retronasal. Bit sticky, (hop)oily texture, hops go into the aftertaste. Another letdown. Thanks for the effort, L & M V!
Tried
on 10 Apr 2016
at 04:56
7/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 6
Overall 8
Bottle, thanks raskolnikov. Pours amber. Aroma is sweet, fresh fruits, malt, peach. Flavor is sweet and bitter, fruits, peach, apricot. Finish is apricot bitter. Overall: good.
Tried
from Bottle
on 02 Apr 2016
at 17:44
7.8/10
—
Appearance 8
Aroma 8
Flavor 7
Texture 8
Overall 8
Bottle shared @ RBBWG 2016. Many thanks! Dark brown colour, beige foam. Nose of banana (Belgian yeast?). Rather sweet with enough roastiness. Good beer.
Tried
from Bottle
on 30 Mar 2016
at 09:40
7.5/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 8
Overall 8
33cl bottle. Gusher. Hazy dark orange pour with a dusty white head that gives way to a thin lacing. Visible sedimentation. Smells like a doppelbock, of yeast, bananas, spices, caramel and some dark fruit. The taste follows the same notes, wirh some added strawberry jam and pine syrup. Very well balanced sweetness and bitterness.
Tried
from Bottle
on 30 Mar 2016
at 08:30
7/10
Caught up again with Trappist breweries now. Where will the next one be? :)
Tried
on 28 Mar 2016
at 22:40
6.9/10
—
Appearance 8
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 6
Overall 6.5
Imported from my RateBeer account as Spencer India Pale Ale (by Spencer Brewery):
Aroma: 7/10, Appearance: 4/5, Taste: 7/10, Palate: 3/5, Overall: 13/20, MyTotalScore: 3.4/5
26/III/16 - 12Fl. Oz. bottle from a trade @ home - BB: VIII/17/16 (2016-292) Thanks to Chris for the trade and Thomas for muling the bottle!
Note: oh, just perfect. Seems like Alengrin and me keep trying the new Spencers at exactly the same day, even though we got this one through totally different channels! :p
Clear orange beer, big irregular off-white head, little stable, bit adhesive. Aroma: very malty, grains, cheesy, sweaty feet, caramel, little spicy, some ripe banana, some alcohol noticeable. MF: ok carbon, medium body. Taste: malty start, caramel, pretty bitter, bit grassy, sweet touch, bit cheesy. Aftertaste: bitter, melons, some grapefruit, floral touch, other fruits, rather sweet, caramel, bit sugary, some honey, bitter finish. Decent, but not really blown away by this. Maybe if we give them some more time, they'll get better at this. Curious as to who gave them advice about this beer (style). Not the Belgian colleagues, for this one. ;-)
Aroma: 7/10, Appearance: 4/5, Taste: 7/10, Palate: 3/5, Overall: 13/20, MyTotalScore: 3.4/5
26/III/16 - 12Fl. Oz. bottle from a trade @ home - BB: VIII/17/16 (2016-292) Thanks to Chris for the trade and Thomas for muling the bottle!
Note: oh, just perfect. Seems like Alengrin and me keep trying the new Spencers at exactly the same day, even though we got this one through totally different channels! :p
Clear orange beer, big irregular off-white head, little stable, bit adhesive. Aroma: very malty, grains, cheesy, sweaty feet, caramel, little spicy, some ripe banana, some alcohol noticeable. MF: ok carbon, medium body. Taste: malty start, caramel, pretty bitter, bit grassy, sweet touch, bit cheesy. Aftertaste: bitter, melons, some grapefruit, floral touch, other fruits, rather sweet, caramel, bit sugary, some honey, bitter finish. Decent, but not really blown away by this. Maybe if we give them some more time, they'll get better at this. Curious as to who gave them advice about this beer (style). Not the Belgian colleagues, for this one. ;-)
Tried
from Bottle
on 26 Mar 2016
at 15:12
7.1/10
—
Appearance 6
Aroma 7
Flavor 8
Texture 6
Overall 7.5
The newest beer from this American trappist brewery, and to my knowledge the first trappist beer which is not fermented with classic Belgian yeast strains - even more so than with their RIS, this is clearly intended to connect with ’regular’ American craft beer culture. Being Belgian and therefore more than familiar with the old ’core’ of trappist brews, I’ve been curious about this for a while so I jumped to the opportunity to taste a bottle. Thin but stable, lightly lacing, milky, snow white head, warm orange blonde colour with amber hue, clear with vivid sparkling, misty with deposit. Aroma does showcase New World hop fragrance, but not overly so, as the malts come through very clearly as well; I get hints of bitter orange, dried grapefruit peel, roses, overripe papaja, spruce, toasted bread, candied ginger, caramel and even (quite a lot of) old cake sweetness, but also fried chicken, fermenting grass, damp cloth and (strongly and strangely) rainwater. Crisp, fruity onset but indeed cleanly so without the typical Belgian esters, restrained sweetness of mandarin and lychee, citrus peel fraîcheur, deep redcurrant-like sourish undercurrent, with finely tingling but otherwise softish carbonation. Lovely malt bittersweetness ensues, nutty and a bit caramelly with a clear toasted bittering edge supporting the hops in the finish, which provide good, long, earthy, spicy bitterness as well as some retronasal pine and dried grapefruit peel aromas, but remain less ’overpowering’ than in most other craft IPAs so that the toasted bittersweet malt flavor lasts equally long after swallowing. Quite straightforward and ’restrained’ but still American style IPA, but a tasty and ’juicy’ one for sure - and interesting to see the authentic trappist logo on a beer in this modern style. I notice now that I am apparently the first non-American rater for this beer so I guess I owe tderoeck an apology for that, but this was unintended...
Tried
from Can
on 26 Mar 2016
at 07:32