Stift Engelszell Trappistenbier-Brauerei
Regional Brewery
in Engelhartszell,
Upper Austria,
Austria 🇦🇹
Associated Venue: Stift Engelszell Trappistenbier-Brauerei
Established in 2012
The three beers of Engelszeller, Nivard, Benno and Gregorius are brewed along the lines of the Belgian Trappist breweries. With the Trappisten Weisse, which has been in the range since 2019, a regionally typical type of beer is now also offered.
With all four types, the view of the region in which the monastery is located is not forgotten. Therefore, the Pilsen malt from Austria and the special malts from Bavaria are bought. The hops come from the neighboring Mühlviertel, which is the largest hop growing area in Austria.
A Belgian ale yeast is used to ferment the Engelszeller beers. The yeast ferments the malt sugar formed during brewing within a week and is then used again for the next brew. After another week, the beer has matured and is then stored in a tank for two weeks. The beer clarifies naturally, so that there is only a small, natural yeast residue in the bottle.
Since the Engelszell Abbey does not have its own bottle filling due to the limited annual production, the beer is stored in a mobile tank in the neighboring Premonstratensian monastery in Schlägl, where it is then bottled and prepared for export. The beer is then passed on to the sales partners, who then sell it nationally and internationally.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7.5
Goldene Farbe, leichte Trübung. Lebendige sprudelt das Bier im Glas, beim Trinken fällt das kaum auf. Schöne Komposition aus Frucht, Getreide und floralen Noten. Minimale Spuren von Likör und Wermut. Volles Mundgefühl. Weich. Angenehme, nicht übertriebene Lebendigkeit. Interessantes, eher ungewöhnliches und gutes Helles. Das Trappistenkloster in Engelhartszell war das letzte seiner Art im deutschsprachigen Raum. Im Mai 2023 wurde die Schließung bekanntgegeben. Angeblich soll die Brauerei weitergeführt werden - aber darauf würde ich mich nicht unbedingt verlassen. Also lieber JETZT noch dieses Bier verkosten - vielleicht ist es sonst zu spät.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 5 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5
0.33 l bottle from 'Trappist Tribute', best before April 2023, bought just a week ago. Slightly hazy, deep orangeish amber with a thin, frothy, slowly diminishing, white head. Sweetish, slightly yeasty-spicy aroma of grains, honey, banana and some vanilla. Gently sweet, malty, moderately bitter, slightly floral and a bit yeasty-spicy taste of grains, honey, banana, clove and some vanilla, followed by a short, moderately bitter, a little dry finish. Medium body, gently effervescent mouthfeel, average carbonation. Quite okay, would have been nicer in good condition, I guess.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7.5
Bottle. Color: Slightly hazy golden, white head. Aroma: Malty, grainy. Taste: Malty, grainy, lightly fruity, bread. Light bitter hoppy backbone. Moderate sweet. Medium body, average carbonation. Ok Helles.
Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 7.5
Yesterday I heard the sad news that, due to its sharply diminished population of monks, the old Engelszell monastery in Austria will be dissolved; its buildings will be repurposed and the beers will thus likely cease to exist - exactly a year after the Spencer monks in the United States announced that they were going to quit brewing. I do not know if this celebrational beer, a lager brewed in the old Munich Helles tradition, was intentional or not, but if it is, it should sadly be seen as the monks' swan song. Glad I got my hands on a bottle, as these seem to be relatively limited, and considering the Engelszell trappist beers will very likely die out in the near future; named after the year the abbey was founded, though it became a trappist monastery only in 1925. Snow white, frothy, irregularly and lightly lacing, medium thick, moussy, stable head, near clear yellow blonde robe with pale golden glow and thin strings of disparate sparkling, turning hazy and more apricot-tinged with sediment. Delicate aroma of fresh white bread dough, sweetclover, Madeleine cookies, chickweed, chamomile, freshly cut canary grass, peanut shells, hints of raw peas and very subtle sesame seed, rusk, minerals. Neutral-ish onset with still a vague sweet-fruit echo (apple), finely tingling but correct effervescence, adding quite a lot of refreshing, accompanying minerality; smooth, slender cereally and white-bready malts with very light touches of unsalted peanut and dry cookies here and there, making way for a dryish finish in which the hops get a somewhat more prominent role than I am used to from a Helles, albeit in a very delicate, subtle, 'real-grassy' and field-flowery way, with a summer meadow-like retronasal aspect and mild bitterness in the end, never overpowering that lean, slim dried cereally and freshly-baked bready malt sweetish effect. Still, after swallowing, a somewhat leafy bitterness lingers, longer than average for the style. Minerally effects meanwhile have remained active as well. Traditionally, one may tend to associate trappist beers with big tripels, dubbels and quads, but the (now) numerous trappist breweries outside of Belgium, where these styles originated, have explored further what was already clear in the previous century, namely that 'trappist beer' can be any beer style as long as it is brewed in a trappist monastery - Spencer even had the nerve to present us with trappist IPA or trappist Pilsener. The Engelszell monks, in their last days at the original site, have created a sophisticated final beer here, not in the form of some big 'abt' but in this refined, delicately but confidently hopped, minerally, elegant and refreshing Münchener Helles, connecting with German beer traditions instead of Belgian ones (though with the added element of being unfiltered, this beer could just as well be regarded as a Landbier of sorts). Well played - so I guess this is goodbye then... I should probably grab some Gregorius, Benno and Nivard from the shelves while I still have the chance.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 5 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7.5
Optisch rot-braun, feiner Schaum. In der Nase unscheinbar, hefig. Im Trunk Trauben, dezente Würze, im Vergleich zu belgischen Trappisten sehr zurückhaltend.
Brewery Stats
| Score | 6.81 |
| Beers | 8 |
| Ticks | 702 |
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