The story seemed like lifestyle press catnip: from a sleepy corner of southeastern Belgium comes the first modern abbey beer brewed by nuns. Some of the best-known Belgian beers originated from clerics, but for centuries their craft was the exclusive domain of monks who eventually started licensing their recipes to lay professionals. Here comes girl power, at Maredret Abbey, whose first two brews debuted a couple of years ago.
In coverage by Reuters and the BBC, and on the YouTube channel of Maredret’s licensee brewer, John Martin, the most visible face of the product is a beatific-looking, soft-spoken Black nun with an East African accent. She explains the workings of Maredret Abbey and the nutritional properties of spelt, one of the grains in their recipe. She is part of a group of just 20 or so nuns who maintain the somber, neo-Gothic complex with a poky little gift shop that sells postcard-size illuminated manuscripts, hand-crocheted doll clothes, jam, herbal tinctures, and beer.
