Bruz Beers Owner Charlie Gottenkieny Explains Trappists and More

By Kyle Kirves

Editor’s Note: The Kingdom of Belgium has three official languages and numerous local dialects. You don’t have to speak any of them to count up to four the brewing way: enkel, dubbel, tripe, and quadrupel. That’s all the higher you need to go. In all likelihood, you’ve seen these terms associated with the small batch imported Belgian beer brewed by monks in the tiny European country, their secular neighbors, or even states-side brewers who brew in the Belgian tradition and style.

In this series of articles, Thirst Colorado contributor Kyle Kirves talks with Bruz Beers head brewer, co-founder, and Belgian beer enthusiast, Charlie Gottenkieny about the variety of styles and tastes that fall into the Belgian and Belgian-style motif. This article, the second in the series, covers the monastery produced, banana-bready goodness of abbey and Trappist-style ales – beer so good, it should be a sin.

To read the first article in the series, click here.

A little word association game for you. If I say “IPA,” you likely think … hops. If I say “wheat,” you likely think “cloudy,” or maybe “clove.” “Stout” and you think “dark.”

But if I say, “Belgian beer,” a single word probably doesn’t come to mind. It’s likely more a mental postcard of medieval monasteries and monks creating impeccably delicious beers with dessert-like qualities. You might envision beer that comes only in pricey, small batches, and dark vase-like bottles sought by enthusiasts the world over. The Trappist tradition is one of the most exclusive brewing clubs in the world: only 14 monasteries worldwide possess the Trappist designation (six in Belgium, two in the Netherlands, and one each in Austria, Italy, France, Spain, England and, thankfully, the United States), and their product bears that logo proudly. While there’s certainly a landscape of beers beyond the ones produced in cloister, when it comes to Belgian beer, for most of us, it’s a near-religious experience – and as such has a few mysteries surrounding it.

Fortunately, Charlie Gottenkieny, co-founder and head brewer at Bruz Beers, is here to take you to Sunday school.

“If you’ve ever watched Game of Thrones, you know why you wouldn’t want to stay in an inn in the middle ages, especially if you were wealthy,” Gottenkieny begins the lesson. “Monasteries were tasked with providing food, shelter, and sustenance to travelers and religious pilgrims. In Northern Europe, where wine was not as readily available, beer became part of that providence.” Monasteries began making beer for those travelers – but also because water quality was questionable, and brewed drinks made for safer consumption. It also served to underwrite the monasteries charitable endeavors.

As for you, modern beer wayfarer that you are, have you ever stood in front of the beer aisle and asked yourself, “Why do the Belgians start counting at the number 2 (dubbel)?” Answer: they don’t.

“Enkels,” Gottenkieny says, “or ‘singles’ are low-gravity, low alcohol beers that are really too delicate to export. That’s why you don’t hear about them very much over here.” Sometimes these beers were brewed to that intent – as daily accompaniments to common meals at the monastery – and sometimes they were by-products of grain-rinsing (running water through semi-spent grains when making a tripel or other higher-alcohol beer).

While rare, you can find American-produced enkels in some craft brewing operations. “American enkels can vary in color from very pale to dunkel-dark. At Bruz, we’ve had a few of them.”

Dubbels, or “doubles,” you might assume have twice the alcohol as a single. While dubbels do, generally speaking, sport more ABV than an enkel, the term has more to do with ingredients than alcohol produced. They use more malt than singles; tripels use three times as much. And quadrupels? You guessed it – four times as much.

“Dubbels are the traditional beers of the monasteries since the middle ages,” Gottenkieny says. “It’s dark, it’s malty, and it uses caramelized candy sugar. It’s been defined and redefined throughout the centuries. Blondes are essentially dubbels brewed with a lighter malt.”

But is one style better, or more popular, than others?

“You see a lot of tripels being produced in Belgium, not just at the monasteries, but also at independent breweries around the country,” Gottenkieny explains. “You get some very innovative takes on the tripel. It’s a very pale beer style in the 8 to 10 percent category. So, they are reasonably strong.”

Historically, the tripel was produced in Belgium to take on the emerging popularity of the Czech and German pilsners in continental Europe in the later part of the nineteenth century. “It seemed that was all anybody wanted was pilsner,” Gottenkieny explains. Pilsners by dint of their presentation appealed to all of the senses. “These beautiful pale pilsner beers that were drank out of glasses as opposed to the old school crockery stein mug. So, the Belgians started coming out with beers to compete with them and the tripel brewed with lighter malts was one of them.”

So, there you have it – a concise history of Belgium’s monastically brewed beers and their American inheritors. Tune in next time to learn more about the Belgian versus Czech/German conflict and who won (spoiler alert: it’s you) in the next article. Same beer time, same beer channel.

Bruz Beers produces beer at its north Denver location and has a tap room on East Colfax.