Bornum Double
Very dark, coffee color - full rich body - staying
head - effervescent nose - soft velvet feeling in the mouth - luscious.
Malt character with a hoppy aftertouch. Monks used to fast on this type
of beer for 40 days! No food, only beer. FOOD COMBINATIONS: ideal with steak, grilled meat, game or sausages. Also as a power-shot after physical exercise. Bornum Triple Golden shining and soft feeling in the mouth - perfectly balanced taste - full body and heart warming, a splendid aroma, tickling in the nose - hoppy dry long finish. Triple means that the brewer adds 3 times the normal amount of malt in the brew kettle, which gives us a rich beer. You can age the Bornem Triple for many years, just like wine. FOOD COMBINATIONS: Enjoy the Bornem Triple as a digestive (hops!) with cheese after dinner, or as a rich refreshing beverage with your main-course | Abbey of Bornem The story of the St. Bernards abbey
in Bornem is the story of two abbeys. It all starts on August 20, 1237
when a few monks, under leadership of abbot Hugo Van Bierbeke ("beer-brook") left the Cistercienzerabbey in Villers-la-Ville to start a new community in Vremde. The new community’s name is "Locus
Sancti Bernardi". The sponsor and the creator of the abbey is Hendrik
I, the Duke of Brabant, and Aigidius Van Berthout, Lord of Berlaar. The second abbot, Gosuinus Dryeman moves the abbey to the borders of the Scheld river in Hemiksem. The name didn’t change, but it symbolized its hope and trust in the adopted coat of arms: the fishing heron with mission statement "on the bank of the river, I find my food." The story of the heron was born.  The abbey survived through
years of glory and through years of disasters. Abbeys sustained
themselves by farming, brewing, baking, and selling the products on the
open market. The most deadly disaster was the raiding of the abbey by
the French revolutionary army in 1797, in which the treasures were
stolen and shipped to Paris museums, the monks were chased and some of
them killed, and the abbey was completely destroyed. The French troops really put a statement here to show their intention to brake the power of the church. Abbeys were visible rich, owned a lot of land and farms, and were responsible for the education in their area. Before the French army arrived, the monks had been able to save and hide some of their treasures: old medieval books and gold and silverware.  Here we need to introduce the story
of the second abbey, which is the abbey that is still standing strong
in the village of Bornem, a few miles away from Hemiksem. It is easy to
find, although slightly out of the center of the village, the abbey
church tower shows the way. At the end of the 16th century we are in
the middle of the religious wars between the Protestants and the
Catholics. Flanders is occupied by Spanish troops. A Spanish nobleman had become the Lord of Bornem, and he builds a new abbey in 1603. It takes more than 50 years before the Dominican monks can call the abbey definitively their abbey. For so long were different orders of monks and nuns pulling, pushing and bribing to receive the abbey. Politicians and even a couple of popes were involved in the discussions. But finally, the Dominican monks win and open the abbey to their brothers, Dominican monks chased away out of England. Thus no surprise that the first abbot of the abbey becomes the Englishman Thomas Howard. Again the abbey prospers very well and spends all its profits on the education: it becomes the prep-school for English missionary monks. Unfortunately, it is again the French Revolutionary troops that raid another Abbey. All English monks saw it coming and had already fled to England. The abbey was plundered but not devastated. Which was a good thing for the St. Bernards monks from Hemiksem who found a new home in this abbey once Napoleon was defeated.
 At the turn of the millennium only a
few monks are left in the Abbey. In the 1950 the influx of monks dried
up, and a decennium later the monks had to license out the brewing of
their abbey ales to the Van Steenberge brewery. The abbey still
receives royalties for these beers, royalties that are spent on
maintaining the abbey and the many good works the monks are doing. |
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