Search for a list of Trappist breweries and you will be told there are six, or seven, or eleven, depending on which article you land on and when it was written. All of those numbers were right once. The label is awarded to monasteries, monasteries change, and the list changes with them — which is the most useful thing to know about it.
The short answer
The Authentic Trappist Product label is held by ten breweries at the time of writing, in six countries. Five are Belgian: Westmalle, Westvleteren, Chimay, Rochefort and Orval. Achel was the sixth until it lost the designation. Any fixed number you read, including this one, has a shelf life.
What the label certifies
The International Trappist Association awards it, and the three conditions are about the monastery rather than the beer:
- The beer is brewed within the walls of a Trappist abbey, by or under the supervision of the monastic community.
- The brewery is secondary to the monastery and follows the business practices of a monastic way of life.
- Profits cover the community’s living costs and the upkeep of the buildings; what remains goes to charity or social work.
Nothing in that list mentions recipe, style, strength or ingredients. A Trappist beer is not a style — Orval, Chimay Blue and Westmalle Tripel have almost nothing in common in the glass. The fuller comparison with abbey beers, which are brewed commercially under a monastery’s name, is in Trappist vs abbey beer.
The current list
| Country | Breweries |
|---|---|
| Belgium | Westmalle, Westvleteren, Chimay, Rochefort, Orval |
| Netherlands | La Trappe (Koningshoeven), Zundert |
| Austria | Engelszell (brewery closed 2023) |
| Italy | Tre Fontane |
| England | Mount St Bernard |
Two of those are in transition: Engelszell in Austria closed in 2023, and Zundert in the Netherlands has been winding down. Which is exactly the problem with printing a number.
What happened to Achel
Achel is the clearest illustration of how the label works, and it is why so many older articles are wrong.
The Achelse Kluis lost its Trappist designation in January 2021, when the last monks left the abbey. Brewing continued under Westmalle’s supervision, but the first condition — a resident community — was no longer met, so the label went. In January 2023 the abbey was sold to a private owner and the loss became definitive.
The beer did not change. The brewery did not change. The monastery changed, and under rules that are explicitly about the monastery, that was enough.
This site got it wrong too. Two articles published in earlier batches stated that Belgium had six Trappist breweries and named Achel among them; both have been corrected. Worth saying plainly, because the same error is sitting uncorrected in a great many places.
It is not a Belgian label any more
The association is Belgian in origin and Belgium still holds half the breweries, but the designation has been international for years.
The Netherlands has La Trappe at Koningshoeven — the brewery that coined the word quadrupel in 1991 — and Zundert. Italy has Tre Fontane in Rome. England has Mount St Bernard in Leicestershire, the first British Trappist brewery, which began brewing in 2018. Spain and France each have one.
The label also covers products other than beer. Trappist cheese, bread, chocolate and soap carry the same hexagonal logo under the same three conditions, which is how Trappist cheese qualifies.
Why the beers have nothing in common
Because the criteria say nothing about the liquid, the ten breweries make almost unrelated beer, and it is worth seeing how wide the spread is.
Orval is a dry, hoppy, Brettanomyces-fermented pale ale of 6.2% that tastes like nothing else in Belgium and is the only beer its brewery makes for sale. Westvleteren 12 is a 10.2% quadrupel. Chimay produces a range from a 7% red to a 9% blue. La Trappe brews a witbier, a bock and a non-alcoholic beer alongside its quadrupel. Mount St Bernard in Leicestershire makes a Belgian-style dark ale called Tynt Meadow that is closer to an English strong ale in character.
Anyone ordering “a Trappist beer” expecting a house style is going to be surprised at least half the time. The label answers who made it, not what it is.
How to check, rather than trust a list
Three practical points.
Look for the logo, not the word. The hexagonal “Authentic Trappist Product” mark is the certification. The word “Trappist” on a label without it means less.
The ITA publishes the current membership. That is the only source that is right by definition, and it is where any article — including this one — should be checked against.
Be suspicious of round numbers. “The six Trappist breweries” and “the seven Trappist breweries” are both phrases that were true for a period and are now shorthand repeated by people who have not looked recently.
What that looked like on a real list
Meyboom’s archived menus carried four of the five current Belgian holders. On draught: Westmalle Dubbel at 7.0% and Chimay Grande Réserve at 9.0%. On the bottle list: Orval at 6.9%, the whole Rochefort range — the 6, 8 and 10 — and Westmalle Extra and Tripel. La Trappe from the Netherlands appeared at 10.0%.
Westvleteren, the fifth, was not there, which is unsurprising: it is sold in small quantities at the abbey and rarely reaches an American bar legitimately. No Achel either, on a list captured in 2023 and 2024 — by then it had already lost the label. Both lists are still on the site: the beer list and the bottle list.
Frequently asked questions
How many Trappist breweries are there?
Ten hold the Authentic Trappist Product label for beer at the time of writing, across six countries. The number moves as communities change; check the International Trappist Association’s current list.
How many are in Belgium?
Five: Westmalle, Westvleteren, Chimay, Rochefort and Orval.
Why did Achel lose its Trappist status?
Its last monks left in 2021, so the requirement for a resident monastic community was no longer met. The abbey was sold in 2023.
Are all Trappist breweries Belgian?
No. The Netherlands, Italy, England, Spain and France all have one or more.
Is Trappist a beer style?
No. It certifies who brewed it and where the money goes. The beers themselves range from a 6.2% dry pale ale to an 11.3% quadrupel.
The short version
Ten breweries, six countries, five of them Belgian, and a list that has changed three times in five years. The label is about monks and money, not about beer — which is why a brewery can lose it without changing a thing in the kettle.
Related: Trappist vs abbey beer and Belgian beer culture and UNESCO.