I will recap our trip in two ways — first i will recap our beer purchases.  Next I will recap the monastery visits.  To remind everyone: there are seven (7) Trappist breweries of which 6 we visited: Orval, Westvleteren, Westmalle, Achel, Rochefort, and Chimay.  The beers they make (that are available): Orval (1), Westvleteren (3), Westmalle (2 to buy, 1 “Extra” [see previous post]), Achel (2), Rochefort (3), Chimay (3 to buy, 2 to drink at Auberge), Konigshoeven (6 to buy).  Total beers available are 20 to buy and 23 to possibly drink.

As stated previously, we drank the Extra from Westmalle and the Witte and the Trippel on tap at the Auberge.   However, we were able to purchase 18 of the 20 to buy.  We found the Konigshoeven beers at Achel; so we purchased the beers pictured below (there are 19 bottles in the picture–one is the Westmalle Extra bottle):

The one without a label is the Westvleteren 12.  The two we were not able to obtain were the Westvleteren Blonde and the 8.  I think we purchased (not including the glasses, cheese, schnapps, and miscellaneous items) about 10 cases of beer (plus several 0.75 liter bottles) — and we put this all in my little Mercedes.  Here’s a couple of pictures:

Once we got back, we separated the “load” in both vehicles — here’s the picture of those just before we drove off in happiness having completed our “Trappist Thanksgiving Quest for the Holy Ale!”

Beer Mentor