Say it with me... USA! USA! - US abbey now producing only Trappist ale outside Europe

SPENCER, Mass. (CNS) — "It's a very put-together Belgian beer."

That was the assessment of Chris Pierce, assistant beer manager at Julio's Liquors in Westborough. He was talking about Spencer Trappist Ale, brewed at the Spencer Brewery at St. Joseph's Abbey in Spencer.

The ale went on sale for the first time in January at Julio's outlets in Massachusetts. Until now, Trappist ale was brewed only in Europe.

"We had a very good sale," Pierce said. The store sold 55 cases, each containing six four-packs. That's 1,320 bottles. They were gone in two hours.

Since then, he said, the store has gotten nonstop calls asking when more of the ale would be available.

At Spencer Country Spirits, owner Alan Letendre said there has been such a demand that, after he sold out his 50 cases, he started a list for people who come in to buy the ale.

He said the day the delivery truck came to his store, he took a picture of the delivery men wheeling in the cases and posted the picture on Facebook. The beer arrived at noon. All 50 cases — 1,200 bottles — were gone by 9 p.m.

continue at Catholic Herald

Update: I'm told they take mail orders!

HT AS

Cheers

Trappists monks

This picture is actually from Valley Falls, Rhode Island.  Not sure why Wisconsin has it in their archives.  By the way, I tried searching surrounding states for archive photos of Catholic interest and their historical societies are vastly inferior to Wisconsin's.  They have a great magazine if you want to consider joining. 
Wisconsin Historical Society

Sub Tuum: Iowa monks make, donate casket for youngest victim in Arizona shooting

CNN is carrying this story on the monks of New Mellary donating a casket for the youngest shooting victim in Arizona. As I said in my last post, these are good men.

By Eric Marrapodi and Kara Devlin

A group of Trappist monks in Iowa have donated a handmade casket to bury 9-year-old Christina Green, the youngest victim in the Saturday attack that killed six and wounded 13 others in Arizona.
Sam Mulgrew, the general manager of Trappist Caskets in Peosta, Iowa, told CNN a family representative of the Greens reached out to the monks at New Melleray Abbey near Dubuque after her death. The custom-made casket arrived in Tucson, Arizona, Wednesday morning.
"We didn't want to send an adult coffin that would be too big, we wanted something just for her," said Mulgrew, who is not a monk but who manages the 11-year-old casket business that is part of the abbey.
The casket, crafted from red oak, was made especially for 9-year-old Christina, Mulgrew said. She died after a gunman opened fire at a constituents event held by U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who was critically wounded in the shooting.
Christina's funeral is scheduled for Thursday in Tucson.
The lid of the casket was inscribed with her name, date of birth and death, and a cross. The family also will receive five small keepsake crosses hewn from the same wood as the casket, Mulgrew said.
Before the casket was sent from the monastery in Iowa to Arizona, the monks gave the casket a special blessing inside their chapel on Tuesday.
The monks are Roman Catholic and are part of the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance. They make and sell custom caskets with "reverence for nature," according to the Trappist Caskets website.
"Along with prayer and study, our casket ministry is an extension of our sacred work. We labor quietly with our hands in support of our life of simplicity," says a statement on the website.
Mulgrew said when a child dies it hits the monks particularly hard. He said they don't like to sell children's caskets; instead, a "child casket fund" they started often covers the costs.

Sub Tuum

Made Fr Z for being a middle man!

Via BadgerCatholic on Twitter I learned from the blog Sub Tuum, of the Cistercian monks at the Abbey of Our Lady of Spring Bank, that the Trappist’s of New Melleray in Iowa made and donated a casket for little Christina Green, killed in Tucson.