abbey beer

Belgian beer marketing label with no real significance, largely designed to get people confused with the few real trappist beers. There are probably a hundred or so "abbey" brands of beer available in Belgium. They are, in the main, bottled ales in both brown ("double") and blond ("triple") varieties ranging from strongish to seriously dangerous in strength. In some cases - Floreffe, Maredsous, for example - there are licensing links between an actual religious institution and the brewery; in others the name of a local or not-so-local monastery (such as Interbrew's Leffe, named for a long-defunct abbey just north of Dinant)has just been assumed; none are actually brewed by monks in abbeys. The "abbey" label is no indication of quality whatsoever - some are very good, some are truly dreadful.