The Bowsing Ken

322 : Chimay Bleue
and
The Trappist Ales of the Abbey de Scourmont, at Chimay, Belgium

   "History shows that the iron industry is one of the oldest trades in Belgium," so states the book "Industries of Belgium," by the Comite Central Industriel de Belgique - 1922.  A really long time ago there were two groups of people, sometimes described as tribes, which many consider to be some of the most ancient ancestors of the many cultures that make up the Belgian people. Called the Eburons and the Nervians, these cultures were quite adept at extracting iron ore from the ground, and turning it into everything from swords to plowshares. They garnered particular interest from Julius Caesar, when he came trooping through Gaul. Various areas of what is today Belgium were back then some of the largest iron producers to the Roman Empire.
  More modern archeological excavations have indicated that in the areas around the towns of Charleroi, Namur, Vireux, and for our purposes, around the town of Chimay, as well as many others, a thriving iron industry has existed for hundreds of years. Researchers have concluded that many modern Belgian towns in the area can be traced back to this era. That the town was founded was often based on the fact that it was centered around a local iron forge.
  The name Chimay is apparently an ancient name of Celtic origin meaning "pleasant." Some references date it back to at least the time of Julius Caesar, who when he was traipsing around Europe and generally conquering all he encountered, took decent notes on his travels. Caesar noted a people known as the Pleumoxii, a subset of the larger Nervii (Nervians) people, the Pleumoxii so called because they lived around the "Hill of Pleamont," which itself was near "Chimay." Of course, all of this is still subject to learned debate. Indeed, some of these cultures are only briefly mentioned once - by Caesar, and no one else - in all of recorded history, so we don't know much about them. By the way - according to 1889 edition of "Putnam's 18,000 Words Often Mispronounced," the word Chimay is pronounced as: she-ma' (all long vowels - she-may')
   Of course, just when things seem to be going fairly well, war has to intervene, and as European history shows, this happened on a fairly regular basis. To name just one example - in the fifteen century Charles the Bold came roaring through what is now parts of modern Belgium leaving the inevitable waste in his wake, including destroying many of the mines, mills and forges of the local iron producers. It took nearly a century to rebuild. By the end of the sixteenth century, the industry had recovered, and Belgian iron manufacturing techniques were being exported to England, Sweden, Germany and other parts of Europe.

  In the Walloon portion of Belgium there is an vicinity called Le Borinage, and although it is not defined as far as geopolitical borders are concerned, the iron industry and in particular the discovery of massive coal deposits gave the area its name. Much of the area called Le Borinage is located within the Belgian province of Hainaut. Some references record that the first coal deposits were discovered around 1820, and by 1830 the extraction of coal was the major industry of the area. The town of Chimay is in Le Borinage.
   Now, even the passing student with an interest in the era called the Industrial Revolution will know that for the average worker, life was rough and hard. Yes, there was a ton of money being made, but little of it filtered down to the guy on the end of the shovel. Even if you did have a job as a coal miner, or iron worker, the pay was less than a couple of bucks (U.S. in 1912) per week. Vagaries of the economy meant that while there were times of boom, there were also times of bust, with all its attendant ills.  One 19th century correspondent  - Demetrius C. Boulger - noted that for a multitude of reasons the: "mining population has been allowed to sink into a state of physical and mental decay." He saw that massive malnutrition spanning several generations actually stunted the growth of the locals. A hardscrabble life likewise had an affect on social life. Boulger adds that: "It is scarcely going to far to say that morality does not exist in the Borinage." It should be pointed out that the mines were owned by anonymous joint-stock corporations, which paid no royalties to the land-owners, and paid no tax to the Belgian government. Much of the coal, and all of the money left Le Borinage. For the miners life was indeed hard, with generation after generation unable to escape their inevitable fate. Perhaps Boulger's analysis of the situation may be a bit melodramatic, but situations like those in Le Borinage have existed all over the globe, throughout time, and even exist to this day.

  Soon after the start of the coal mining explosion in Le Borinage, a French priest by the name of Jean-Baptiste Jourdain, who from 1843 was the village priest of the town of Virelles - just down the road from the town of Chimay - became increasingly concerned about the lives of these miners. Father Jourdain thought that perhaps introducing some of the miners to farming could just be a way for them severe the chains and to get out of the mines. And, the good father had an ace up his sleeve. He knew that a certain Joseph de Riquet, a local landowner, had deeply held Christian beliefs, and as such, could help him along with his plan. You see, Joseph de Riquet was also known as the Prince of Chimay, so he was certainly in a position to help.

  Here's a quick trip through history: In the 1200s, Chimay, and all of the vast countryside surrounding the tiny village, was designated a lordship by the French royal house, and given over to the Soissons family. At the whim of the French royalty, who sort of "owned" this area at the time, it changed hands several more times - from the Beaumonts to the Chatillons to the Count of Blois to the Croy family and finally to the aforementioned Charles the Bold. Under Charles the Bold, these possessions were elevated to that of a countdom, soon after which Charles V - the French king - raised it once again, this time to a principality. By this time, it was back in the family of Croy, namely Phillp de Croy. By 1612, the Croys had all died off, and the Principality of Chimay was given over to the D'Arenbergs. Then, in 1750, the territory was given to the family of Caraman.  Now, the Caramans were actually an Italian family who originally had the surname Riquet - sound familiar - a shortening of the name Riquetti. The family had fled from Florence during some Italian troubles, settled in France, and later made themselves quite useful, particularly militarily, to Louis XIV. In appreciation, Louis gave the family the Principality of Chimay, and that is why Joseph de Riquet is known as the Prince of Chimay. Sometimes he is referred to as the Prince of Caraman-Chimay. All quite simple, right?

   So, back to Father Jourdain. His plan was to establish a religious community on land that the Prince donated for the purpose. Being rather devote, the Prince was all for the idea, but Father Jourdain met with some resistance from the local Trappist administration. In 1844, one Dom Martinus, of Westmalle, flatly turned down the idea, as did, at least initially, the hierarchy over at Westvleteren. The leadership at Westvleteren, perhaps because their own monastery was over populated, soon had a change of heart, and on 14 July 1850, a procession of monks and their possessions departed Westvleteren for what was called Le Ferme de la Flamande, in the Scourmont hills outside Chimay.
  Back in this time, there were many smallish communities called communes in this area. Indeed, the present town of Chimay only really dates back to 1 January 1977, when some 14 or so local communes, including the original Chimay, were administratively combined into one.  Some records indicate that the new monastery was actually located nearer a commune called Le Forge or Les Forges, but then again there were quite a few Les Forges, or variations of that name, in the area. A forge is where iron ore is processed into iron, so "forge" was a pretty popular name. The new monastery was called Notre Dame de Saint Joseph - in honor of the Prince's patron saint - and was considered a subsidiary of the monastery at Westvleteren. Alternately, the monastery was called Notre Dame de St Joseph à Forges, the last words meaning a "at the forges," again a reference to the iron production that took place in the area.
   Life was tough for the first couple of decades. The monks found that the land was either too swampy or too hilly to make a go at large scale farming. However, what the land was good for was pasture, and the monks soon switched their major emphasis to raising dairy cows. Although most monasteries made and sold beer, Chimay was originally known, and is still known today, for their cheese. On 14 September 1871, the monastery was re-designated as an Abbey, and the name was changed from Notre Dame de Saint Joseph to Notre Dame de Scourmont.
   And now to the beer: Earlier, on 28 September 1861, Belgian King Leopold - Léopold, Roi des Belges - granted the monastery to permission to brew their own beer. Adhering to Trappist tenets, beer was sold only in order to support the monastery and to help the local community. In October 1862, a modern brewing plant - complete with steam engine-powered mills - was completed and brewing was underway. The steam engines, by the way, also powered portions of the dairy, the buttery and the cheese factory. After experimenting with a couple of different styles, the monks opted for what they called "biere forte," a top fermenting dark ale, for sale outside the monastery.  And, of course, a little table beer was brewed for the monks themselves.

  In Jef Van Den Steen's excellent book "Trappist - The Seven Magnificent Beers," (2010) the author relates a few comments made by one Auguste Malengreau about the beer back when he visited the monastery in 1874. Malengreau noted that: "The brewery, which was built according to the most advanced and state-or-the-art techniques, produces an excellent beer which is widely renowned in the area and which the Trappists send in substantial quantities’ to far-flung regions. The beer is very strong and highly nutritious. The Trappists do not drink it themselves. They brew a lighter beer for their own use." Van Den Steen also mentions that many doctors of the day recommended the beer to their patients, calling it "biere de santé" or healthy beer.
 In the early 20th Century, war again came through the area, and although the abbey was still intact after World War One, the brewery was gone. The Germans, ever on the look out for strategic metals, absconded with the mostly copper brewing equipment. It took over a year, after the end of the war, for the monks to rebuild the brewery. World War Two wasn't any better for the monks, who were one and all kicked out of the abbey, which was used as a headquarters and a barracks for thousands of German soldiers. At the end of this war the monks returned and once again rebuilt. It was after the war, with the brewery once again in operation, that the monks at Chimay began producing first two - and later the third - of the three beers that we are so familiar with today - the Red, the White, and the Blue.

  Some folks say that the monks picked these colors as a nod to the French flag - plausible by not true. According to Mr Van Den Steen, the white was chosen to symbolize the pale nature of that particular beer, while the red and the blue was simply chosen at random. Anyway, after the war Scourmont's abbot - Dom Anselme le Bail - chose a number of young novices to run the various aspects of the abbey's businesses, again to earn money to rebuild the abbey itself, as well as help the outside community. For the brewery he chose Father Theodore, who oddly enough had no clue how to make beer.  So, Father Theodore went to the University of Leuven, and under the tutelage of Professor Jean Decleck - Head of Faculty of Brewing Science - learned his new assignment. The idea was to combine the old, tried and true brewing methods used my the abbey for decades, with a little modern science. The result was Chimay Red (Rouge) and Chimay Blue (Bleue), both introduced in 1948, and Chimay White (Blanche), introduced in 1966. The original yeast strain selected by Father Theodore is still in use today.
  Over the ensuing years the abbey has entered into various agreements and partnerships with distributors, sellers and transportation entities, all of which is too mundane to relate here. Suffice it to say, Chimay soon became a worldwide brand, and many of these agreements were made so that the monks could concentrate on their monastic responsibilities. For example, in December of 1974, bottling, distribution and many administrative functions were turned over to a company called S.A. Bieres de Chimay, located in the nearby town of Baileux. The beer was still brewed within the abbey, so the Trappist appellation was still appropriate and valid.