St. Bernardus turned 75 last year, but held off on celebrating and releasing its 75th anniversary beer due to the pandemic. This month the iconic brewery announced the release of the anniversary beer, a special tripel, as well as news of this year’s Abt 12 magnum release.

Anniversary beer details:

Last year, on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the brewery, we launched the book “A brewery hidden in the hop fields”. In the meantime, we are more than a year later and the time is right to release our one-time, limited edition ’75 years anniversary beer’.

St.Bernardus ‘75 Years Anniversary’ is the final element in our celebration of our brewery’s 75th anniversary. In honour of the occasion, our brewers have created a festive ‘tripel style’ birthday beer. This beer will be sold in an extremely limited edition of 11,000 bottles, and only as 75cl. Every bottle is marked with its own, unique number!

Colour

A rich golden beer with an ample, but elegant head of foam.

Characteristics

Colour: Blond
Type: Tripel
Alcohol: 8.7%
Plato: 18.7
Serving temperature: 4-8°C
Colour (EBC): 16
Bitterness (EBU): 30
Shelf life: 2 years
Packaging: 75cl bottle

Character, flavour, aromas

‘75 Years Anniversary’ definitely shares all the typical traits of a St.Bernardus: Watou’s groundwater gives it a lovely briny tang, quality malts ensure a pleasantly full mouthfeel with notes of brown sugar and nougat, and the unique yeast makes for a refreshingly fruity aroma reminiscent of fruits such as banana, red apple and pear. A balanced finish is complemented nicely by the refined bitterness of the hops.

And news about the Magnum offerings:

Our St.Bernardus Abt 12 Magnum celebrates its crystal anniversary in 2022. In several ways, this 2022 version crowns a tradition that first began in 2012.

Since 2012, we have produced a limited number of 1.5-litre Magnum bottles each year. These special dark brown St.Bernardus Magnum bottles are filled with our Abt 12 and feature a raised brewery logo in relief, ‘Bière Belge’ neck, a personalised cork, and a unique muselet. We also commission artists to design each label. All the artworks become part of our brewery’s art collection and can subsequently be admired in our brewery shop.

VERMEERSCH FAMILY

For our first edition back in 2012, Belgian artist Rik Vermeersch created a painting titled ‘De Abt’ (the abbot). Rik is an illustrator, painter, and sculptor and the son of Belgian sculptor and painter José Vermeersch (1922 – 1997). José has founded an extensive family of artists, with both Rik and Rik’s sons Pieter, Lowie, Tinus, and Robin all following in his creative footsteps. Lowie is an internationally renowned automotive designer and creator. He began his career at the illustrious Italian Pininfarina and has now been running Granstudio, his own design studio in Turin, for the past decade. Pieter, Tinus and Robin Vermeersch have also built up impressive portfolios in the visual arts.

José Vermeersch would have celebrated his 100th birthday in 2022. Ten years after his son Rik helped us launch our Magnum tradition, we are honouring José with his own version, based on the sculpture ‘Vrouw & Man’ (Woman and Man).

‘Vrouw and Man’ dates from 1986 and is characteristic of José Vermeersch’s work, in which the human figure is a recurring theme. His body of work is a bold, free expression of an authentic search for existential truth. His works often mix several types of clay, giving them a marbled appearance.

ST.BERNARDUS x WATOU x ART

It also happens to be 30 years ago that José Vermeersch was the star attraction of the ‘Watou Arts Festival’, which celebrates art and poetry. In 1992, Gwy Mandelinck, the driving force behind this arts festival, decided to have him provide the focal point to that year’s festival with an impressive installation at the iconic Douviehuis. Vermeersch created 70 sculptures based on 16 poems by writers such as Herman de Coninck, Rutger Kopland, and Hugo Claus. At the time, our brewery was already heavily involved in the arts festival as the event’s sponsor and partner. In the 80s and 90s, spurred on by Bernadette Dekoninck, daughter of our founder Evariste Dekoninck, our current Guesthouse Brouwershuis grew, becoming an ideal summer destination for artists thanks to a great emphasis on the arts.

This same passion for the arts is shared by our brewery’s owner Hans Depypere, who wishes to celebrate our brewery’s rich heritage while simultaneously promoting the combination of art, Watou, and St.Bernardus.

MAGNUM 2022 + VARIOUS NEW LIMITED EDITIONS

Together, these circumstances are the perfect impetus for us to, in addition to creating a new St.Bernardus Abt 12 Magnum’s 10th anniversary edition, also honour a decade’s celebration of the arts by St.Bernardus.

We are therefore offering the Magnum 2012 and 2022 as a set in a stylish wooden box, to be sold in a limited edition of 500 from May 2022. This set is available worldwide, just like the separate Magnum 2022.

In honour of the past decade, we will also be offering a wooden collector’s box with all the Magnums since 2012 (excepting the 2017 version, which is completely sold out) from November 2022. Only 100 of these exclusive collector’s boxes will be available. Sales of these boxes will be limited to our St.Bernardus brewery shop in Watou.