The Monastery of Christ in the Desert in northern New Mexico wants to start a small brewery so it can take over the Monks’ Ale label now held by a Pecos monastery.

The Santa Fe New Mexican has the slightly confusing story. Here are the key elements:

- Originally Christ of the Desert and the Pecos Benedictine Monastery formed the Abbey Beverage Company with the idea that a brewery would be built in the Pecos.

- A pilot brewery was put in place in the Pecos (pictured at the right in 2005, before it was even unwrapped) while Monks’ Ale was, as it still is, brewed under contract by Sierra Blanca Brewing east of Albuquerque.

- It certainly doesn’t appear that a brewery will ever be built and the Pecos monastery, which owns the land where it would be built but is no longer involved in the management.

- State law requires an entity holding a brewing license to have the ability to brew at its location. Now that means north of Abiquiú, not in the Pecos.

Sierra Blanca owner Rich Weber points out there is another reason for the monks at Christ of the Desert to be able to brew within the monastery even though most of the beer will continue to be made at Sierra Blanca.

“They like people to think its brewed there,” he said. “It helps with the mystique.”

Weber also reported that Christ of the Desert would like to release a second beer, probably a Belgian White or wit.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 4th, 2009 at 12:18 pm and is filed under Abbey-style beers, American style. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.