In the 1980s, there was an attempt by Claus, the new owner of St. Bernardus, to extend the license once more, but the Trappists across Belgium were establishing an exclusive club, the International Trappist Association. That club would put in motion an ambitious building and engineering project to build a brewery inside Westvleteren Abbey.

“Guy Claus and his family, the previous owners of St. Bernardus, knew they were going to lose the Trappist name, so they stopped investing in the brewery,” Passarella says. “It was run down. The brewery was put up for sale, but nobody wanted it. The specialty beer market in Belgium was changing because of large brewing companies. It was a real crisis.”

The brewery continued brewing its beers under the new name—St. Bernardus—after the license ended in 1992, but it wasn’t going well. “The beer was good,” Passarella says. “But nobody in the whole of Belgium knew about the St. Bernardus brand. Everybody knew Sint Sixtus and Trappist Westvleteren and that the monks had started brewing for themselves again. What would be the point of having St. Bernardus around?”