Westvleteren beer is ranked the best beer in the world by Rate Beer and Beer Advocate, but it’s limited in quantity and difficult to find.
A recent Wall Street Journal article, “Trappist Command: Thou Shalt Not Buy Too Much of Our Beer,” described how the monks at St. Sixtus monastery are fighting to stave off an unquenchable demand.
The monks are doing their best to resist getting bigger. They don’t advertise and don’t put labels on their bottles. They haven’t increased production since 1946. They sell only from their front gate. You have to make an appointment and there’s a limit: two, 24-bottle cases a month. Because scarcity has created a high-priced gray market online, the monks search the net for resellers and try to get them to stop.
The article raises an interesting question in terms of environmental impact. Even though the brewery’s footprint is small, the increased demand draws consumers in from all over the world. One person in the Wall Street Journal article drove 16 hours from Zurich, Switzerland to the gates of St. Sixtus in Belgium for the rare beer.
It’s hard to resist, right? We’re talking about the best beer in the world. Sounds like it might be worth it. So, we looked to find out how much damage a trip over the Atlantic would have.
A round-trip plane flight from New York City to Brussels and back would emit 1.64 tons of carbon dioxide, according to the Web site Climate Care.
Even when a business tries everything to limit its impact, the outside forces of supply and demand can be beyond their control.