The abbey opened a brewery inside the monastery in 1884 in order to finance the monastery and contribute to charitable causes. Despite this goal, the brewery was run as a commercial enterprise. The abbey owned several bars in the area and produced lager under its own Trappist brand as well as several private labels. In 1969, the abbey licenced the brewing operations to Artois (now InBev). In 1980 the deal with Artois ended, and the monks went back to brewing themselves, this time a top fermented beer which had been made in limited quantities since the 1950"s only. Over time the brewery introduced more varieties, first with the Dubbel and Tripel in 1987, then in 1992 they introduced their Blond. Between 1993 and 2000, the brewery also marketed a variety called Enkel. The brewery also produces the world"s only Trappist witbier. The brewery also used to produce the Jopen beer.
The brewery started exporting in 1985, and in 1989 the brewery was modernised.
From 1980 until 1999, the brewery was largely run by the monks. Due to the difficulty of the aging monks continuing to operate the brewery, a limited liability company was set up as a subsidiary of the large commercial brewer, Bavaria. In 1999 the new company began to take over day to day operations, renting the buildings and equipment from the abbey.
As a result of this agreement, a dispute arose with the International Trappist Association, the body that governs the labelling of goods as Trappist. They claimed that this new method of operation was against the regulations that permitted the beer to display the Authentic Trappist Product logo. Whilst the beer continued to be brewed within the abbey walls, the arrangement with Bavaria was felt to be too commercialised. As a result, the brewery withdrew their use of the logo on 1 December 1999. However, the brewery continued to label the beer as Trappistenbier.
After a lengthy study by all parties, and a review of the agreement between the abbey and brewery, the beers were granted the right to display the logo again as of September 9, 2005. As part of this settlement, the monks have taken a more active control of the brewery day to day operations, working several hours each day.
