St. Bernardus is an abbey brewery with a history connected to Trappist monks. Back in the 1800s, anti-clericalism forced the Catsberg Abbey monks to leave France for Belgium, where they founded the Refuge Notre Dame de St. Bernard and produced cheese to finance themselves. In 1946, shortly after the second World War, they entered into an agreement with a neighbouring abbey called Sint-Sixtus Westvleteren, to brew and market their full-bodied and quality Trappist beers. After decades of brewing the famed Westvleteren Trappist ales under license, it was in 1992 that these ales became known as St. Bernardus. As such, the St. Bernardus abbey ales are today, the closest commercially-available match in both flavour and recipe to the great and elusive Westvletern ales.