Monks brew ‘earthquake beer’ in tribute to town’s recovery

MONKS in the medieval town of Norcia in Umbria, which was badly hit by earthquakes and aftershocks last year, have released a limited edition “earthquake beer”.

The Benedictine monks say it has a unique taste because it is made from beer that was fermenting in vats when the quakes hit Umbria and other parts of central Italy last August and then again in October.

“It’s unique because it remained in the vats during all the seismic activity and the oscillations caused by the aftershocks have given it a particular flavour,” said Father Prior Benedetto Nivakoff, who is the head of the monastic community.

“Although we hope not to have to taste it again in the future,” he said, reflecting the hopes of people in central Italy that they have seen the last of the seismic activity which killed more than 300 people and flattened entire villages. A centuries-old church, the Basilica di San Benedetto, which overlooks the town’s main piazza, was levelled in October and is being painstakingly restored.

The quake, on October 30, was the most powerful to hit Italy in 36 years.

Only 5,000 bottles of the beer have been produced and are being sold from a container at San Benedetto in Monte, just outside Norcia, where the monks are building a new monastery and an abbey. It is expected that the new monastery will be completed by the autumn.

Each bottle bears the words: “Reemerging along with the city – beer brewed during the six months of earthquakes.”

Almost all the monks are American – they moved to Norcia in 2000 as part of a plan by the Benedictine order and the local diocese to revive a priory that had been abandoned since the early 19th century.

They learned the art of brewing from Trappist monks in Belgium and have been producing bottled beer for the past five years.