Glossary
Abbey beer
Beer in a monastic style that is not made by a Trappist community — sometimes under licence from an existing abbey, sometimes evoking a defunct one, sometimes purely a brand.
Also called abdij, bière d abbaye.
Trade usage. Established by practice in the trade rather than by any formal definition.
Belgium has a separate "Certified Belgian Abbey Beer" mark with its own criteria, requiring a genuine link to an existing or historical abbey and a payment to it. Many products described as abbey beer carry no such certification.
The distinction from Trappist is provenance, not quality or style. Several excellent Belgian ales are abbey beers.
Related
- Trappist beer — The stricter certification.
More vocabulary
Alcohol-free · Beer duty · Gluten-free beer · Low-alcohol · Reinheitsgebot · Trappist beer
See every term on the glossary index.
Last reviewed 2026-08-16.