Photo / Mark Smith

Photo / Mark Smith

Brother Jules is angry. He is looking at his watch in agitation and gripping a wrench tightly.

I've arrived in Achel, one of Belgium's six Trappist breweries (the only other one in the world is just across the border in Holland), as part of a pilgrimage across the country to appreciate its fine beers and the monastic way of life. Yet just over halfway through day one, I've discovered that the monks' secretive life also extends to road signs to their holy homes - there aren't any.

I've been driving up and down country roads, becoming increasingly lost, and it has made me late by an hour-and-a-half. Brother Jules is less than impressed.

My interpreter, Lucien Jans, is using his best Flemish to calm Jules down. Jans tells me that the monks lead such an ordered and secluded life that they don't necessarily appreciate any difficulties in finding the place.

Brother Jules, a former baker who became a monk when his wife died eight years ago, was put in the brewery because he knows a thing or two about yeast - an essential part of the beer-making process - and his annoyance fades as he gets on to the intricacies of this.

Many of Belgium's finest brews can't be bought outside the region in which they are made. So a trip here is essential if you take beer seriously, and many Belgians treat beer much as the French treat wine.

Trappist beers are in a league of their own, rightly feted for their complex flavours. The monks brew with an eye for quality rather than quantity, and this is what makes them so special. A typical pils lager takes three days to brew, but a Trappist beer can take two to three months, with secondary fermentation taking place in the bottle.

Brother Jules tells me that the Trappist breweries still make only as much beer as will provide an income for their needs. Once it runs out, that's it.

Achel itself is the only Trappist monastery that has its brewery and cafe inside the abbey. This means that in Achel you can sip your beer quietly while watching through large glass windows as Brother Jules, wrench in hand, goes about making beer.

It also has a well-stocked shop selling most Belgian beers, and their individual glasses.

Every so often you see Brother Jules run out to go to prayers - seven times a day, in fact. The monks' first daily commune with their maker is at 4.30am, but visitors can join Brother Jules and the others at prayer in the abbey at a public service at 2.15pm every day.