Brouwerij St Bernardus

In the early 1900s, the Trappists fled from the Catsberg (Mont des Cats) to Watou. They moved into the 'Patershof' farm (also known as 'Courtewyle'), a stone's throw from the current brewery. The farm was renamed 'Réfuge de Notre Dame de St.Bernard'. Réfuge is the French word for a place of refuge. The reason for their move? In France they had to pay taxes on their proceeds and in Belgium this was not yet the case. The clergy will make cheese there.

Between 1930 and 1934, attitudes towards the clergy in France improved. The fathers of Mont Des Cats decided to withdraw their activities from Belgium and return to France. The cheese factory was taken over by Evariste Deconinck. Later the Réfuge was sold to the OCMW of Bruges.

Between 1934 and 1946, Deconinck continued to build the cheese factory from the current guesthouse 'Brouwershuis' on the Trappistenweg. The cheese was sold under the brand names 'St. Bernard Watou' and 'Port Salut de Watou'.

Shortly after the Second World War, Evariste Deconinck was asked by the Trappists of Westvleteren to commercialize and brew their Trappist beers under license. The original license agreement was signed for a period of 30 years. The brewmaster Mathieu Szafranski (of Polish descent) moved with him and, in addition to the know-how, he also brought with him the recipes and the famous St.Sixtus yeast. A new brewery was built next to the cheese factory. In 1959 the cheese factory was sold, or at least the installation and the brand name were left to the St.Bertinus dairy in Poperinge, which later became part of the Elvapo group. Belgomilk took over these activities in 1986. In the early 1960s, Bernadette Deconinck's (daughter of Evariste's) husband, Guy Claus, entered the brewery and new negotiations were held with the Westvleteren Abbey to renew the licensing agreement. This happened in 1962 for a new period of 30 years, until 1992.

The agreement came to an end in 1992 because the Trappist breweries had decided to only award the qualification "Authentic Trappist Beer" to beers brewed within the walls of the abbeys. From then on, the beers were sold under the brand name 'St.Bernardus'. Furthermore, this period was mainly one of uncertainty and a rather difficult search to make a good restart of the brewery under the new brand name.

In 1998, Hans Depypere took over the brewery. Slowly but steadily, Hans put the brewery back on track. Under his leadership, the brewery evolved from a few thousand hectoliters to approximately 40,000 hectoliters of sales in twenty years (2017). This required a lot of investments, with the temporary end point being the opening of a completely new wing in 2018, where there is room for additional warehouses, a new brewery shop, party, conference and seminar rooms, a new reception area for the brewery tours and, finally, to top it off, an impressive 360° rooftop bar and tasting room, with the melodious name 'Bar Bernard'.