December 2, 2011
A nice brewery but a fair hike to get there by public transport! Nice selection of Achel beers, including two beers only available at the cloisters. The Trappist Blonde is lovely on draught. The beer shop is also impressive with a fair range and lots of glassware. Plenty of space to sit outside on a sunny day also.

November 19, 2011
Review is for the bar, not for the bottle shop, which in my opinion has very little to see with the monastery or the brewery. It’s cool that you can get the 5% beers. It’s less cool you can’t drink any of the others. There’s no service, just self service in what looks like a high school canteen. At least in the summer you can sit outside, but I guess in winter, when you have to sit inside it’s much less cosy. So, worth to check it out? Only if you desperately want to try the Achels 5% (which I did) and maybe stock up some bottles from the shop. But other than that, not really.

July 27, 2011
Rustic monastery with a surprisingly large portfolio of quality beers (trappists, Dupont, quadrupel OA). A kind of canteen serves the 5% ABV tap beers. Service is minimal, environment is lovely, prices are quite acceptable. Therefore recommended.

December 11, 2010
ODB & I made the trip up by car to the middle of no where to find this pleasant little diamond in the rough. Great place to sit a taste the Achel Blonde (which is quite outstanding). The beer shop is surprisingly large with a lot of glassware. They have a pretty good variety of beer here as well. Overall, great trip, highly recommended!

September 21, 2010
Nice terras to sit on. Small range of light meals/snacks. They have their own beers available in the cafe and quite a good selection other belgian beers available from the abbey store, including a lot of trappists, abbij beers, gueze/fruit beers and other belgian ales. I would have thought the selection to be close to 200 diiferent beers.

June 16, 2010
Last time I was here is about 5 years ago. Within these five years they changed a lot. I remember that I bought a shitload of Belgian beers here which were kind of normally priced (some cheap, some expensive) Now they have just a tiny bit of different beers left. I heard monk Fustus (or brother Fustus) died and he was the responsible one for the beers that were imported. Since he died they shrimp their collection massively, unfortunately. Also the Abbey cheeses where not to be found, just one I saw. This was different in the past too. There’s no person that helps you, unless you ask for help, but there collection is so small that you don’t need any help. It’s a beautiful place, in a beautiful part of the Belgian/Dutch border and nature. Though it got too touristic. Overall it’s ok, nice nature, some ok beers and food, other memorabilia is sold in another store, so there’s anything for anybody.

February 22, 2010
A modern tavern in a old monestry is not what I expected. So that is why my ambiance rating is not that high. Although when you sit outside and the weather is nice, you look around and see all the old buildings while enjoying your achelse kluis beer-icecream, it is a nice detour worth place filled with rest. And you can also find a nice small shop which sells rather interesting beers in bottles to go. A lot of organic and bio-beers can be found here.

January 24, 2010
The newest of all the Trappist breweries, almost located both in the Netherlands and in Belgium (don’t be afraid, the greatest part of it - including the modern brewery - is in Belgium ;-) ); besides the cloister itself, You’ll find there the bare brewery tap, which looks "like a municipal library" (Tim Webb), a gallery and a grocers’s shop, selling the Achel products plus a relatively wide range of belgian micros. Worth a detour!

January 1, 2010 [ Updated June 13, 2010 ]
I really like this place, even though it might soon be boring from a ticker point of view. The cafe has their beers on tap, including the two only available here, and the food is simple but decent. The shop has a fine selection of beers, and ended up bying thirty or so different beers I hadn’t had plus some old ones. If in the area some other time, I’ll certainly go back.

October 16, 2009
The abbey is very serene and peaceful. There is beautiful scenery on the way there as well. The cafe/brewpub is rather quaint but has a nice atmoshphere. The staff is very friendly and spoke Dutch and English. There is a very meager food selection- sandwiches, soup, bread, pie. They serve 5% versions of their blond and bruin beers that are only available on tap there. I had them both and I enjoyed them. The beer store is great. They have an excellent selection of Belgian beers and a few imports as well. Most of the Trappist beers are available. Every Trappist brewery was well represented (with the exception of Westvleteren of course). And the glassware- wow! I have never seen such a selection of glassware. They have proprietary glassware available for seemingly every beer they sell. I was amazed. Also of note was the decent wine selection, Trappist-made cheese (Achel), and Trappist-made chocolate (La Trappe). The chocolate is delicious. I haven’t sampled the cheese yet. Prices were really quite reasonable for everything. The trip was a really enjoyable experience. I highly recommend a visit.