Summer holiday excursions usually target a main attraction. Add a splendid beer, and that makes the car journey even more worthwhile. So it is with New Norcia; already renowned as Australia’s only monastic town, it has gained a second unique appeal as the only place where Aussie-brewed abbey ale is served on tap.

The first limited batch of New Norcia Abbey Ale was brewed early last year at the Malt Shovel Brewery in Camperdown, NSW, and shipped to WA for ageing in the cool cellars beneath the 150-year-old monastery. Since its release in September, demand has been astonishing. In less than three months the Abbey Ale tap at the New Norcia Hotel ran dry and most of the bottles had been sold, mainly by the carton, not only to visitors but by mail order to customers all over the country.

Never fear, though: Brewmaster Chuck Hahn’s team responded by brewing a second, bigger, batch which is now available at the hotel. “This batch is even better,” Dr Hahn said.

Abbey Ale is traditional monastic beer, deep golden in colour, blessed with scents and tastes of citrus, stone fruit, candy and spice and a delicate champagne-like finish balanced with a hint of bitterness. At 7 per cent alcohol, one 330ml brandy-goblet of the glowing ale goes a long way with a sip-and-savour approach. From the tap, the flavour is tamped down because of lager-like chilling, so it’s best to let it rest to warm up for a while before drinking. Then, sit on the terrace and let the unctuous, silky fluid caress your tastebuds mouthful by anticipatory mouthful.

It’s a fulfilling way to round off the day. And by buying Abbey Ale you are helping the community of nine Benedictine monks – whose Order has owned and operated the town since the first missionaries arrived from Spain in 1846 - to maintain New Norcia’s 65 buildings.

After taking in the monastery, Holy Trinity Abbey Church, museum largely devoted to missionary schooling history, a roadhouse, farm, education centre and former colleges, stroll across from the car park to the New Norcia Hotel.

It’s possibly the most imposing pub in Australia, built in stone on the lines of a Spanish palace with steps along the frontage, beautiful tiled terrace beneath towering arches, colonnaded upper storey veranda and magnificent glass-panelled doors. Down a passage to the surprisingly cosy bar, and you come to the Abbey Ale tap.

“It intrigues a lot of visitors,” hotel manager Rick Ryan said. “Abbey Ale is an immediate talking point. People ask what it is, we tell them about the tradition of monastic ale and once they taste it most are surprised and enthusiastic. It means we sell quite a lot of packs for visitors to take home.”

New Norcia is 132kms from Perth on Great Northern Highway.

Packaged New Norcia Abbey Ale sells for; $25 per 6-pack, $80 carton and $50 gift packs of a 6-pack and six badged glasses. Available from the New Norcia Hotel or by mail order, delivered via Australia Post, ordered from the hotel. Phone 9654 8034, email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or go to

http://www.newnorcia.wa.edu.au/hotel.htm

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ALE TALE

Innis & Gunn: Among the blooming heather . . . the only ale brewed by Scotland’s Innis & Gunn company is, like Abbey Ale, one for beer purists. The ultra-smooth, 6.6 per cent sipping beer is aged for 77 days, 30 of them spent in oak whisky barrels. It even shines like polished oak in its 330ml ornate clear-glass bottle. Grassy, woody aroma and a timber-tinged parade of flavours including toffee, mellow whisky-soaked fruit and orangey sharpness all mark Innis & Gunn blissful ale as among the world’s best.