Why the name ?
Everyone knows the folk song about the monk who slept for too long. Brother Jacob (Frere Jacques as known in England). But why did that poor monk not get to the early mass on time? The legend is as follows:
“We are in 1385. Jacobus Klaaszn is a sixteen year old novice and his abbot gives him the assignment to become an apprentice of brother Isidoor. Brother Isidoor is the brewing master of the monastery. But that good man is nearing the ripe old age of eighty. And the abbot wants to avoid that Isidoor takes his brewery secrets to his grave. The beer of Isidoor is a pleasant, slightly alcoholic beer. The monks drink it with their lunch.
Brother Jacob – as the boy is now called – is a keen student. One day Brother Isidoor sends him to the monastery of Rochefort. He there is served a beer he very much likes the taste of. He starts talking with the monk/brewing master and learns a few things. Back at home he confesses to the abbot what he has learned in Rochefort. He asks permission to brew such beer himself. Father abbot gives his blessing, but only on condition that Brother Jacob experiments in his own time.
That is why Brother Jacob is busy with pans, boilers and casks in the middle of the night. He is so engrossed in his work he goes back to his cell much too late. With the well known result. “Brother Jacob, are you still asleep?” (Frere Jacques, dormez-vous?)
But the work of Brother Jacob has had great results. One day his beer is completely finished. He presents his first draught to father abbot. Who is delighted, but also worried. The beer tastes delicious and rich, but contains more alcohol than the monks and brothers are used to. That is why he instructs that the Broeder Jacob beer may only be brewed in the greatest secret. And only for him and the brother-brewer. And so it was done...
… until Johan Claes and Brunoagain got a taste for it in the twenty-first century. They get busy and brew a new beer with the approving blessing of Brother Jacob.
