Sierra Nevada works with Trappists on Abbey Ales, Zombie Monastery

This is nuts. But it's also really cool.

Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. announced a partnership with the Trappist-Cistercian Abbey of New Clairvaux to create the only authentic Trappist-style Abbey ales in America....In 2011, Sierra Nevada and the Trappist-Cistercian Abbey of New Clairvaux are working to bring this centuries-old tradition to America with Ovila—the nation’s only authentic Trappist-style Abbey Ale.

There will be a Dubbel, Saison, and Quadrupel. The beer proceeds will benefit a new Xanadu!...

Wait. Wrong film. We mean, a new Chapter House! The monks are rebuilding

an architectural marvel—a 12th century, early-gothic Cistercian chapter house—on their grounds in Vina, California a few miles north of Sierra Nevada’s home in Chico. The medieval chapterhouse—Santa Maria de Ovila—was begun in 1190, near the village of Trillo, Spain.

Cistercian monks lived, prayed, and worked there for nearly 800 years. In 1931, California newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst purchased the abbey and shipped it to Northern California. Hearst’s plans were never realized, and the stones fell into disrepair. In 1994, the Trappist-Cistercian monks of the Abbey of New Clairvaux, gained possession of the ruins, and began the painstaking stone-by-stone reconstruction of the historic abbey.

We just can't escape Hearst, can we now?

(Great for Sierra Nevada for helping to underwrite crazy-ass visionary ventures. Love the Optima in the logotype, too. Totally works as a gothic-modern bridge!)

h/t Beervana