Leicestershire has an excellent range of produce made in the county, but few people celebrate the food heritage of the area as much as other regions. So this is the first in a jjheritage series, celebrating Leicestershire food and drink. If you have other suggestions, please get in touch and let us know.
The monks of old had a saying: Patet porta, cor magis. ‘The door is open, the heart even more so.’ By inviting you to taste Tynt Meadow, we offer you a taste of our life.
Mount St Bernard Abbey is a contemplative Roman Catholic monastic community in Charnwood, Leicestershire. It is part of the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance. The life of work and prayer began with Ambrose de Lisle, who lived nearby, and on Michaelmas day of that year (29th September), Brother Augustine Higgs took possession of the half-ruined, four-bedroomed, cottage in Tynt Meadow, in Charnwood Forest. The monks cultivated the wild and barren land. The first monastery was opened in 1837, designed by architect William Railton.
John, the 16th Earl of Shrewsbury, gave a donation for a permanent monastery, and Augustus Welby Pugin, the most famous architect of the Gothic Revival, offered his services for free. In 1844, the new monastery was opened and Mount Saint Bernard was raised to the status of an Abbey in 1848, with the first English Abbot since the Reformation, Dom Bernard Palmer.
As one of many aspects of work, beer was brewed at Mount Saint Bernard in the nineteenth century and, part of a long history of monastic brewing. Past visitors had left accounts expressing their liking for the monks’ table beer. At some point brewing was discontinued, and farming became the main source of income.
When farming became unviable in the twenty first century, the community began to look for an alternative source of income. Brewing was an industry in which many skills could be involved. Reviving the Abbey’s beer-making tradition involved the installation of a new artisanal brewery in 2017-8.
Cistercians esteem the value of simplicity. Simplicity doesn’t stand for a thing done easily, or cheaply, but rather represents a distillation of complexity. It is about processing and ordering a rich, varied reality, and this ethos affects the way the community at Mount St Bernard’s brew their beer. The label designed for Tynt Meadow drew on a twelfth-century Cistercian script, subtly developed by Brother Anselm Baker, who was a noted artist. A quill has also been used to draw the brewery’s logo, a sketch of the lancet windows characteristic of our church. Tynt Meadow coasters elaborate this with another design inspired by the simple stroke of a pen.
And what of the style and taste? Friar Jospeh tells me in our interview, ‘Being part of the great Trappist tradition, the chosen style is a strong dark ale, but one with a clearly English character.
Tynt Meadow is mahogany-coloured, with a subtle, warm red hue, and a lasting beige head. Its aroma carries hints of dark chocolate, liquorice, and rich fruit flavours. The beer is full-bodied, gently balancing the taste of dark chocolate, pepper, and fig. It leaves a warm and dry finish on the palate.’
