I found this story on a link which was on a post which I got on an email from Matty B today. Apart from being a kind of funny story off an MSN news site, there is a wonderful kind of anti-consumer message in it.
Monks Run Out Of World’s Best Beer
12/08/2005 05:23 PM – Reuters
Monks at a Belgian abbey have been forced to stop selling their famous beer after it was voted the best in the world and was promptly sold out.
The abbey of Saint Sixtus of Westvleteren in western Belgium is home to some 30 Cistercian and Trappist monks who lead a life of seclusion, prayer, manual labor – and beer-brewing.
A survey of thousands of beer enthusiasts from 65 countries on the RateBeer Web site (www.ratebeer.com) in June rated the Westvleteren 12 beer as the world’s best.
But the abbey only has a limited brewing capacity, and was not able to cope with the beer’s sudden popularity.
“Our shop is closed because all our beer has been sold out,” said a message on the abbey’s answering machine, which it calls the “beer phone.”
And the abbey has no intention of boosting its capacity to satisfy market demand.
“We are not brewers, we are monks. We brew beer to be able to afford being monks,” the father abbot said on the abbey’s Web site.
Monk Mark Bode told De Morgen daily: “Outsiders don’t understand why we are not raising production. But for us life in the abbey comes first, not the brewery.”
No Guarantees 
there is something very powerful in having a sense of call that sees the rest of your life prioritised in such a way that all other things become subservient to the “one thing”.
but..but..but (the left half of my brain…) they could raise money and give it to the poor, they could build a bigger monestry so more people could be monks, they could start a school and educate children in the ways of the lord…surely we need money to see god’s kingdom come? don’t we?
interesting story. I wonder how long it will take for the thoughs of dollars enter the mind of one of the monks… (maybe i’m just cynical – then again, i do like a good beer)