Monkless Belgian Ales to celebrate 10 years
Published 12:00 pm Tuesday, September 1, 2026
Monkless Belgian Ales, the Belgian-style craft beer that brought Belgium to Bend with a restaurant and taproom, will celebrate its 10th anniversary from 2 to 8 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 12, at The Abbey Taproom in Bend.
Monkless will offer old favorites and new specials with beer releases every hour. The celebration will include T-shirt printing, live music from The Cutmen, Roman’s Island Barbeque food truck, hourly raffles, anniversary merchandise, games and more.
Husband and wife Todd and Robin Clement moved to Bend two decades ago. While working for a software company, self-proclaimed beer connoisseur Todd took his first work trip to Belgium and visited at least a dozen times over the years.
“On the first trip, my eyes were opened even wider,” Todd said. “Beers there are completely different from the beers we see in the area.”
While beer in America is generally hop-forward, Belgian beer relies on yeast flavors and more complex fermentation methods. A decade after his first trip to Belgium — missing the taste of Belgian beer in the Pacific Northwest — Todd said he decided to start a brewery focused exclusively on Belgian-style ales.
Monkless Belgian Ales brews the same style of beer as monks historically brewed in Belgium monasteries, Todd said. “We brew the same style, but we don’t have any monks, so thus monkless,” he continued.
Todd and Robin started brewing in their basement on a one-barrel brewing system. They hired their first employee within six months. They quit their day jobs in 2016 and moved into 10 Barrel Brewing Co.’s former production facility. They opened a taproom on Bend’s east side a year later. In 2019, they closed the taproom to open the Brasserie, a Belgian-inspired restaurant and bar, and opened The Abbey Taproom, a tasting room and expanded production facility, in 2024. Now they have about 60 employees and a 15-barrel system.
“It’s been really fun to be the Belgian brewer in Bend, and it’s been really interesting to watch the community respond so well to it,” Robin said. “There’s not a lot of breweries in the United States that focus on the styles that we do. There’s definitely an interest in Belgian styles, and imports are sometimes hard to find and also can be quite expensive. So we’re kind of the local option.”
Todd and Robin distribute Monkless Belgian Ales to stores in seven other states: Idaho, Washington, Illinois, Wisconsin, Kansas, Colorado and Hawaii.
Robin continued, “We’re super excited to share such a big milestone for us with the community and raise a glass of Belgian ales to the last 10 years of hard work and the next 10 of what lies ahead for us.”
If You Go
What: Monkless 10th anniversary celebration
When: 2 to 8 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 12
Where: The Abbey Taproom 900 SE Wilson Avenue
Contact: (541) 797-6760