Melleray
Abbey & Brewery
Melleray Abbey is a very old monastery. beer was brewed there as early as the Middle Ages.
The abbey of Melleray is part of the commune of Meilleraye de Bretagne, district of Chateaubriant, about 50 km from Nantes.
This monastery was founded in 1132 by monks from the Abbey of Pontron, eager to found a new monastery.
The monks had left without really knowing where to go and found themselves, for lack of hospitality, reduced to sleeping under the stars at the foot of a large oak tree. In the trunk of the old tree, they saw a comb of honey with which they could satisfy themselves.
This honeycomb (Mellis Radius) gave its name to the abbey which was born thereafter.
After the abolition of monastic orders, during the revolution, the Meilleraye convent was sold as national property, but in 1817 the purchaser resold it to Trappists who had stayed for a long time in Lulworth in England.
Major repairs were carried out in the house. A forge, weaving workshop, tannery and dairy were installed in the abbey, as well as an English brewery still present in 1851. Another testimony from 1826 also references the brewery. Finally, it seems that the cultivation of hops was also practiced there.
The entrance to the abbey in October 1903
Sorting potatoes - Ora et Labora
This produced beer on site until around 1856, when problems with the supply of raw materials forced the monks to stop production.