How do you pronounce the "Abt" in St. Bernardus Abt 12?
I'm interested in the proper pronunciation as well as whether there is potentially a pronunciation that may be more prevalent in the US.
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Drink Duvel ! Best Belgian beer I ever drank.– naamvoor DenaamloosJan 11, 2020 at 4:27
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1 Answer
Abt is abbot in Dutch. You can hear a couple people pronounce it on Forvo, but in the States I'd just say abbot. The top two examples are German. If you scroll down there is one Dutch speaker. For anyone unfamiliar with St. Bernardus or how a monk relates to a beer, it's an abbey beer.
Additionally, the 12 in the name seems to refer to the beers gravity. In the Belgian degree system, specific gravity is converted to degrees by subtracting 1 from the number and multiplying by 100 (there's a little history on St. Bernardus if you scroll down to pg. 305). So if the final gravity is 1.012 (PDF for clone recipe), crunch the numbers and you end up with 12 degrees.
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Your answer is correct, but I am wondering if the label is also playing on the historical fact that when an Abbot founds a new monastery he names the first superior of the monastery and send 12 monks to live under his authority. (Abbot plus 12)!– Ken Graham ♦Oct 14, 2016 at 13:14
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Haha. That's a great connection! I believe the 12 came first because it refers to the beers gravity, I'll put my source up in my post. But there's something to the idea that that the number 12 inspired the name abt for the beer. Oct 15, 2016 at 5:22