Shipping to 30+ countries

Shipping

Hoptimaal offers a wide variety of beers both in-store and online. If you can place an order, we usually have the product in stock (though mistakes can happen, unfortunately). Products that are in stock will be shipped the same day if ordered before 3:00 PM.

If we make an error with stock levels, you will be notified within 24 hours. In that email, we will offer you an alternative product, the right to a full refund, and a new delivery time. It's up to you how you'd like us to resolve the issue.

We ship all orders with DPD from the Netherlands. You can choose between:

  • Home delivery or delivery to your work
  • Delivery to a DPD pickup point near you

Shipping costs and the free-shipping threshold for your country are in the table below.

Deposit

On cans and bottles we charge the Dutch deposit (statiegeld): €0.15 per can and €0.10 per bottle (a little more for some bottles). It shows as a separate line in your cart. The deposit belongs to the Dutch deposit system: you can return the packaging in the Netherlands, not in deposit machines in other countries.

Shipping Costs by Country

Scroll to the right on mobile ->

CountryShipping costReduced rateFree shipping from
Netherlands€8.50–€75
Belgium€8.95–€100
Germany€13.50–€100
Denmark€15.95–€150
Austria€15.95–€150
Bulgaria€47.50€25 from €150not available
Estonia€17.50–€150
Finlandpickup point €24.95
home €29.95		home: €10 from €200pickup point €200
home €250
France€16.95–€150
Greece€29.50€15 from €150not available
Hungary€21.95€10 from €150€200
Ireland€15.95–€150
Italy€16.95–€150
Croatia€47.50€25 from €150not available
Latvia€17.50–€150
Lithuania€21.95€10 from €150€200
Luxembourg€12.95–€150
Poland€15.95–€150
Portugal€19.95€10 from €150€200
Romania€27.50€10 from €150not available
Spain€18.75–€150
Czech Republic€15.95–€150
Swedenpickup point €24.95
home €29.95		home: €10 from €200pickup point €200
home €250
Norway*Coming soon
United Kingdom*Coming soon
Switzerland*Coming soon

Delivery

DPD generally delivers within 24 hours after receiving the parcel. So if we have received your order before 15:00 on working days, in 99% of cases you will have your order at home the next day. It may sometimes happen that they need one day longer. You can follow this via the Track & Trace details you receive from us, so you can see exactly where your order is. DPD also gives you a time window of 2 to 4 hours in which your order will be delivered. Not at home? No problem! You can indicate yourself whether you want them to come by again tomorrow or whether they should deliver it to the nearest post office.

Do you have a question about the delivery of your beer? Feel free to contact us: customer service.

Returns

You have a cooling-off period of 14 days after you have received the product. Within this period you can register the product for return. The email you received stating that your order is on its way contains a link that you can use to easily and free of charge download and print a return label. Returning is free: we provide the return label and the shipping costs of your return are at our expense. After registering your return, you have another 14 days to send the product back. If you bought multiple items at once, the period starts after receipt of your last item.

How do I return or exchange a product?

  • Fill in the return form within 14 days after receipt. If you are unable to print the return form, please write at least the order number and your name on a piece of paper and include it with your return.
  • Register your return with our customer service. You can do this by sending an email to: info@hoptimaal.nl or by calling 085 -130 1591. Or print your return label yourself via the link in the email titled "Your order is on its way".
  • After registering your return, you have another 14 days to send the product back.
  • Then send your return back in its original condition and with the packaging. Products that are damaged or incomplete are not eligible for exchange or refund.

Please note: after the 14-day cooling-off period it is no longer possible to return your product.

What can you expect after returning your product?

After receiving your return, you will receive a confirmation from us. This can take 3 working days, but in general we process your return on the day we receive it. We will check your return to see whether your product meets our return conditions and will then get to work on the solution you want.

Do you want your money back?

  • We will refund the purchase amount within 3 working days after confirmation of receipt to the account with which you paid. If you want to receive the purchase amount in another way, please contact us about the possibilities.
  • In case of visible signs of use, missing accessories or missing packaging, you are no longer entitled to a refund. If the packaging is not returned entirely in its original condition, we won't make a fuss and you will in any case get 75% of the purchase amount back. This is very rarely the case; usually the full purchase amount is simply refunded.

Do you want to receive a new product?

After receiving your return, we will send the new product right away. If the product is no longer in stock, we will refund the purchase amount to the account with which you paid.

  • Is the new product cheaper? The remaining amount will be refunded to your account within 3 working days.
  • Is the new product more expensive? You will receive a payment request for the remaining amount. After receipt of payment, we will send the product immediately.
  • Do you want to receive the new product at a different address or on a different day? Please contact us.

Exceptions

Beer that has been opened will not be taken back. We also do not take back beer that you ordered at a discount because the shelf life is almost expired. Of course we state this clearly on the product page, so that you are not surprised by a limited best-before date.

The item may be returned to the address below:

Hoptimaal
Leeghwater 5
3825MR Amersfoort
Netherlands

Order before 3:00 PM on weekdays, shipped today.
Break-proof packaging

Your beers are always carefully packaged. If there is any damage during transit, we offer a guarantee. Not satisfied, money back.
Taste Finder Which beer suits you? Six questions, no beer jargon.

Your cart

Your cart is empty

Continue shopping

Beer School · Smooth & Rounded

Trappist

Trappist is not a beer style, but a protected label of origin of Trappist abbeys. It says where and under whose supervision a beer is made, not how it tastes.

  • Alcoholvaries widely, from 0% to above 10%, depending on the beer
  • Entry levelFor those who have already tasted a bit

How it usually tastes

Bitter
Sweet
Sour
Roasted
Fruity
Full

Average for this style; every beer has its own accent.

What is it?

Trappists are monks and nuns of the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance. The name comes from the French abbey of La Trappe in Normandy, where that order arose in the 17th century. The International Trappist Association (ITA), founded in 1998, protects the brand name Trappist®. Only Trappist abbeys may use it; another brewer can never brew a 'Trappist'.

An abbey can also apply to the ITA for the Authentic Trappist Product (ATP) label. Three requirements apply: - the product is made in the immediate surroundings of the abbey; - under the supervision of monks or nuns; - the profit goes to the monastic community, solidarity within the order, or development projects and charities.

This involves a file, a visit with a quality audit and a vote on the ITA board; the licence is valid for five years.

The label says nothing about taste. According to the ITA every Trappist beer has its own recipe and its own yeast, and the range runs from alcohol-free and witbier to quadrupel of 10% and more. The ATP label is also found on cheese, liqueur, chocolate and jam, and not every Trappist abbey brews beer.

Myth or fact?

Myth

‘Trappist is a beer style.’

Trappist says where and by whom the beer is made, not how it tastes. Trappist breweries make all kinds of styles.

Myth

‘Trappist is a beer style.’

The International Trappist Association (ITA) writes that the name Trappist is first of all a designation of origin. Three conditions apply for the logo 'Authentic Trappist Product'. The product is made in the immediate surroundings of the abbey. The production takes place under the supervision of the monks or nuns. And the profit is intended for the monastic community itself, for solidarity within the Trappist order, or for development projects and charities.

Every Trappist beer has, according to the ITA, its own recipe and its own yeast. The BJCP also writes of the Belgian monastic beers that many of those names are protected designations, which say something about the origin of the beer and not about a style. Monasteries can brew any style they want.

Words such as dubbel, tripel and quadrupel are style names. 'Trappist' is a label of origin: it tells where and under whose supervision a beer is made, not how it tastes.

Sources

Myth

‘Abbey beer is the same as Trappist, and is also brewed by monks.’

An abbey beer carries the name of an existing or former abbey, but is usually made under licence by an ordinary brewery. Leffe, for example, is brewed by AB InBev.

Myth

‘Abbey beer is the same as Trappist, and is also brewed by monks.’

According to the BJCP, very few religious institutions still brew themselves, but many of them have licensed their name to commercial breweries. In 1999 the Belgian brewers' federation introduced the logo Erkend Belgisch Abdijbier (Recognised Belgian Abbey Beer), for breweries with a licence to use the name of an existing or former abbey.

Leffe is the best-known example. According to Leffe itself, canons brewed there from 1240, the tradition was revived in 1952 by Abbot Nys and brewer Albert Lootvoet, and AB InBev now takes care of that task. According to Gordon Strong, Leffe was presumably the first abbey with a formal licence agreement with a commercial brewery.

For the label Authentic Trappist Product, stricter rules of the International Trappist Association apply: the beer is made in the immediate surroundings of the abbey, under the supervision of monks or nuns, and the proceeds go to the community, the order, development projects or charities. An abbey beer can be perfectly good; it is just a different promise from Trappist.

Sources

Partly true

‘Trappist beer is brewed by the monks themselves.’

The rule is supervision by monks or nuns, not that they themselves stand in the brewhouse. At Westmalle, lay people have done the manual work since the late 1990s, under the direct supervision of the monks.

Partly true

‘Trappist beer is brewed by the monks themselves.’

To carry the label Authentic Trappist Product (ATP), a beer must meet three requirements of the International Trappist Association (ITA). It is made in the immediate surroundings of the abbey. The production takes place under the supervision of monks or nuns. And the proceeds go to the needs of the monastic community, solidarity within the Trappist order, development projects and charities. It does not say that the monks must brew themselves.

You do not get the label just like that, either. A dossier is involved, a visit to the abbey and production site with a quality audit, and a vote on the board of the ITA. The licence is valid for five years.

In practice it differs per abbey. According to Good Beer Hunting, three monks worked full time in the Westmalle brewery until 1990. In 1998 lay people did all the manual work, though under the direct supervision of the monks.

That supervision is real and mandatory. Without monks the label disappears. Achel lost it after the last monks left in 2020, and Zundert after the closure of the abbey in 2025.

Sources

Myth

‘Trappist beer always comes from Belgium.’

Five of the eight abbeys with an ATP-labelled Trappist beer are in Belgium, but the Netherlands, Italy and England have one too. Abbeys in France and Spain also sell Trappist beer, but it is not on the ATP list.

Myth

‘Trappist beer always comes from Belgium.’

Belgium is the land of the best-known Trappists. According to the list of the International Trappist Association (ITA), the beers of Westmalle, Westvleteren, Chimay, Orval and Rochefort carry the Authentic Trappist Product label. But the same list also names La Trappe of the Koningshoeven abbey near Tilburg, Tre Fontane in Rome and Mount Saint Bernard in England, which calls its beer Tynt Meadow. The ITA's beer page also lists Mont des Cats (France) and Cardeña (Spain); their beer is not on the ATP list.

The Netherlands thus has its own Trappist, and it is not new: according to the ITA, Koningshoeven has brewed since 1884. According to beer writer Jef Van den Steen, Trappist breweries were for a long time an almost entirely Belgian affair, with Koningshoeven as the exception. Only from 2012 did abbeys join in Austria, the Netherlands (Zundert), the United States and Italy. Of those four, only Tre Fontane is still on the current ATP list.

The list changes. Zundert stopped in 2025 when the abbey closed, and Achel in Belgium also lost the label when there were no monks left. The current list is on the ITA's site.

Sources

Where does it come from?

In 1962 the commercial court in Ghent, at the request of Orval, ruled against a brewery that sold beer as 'Trappist' that did not come from a Cistercian monastery. Whether 'Trappist' was thereby a designation of origin or a generic name, the judgment left unclear, according to a legal scholar of the time. According to beer writer Jef Van den Steen, Trappist beer was for a long time almost exclusively Belgian, with Koningshoeven in the Netherlands as the exception.

In October 2026, according to the ITA, the beers of eight abbeys carry the ATP label: Westmalle, Westvleteren, Chimay, Orval and Rochefort in Belgium, La Trappe (Koningshoeven) in the Netherlands, Tre Fontane in Italy and Mount Saint Bernard (Tynt Meadow) in England. The ITA's beer page also lists Mont des Cats (France) and Cardeña (Spain); their beer is not on the ATP list.

In the Netherlands La Trappe is now the only one. Koningshoeven near Tilburg was founded in 1881 by monks who had fled from France and, according to the ITA, has brewed since 1884. The abbey in Zundert brewed a Trappist beer from 2013, but closed in 2025, and with that that Trappist beer disappeared.

How to pour it

A good starting point: Westmalle recommends drinking Trappist beers like its own at between 6 and 12 °C and taking the bottle out of the fridge about 15 minutes before pouring.

Taste it yourself

Chimay Dorée (Gold)Chimay Dorée (Gold)light, mild, spicy, fresh€3,95 Chimay Grande Réserve (Blue)Chimay Grande Réserve (Blue)full-bodied, sweet, dark fruit, caramel€3,95 Chimay Première (Red)Chimay Première (Red)sweetish, caramel, dark fruit, round€3,95
All Trappist in the shop
Did you like this? Then try Saison →

Similar to: Dubbel, Tripel, Quadrupel

Terms

Trappist (label)
A label of origin and not a beer style: the logo 'Authentic Trappist Product' may only be used on products made in the immediate surroundings of a Trappist abbey under the supervision of monks or nuns, and whose profit is intended for the monastic community, the Trappist order or charities.
Abbey beer
Beer with the name or look of an abbey that is made by an ordinary brewery, sometimes under licence from an abbey and sometimes without any link to a monastery, and which does not have to meet the Trappist rules.
Yeast
The micro-organism that during fermentation converts the sugars from the malt into alcohol and carbon dioxide.
Sources for this page
Fast delivery

Order on weekdays before 3 PM, shipped today.

Break-resistant

Your beer always safely packaged. Damage = money back.

Google reviews

We have a 4.8/5 rating on Google.

Always safe

Your data is safe and will not be shared.