In 1997 Will Keller founded Monastery Greetings and created the only printed catalog and website in the USA that sells only products from monasteries, convents, abbeys and hermitages. The first catalog was launched on a small scale in the fall of 1999. In 2002, they added Trappist Preserves (an award-winning product line that includes 30 preserves, jellies, conserves and marmalade and is the largest monastic business in the United States.) from the monks of St. Joseph’s Abbey in Spencer, Massachusetts.
In 2010, Monastery Greetings was licensed to sell beer and now sells a wide variety of Trappist ales and other monastic brews through the mail. Today, Monastery Greetings works with about 75 monasteries and occupies 8,000 square feet in a former torpedo factory in the Glenville neighborhood of Cleveland.
The Monastery Greetings website tells “The Story of Trappist Preserves.
Since the 6th-century, monks and nuns following the Rule of St. Benedict have prayed and worked in common, living by the labor of their hands. In the 11th century, this Benedictine tradition gave birth to the Cistercian Order of the Strict Observance — commonly known as Trappists.
Trappist monks from France first came to the United States in 1803 and established a “mother house” in Kentucky in 1848. St. Joseph’s Abbey in Spencer, Massachusetts was settled in 1950 by Belgian and French Trappist monks from Nova Scotia and Rhode Island. In the rustic hills of central New England, the monks at Spencer follow a contemplative way of life in a way that is faithful to tradition and open to modern times.
In 1954, shortly after their arrival in Spencer, a small stove-top batch of mint jelly was made by the monks with the great excess of mint from the herb garden. Since monastic austerity at that time precluded the jelly from being served to the monks at meals, it was sold at the Porter’s Lodge.
The response was highly encouraging. Other varieties were quickly tried, and soon jelly-making proved to be a successful and compatible monastic industry which would contribute to the monks’ self-support. For centuries, monks have created delicious food items as treats for their guests. In this venerable tradition of hospitality, Trappist Preserves came into being. Now, by the convenience of mail order, the monks bring their hospitality to your doorstep!”
They expanded to include rare and popular beers from Belgium and became the largest Online Belgian Beer Store in the US.
Beer from Belgium has historically been some of the best beer in the world. And Cleveland has become a great town for Belgian beer. So much so that a Belgian Beer Festival was held at the Winking Lizard Event Center on Saturday May 31, 2025.
We spoke to founder Will Keller during the weekend event. He told us about the company, the products and the growth and interest in Belgian beers. The video begins with Julie Williams starting off our tour of the building. Watch.
