A professional beer bottler can grab six empties at a time and neatly line them up on a moving conveyor belt.

A monk learning how to brew beer will grab only four bottles at a time.

"Your hands can just hold what they hold," said Brother Francis Martinez, spinning between the belt leading to the bottling machine and a stack of empty bottles.

Martinez, 62, had never worked on an assembly line until his trip Wednesday to Sierra Blanca and Rio Grande Brewing Cos. in Moriarty.

He took on the task with glee, first pushing the buttons on a machine that shapes six-pack boxes, then moving to the bottle feeder. Over the sound of the glass bottles rattling against each other, Martinez said he had a soundtrack of Gregorian chant psalm-settings running through his mind.

"This is really very monastic work. It has rhythm to it," he said. "And we would regard it as a form of prayer."

More sales, new ale and a tasting room in the works

On a normal day, Martinez and the 30 other monks of Christ in the Desert Monastery are at home in their rural compound along the Chama River near Abiquiú.

While two-thirds of their waking hours are ordered in study and prayer, part of their day is spent in labor — making candles, soap, wood carvings, pottery and weavings, or working in the monastery's kitchen, laundry, garden or office.

Lately, though, more members of the religious order have turned outward, working with the monastery's expanding beer enterprise.

Abbey Beverage Co. is on pace to sell nearly 1,000 barrels of Monks' Ale and Monks' Wit beer this year in nine states — twice what it sold last year. A Belgian-style tripel ale will debut for retailers in limited draft quantities at the end of the year, and soon, monks expect to open a tasting room and special sales area at the monastery.

Benedictine religious communities trace their roots to the sixth century in Europe, when beekeeping and brewing were among monasteries' money-making endeavors.

But brewing is a relatively new project for the nearly 50-year-old monastery in Abiquiú.

In 2005, Christ in the Desert launched the beverage company with a partner, Our Lady of Guadalupe Monastery in Pecos. Local brewer Brad Kraus helped craft recipes and worked with Sierra Blanca Brewery to begin mass-producing ale.

The monks in Pecos did only the minimum required amount of brewing at their monastery in order to keep state and federal licenses, make test batches and conduct quality assurance work. Every drop of beer that reached consumers came from Sierra's commercial operation in Carrizozo.

No one from either monastery was doing much marketing at that time, and the beer was only sold in New Mexico. When beer distributor Maloof Distributing received orders for Monks' Ale, it passed them along to Sierra, a family-owned brewery that relocated to Moriarty in 2006.

By 2009, Pecos was losing interest in the enterprise. That's about the time that Berkeley Merchant entered the picture as the beverage company's business manager.

Merchant spent most of his career consulting for technology startups, but he had worked as a lay volunteer with the monastery for several years when the abbot asked him to take on a position with the beer venture.

A year later, the Abiquiú monks bought the majority interest in the beverage company. Merchant worked with Brother Christian Leisy, Christ in the Desert's prior, to develop the business.

Spreading word about beer and Benedictine tradition

Since then, the two men have spent a good bit of time on the road. Beer festivals in Denver, Philadelphia and even Socorro were followed by trips to the brewery in Moriarty, a distributor in Phoenix and other destinations.

In late September at Denver's Great American Beerfest, Merchant and Leisy's table was so popular that they ran out of samples before the event was over. Leisy lost his voice from shouting to be heard over a karaoke machine in the same room. He couldn't just smile and fill plastic cups. He had to make personal connections.

"How many monks can say that? That they lost their voice at a beer festival?" he told a group of people earlier this month at Bishop's Lodge Ranch Resort's Las Fuentes Restaurant & Bar, where the chef held a dinner with beer pairings.

Merchant and Leisy use a tag-team approach as they spread their message about the beer. Leisy talks about the monastic historic traditions, including the brewing industry and the story of Christ in the Desert. Merchant discusses the manufacturing process and distribution details.

Merchant wears a polo shirt with "Abbey Beverage Company" embroidered on the breast. Leisy wears a dark, hooded monk's tunic.

Last month, they visited a Phoenix distributing company for an early morning meeting with salesmen. Striking contrasts seems to be a theme on their trips.

"It started at 6 a.m. with loud, raucous music to wake the guys up. And in our presentation, we put on some Gregorian chants," Leisy said. "And for five minutes or so, they sat in silence and listened. We gave our presentation, they gave us a round of applause, then the loud music came back on."

At beer festivals and on city streets, the tall monk turns heads.

That kind of reaction gives Leisy a chance to address stereotypes. He tells people that Benedictine monks talk, laugh, travel and, on special occasions, drink beer. They take a vow of stability, which means they pledge to live at the monastery for the rest of their lives. But that's not a vow of "immobility," Leisy explains.

"I think people imagine monks to be very glum and more serious," he said, "and they are surprised when we have a sense of humor."

The brothers — and most others who follow rules for monastic life established by St. Benedict of Nursia in the sixth century — also prefer to earn their living rather than ask for handouts, which is why Leisy gets to sit on the beverage company's board of directors and travel to promote the beer enterprise.

"It's made me have to be on the road more than in the past. So, the brothers know that and accept that because this is necessary at this stage of the development and growth of our beer company," he said. "Presumably it will slow down for me at some point pretty soon, which is fine too. My life is at the monastery."

Beer becoming a hit at home and across state lines

Christ in the Desert has launched a host of other businesses in its effort to move toward self-sufficiency, including a Web-design service, which was abandoned because it took too much of the monks' time and energy. They've never tried a food product, however, and never attempted to get their goods across state lines until last year.

In addition to sales already taking place in Colorado, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Louisiana, Texas and Oklahoma, retailers in Iowa and Maryland will get shipments this year, Merchant said.

In Santa Fe, Monks' Ale and Monks' Wit produced in Moriarty are on the shelves at retail stores and in the cold cases and restaurants in nearly 40 locations, including at La Choza restaurant on Alarid Street.

Restaurant supervisor Bill Vigil said he's sold Monks' Ale there for about three years, and it's a popular choice, along with several varieties from the Santa Fe Brewing Co.

"That Monks' Ale is different, and it does sell. People like the fact that it's local and that it goes for the monks.

"When people are traveling, they want to try something from the region and something local, and the other part is if people are local, they want to support the community. Right now everyone is into this idea of 'let's take care of our farm-to-restaurant people,' " he said.

Soon the monks hope to offer beer at the monastery. Last spring, they broke down the brew house in Pecos and moved it to Abiquiú.

Several of the monks have been taking brewing lessons from Kraus, who developed the first beer varieties for the company and still helps develop new ideas. They have made test batches, but by law those had to be donated or consumed instead of sold.

The monastery has an application before the state Alcohol and Gaming Division and Rio Arriba County to allow the brothers to begin brewing beer at the monastery that can be sold on site in packages. The monks also plan to open a tasting room for visitors in 2012.

Unlike the beer produced by professionals at Sierra Blanca and Rio Grande Brewing Cos., the monastery-brewed beer will be made with water drawn from a riverside infiltration gallery and hops grown on site. The brothers also plan to develop seasonal brews. Merchant said Christ in the Desert is the only U.S. monastery involved in commercial brewing.

But the enterprise isn't aimed at becoming the new Coors or Budweiser. The monks are only interested in earning a living: as they point out, it costs about $1.2 million each year to keep the monastery running.

"The challenge has always been to find businesses that the monks can participate in that are consistent with the Benedictine Catholic tradition, but also which can be leveraged to provide sufficient income to support the monastery and the charities of the monastery," Merchant said.

"In that regard, we would only grow the brewery to a certain size, and once we achieve that goal, we would not continue to grow it just to grow it because that's the capitalistic model. We are just coming at it a little differently."

Contact Julie Ann Grimm at 986-3017 or jgrimm@sfnewmexican.com.