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Next time you are whacking down a limestone sub-base for a patio it's perhaps right to think about how our consumption of landscaping materials might have an impact on others...in this case beer consumption.

As reported on the Independent, the expansion of a limestone quarry in Belgium threatens the existence of one of the last eight Trappist breweries in the world.

The Belgian monks who brew Rochefort say the water from a nearby well is crucial to taste of their sought-after ale, which frequently appears in lists of the best beers in the world.

But plans by a limestone mining company to deepen a quarry in the vicinity of the Abbey threaten to plug the water source that the monks have replied upon for centuries. The Flanders News website reported that the mining firm, Lhoist, had offered to dig more wells to supply the monastery, but the monks are wary that the flavour will simply not be the same.

“We only have guarantees about the quantity, not about the quality of the water,” said a spokesman for Rochefort, Christopher De Doncker. Negotiations are continuing, with beer-lovers hoping for an outcome which will allow centuries of brewing tradition to continue.

OK it's in Belgium and probably doesn't affect us (unless the stone is imported to the UK I suppose?) but it is a reminded that to obtain the materials and resources we all need there is usually a trade-off or knock on effect somewhere.