Monks star in The Beer Option, but nuns are not absent. In fact, one of the main patronesses of beer, the great Doctor of the Church, St. Hildegard of Bingen, was a Benedictine abbess who touted the health benefits of hops and beer. In her book, Causes and Cures, she Read more…
As the author of The Beer Option, I have a confession to make. I felt the Lord calling me about two years ago to give up alcohol, making it a sacrifice for both my physical and spiritual health. I am prone to migraines and I’m sure I was attached to Read more…
Recently I reflected on the “End of the Beer Option” after the Trappists of Spencer Massachusets decided to close their brewery. Since then, the Guardian has also reflected on the decline of Trappist brewing in Belgium: “Last orders? Belgium’s Trappist beers under threat as vocations run dry.” Belgium has already Read more…
In my last post, I looked at some things that went wrong for Spencer Trappist Brewery in Massachusets. Remarkably, a Catholic bishop in Norway (of the territorial prelature of Trondheim to be precise), Bishop Erik Varden, OSCO, is a Trappist, who was abbot of Mount St. Bernard’s Abbey in England Read more…
Many of us were excited for the first American Trappist brewery back in 2014 at St. Joseph’s Abbey in Spencer, Massachusetts. I was inspired to write The Beer Option: Brewing a Catholic Culture Yesterday & Today by the long tradition of monastic brewing, which pointed to a whole Catholic history Read more…
Medieval Lent was, to say the least, a lot harder. The season’s origins come from the early catechumenate, which led converts through a multi-day period of intense prayer and fasting before their initiation at the Easter vigil. Eventually, this time extended to forty days, in imitation of Christ’s fasting in Read more…
Beer has a long connection to saints and holy figures. In The Beer Option, I discuss the beer miracles of St. Brigid of Kildare, St. Columban, and St. Arnold, St. Hildegard’s description of beer’s medicinal qualities, and St. Conrad of Bavaria’s hospitality in serving beer to pilgrims. The Ommegang brewery Read more…
This is the last of my posts reflecting on the Beauty of Faith Pilgrimage to Ireland. As author of The Beer Option, which presents the Catholic way to drink as rooted in feasting, fasting, and friendship, I kept my eyes open for evidence of Catholic drinking as well as the Read more…
We began our Beauty of Faith Pilgrimage to Ireland in Dublin, visiting its churches and its saints/saints in the making: St. Valentine-the Roman saint whose relics are at the Whitefriar Street church; St. John Henry Newman’s University Church where he delivered some of the discourses that became An Idea of Read more…
Monks created brewing as we know it, with the first large scale breweries in Europe and many advances to brewing techniques and technology. There were thousands of brewing monasteries, but then suddenly they disappeared. The French Revolution and its aftermath, the collapse of the Holy Roman Empire and the Napoleonic Read more…