Sioux Brew: Finding God in a glass of beer
Date: 10/16/2008 04:00 AM
Crosses top the taps at The Lost Abbey Brewing Company booth at the 27th annual Great American Beer Festival in Denver on Friday, Oct. 10, 2008. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
By ERIC GORSKI
AP Religion Writer
DENVER (AP) – In the beginning, there was a long line for Judgment Day ale.
Shortly after the doors opened on the 27th Great American Beer Festival, a crowd congregated at the booth offering that and other pours from The Lost Abbey of San Marcos, Calif., where the tap handle is a Celtic cross and the legacy of beer-brewing monks endures.
Standing under a banner promising “Inspired beers for Saints and Sinners Alike,” proprietor and former altar boy Tomme Arthur had a confession: He’s using God to sell some beer.
“It’s the oldest story ever told – the struggle between good and evil,” said Arthur, 35, a product of Catholic schools in his native San Diego. “There is a battle being waged between those who make good beer and those who make evil beer.”
Without question, unholy excess is in evidence anytime 18,000 gallons of alcohol is served to 46,000 people over three days. See: women in Bavarian maid outfits and “Beer Pong” tables.
Yet perhaps surprisingly, God could be found at last week’s Great American Beer Festival – in the crassly commercial, in homage to religion’s long history in brewing, in needling faiths that turn a suspect eye on drinking, and (if the prophet of home-brewing is to be believed) at the bottom of every glass.
