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<\/p>\nDate: 10\/16\/2008 04:00 AM<\/p>\n
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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)<\/p>\n
By ERIC GORSKI
\nAP Religion Writer<\/p>\n
DENVER (AP) – In the beginning, there was a long line for Judgment Day ale.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
“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.”<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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