GOD AND BEER

Bavarian monks brewed strong bach beers to sustain them during Lent?
That sounds like cheating to me. But then, Cesar Chavez ate Kosher crackers and downed RC Cola during his protest fasts, so I guess a little cheating when it comes to long-term fasts is perhaps traditional.

The New York Times (HT to Get Religion) has an article about the 27th Great American Beer Festival here. It talks about how often beer and religion have been intertwined.

Any good German-American Lutheran (I am, I guess, an ingraft) knows this in his bones. We use beer to sustain us through good times and bad; through fasting, gluttony, liturgy, and long, winter bowling leagues.

I'm wondering if this brewer however, perhaps because he is not religious, has crossed a line:

Cilurzo's latest creation, Consecration, was a festival hit and an answered prayer -- a richly textured sour ale aged for nine months in Cabernet Sauvignon barrels with black currants.

That's...that's just wrong.