A Beer Fast For Lent
April 6th, 2011 § Leave a Comment
Now this is the way to participate in a Lenten fast: An Iowa newspaper editor is fasting for Lent by only drinking beer and water. From the story at CNN’s Belief Blog:
“It’s got that flavor of malt, the flavor of bread, the flavor of toast and a certain amount of creaminess. It’s like drinking bread – dark, good bread,” Sorensen said.
Sorensen said the idea of a beer fast has long roots and he was very familiar with the idea when Wilson brought it up at a beer festival.
“Three hundred or four hundred years ago, a group of Paulaner monks in a Bavarian region had made a stronger beer in a town called Einbeck and they called it bock. The monks started making a stronger beer, a double beer, called doppelbock,” Sorensen said. “The story goes the monks would give up eating and literally would drink this ‘liquid bread’ to sustain them through their Lenten fast.”
I’m not sure I could convince my boss to let me keep a keg of Doppelbock in my office during the Lenten season, or any other season for that matter.
You can read about Wilson’s fast here or his blog about beer here.
