Hacker News Reader

Comment by galaxyLogic | Hacker News Reader

Trappists make great beer right? It is strong beer and gets your head messed up. I've often wondered how such good religious folks would become producers of alcoholic drinks. I assume they didn't drink themselves, doesn't go well with meditation I assume. So are they more like thinking "Let the sinners drink this since they want, and it will pay for the rent of our meditation chambers?"

View on HN

There is no issue with alcohol in Catholicism. Indeed, some during the middle ages would live off beer alone during Lent, when they would abstain from food entirely. It is simply a question of moderation. There are many medevial images of monks drinking.

"In Catholicsm, the Pint, the Pipe, and the Cross can all fit together." ~ GK Chesterton.

Indeed, when I was a kid, I learned that when the parish priest stopped by our home, we always offered him a shot of whiskey.

Yep. My favorite drinking buddy is a priest. We also smoke cigars and pipes on occasion around the firepit.

I know in many Eastern Orthodox churches and some ethnic Catholic chruches have bars on the premises so after church you can go get some beer or a few shots, or to go shot-for-shot with the local Bishop.

"There's no issue with alcohol" is the wrong way to put it.

Consumption of alcohol is mandatory at certain times (as part of Mass) and forbidden at other times (Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, but traditionally every Friday and all of Lent).

The Catholic Church actually teaches that Jesus is present in both the wine and bread, so only one must be consumed. At least in the Roman Rite it is never compulsory to receive the wine, and prior to the 1960s only the priest would receive the wine while the lay people would receive bread only.

Yes I just meant that some consumption of alcohol (by the priest) is a compulsory part of the rite. At least here, the wine isn't generally offered to the laity, though you can get it if you ask nicely.

Also I thought I was going to be corrected on the other part of my claim. Apparently abstaining from alcohol on fast days isn't centralized Catholic doctrine and bishops/archbishops have some discretion on what they tell their congregations to abstain from.

> Indeed, some during the middle ages would live off beer alone during Lent

In the middle ages, 'small beer' [0] was a low-alcohol drink which because of the brewing process was often safer than bacteria-contaminated water from some natural sources such as wells and streams

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_beer

Let's make things straight :) "Trappist" is a appellation for beers made by Trappist monasteries in Belgium, Netherlands and a few around the world. They are not specially strong and they may be consumed by the monks. In fact, like for the wine where a lot of monastery produced and developed the basis for modern wine production, it as a bit similar in Belgium for the beers. Take Orval for example, one of the most famous and it have 6.2% alcohol level. A draft pils beer in Belgium is expected to be around 5%-5.5%. And a few monasteries produced and keep producing beers in Belgium without being Trappist labeled like the Dominicans in Liege with their Sanctus Dominicus.

Besides the rules to give the Trappist label were :

* The beer must be brewed within the walls of a Trappist monastery, either by the monks themselves or under their supervision.

* The brewery must be of secondary importance within the monastery and it should witness to the business practices proper to a monastic way of life.

* The brewery is not intended to be a profit-making venture. The income covers the living expenses of the monks and the maintenance of the buildings and grounds. Whatever remains is donated to charity for social work and to help persons in need.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trappist_beer

This UK one is excellent:

http://www.mountsaintbernard.org/tynt-meadow-ale

Catholics have no problem with drinking, so yes. The monks who brew also drink.

They follow St Benedict's rule, the rule that OP linked to, but they understand "wine" to refer to alcoholic drinks in general.

There is no general religious proscription against alcohol. Only Muslims and Mormons come to mind.

There are some Protestant denominations who don't drink alcohol, including many Baptist and Presbyterian groups as well as the Seventh-Day Adventists and the Salvation Army.

While some Methodists now drink alcohol, they historically didn't and still won't allow it in their church buildings (I used to play in an amateur orchestra who had to serve non-alcoholic interval refreshments when we hired a Methodist church for our concert).

The majority of Christians worldwide, though, belong to denominations with no proscription against alcohol.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com