EASTERN SHORE, November 4, 2011—November began with All Saints’ Day earlier this week. Fear not, though; there are no plans to get religious here. We are not drinking with those saints; no, rather some of the following saint-related beers and breweries. While on the topic of saints, it should be agreed up front that St. Ides will not be discussed.

This saintly journey around the beer world begins with Saint Somewhere, of Tarpon Springs, Florida. Established in 2007, Bob Sylvester’s brewery was an early member of the burgeoning Florida brewing scene, which, since then, has grown by roughly a dozen new breweries. How his tiny brewery supplies nearly 20 states (via Shelton Brothers) with a 256 barrel brewhouse is incredible.

Two of the brewery’s easiest-to-find beers are two of its best. That speaks well for quality when the two most common are viewed as two of the best. Saison Athene is a solid food-pairworthy saison (as are many saisons) with an herbal spiciness and weighs in around 7.5% ABV. The Lectio Divina is a notch higher at 8% ABV and is a heftier saison based on a Belgian Dubbel grain bill.

Fun fact: Sylvester found inspiration for the brewery’s name in Jimmy Buffett’s song, Boat Drinks. “I gotta fly to Saint Somewhere…”

Coming back closer to my mid-Atlantic home base is where the freshest St. Victorious (doppelbock) and St. Boisterous (bock) can be found during the cold Northeast winter months. Victory Brewing Company loves it lagers and these are two big ones weighing in at 7.6% ABV and 7.3% ABV respectively. Think rich, solidly malt-forward beers with slight noble hop bitterness in these world-class beers.

Heading out to the Midwest and South is where two pioneering craft breweries can be found: Saint Arnold in Houston and Schlafly (aka St. Louis Brewing Company) in St. Louis.

Opened in 1994, Saint Arnold is Texas’ oldest craft brewery. Brock Wagner founded the company at a time when Houston was the country’s largest city without a brewery. They are now brewing over 30,000 barrels and are fighting for a bill to allow them to sell beer on-site after a tour, something many other breweries across the country are able to do.

St. Arnold of Metz is recognized by the Catholic Church as the Patron Saint of Brewers and reportedly sheltered lepers and others rejected by society. Hopefully this is not a reference to brewers and beer drinkers.

Looking for a Texan favorite? Saint Arnold Fancy Lawnmower is a German-style Kölsch and an outstanding beer for quenching thirst in the sometimes stifling heat of south Texas. If traveling to Texas in the Spring season, reach for a Spring Bock to properly celebrate the season. For more divine consumption, the Divine Reserve set of beers is a series of single-batch beers, each brewed to a completely different recipe.

St. Louis Brewing Company brews a line of beers under the name Schlafly. That is why it is rather uncommon to to find someone who refers to it as the former. But, the theme here is saints, so it can be used to further the theme.

Schlafly was opened in 1991 by Tom Schlafly. The Tap Room was the state’s first brewpub and has since been the number one sold craft beer in Missouri. Its original location is nearly a mile or so from the landmark Gateway Arch and Busch stadium and not far from St. Louis University in a 100-year-old building that originally housed the Swift Printing Company.

Their second location, Bottleworks, opened in 2003 and can be found in the outlying St. Louis neighborhood of Maplewood, more residential than the downtown, warehouse-like neighborhood of the Tap Room. Since Anheuser-Busch merged with InBev and became a foreign-owned (Belgo-South American) company, Schlafly proudly flies its flag as the largest American-owned brewery in Missouri.

They are about to grow again with a new brewing plant near Iowa City, Iowa called Backpocket Brewery which will nearly double capacity to 60,000 barrels. This will serve to support an astounding 30% growth in 2011 to 45,000 barrels. While Schlafly may be a mere fraction of a fraction the size of Anheuser-Busch — 150 employees and no endlessly looping factory tour buses for visitors — their beer can now be found much more readily then ever at the home of the World Series Champion St. Louis Cardinals, Busch Stadium. The brewery website even has a helpful map for finding the beer at the stadium.

One of the country’s more interesting brewery projects of the last couple years has been Pretty Things, a brewery without a system to call its own. But that is all part of the plan. Based out of Somerville, Massachusetts and brewing at Buzzards Bay Brewing in Westport, owner Dann Paquette strives to brew beers that are inspired by a style, a thought, a flavor, or an aroma. He then grows it from there. There are no rules, no tick boxes. Just the desire to brew some of the most interesting and palate-provoking beers he can.

For the saint theme here, Pretty Things’ St. Botolph’s Town is an Old Peculiar-inspired English brown ale. It has plenty of Yorkshire malts, is lightly hopped, is fermented with German and English ale yeast strains, and results in a 5.9% ABV winner of an English brown ale.

According to the Pretty Things website, “The name ‘Saint Botolph’s Town‘ is in tribute to our great home in America: Boston. The original Boston in Lincolnshire, England is an abbreviation of ‘Botolph’s Town’ or ‘Botolph’s Stone’. When we were back in Yorkshire recently, we found a churchyard where St. Botolph spoke in the year 675; a ‘stump’ (broken old cross) marks the spot. Saint Botolph is a 7th century saint from England whose feast day is June 17.”

Finally, going from the most recent past to the way-back past, would any beer/saint theme be complete without discussing Abbaye de Notre-Dame de Saint-Rémy? It is the home to Brasserie de Rochefort, from where Rochefort 6, 8, and 10 originate.

Often referred to by connoisseurs as some of the best beers in the world (particularly the Trappistes Rochefort 10), these beers are brewed by Cistercian monks to help financially support their way of life.

Perhaps nothing sums up perspectives on brewing, God, and life at Rochefort than what follows the tasting notes on the website:

“Make no abuse of this gift of God. Let your Rochefort moment also be a moment of reflection. Enjoy it, drink a second glass, and a third for special occasions, but never more. Be heedless of the way of living of the monks, who devote their life to God, and who, with respect and worship for the components that nature gives us, deliver quality products. Let their silence and their austerity persuade to you, and be amazed over and over again, which beautiful results love and belief can produce.”

Here concludes today’s beer-y reflection on saintly beer. Go forth and commune with friends and a great beer to ponder those that have gone before us.

–Read more of Bryan’s work at After Hours in the Communities at the Washington Times.

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