Here's an interesting link about how to fast on nothing except for "liquid bread" during Lent. [....] anyone want to give it a go?
Der Bierkrug depicted in the primary image at the cited page[**] is certainly not some
pusillanimous pint; it looks as if it easily holds 1
quart. Altho' for
Doppelbock Lager, perhaps readers should be thinking in terms of the modern German near-equivalent 1/2 and 1 Liter liquid-measure[##], respectively, in which such beer would be served to native
German descendants of the monks who were
inspired to invent the subject beer style).
So if for discussion, one were to apply the mandated-
fast rule that the amount of lesser meals must not exceed the amount of the main meal, even though that rule doesn't actually apply to ale, beer, and wine according to the last
traditional Code of Canon Law[‡], replicating the monk's noble experiment here in the U.S.A. might require
at least 1 U.S. 6-pack (72 oz. total) beer per day. A possible daily allocation could be 12 (U.S.) oz. for breakfast, +24 oz. for lunch/supper, +36 oz. for dinner. Arithmetic and portions would be more favorable in the 1/2-liter[##] bottles that seem to prevail in overseas exports of beer brewed in Germany (available, e.g., in California). Alas, until the last year or so, Florida law was perverted by
[expletives deleted] lobbyists & contributions from the
U.S. industrial-scale beer-
brands and their distributors, so that it discriminated against beer that's not packaged in a 12-oz. container, by
banning its sale! I did a preliminary investigation in the region's typically lowest-price retailer[++] of imported beer. The
Salvator Doppelbock that's the subject of the cited article is marked at $
10.99+tax, thus $
11.70 in Florida, for a
6-pack of 12-oz. bottles. For
46 days of Lent here, that would cost a retail customer $
538.40 total, or $269.20 evenly divided across 2 months (e.g.,
exactly divided in 2011: Mar. 9--Apr. 23, and very nearly so in 2008: Feb. 6--Mar. 22). If those numbers don't stifle the appeal of the monastic liquid diet, consider that it does
not include the cost of food for the 2 weeks in those months that fall outside Lent, nor does it include food for any household dependent who is not able or not allowed to completely substitute beer for solid Lenten food.
Sigh.
Perhaps then-reporter/writer
J. Wilson [†] was granted an expense account back in 2011(?) for what must have been substantial costs incurred during his enviable experiment? Or maybe
not; his follow-up book
Diary of a Part-Time Monk (2011) is
startlingly expensive as offered on Amazon, so maybe he needed such a price to recoup his Lenten expenses. Either way, I suppose that Wilson is now the most famous more-or-less Catholic home-brewer in
Iowa.
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Note **:
Der Bierkrug is German for "the beer mug"; the one in the primary image for the cited external story (
https://lordsofthedrinks.files.wordpress.com/2016/02/monk.jpg) is plainly made of glass, but any mediæval monk would've been much more likely to be drinking from a stoneware or wooden vessel (the latter made like a small barrel with a handle attached). Of course, either material would impose the artistic disadvantage of preventing depiction of the papally endorsed penitential brew it contains. I'm disappointed that the story didn't identify the pope who encouraged the
ad libitum beer consumption during Lent.
Note ##: 1 U.S. pint =16 U.S.-oz.; 1 U.S. quart =2 U.S. pints; 1 U.S. gallon =4 U.S. pints. Out of consideration to the ethnic Germans who invented
doppelbock lager, I'll add that 1 U.S. pint =0.4732 liters; 1 U.S. quart =0.9463 l. (the latter letter exemplifying why I hate the Arial type-face, but I digress). Are
imperial units still used in Britain as a matter of brewing & pub tradition? If so, 1 imp. qt. =1.2003 U.S.qt. =38.4 U.S. oz. So now I feel justified in using U.S. liquid units almost exclusively in my narrative above, despite C.I.'s international readership.
Note ++: T*tal Wiиэ. Matthew is welcome to insert a link into this note if he can negotiate some financial arrangement with that retailer that benefits his family or CathInfo.
Note †: "My Faith: What I learned from my 46-day beer-only fast". By J. Wilson, Special to CNN. Feb. 25, 2012 02:00 AM ET. CNN Belief Blog. <
http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/02/25/my-take-what-i-learned-from-my-46-day-beer-only-fast/>. No new entries on his brewing-focused blog <
http://brewvana.net/> since "August 2, 2016".
Note ‡: Promulgated by Pope Benedict
XV in 1917 on behalf of Pope Pius X, to take effect on May 19 (Pentecost Sun.) 1918.
Topic: Beer for Lent (Read 1010 times)