Faith, hops, and love: The homebrew movement goes to church

Geoff Losee’s homemade beer bears a label with an icon of his Episcopal parish’s patron saint, Paul the apostle, encircled with “God’s Peace, Happy Yeast.” His congregation was one of several that competed in the What Would Jesus Brew? contest in Wilmington, North Carolina, over the past two years.

“The whiskeypalians went 1-2,” Losee said after his smoked barley porter, Thurifer’s Choice, won second place at the contest this past fall.

Jeffrey Hughes, another member of the Brew Unto Others team from St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Wilmington, won first place for his Dubbel Indulgences, a classic Belgian brewed with black plums, granola, and maple syrup to enhance the smooth, robust flavors. “This is what the monks made,” Losee said of the concoction.