Beer. It’s what’s for dinner.
From this year’s Little Black Book reflections on Lent:
“In the Middle Ages, beer (which is made from cereal grains) was one of the safest, most nutritrious everyday drinks for northern Europeans - since grapes didn’t grow in that colder climate, and water was often polluted. Occasionally a batch would go bad, and people would blame the devil for the problem. To keep the demon away, brewers would place religious statues in their brew house, and also asked the local priest to bless the a new batch…Many monasteries brewed their own beer. It was a staple of the monks’ diet beause of it’s nutritional qualities (they called it “liquid bread”). This was true especially during the Lenten fasts, which resistricted solid food.”
