Cheers to Beer
STORY
Morgan Paris
Saint Vincent College was never going to be a dry campus. Not that that ever should have been up for debate for an institution with a German heritage even more rich than the darkest, smoothest Stout beer you can find; for those who’ve called Saint Vincent home, it could never even be a consideration. And for them, drinking the beer was only part of it; really, it was about the community fostered throughout the brewing process and the celebration of an age-old tradition. But there were some who only saw bringing beer to a Benedictine monastery as a way to create disorder and conflict.
The truncated history of beer at Saint Vincent College is this: Saint Vincent founder Archabbot Boniface Wimmer took over control of a struggling pub and brewery his nephew ran in Indiana, Pennsylvania, with the hope of continuing the age-old traditions of the monasteries in his home of Bavaria: brewing and selling beer to the public. Bishop Michael O’Connor’s diocese encompassed Saint Vincent Monastery and College, and he, like many American Catholic clergy at the time, was strongly in support of promoting temperance and demanded that both pub and brewery be closed immediately. Wimmer closed the pub but refused to close the brewery. O’Connor was less than pleased. Conflict ensued. Anti-beer propaganda was employed. The King of Bavaria (yes, the actual King of Bavaria, who, quite luckily for Wimmer, enjoyed beer very much and recognized its cultural significance in this issue) got involved. Letters were written to the Vatican. Suddenly, there was a very real chance that a significant part Saint Vincent’s German heritage would be all but erased.
Tensions between Wimmer and O’Connor were high. Ultimately, though, Wimmer was granted permission by Pope Pius IX himself both to continue brewing beer at the brewery in Indiana and brew beer at the monastery. In fact, and much to O’Connor’s chagrin, a number of supporters of Saint Vincent in Bavaria collected enough money to not only send a brewmaster to America with Wimmer but also to build a brewery at Saint Vincent—something that wasn’t even in Wimmer’s original plans. Wimmer sold the brewery in Indiana, and soon a new brewery was built at Saint Vincent next to the Gristmill. Waiting until O’Connor retired in 1860, Wimmer broke in his new brewery with the first official Saint Vincent Beer—a dark lager.
Bill Brock, C’87, president and CEO; and Vince Assetta, C’87, vice president, general manager, and head brewer at Straub.
SPIRITUALLY SESSIONABLE
“Saint Vincent’s relationship with the Straub family goes way back,” explains Father Paul Taylor, O.S.B., College president. And indeed it does: in the early 1850s, Wimmer helped to establish a Benedictine monastery in St. Marys, Pennsylvania. When Peter Straub arrived in St. Marys in 1872 shortly after emigrating from Germany, he began brewing beer, all the while forming relationships with the monks and priests living at the monastery and eventually sending his son, Jacob, who would take the name Father Gilbert, to Saint Vincent. Jacob would be the first of many Straubs to attend Saint Vincent, and Peter would start a legacy of brewing.
Father Paul is one of the most recent Straubs to attend Saint Vincent College. He came to SVC with his cousin, Bill Brock, C’87, in 1983. The two became close friends with Vince Assetta, C’87, and when Bill became Straub’s CEO, he quickly invited Vince to become CFO.
“In many ways, Straub Beer and St. Marys are synonymous, and Straub Beer has played an important role in the lives and times of people in St. Marys and Saint Vincent,” explains Assetta, vice president, general manager, and head brewer at Straub. And that role is such that it’s not only nigh impossible to go to any event serving alcohol on campus and not have your choice of Straub Amber or one of its lagers—but the Straub family have also created an endowed scholarship for SVC’s students.
What’s more, though, is the spiritual foundation both of Straub and SVC.
“There’s a spiritual nature to brewing beer,” expressed Brock, president and CEO of Straub. “Making beer requires a skilled brewer to perform certain steps and follow a sequential procedure, which over time produces this transformation—that is what I consider the spiritual component: the gift of beer.”
ALL SAINT(S) VINCENT
There may be a spiritual nature to brewing beer, but if you ask Jeff Guidos, C’94, there’s a spiritual nature to naming those brews, too.
“I wanted to throw a shoutout to Saint Vincent,” explained Guidos, founder of All Saints and head brewer. He originally wanted to name the brewery after a saint, but with over 10,000 saints recognized by the Catholic church, it was difficult to pick. “So, I called my priest and said, ‘Hey, can we call the place All Saints?’ and he was like, ‘Sure,’ so now we just name some beers after different saints.” Some of the brewery’s more saintly offerings now include St. Dora, a rotating fruit ale; St. Bart’s “Festiv-Ale;” St. Mosey’s Black Pilsner; and St. Drogo’s Coffee Porter.
Perhaps destined to go into brewing, Guidos graduated from SVC with a degree in chemistry. He taught for a few years in Maryland before returning to the area to work for Red Star Brewery & Grill in Greensburg. Red Star turned off its taps in 2010, and the owner sold all of the brewing equipment to Guidos, who set up shop in what was formerly a discount bread store—“It’s a liquid bread store now,” laughed Guidos over a pint in the All Saints taproom, where you can either sit at the bar, in a booth, or in reclaimed church pews.
“I wouldn’t be here without Saint Vincent,” Guidos remarked before grabbing a decal with the All Saints logo on it and sliding it across the bar. “I gotta show you this. So, our All Saints logo, right? If you turn it upside down, it’s an S and a V for Saint Vincent.”
BENEDICTINE BREWS
About twenty minutes away from All Saints and just three minutes away from the Saint Vincent campus is Four Seasons Brewing. Founded by Mark Pavlik, who attended Saint Vincent for a short period, the brewery has become a go-to spot and gathering place for the Saint Vincent and Latrobe communities. “Craft beer in general is more about community,” expressed Pavlik. “It’s the atmosphere,” added Eamon McDonough, C’09, one of the brewers at Four Seasons. “A lot of locals come here, and then they talk to people who haven’t been here, and then those people become locals, and it’s just this big community, growing within Four Seasons.”
And the community and culture of brewing is growing well outside the four walls of Four Seasons: in Rio de Janeiro, at São Bento Priory, a group of Benedictine, Brazilian monks have launched the monastery’s own label of craft beer, called “Mosteiro.” An extension of the monastery’s bakery, Mosteiro is small production but wildly popular, having sold well over 2,000 units since its launch.
A CRAFTED CONNECTION
When Wimmer took over the brewery in Indiana, his goal was to bail out his nephew and bring the heritage of monastic beer brewing to the newly-founded Saint Vincent community. But, maybe unknowingly, the Projektenmacher tapped the keg on a culture that would go on long after a bishop conceded, long after the ratification of the 18th amendment, and long after brewery buildings burned down. There may no longer be “Saint Vincent Beer,” but there is Saint Vincent beer—up the road, across the state, down south, and in every brewery and taproom and garage homebrew set up created by a Bearcat who’s fostering the same community and connection through hops and barley and wheat that Wimmer was a short 170 years ago. ♦