"Holy Brewers" share craft at St. Eugene's parish in Fox Point

Catechists, lectors, cantors, ushers. Like most parishes, St. Eugene, Fox Point, has them all.

A group that sets the suburban Milwaukee congregation apart from others, though, is a small one known as the Holy Brewers. Once a year – as beer and bratwurst or beer and pretzels do much more regularly – beer and St. Eugene form a tandem. This year, that will happen Saturday, April 9.

“We thought this would be a fun service project (to benefit) the parish,” Holy Brewers co-founder Pete Weingarten said in a telephone interview with the Catholic Herald. “But, as my wife said, ‘It’s not so much a fundraiser as a fun raiser.’”

The fundraising and fun raising began around 2010, said Weingarten, who in retirement works part-time at a home brew supply store, when he and fellow beer brewing parishioner Bryon Baker each donated a batch of beer for a St. Eugene auction. Such a donation made perfect sense, self-described professional “computer geek” Baker suggested during a separate phone conversation.

“If you (make beer) regularly,” Holy Brewers co-founder Baker said with a chuckle, “there’s no way you can drink everything you make. If you do, you’ve got a problem.”

continue at MkeCH