Luther’s Beer

by Joe Thorn on January 6, 2007

luther beerSketches of the man hang in our living room, a well-worn copy of his famous work The Bondage of the Will sits on a shelf in my study, I have visited Wartburg castle in Germany where he translated the New Testament into German. And this weekend I now have his beer.

Most of my wife’s family still lives in Germany, and my sister-in-law who just returned from a visit home brought me these two babies as a gift.

I was told the recipe dates back to Martin Luther himself. Pretty cool.

About Joe Thorn

I am the Lead Pastor of Redeemer Fellowship in Saint Charles, IL, and author of Note to Self: The Discipline of Preaching to Yourself. Jen is my wife, and Katherine, Elias, Madeline and Kilian are my kids.

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  • http://passionatepatriotism.blogspot.com Nicholas Cardot

    That is very funny!

  • http://robslagle.blogspot.com Rob Slagle

    It’s quite funny really.

    Especially in light of the Alcohol resolution of the SBC, he definately wouldn’t be able to be a missionary or hold leadership.

    Of course the spooky fundies aren’t laughing with us.

  • http://www.joethorn.net Joe Thorn

    Yeah, well I was one of those who voted against that resolution.

  • http://www.stevekmccoy.com Steve McCoy

    I’m another who voted against!

    I heard that if you drink too much of this beer you tend to get brash and change the world. Cheers!

  • http://thirstytheologian.com ThirstyDavid

    Very cool indeed. I am suddenly thirsty for a doctrinally sound bier! Will a review be forthcoming?

  • http://blog.jasonkearney.net jasonk

    I wonder if you can buy it in the states. You should drink it Joe. I’m dying to know how it tastes!

  • http://www.buzzardblog.typepad.com Justin Buzzard

    I’m jealous. I want one.

  • http://www.byfarthersteps.com Tim Etherington

    The important question is “How does it taste?”

  • iMonk

    Who’s that nailing long pages of theological debate points on the church door in the middle of the night? Oh, it’s that Baptist preacher after 6 “Luthers.”

  • http://neoathanasius.blogspot.com/ Robert Campbell

    Fantastic! Have you seen the “sin boldly” pint glasses?

    link

  • Christian Schalesky

    I’m jealous too. Good beer = good theologizing. Note the quote from one of Luther’s sermons delivered at Wittenberg in 1522, “I opposed indulgences and all the papists, but never with force. I simply taught, preached and wrote God’s Word; otherwise I did nothing. And while I slept [cf. Mark 4:26-29], or drank Wittenberg beer with my friends Philip and Amsdorf, the Word so greatly weakened the papacy that no prince or emperor ever inflicted such losses upon it.”

  • http://cwrambles.blogs.com Chris W

    And here I thought Luther actually brewed a refreshing, non-alcoholic barley beverage, something very similar to Sharps.

    We should keep in mind that beer, in his day, had a much, much lower alcohol content. It was more like water. Oh wait, that’s mass-produced American beer today.

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