'If you're not Irish yet, you should be': St. Patrick's Day observed with beer blessings
A cheer went up from the crowd gathered around the Tasting Room of Louisiana's bar Saturday as Father Steve Brandow drank the beer he had just blessed, officially starting the flow for patrons waiting with tickets in their hands.
It was one of two blessings of the beers Brandow performed in the area on Saturday, the day before St. Patrick’s Day.
The blessing has been a tradition at the Tasting Room in downtown Alexandria pub long before it was owned by whiskey sommelier and owner Melissa Scarborough. Once known as Finnegan’s Wake, the pub began the blessings in the mid-2000s.
Brandow said beer is blessed “because beer’s a food item that’s an essential food group for those of us who enjoy beer.” And, as some people do with all things in their lives, they thank God for it.
“It’s a social event,” he said. “Catholics have always been social people.”
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Over at a table, Jerry Liberty and Betty Chavez, both sporting green shirts and green and white beads that had been left on tables, snapped cellphone photos of Jody Skeltoe, who was wearing a green hat and multi-color glasses. The women hail from New Mexico, visiting friends who live here.
They said they were enjoying themselves and were looking forward to a "crawdad" boil later Saturday.
Bob Pulaski is the guy in charge of preparing that crawfish boil. Standing over by the bar, Pulaski stood out in his leprechaun hat, green shirt and red kilt.
He said his wife is the one behind the annual boil, "a long, long tradition," he said.
"I get to drink beer, but then I have to start cooking."
Hours later, Brandow made his way over to Pineville's Fighting Hand Brewing Company for the second blessing of the day. Although the brewery has been open for three years, this is the second time they've hosted a blessing of the beers.
Standing behind the bar between owners Chris and Tiffany Lindsey, Brandow invited the crowd to join him and told them about the first people to brew beer.
But it wasn't what everyone today knows as beer. It was just wild grain and water.
"They hadn't domesticated grain yet. That would come very soon thereafter, though after they enjoyed the first beer, they said we got to do that again, whatever that was," he said to laughter.
And he gave them a brief history about St. Patrick and named them honorary Irish.
"Welcome to my family. If you're not Irish yet, you should be."
Tiffany Lindsey said the blessing is a fun community event and, since Brandow is a regular, it made sense to ask him to perform the blessing.
"We heard of other places doing it, and I'm like, we make beer," she said. "Let's do this."
This article originally appeared on Alexandria Town Talk: St. Patrick's comes to Rapides with blessings of beers at pub, brewery
