A Brussels church that was nearly forced to close its doors for lack of parishioners has turned to the Belgian brewing tradition and launched a new beer in order to raise more funds for a now growing congregation. St. Catherine’s Church, by the city’s increasingly gentrified canalside docks, partnered with a local brewery to create Ste Kat’, a strong, fruity pale ale that uses the affectionate local name for the church. “You could say that it’s an image of the church, that it’s effervescent, full of life,” Father
Jeremie Schaub, the Roman Catholic priest who helped create the beer with a local brewery which is itself a recent start-up, the Brussels Beer Project. “It’s also a little bit the image we want to portray of St. Catherine’s Church.” The beer will be sold to fund renovations to the 19th century structure, which Brussels city council considered knocking down a few years ago, thinking to build a market or housing. A parish outing to a theme park is also on the cards. READ MORE
