Catholic Priest Wins National Beer Home Brewing Award
A Texas Catholic priest is being hailed as one of the best brewers after winning the highest honor for best homebrew beer in the U.S. Fr. Jeff Poirot is now one of the country's preeminent beer nerds after winning the 2017 Ninkasi Award given to the best drink judged in a national competition for home brewers.
The Ninkasi Award is given each year to the home brewer who scored the most points in the annual National Homebrew Competition. The award is named after the ancient Sumerian goddess of beer. The first recorded beer recipe in human history is a 3,900-year-old Sumerian poem titled "Hymn to Ninkasi."
Fr. Poirot shares the honor with brewing partner Nick McCoy, a Catholic who runs a Dallas-based printing company. The duo runs a home brewing operation called "Draft Punk," after the techno-pop band Daft Punk. They brew together every Tuesday at McCoy's garage in Plano.
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One of their best beers bested all 33 categories from among the 8,613 entries in the contest. Their winning concoction is a Belgian Quadruple called "Jeffestival" because it was brewed during Fr. Poirot's recent 43rd birthday. This is their third year of joining the national competition.
Fr. Poirot's specialty is the Trappist brewing tradition, which was started by Belgian monks in the Middle Ages. He and McCoy have taken trips visiting the remaining Trappist monasteries and their breweries. "Jeff is just a dude when we're brewing," McCoy said about his partner.
Generally, winners of the Ninkasi award go on to open their own shops or write books, but Fr. Poirot said he will remain as parish priest of Holy Family Catholic Church in Fort Worth. "For me, I always want to balance [brewing] with being a priest, because being a priest is primary, first and foremost for me," he said.
Despite its image problem and link to alcoholism, beer actually has health benefits when consumed moderately. A study by Pennsylvania State University revealed that consuming a pint or two a day helps the drinker live longer by reducing the risk of developing cardiovascular disease.
