Saint Vincent Beer

Saint Vincent Beer was a dark lager brewed by monks at Saint Vincent Archabbey in Unity Township, Pennsylvania, United States, between 1856 and 1918. Pope Pius IX granted the monks permission to brew in 1852, ending a dispute with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh. The brewery was located in a log cabin near the Saint Vincent Archabbey Gristmill and a brick building supplemented the cabin in 1868. After production ceased, the monastery used the buildings for storage until they burned down in 1926. The walls were removed from the site in 1995 during the restoration of the gristmill.

Production peaked at around 1,100 barrels in 1891. The popularity and widespread availability of the beer brought the monastery to the attention of the Catholic temperance movement. The theologian and professor Francesco Satolli, then the Apostolic Delegate to the United States, wrote to Archabbot Leander Schnerr asking for the brewing to cease in 1895. As part of a media campaign against the monastery, temperance advocate and Catholic priest George Zurcher published Monks and Their Decline in 1898 criticizing the archabbey for supporting the production and distribution of alcohol.

The negative press ended its external sale by 1900, although the monks continued to produce the drink for internal consumption for another 18 years. Aurelius Stehle closed the brewery in 1918 after he was elected coadjutor archabbot. Several conflicting accounts exist concerning what became of its recipe. Local legend holds the monastery sold it to another brewery; however, the archabbey claims that it was never recorded and lost.