An Ohio brewery has honored Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI by brewing a special beer in his name, called “Beer-nedict XVI: Pint-ifex Maximus.”

The Hightower Brewing Company launched the new Bavarian-style wheat beer, or hefeweizen, at the conference of the Society for Catholic Social Scientists in Steubenville, Ohio late last month.

“It’s to honor Pope Benedict,” said Hightower owner Greg Whiting. “People are flying in from Germany and Europe for this, so we tried brewing a pure German beer—a Hefeweizen—with German hops, German malts, a great wheat beer, easy drinking beer.”

For the great unveiling, the Benedict XVI Centre for Religion and Society, which commissioned the new brew, put together a side event at the conference, complete with priests to bless the first kegs. The Benedict XVI Centre was founded last year at St Mary’s University, Twickenham.

“The Pope Emeritus honored St. Mary’s with a visit in 2010 and – like him – we like good beer,” said the center’s director, Stephen Bullivant. “So this seemed like a fitting and fun way for the Center both to toast Benedict’s 90th year, and to mark the 25th anniversary of the Society for Catholic Social Scientists.”

Another participant at the event, Marc Barnes, a PhD student at the Benedict XVI Center, suggested that beer was the ideal drink to bring Americans and Brits together.

“What better way for the British and American allies to meet than over beer – certainly, a party over tea would have brought up old feelings between the nations,” he quipped.

“My hope is that the joy of being Catholic will spill over from this particular feast and inspire new, creative work among all the academics and intellectuals milling about between the bar and the bluegrass band.”

As Breitbart News reported last April, Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI celebrated his 90th birthday in the Vatican, surrounded by friends and well-wishers from his native Bavaria, together with a tall mug of beer.

“My heart is filled with gratitude for the 90 years that the good God has given me,” said Benedict, who retired as pope in 2013, the first pontiff to do so in 600 years.

“There have also been trials and difficult times, but through it all He has always led me and pulled me through, so that I could continue on my path,” he said.

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