Beer and the Catholic Church
In the Middle Ages, brewers didn't understand the phenomena of brewing. They mixed the ingredients and somehow it turned into beer. Nobody questioned why or how it happened, they were just thankful that it did. Since they knew so little about the process, there was a great chance that something might go wrong along the way. In Europe during the middle ages, with the influence that the Catholic Church had on life in those days, there could only be two possible explanations for the phenomena of brewing beer -Devine Intervention or Demonic Intervention.
In general, in the Middle ages, when people could not explain something it was considered to be the work of the Devil. However, people liked beer. Not only was it tasty and intoxicating, it was also much safer to drink than water was in those days. Nothing resembling sanitation had been invented yet and most towns and villages had poisonous, if not toxic, water supplies. People were encouraged to drink beer in lieu of water. St. Arnold actually earned his sainthood because of this. Beer was good. Fermentation was considered a miracle.
Problem was, sometimes a batch of beer would not turn out right. When you don't understand the fermentation process, the possibility of something going wrong is very high. In the minds of our Mid-Evil progenitors, a bad batch of beer meant the Devil got is dirty hands into the brew kettle and interfered with God's miracle.
There were several practices employed to control or avoid the intervention of the devil. The posting of Christian icons in the brew house was (and still is) a common practice. Even today, in most Belgian brew houses you can find a crucifix or a statue of a Saint. Other symbols used were the six-pointed star or the sign of Solomon. Another common practice of the old brewers was to stick to certain rituals, like reciting ritual phrases at certain specific moments, or to try to do everything exactly the same way.
The most certain way to avoid demonic interference in the brewing process was to have the local priest preside over the brewing. Of course, a priest's time was very valuable in those days. There were lots of demons running around the countryside, towns and villages meddling with the lives of peasants and nobles alike. So, the priest had to be paid. Normal compensation for a priest was four pints of beer per blessing. The blessing of the beer was a service known as "The Right of Signage." Some priests were a bit crooked and began blackmailing breweries, demanding greater payment for their service. To control these excesses, local rulers created laws that defined how much would be paid to priests for their blessing. To keep the clergy happy, they also created rules that required that breweries have this blessing for every batch of beer they produced. This was an early and effective form of taxation. The law created and enforced by the ruler insured that the Church would continue to support that leader's divine right to rule.
This is a primitive example of The Man sticking it to The People.
Not long after the laws were created requiring payment to the Church for each batch of beer, the Church decided that it really wasn't necessary for a priest to be present at the time of brewing. As long as payments were made on time, the church would bless the brewery from afar. It was now a tax and not a ritual, a fee and not a rite, a levy and not service.
When the French Revolution spread through Europe at the end of the 18th century, and Europe finally started to truly revolt against such ancient ways of thinking, this practice of local priests getting paid a compensation for each batch of beer halted. The blessing of the brew kettles was soon replaced by the placing of candles before the statue of a Saint, or by the posting of a crucifix in the brew-house.
In the 19th century, science made such progress that the brewing process and the function of the yeast was fully understood. From then on, the priest had to pay for his beer. Unless, of course, he was a monk and was living in a beer-brewing Abbey.