Many thanks to the (almost) countless cultured readers of the Corner for their enlightenment on the theology of beer. The best so far:

You’ve probably gotten a few of these already. Don’t know Kipling well (see Derbyshire for that), but I know that Ben Franklin did say: “Beer is proof that God loves us, and wants us to be happy.”
Some other great men’s thoughts on beer: (not thoroughly researched, so they might be paraphrased: “Give me a woman who truly loves beer, and I will conquer the world.” –Kaiser Wilhelm II “Malt does more than Milton can to justify God’s ways to man” — A. E. Housman “Beer: The cause of, and solution to, all of life’s problems.” — Homer Simpson