CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — After putting it on for 60 years, St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church has gotten its annual Greek Festival down to a science.
For decades, the church has banded together to put on its largest fundraiser, which has famously featured food, pastries, wine and beer.
But for the last few years, it's also looked to neighbor Nueces Brewing to help make the event a success.
“Our St. Nicholas Wonder Worker Beer is a Greek-style lager that Nueces Brewing has been kind enough to brew for us for, I guess, about the last three or four years,” Greek Festival beverage manager Butch Pool said.
He said the festival had been special-ordering beer from Greece for the event, but were disappointed in the result.
“They just weren’t up to par," he said. "They’ve been in a warehouse for years. And so when (Nueces) became our new neighbors, we approached them and said, ‘Would you be interested in brewing us a Greek-style lager?’ We brought them examples of different Greek beers and they were able to match it perfectly and go beyond that.”
Brewery staff went as far as to run experiments to deconstruct the Greek beers' water content so its lager could taste as authentic as possible, said Nueces Brewing co-owner Brandon Harper.
“We have the equipment that can analyze the water make up from anywhere in the world, so we actually replicated the water make up from the Greek beer so it can taste as closely as the real stuff as possible,” Harper said. “If you ask the guys back there, they will tell you it tastes better.”
Harper is excited to be involved with the event. He said when the brewery first moved in, his team was worried because some laws prohibit how close breweries can be near churches.
But after introducing themselves with the church, those worries quickly disappeared.
Pool anticipates the festival will go through 16 kegs of the specially made lager this year.
The event runs from 5-10 p.m. Friday; noon-10 p.m. Saturday, and noon-5 p.m. Sunday.
Thousands of pastries also are being prepared for the thousands expected Downtown for the popular event.
“Ladies, and men, spend many many hours preparing,” said volunteer Helen Pool, who has been a part of the festival for as far back as she can remember. “We have the baklavas which are the layer phyllo dough with pecans and honey -- we made 3,850 this year. We made 1,500 dozen koulouria, and 9,600 domathes, which are the stuffed grape leaves. Stuffed with rice and meat.”
All proceeds go back to the St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church.
There's much more to enjoy this weekend like performances from the church's Greek dancers.