Gambrinus

Gambrinus. (gaem-bray'-nuhs)

    A corruption or contraction of the name Jean Primus, Duke Jean I of Brabant, Louvain, and Antwerp, born 1251 in Bourguignon and killed 1295 in a duel or in a tournament in Bar. He is the second patron (not a saint) of brewers and the first patron of beer lovers. He was not a brewer but a popular ruler will liked by his subjects and particularly by the brewers of Brussels, who placed his effigy in their meeting hall of the association in Brussels. According to legend Gambrinus could drink 144 pints of beer during a single feast. His name is synonymous with a joyful and exuberant way of life. Among the other interpretations of the name Gambrinus there is one claiming that it was derived from the founder of Cambray, a brewing city where a brewer was once known as a gambarius. Another sees the origin of the word in the medieval German word gambra, meaning germination of grain, or from cambier, the name given to brewers in the north of France in the Middle Ages. Gambrinus is also the name of a Chech brewery established in Plzen in 1869, a famous cafe in San Polo di Piave in northern Italy, and that of an opera composed by Maurice Frank in 1961.