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BEER FACTS

BEER FACTS AND TRIVIA

One of the more pleasurable and relaxing things to do in life, at least from my perspective, is to gather at the local watering hole, enjoy the great “hoppy” taste of a cold double IPA (DIPA) or two, and regale your friends with some interesting beer facts and trivia.  Not only is this a great way to chill, but there are also positive health benefits associated with participating in such an outing.  

So, to help maximize this experience, the 4PAX has provided the following list of beer facts and trivia to arm oneself with the next time out: 

  • Beer is the oldest known alcoholic beverage, dating back to 3000 BC.

  • The oldest known written recipe is for beer.


  • The Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, not because it was their intended destination (they were on course to sail well south), but they settled on the destination up north simply because they ran out of beer.

 

  • In England, Ale used to be served only in Pints and Quarts. When the patrons became unruly, the barkeep would settle the rowdy patrons down by telling them to “mind their Pints & Quarts.” That is where the saying “mind your P’s & Q’s” originated.

  • Years ago, in the UK, drinking vessels had a whistle baked into the rim of the glass. When a patron wanted additional ale, they would blow the whistle to summon the barkeep over to refill the glass. “Wet your whistle” is a phrase that evolved from that long-gone act.

  • Beer is the 3rd most consumed beverage in the world behind water and tea.

  • According to the American Brewers Association, in 2008, America had a total of 1,500 craft breweries, by 2015 there were 3,500, and by the end of November 2016, America had a total of 5,005.

  • Hops didn’t always have a stranglehold on beer. In the Middle Ages, beers derived their flavor from gruit (pronounced “grew-it” or “groot”), a proprietary grab bag of herbs, including bitter yarrow, wild rosemary, bog myrtle, and sundry spices.  Gruit beer also double as an aphrodisiac and stimulant because brewers often added psychotropics such as Henbane and nightshade.

  • By the 1700s, gruit largely had given way to hops, the female flowering cones of Humulus lupulus, a climbing plant from the same family as cannabis.

  • Hops DON’T grow on vines – they grow on bines. A climbing plant that wraps itself around support structures such as a trellis.  Hop bines typically sky to eighteen feet, but growers are experimenting with low-trellis varieties.

 

  • The Catholic Church controlled the gruit trade in the Middle Ages, levying taxes on brewers and the blended herbs.

  • Scientists have identified more than four hundred different compounds in hop oil, allowing growers to play endless games of mix-and-match to create new permutations of aroma and flavor. The four main compounds are:  myrcene, humulene, caryophyllene, and farnesene.

 

  • A trend bubbling up from the homebrew ranks, SMASH (single malt and single hops) uses one grain and one hop variety so drinkers understand the individual characteristics of each ingredient.

  • If you’ve sipped an American IPA in the last decade the beer likely was brewed with C hops: Cascade, Centennial, Chinook, and/or Columbus.

 

 

  • Hop strains can fall victim to mildew, produce low yields, or have unappealing flavors or scents. When this occurs, hop growers rip out the bines and start all over again.  One hop breeder/grower stated that if we start with forty thousand seedlings and have one successful hop, then I’m happy.

  • Ireland is issuing a swell of superb IPAs. Standouts include:  Galway Bay of Foam and Fury DIPA, Kinnegar Black Bucket Black Rye IPA, and Eight Degrees Brewing’s Nomad IPL and Hurricane IPA.

  • It was the accepted practice in Babylon 4,000 years ago that for a month after the wedding, the bride’s father would supply his son-in law with all the mead he could drink. Mead is a honey beer, and because their calendar was lunar based, this period was called the “honey month”, or what we know today as the “honeymoon”.

  • George Washington had his own Brewhouse on the grounds of Mount Vernon.

  • In 1963, Jim Whitaker became the first American to reach the summit of Mt. Everest. A can of Seattle’s own Rainier Beer made the ascent with him.

  • Monks brewing beer in the Middle Ages could drink five quarts of beer a day.

 

 

 

  • Hop was used as flavorings as early as 400 BC by captive Jews in Babylon, but historians think that the real reason it was used as an additive was for its antiseptic properties. By adding hops, brewers didn’t have to have high alcohol content to prevent spoilage. This meant less grains and therefore more profit.

  • Before thermometers were invented, brewers would dip a thumb or finger into the mix to find the right temperature for adding yeast. Too cold, and the yeast wouldn’t grow. Too hot, and the yeast would die. This thumb in the beer is where “rule of thumb” comes from.

  • In 1962, Iron City beer was the brand used to test-market the concept of tab opening aluminum cans. By 1970, over 90% of all beer cans were self-opening.

  • President Theodore Roosevelt took more than 500 gallons of beer with him on an African safari.

 

 

 

  • The music for “The Star-Spangled Banner” was derived from a British drinking song called “Anacreon”.

  • According to The Code of Hammurabi of ancient Babylonia (c. 1750 B.C.) a merchant could be put to death for diluting beer.

  • The first US lager was brewed in 1840 by John Wagner, who had a small brewery in the back of his house on St. John Street in Philadelphia. Wagner brought the first lager yeast to the United States from a brewery in Bavaria.

  • A barrel contains 31 gallons of beer. What Americans commonly refer to as a keg is 15.5 gallons, or a half-barrel.

 

 

  • One of the few short sentences in the English language to include every letter of the English alphabet is: “Pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs.”

  • Beer, as all alcoholic drinks, is made by fermentation caused by bacteria feeding on the yeast cells, and then defecating. This bacterial excrement is called alcohol.

  • Modern breathalyzers work on a clever electrochemical principle. The subject’s breath is passed over a platinum electrode, which causes the alcohol to bind with oxygen, forming acetic acid. In the process it loses two electrons, a process that sets up a current in a wire connected to the electrode. The higher the concentration of alcohol in the breath, the greater the electrical current, which can be read by a simple meter to indicate intoxication levels.

  • In a Czech beer house, the bartender will refill your glass every time you empty it until you place your coaster on top of your glass, signaling that you have had enough.

  • To get rid of the foam at the top of beer (the head), stick your fingers in it.

 

  • To keep your beer glass or mug from sticking to your bar napkin, sprinkle a little salt on the napkin before you set your glass down.

  • Tossing salted peanuts in a glass of beer makes the peanuts dance.

 

 

 

  • The first brewery in America was built in Hoboken, New Jersey in 1642.

  • The first consumer protection law ever written was enacted over beer by Duke Wilhelm IV of Bavaria in 1516. It was a purity law limiting the ingredients of beer to barley, hops, and water.

  • Tegestology is what collecting beer mats is called.

  • Pabst Beer is now called Pabst Blue Ribbon beer because it was the first beer to win a blue ribbon at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893.

  • Many actors started out as bartenders: Sandra Bullock, Bruce Willis, Tom Arnold, Chevy Chase, and Kris Kristofferson are a few of these.

 

 

  • Molson, Inc. is the oldest brewery in North America.

  • In 1935 the canned beer industry was revolutionized by a vinyl plastic liner developed for cans made from tin.

  • If you collect beer bottles you are a labeorphilist.

  • The portable beer cooler was invented in Australia in the 1950s.

  • Anyone under the age of 21 who takes out household trash containing even a single empty alcohol beverage container can be charged with illegal possession of alcohol in Missouri.

  • While there wasn’t any cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, or pumpkin pie to eat at the first Thanksgiving, there was beer.

  • When archaeologists discovered a four-thousand-year old Mesopotamian clay tablet, they were naturally curious to learn what it was all about. So, a good deal of scholarly effort was put into the task of deciphering its cryptic markings. As it turns out, the ancient Mesopotamian’s were recording a recipe for beer. And not just any recipe, but a formula handed down from the god Enki himself. This probably came as no surprise to the archaeologists, since the subject of beer pops up regularly in their work. Images of people brewing, storing, and drinking beer are found in ruined cities and forgotten tombs scattered throughout the ancient world.

  • Oktoberfest (the world’s largest beer festival, held in Munich, Germany each year) originally started when the people of Munich were invited to celebrate the marriage of Crown Prince Ludwig in 1810. Only beer that conforms to the German Beer Purity Law, and brewed within Munich, can be served at Oktoberfest. During the 2013 celebrations, 7,700,000 liters of beer were served across the 16 days.

  • George Washington was a huge beer fan. He would write his own recipes for making beer, and purchase large orders of beer from his favorite suppliers in England. During his presidency, his favorite domestic brewer in the area was Robert Hare of Philadelphia, and certainly helped many Americans turn to American-made beer during his era.

  • In 1814 a three-story-tall beer vat exploded at Bainbridge Street Brewery in London, which unleashed a 388,000 gallon ‘beer wave’ into the neighboring streets of the St Giles district. Eight people lost their lives as the beer (a porter) flooded down streets, sweeping up residents and destroying the already-fragile homes and buildings in the area.

  • After winning the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922, Danish physicist Niels Bohr was given a house by the Carlsberg brewery. The house had its own beer pipeline, with a constant flow of fresh beer coming directly from the brewery.

  • Wife Carrying World Championships are held every year in Sonkajärvi, Finland. The first contest was held in 1992, and each year the grand prize is the wife’s weight in beer. The length of the official track is 253.5 meters, and it has two dry obstacles and a water obstacle about one meter deep. The last five years, the world championship has been won by Taisto Miettinen and Kristiina Haapanen.

  • The top five U.S. states for beer consumption per capita are: 5. Wisconsin (36.2 gallons per capita); 4. South Dakota (38.1 gallons per capita); 3. Montana (40.5 gallons per capita); 2. New Hampshire (42.2 gallons per capita); 1. North Dakota (43.3 gallons per capita). Why do the northern Midwest states rank so highly? Some say it is partly due to strong German and Scandinavian ancestry, and a love of outdoorsy hobbies that incorporate the drinking of beer (hunting, fishing, etc.)

  • Bavarian Beer Week in Germany is celebrated every April to commemorate April 23, 1516 when Duke Wilhelm IV and Duke Ludwig X proclaimed the Bavarian Beer Purity Law. One highlight of the week is the opening day, when local Munich breweries donate around 1000 liters of beer to be dispensed from an open-air beer fountain, free for public consumption.

  • The moon has a crater named Beer. A relatively small lunar impact crater located on the Mare Imbrium. Just to the northwest is the matching twin Feuillée. Look it up, next time you are in the neighborhood.

 

 

The following beer facts and trivia references are provided for your reading pleasure…..enjoy:

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