Here are a few fun beer facts to enjoy as you drink your next beer. Check out some of our great beer recipes.
The holidayspot.com says that, “About 4000 years ago, it was the accepted practice in Babylonia 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 to day as the "Honey moon".
Before invention of the thermometer, brewers used to check the temperature by dipping their thumb, to find whether appropriate for adding Yeast. Too hot, the yeast would die. This is where we get the phrase "The Rule of the Thumb".
In English pubs, ale is ordered by pints and quarts. So in old England, when customers got unruly, the bartender used to yell at them to mind their own pints and quarts and settle down. From where we get "mind your own P's and Q's".
After consuming a vibrant brew called Aul or Ale, the Vikings would go fearlessly to the battlefield, without their armor, or even their shirts. The "Berserk" means "bear shirt" in norse, and eventually to the meaning of wild battles.
Way down in 1740, the Admiral Veron of the British fleet decided to water down the navy's rum, which naturally, the sailors weren't pleased with. They nicknamed the Admiral Old Grog, after the still stiff grogram coats he used to wear. The term grog soon began to mean the watered down drink itself. When you are drunk on this grog, you are "groggy", a word still in use.
Long ago in England, pub frequenters had a whistle baked into the rim of their beer mugs or ceramic/glass cups. The whistle was used to order services. Thus we get the phrase, "wet your whistle".
Beers form around the world are different in flavor, content and presentation, Whether brewed in the U.S., Europe or elsewhere, they are all brewed similarly. According to the worldofbeerbottles.com, ‘In the U.S., where the word beer is generally understood to mean lager beer (beer stored for a time before being sold), the beverage contains on the average 90 percent water, 3.5 percent alcohol by weight, 0.5 percent carbon dioxide, and 6 percent extractives consisting of proteins, carbohydrates, minerals, and aromatic flavorings. It is produced by bottom-fermenting yeasts, that is, yeasts that settle to the bottom, act slowly, and develop the brew at relatively low temperatures.”
“Bock beer, high in flavor and alcoholic content, is brewed during the winter for consumption in the spring. In certain localities the composition of the water is especially favorable for producing a distinctive type of beer. Such brews are frequently named for their cities of origin, for example, Munich, Pilsener, or Milwaukee beer!”
Hubpages.com gas a few interesting beer trivia notes!
Everything You Wanted To Know About Beer
• Beer is the second most popular beverage in the world, coming in behind tea.
• To get rid of the foam at the top of beer (the head), stick your fingers in it.
• Monks brewing beer in the Middle Ages were allowed to drink five quarts of beer a day.
• Bavaria still defines beer as a staple food.
• 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.
• The oldest known written recipe is for beer.
• The longest bar in the world is the 684 foot long New Bulldog in Rock Island, IL.
• As of 2001, 62% of Americans reported using a designated driver at least once.
• Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) was elected in 1932 because of his promise to end Prohibition.
• The first brewery in America was built in Hoboken, NJ in 1642.
• In 1935 the canned beer industry was revolutionized by a vinyl plastic liner developed for cans made out of tin.
• Tossing salted peanuts in a glass of beer makes the peanuts dance.
• In Japan, beer is sold in vending machines, by street vendors and in the train stations.
• Many actors started out as bartenders: Sandra Bullock, Bruce Willis, Tom Arnold, Chevy Chase, Kris Kristofferson and Bill Cosby are a few of these.
• Beer is a source of B- complex vitamins.
• If you collect beer bottles you are a labeorphilist.
• The portable beer cooler was invented in Australia in the 1950s.
• The ‘33’ on a bottle of Rolling Rock was originally a printer’s error. It refers to the 33 words in the original slogan. It has generated enough mystery over the years that the company left it in the label.
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