Neatolicious Fun Facts: Beer

By popular request, here are the neatolicious fun facts for ... beer:

1. Beer is old stuff: Recipe found in 4,000-year-old Sumerian tablet

The first references to beer dates to as early as 6,000 BC. The very first recipe for beer is found on a 4,000-year-old Sumerian tablet containing the Hymn to Ninkasi, a prayer to the goddess of brewing. It tells how to brew beer from barley:

The filtering vat, which makes
a pleasant sound,
You place appropriately on [top of]
a large collector vat.
Ninkasi, the filtering vat,
which makes a pleasant sound,
You place appropriately on [top of]
a large collector vat.

If you're curious as to how the world's oldest beer tastes like, the Anchor Brewing Company produced a limited edition beer (under the Ninkasi label) based on the recipe.

2. Beer is not mentioned in the bible

Wine was mentioned - many times, but not beer. Instead, the Bible mentioned "strong drink," which some translated as fermented beverage made from grain (i.e. beer). (Source)

3. The Mayflower landed at Plymouth Rock Because It Ran Out of Beer
The Mayflower was supposed to sail to the mouth of the Hudson River, near present-day New York City - but the Pilgrims decided to head to Plymouth Bay because they were low on beer.

Colonists William Bradford and Edward Winslow wrote this first-hand account: "We could not now take time for further search or consideration, our victuals being much spent, especially our beer ..."

Why did the ship carry beer? It's because unlike water, beer don't go bad on long ocean voyages - but lest you think the shipmates were all plastered all the time, the type of beer they carried was "ship's beer," which wasn't very alcoholic. (Source: The Straight Dope by Cecil Adams - though consider this rebuttal by Bob Skilnik, author of Beer & Food: An American History)

4. World's Strongest Beer: Sam Adams Utopias MMII

The strongest beer in the world was the Sam Adams Utopias MMII, a limited-run (only 3,000 bottles were made) production by Boston Beer Co. It weighs in at 24 percent alcohol by volume in a mini, old-school, copper-brewing kettles. If you want to get one, be prepared to shell out at least $100.

For flavors, aroma and stability. Hop is the flower of the hop vine (a cousin of the hemp, actually).

Early beers didn't use hops - instead, they were flavored with wild rosemary, coriander, ginger, anise seed, juniper berries and even wood bark.

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 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. (Source)

6. Beer in a Bag

Photo: indy2kro [Flickr] - not sure if this is the original photographer

Quick - how many different ways of transporting beer can you think of? Bottles, glass, cans and kegs? You've missed one: in China, you can buy beer in a plastic bag!

7. St. Arnold: Patron Saint of Brewing

In the 11th century, Arnold of Soissons, a bishop in the Benedictine St. Medard's Abbey in Soissons, France, began to brew beer.

He encouraged the locals to drink beer instead of water for its health benefits (beer was healthier than water mainly because it was boiled and thus sterilized from pathogens). No wonder they made him a saint!

8. How do you say Beer in Zulu?

Utshwala.

This website will help: here's how to say Beer in 78 Languages. Or if you want to order a beer in 50 languages.

9. "Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy" That's what Benjamin Franklin said, anyhow.

That was fun - but we barely scratched the potential with beer. Got any trivia about beer? Add them to the comment! And what should we do for "C" (no cats, mmmkay?)