Comments on: Neatolicious Fun Facts: Beer

By: Lubcha

Lubcha — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 19:40:58 +0000

1. Beer Sheva has nothing to do with beer as we know it. Be’er in Hebrew means well.
2. While the possible references to beer in the Bible may be vague, and may refer to many things including date beer, there is a clear reference to hops in the Babylonian Talmud. So that afforementioned fact has legs to stand on.
I’ll take a good hefeweisen under the reinheitsgebot any day of the week.

By: Caitlin

Caitlin — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 18:13:46 +0000

yay delaware! and dogfish head!

By: Peach

Peach — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 01:37:31 +0000

Condos!

By: Epicanis

Epicanis — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 04:07:21 +0000

Hops is merely bacteriostatic (it inhibits bacterial growth, but doesn't KILL bacteria). Also, it only seems to work on members of the phylum Firmicutes ("Gram-positive"). It does nothing against critters like "E.coli" - or Acetobacter and Gluconobacter (vinegar bacteria), for that matter. Hops is still useful though, since a major pest in beers (other than lambics!) is lactic-acid producing bacteria (Lactobacillus, Pediococcus, etc.), which are members of the phylum Firmicutes. E.coli and such are inhibited more by the alcohol rather than the hops. (There, you all have your US RDA of Useless Knowledge™ now...)

By: Ali S.

Ali S. — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 20:31:18 +0000

I’ve had beer before and I can’t for the life of me understand its taste appeal. Maybe it was just the brew I had.

You know what they need to bring back as a drink? Mead.

By: Nick

Nick — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 16:02:17 +0000

Also, hops were probably used first and foremost for bittering. Without hops, beer would be cloyingly sweet. Hops are generally added for 3 properties: bittering, flavor and aroma. The preservative properties of hops were not known when hops were first used, but are a fortunate side effect that lead to many excellent beers.

And yes Huckabrew, barely wine is a beer style. Also there are numerous styles of beer that can have high alcohol content, not just barley wine, so it is not true that beers over a certain ABV are considered barley wine.

By: Nick

Nick — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 15:57:43 +0000

Karin,

Dogfish Head also produces and ever older brew, called Chateau Jiahu, which is based on a 9000 year old recipe from China.

http://dogfish.com/brewings/Occasional_Rarities/Chateau_Jiahu/25/index .htm

By: JC

JC — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 14:32:11 +0000

Karin – I love Dogfish head.
Thanks for mentioning them!

By: Huckabrew

Huckabrew — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 04:45:00 +0000

Barley wine IS beer. Its just one the style categories.

By: DOJ

DOJ — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 02:32:35 +0000

I was at the fair and won this drunk goldfish

By: Johnsonab

Johnsonab — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 00:48:30 +0000

Beers are Ales, Lagers and Lambics. Fact.

By: karin

karin — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 00:32:07 +0000

Dogfish Head Brewery, of Delaware, produces a beer called Midas Touch which is based on the actual oldest-known fermented beverage in the world.

It’s also delicious.

http://dogfish.com/brewings/Year_Round_Beers/Midas_Touch/1/index.htm

By: Leisa

Leisa — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 22:56:39 +0000

#21 Chili

I’ll second the St. Arnold’s Lawnmower. Yum!
http://www.saintarnold.com/

By: Caleb

Caleb — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 22:53:34 +0000

Since we’re on the topic of delicious psychoactives, why not list some fun facts about cannabis for the letter “C”? Surely this would be more interesting than beer in a bag.

By: synchro.idiotic

synchro.idiotic — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 22:51:26 +0000

Hmmm. Christianity, crayons, or cotton!

By: Matt

Matt — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 19:06:20 +0000

In the Bible, there is a place mentioned called: BeerSheba. http://www.bibleplaces.com/beersheba.htm
Does that count?

By: Shannon

Shannon — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 19:02:53 +0000

The reason that the Pilgrims (and other seafaring folk) could absolutely not run out of beer is because the beer they had on board was spruce beer. Spruce beer was their only source of vitamin C, which staved off scurvy. Without the beer, the scurvy would’ve killed them.

By: cameron

cameron — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 18:59:24 +0000

Beer in a Bag! Awesome.

By: Chili

Chili — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 18:44:31 +0000

There’s a Saint Arnold’s microbrewery in Houston, Texas that makes several very delicious kinds of beer (Lawnmower is the best). I had no idea that there is actually a Saint Arnold!

By: Raúl

Raúl — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 18:17:35 +0000

coffee*

By: Raúl

Raúl — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 18:16:48 +0000

How about cofee?

By: Allen T Garvin

Allen T Garvin — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 17:43:16 +0000

The Ben Franklin quote is spurious. It’s similar (though not exactly so) to a statement he made on wine, a beverage he praised many times. His writings rarely mention beer.

By: AndiB.

AndiB. — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 17:28:37 +0000

Update: unfortunately the strongest beer does not come out of bavaria anymore… the strongest beer is now brewed in Berlin (boooh!) – 27.6% Alcohol, produced by Brauhaus Südstern according to the German purity law.

Source: http://www.brauhaus-suedstern.de/v2/images/stories/Weltrekord/Gutachte nTU_20090108.jpg

By: Minnesotastan

Minnesotastan — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 17:10:36 +0000

There is another way to carry beer (or wine) – in a formfitting garment variously dubbed the WineRack or the Beerbelly; it was posted in Neatorama in November:
http://www.neatorama.com/2008/11/22/beer-belly/

Re trivia, the symbol for Ballantine beer is formed of Borromean rings:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borromean_rings

By: Droplet

Droplet — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 17:10:09 +0000

Furthermore with those pilgrims, pilgrim children drank beer as soon as they were weaned. The water wasn’t safe, so it was the only thing anyone drank. Most people assume that this was near beer (low-alcohol beer), but books I’ve read dispute this, some insisting that everyone was drunk pretty much all the time until modern sanitation.

By: jmk816

jmk816 — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 16:54:09 +0000

How about the circus?

By: LisaL

LisaL — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 16:48:56 +0000

Bleh…. beer….

By: sw

sw — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 16:46:58 +0000

I wish I could get a sack of beer from my neighborhood pub . . . But then again, how do you drink or pour from a sack?

By: Josh

Josh — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 16:38:43 +0000

i’m going back to Oktoberfest this year. for the beer. hot girls too

By: AlexLap

AlexLap — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 16:20:36 +0000

I will try to drink beer from a bag ^-)

By: Drunklemur

Drunklemur — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 16:04:54 +0000

Beer in a bag.. how wonderful!

By: Bret Hammond

Bret Hammond — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 15:08:42 +0000

Beer not mentioned in the Bible? Whose Bible are you reading?

1 Samuel 1:5 “Not so, my lord,” Hannah replied, “I am a woman who is deeply troubled. I have not been drinking wine or beer; I was pouring out my soul to the LORD.

Proverbs 20:1 Wine is a mocker and beer a brawler; whoever is led astray by them is not wise.

Proverbs 31:4 “It is not for kings, O Lemuel–
not for kings to drink wine,
not for rulers to crave beer,

Proverbs 31:6 Give beer to those who are perishing,
wine to those who are in anguish;

There are several others, but rest assured, beer is Biblical.

By: AndiB.

AndiB. — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 15:05:49 +0000

Sam Adams Utopia WAS the strongest beer for a brief period. The world’s strongest beer is now being brewed in Bavaria again. It comes with 25%Alcohol and is produced with different yeasts (more alcohol tolerant) than regular beer, then the water content will be reduced by freezing it out – the “Eisbock” principle.

By: Cheezwhiz

Cheezwhiz — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 14:51:49 +0000

Pick cheese! Or cookies. Or chocolate. Yum.

By: Scotchdrnkr

Scotchdrnkr — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 13:22:09 +0000

Aren’t beers over a certain alcohol level considered Barley Wines by the BATF.

By: brendo333

brendo333 — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 12:00:07 +0000

Nice one.
Also, just if anyone wants to know… Hammurabi’s Code has a part saying that beer shouldn’t contain too much water and cost too much (long live the king!).

By: Sammy

Sammy — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 11:32:41 +0000

Coffins? Or Corpses! Either or.

By: Jack Tourette

Jack Tourette — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 10:53:22 +0000

> 9. “Beer is living proof that God loves
> us and wants us to be happy”

Franklin was writing about wine, not beer:

We hear of the conversion of water into wine at the marriage in Cana, as of a miracle. But this conversion is, through the goodness of God, made every day before our eyes. Behold the rain which descends from heaven upon our vineyards, and which incorporates itself with the grapes to be changed into wine; a constant proof that God loves us, and loves to see us happy! The miracle in question was only performed to hasten the operation under circumstances of present necessity, which required it.
- Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)
Letter to Andre Morellet
circa July 1779

By: gizno

gizno — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 09:02:21 +0000

that was fun