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.
5. What is hop and why is it used in beer
anyway?
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?)
