National Drink Beer Day toasts that malty elixir on September 28th, annually. Just as the Oktoberfest season comes to an end, the day reminds us to enjoy the world’s most popular adult beverage.
- Beer is the third-most popular drink on Earth, after water and tea
- Beer is by far the most popular alcoholic drink in the world. In 2016, people consumed nearly 50 billion gallons of beer worldwide.
- The Czech Republic consumes the most beer per capita of any country in the world, and China consumes the most overall.
- In 2017, the average U.S. citizen over 21 consumed 26.9 gallons of beer.
- In 1983, there were 49 licensed breweries in the United States; by the end of 2017, there were 8,863
- An ancient Egyptian document lists 17 distinct types of beer, with names like “joy-bringer” and “heavenly.”
- 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, which we know today as the honeymoon.
- In English pubs, ale is ordered by pints and quarts… So in old England , when customers got unruly, the bartender would yell at them ‘Mind your pints and quarts, and settle down.’It’s where we get the phrase ‘mind your P’s and Q’s’
- In 1963, Heineken developed beer bottles that could double as glass bricks to build houses. The goal was to eliminate waste and provide a cheap building material for low-income areas.
- The largest brewery in the world is Anheuser-Busch InBev., maker of such popular beers as Budweiser and Corona.
- The strongest beer in the world is “Snake Venom,” brewed by Scottish brewery Brewmeister. It is 67.5% alcohol by volume (abv). For comparison, most vodka is 40% abv, with beers typically between 3% and 10% abv.
- The Guinness Book of World Records was conceived of by Hugh Beaver, the Managing Director of the Guinness Brewery in Dublin, as a way to settle pub disputes.
- The word “toast,” meaning a wish of good health, started in ancient Rome, where a piece of toasted bread was dropped into wine.
- During Prohibition, temperance activists hired a scholar to rewrite the Bible by removing all references to alcohol beverage.
- Cenosillicaphobia is the fear of an empty glass.
- Ancient Egyptian texts have been found that contain over 100 medicinal uses for beer
- The first professional brewers were all women called brewsters. The women had to be very beautiful to be able to become brewsters.
- “Hangover” in Norwegian is directly translated to “carpenters in the head”
- Adding some beer to your marinade is supposed to soften the meat. The acids in the beer go to work on the proteins in the meat, whether it’s cooked or uncooked.
- You can use beer to shine up any old copper items.
- You can use beer as a conditioner. Apparently good quality brews will leave your locks silky and soft.
- The study of beer and beer-making even has an official scientific name – zythology. It derives from the Greek words “zythos” (beer) and “logos” (study).
- At any given time, 0.7% of the world is drunk. So 50 million people are drunk right now.
- At any given time, 0.7% of the world is drunk. So 50 million people are drunk right now.
- Many years ago in England, pub frequenters had a whistle baked into the rim, or handle, of their ceramic cups. When they needed a refill, they used the whistle to get some service. ‘Wet your whistle’ is the phrase inspired by this practice.
- 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 this grog, you are “groggy”, a word still in use.
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