Beer Trivia

Beer is just more than barley, water, hops and yeast. It’s a complex drink that as a history dating back to the ancient Egyptians and has transformed into one of the world’s most popular beverages. So sit back with a cold one and learn some of the more unusual facts about beer.

Beer in History

Beer is one of the oldest prepared beverages dating back to 9500BC. Recently archeologists discovered a large scale brewery site dating back to 3150BC in North Abydos, Egypt.

Hops weren’t introduced to beer and the brewing process until 9AD. Today, hops are used in all beer to add bitterness and aroma that range from earthy and floral to zesty and citrus.

The oldest continuously operating brewery in the world is located in Bavaria, Germany. Weihenstephan Abbey and the Benedictine monks began brewing beer in 1040AD. The brewery still produces beer that is sold around the world today.

Speaking of the Germans, in 1516, Duke Wilhelm IV of Bavaria decreed the “Beer Purity Law” known as Reinheitsgebot. This law stated that brewers could only use 4 ingredients to make beer - barley, hops, water and yeast. The law is still in effect today although with many modifications since the Duke’s decree.

1810 saw the first ever Oktoberfest held. This much beloved beer drinking festival started out as a celebration of the marriage of Crown Prince Ludwig and has continued on ever since.

Heineken, famed for their green glass bottles, first developed bottles in 1963 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.

Beer in the Record Books

Beer is the worlds third most popular drink after water and tea. Humans consume 50 billion gallons of beer every year.

China consumes the most beer overall each year. But it is The Czech Republic that consumes more beer per capita than any other country in the world.

The largest brewer in the world in Anheuser-Busch InBev. They brew some fo the worlds most popular beers including Budweiser and Corona.

The famed Guinness Book of World Records was created off the back of beer. Hugh Beaver, Managing Director the Guinness Brewery conceived the idea as a way to settle pub disputes.

The world’s tallest glass of beer measured a height of 7 feet, four inches and held just over 2000 litres. To understand how tall that is, Yao Ming, one of the tallest players to play basketball was just 2 inches taller!

The record for the quickest time to chug a litre of beer is 1 second. There is even a beer chugging championship that is held every year. While on championships, the Wife Carrying Championship held in Finland, the winner receives their wife’s weight in beer.

The strongest beer made was a 57% ABV beer called Snake Venom. The most expensive beer sold was Allsopp’s Arctic Ale, brewed in 1875, a bottle sold on eBay for $503,300.

Beer is Good for You

Drinking beer reduces the risk of kidney stones. It can even help lower bad cholesterol, reduce stress and strengthen your bones.

Beer can help reduce the likelihood of Type 2 diabetes by up to 25%.

Beer drinkers are better thinkers with old age. Beer helps with cognitive function and may help improve your memory.

Beer is also more nutritious than any other alcoholic beverage. Even catholic monks would live off speciality brewed beers for the period of Lent during the Middle Ages.

Beer Around the World

When it comes to beer, people think of American lagers, Belgian ales or British beers. There are many types of beer made all around the world. There’s opaque beer, which is a sorghum based African beer. Sake, which is not a wine like most people think but a Japanese rice beer. In Russia, a beer made from bread call kvass and in South America they make a corn based beer called chicha.

The Czechs, (who I’ve already mentioned love a beer or three) were the first to open a beer museum.

In the Netherlands, alcoholics were hired as street cleaners and paid in beer. The idea was to give them simple jobs like cleaning up trash and make them a useful member of society whilst paying them 5 cans of beer and 11 Euro a day to do it. This is not the first time in history where workers were paid with beer. It is believed workers on the Pyramids of Gaza were paid a beer ration to build the Pyramids.

California has the most breweries in the US with over 1100. New Zealand have more breweries per capita than any other country in the western world.

A Buddhist temple in the Thai countryside was built with over a million recycled beer bottles.

“Beer, go home, you’re drunk”

Cenosillicaphobia is the fear of an empty glass. Many beer drinkers suffer from this!

Barack Obama brewed beer in the White House

Some more unusual ingredients used in beer over time have been;

- Chicken. A old Scottish recipe involved adding chicken carcass to the brew

- Lobster. Dogfish Head in California made a porter using lobster

- Beards. Rogue in Oregon made a beer using yeast from the brewers beard

- Bull testicles. Wynkoop Brewery made a stout using roasted bull testicles

- Caviar. Moon Dog Brewery in Australia used caviar in a experimental English Barleywine

Other weird ingredients include; glitter, space dust, candy and avocados

Now you can enlighten your friends with some cool (and possibly pointless) beer trivia!