As today is International Beer Day, we thought to share a few fun facts on beer.
Founded in California in 2007, International Beer Day is usually celebrated on the first Friday of every August. The day has three purposes: to gather with friends and enjoy the taste of beer, to celebrate those responsible for brewing and serving beer and to unite the world under the banner of beer, by celebrating the beers of all nations together on a single day.
Participants are encouraged to give one another the ‘gift of beer’ by buying each other drinks, and to express gratitude to brewers, bartenders, and other beer technicians.
Here are interesting facts about beer, collected from BeerAdvocate, Mental Floss and the Huffington Post:
• Evidence of brewing goes back about 5 000 years.
• The Sumerians had a goddess of beer named Ninkasi.
• Guinness once estimated that about 93 000 liters of beer gets lost in the beards of Englishmen each year.
• The study of fermentation in brewing is called zymurgy.
• Light can make beer go bad, or get ‘skunked.’
• The first American president, George Washington loved beer and had his own special recipe.
• The Texas State Fair is famous for serving fried beer.
• The oldest still-operating brewery in the US is the Yuengling brewery in Pottsville, Pennsylvania.
• Beer was first packaged in a 12-ounce aluminum can in 1959.
• China and the US are the top beer-producing countries.
• Legend has it that about 0,7% of the world’s population is drunk at any given time.
• The fear of having an empty beer glass is called cenosillicaphobia.
• The strongest beer in the world is called Snake Venom, with an alcohol by volume content of 67,5%.
• The Czech Republic drinks the most beer of any nation in the world, followed by Austria and Germany.
• Former US president, Jimmy Carter legalised home breweries.
• In 2004, a black bear drank 36 cans of beer at a resort in Washington and passed out.
• Beer is the drink of choice for 44% of Americans.
