Most of us love beer — that is, drinking it, but not bothering to know the interesting things about perhaps the most ubiquitous alcoholic beverage on the planet. Well, it’s just about time! Read on these amazing little trivial tidbits below that will make you appreciate beer even more!
1. When it comes to the most consumed beverage in the world, beer comes in third place after water and tea.
2. Not only it is the most consumed, beer is also probably the most ancient alcoholic beverage, with its origins dating back as early as 9500 B.C.
3. There’s actually a beer-related disaster! It is popularly known as the “London Beer Flood” or the “Great Beer Flood” happened on October 17, 1814. A huge vat of beer ruptured in the parish of St. Giles, London, which led to 400,000 gallons of beer flooding several streets around Tottenham Court. At least eight people died from the tragedy.
4. What’s the most potent beer in the world? It’s currently the Brewmeister’s Snake Venom, which contains 67.5% ABV! It definitely surpassed another Brewmeister product, the Armageddon, which has 65% ABV. This makes the Snake Venom even more potent than hardest of hard liquors! That’s why every bottle of the Snake Venom carries a warning label which tells you not to drink too much of it.
5. From the most potent, let’s go to the most expensive. If you are a dyed-in-the-wool beer enthusiast who want to get every single ale or lager in your hands, you have to shell out about US$904 for a bottle of La Vieille Bon Secours ale from Belgium!
6. Not surprsingly, Czech people drink the most beer than anyone else in the world, with an average of 143 liters per head. Today’s Czech Republic is the home of the original Pilsner beer, which was first brewed in the city of Plzeň in 1842.
7. But just next door to the Czech Republic holds the biggest beer festival in the world, and it’s no other than the Oktoberfest in Germany. This 16-day beer festival usually runs from late September to early October and attracts a yearly average of about six million tourists.
8. 50 million in the world — or 0.7% of the global population — are drunk. And beer is usually the main culprit of their inebriety.
9. The beer’s foamy head can tell a lot of its flavor and quality — and that’s very important! The froth is produced by the carbon dioxide during the fermentation process. If the head is thin or almost non-existent, it means that your beer most likely tastes flat and bland.
10. Beer can be behind man’s greatest architectural wonders. According to an American archaeologist, ancient Egyptian workers in Giza were paid about four liters of beer per day as a compensation for building the pyramids.