It’s true, wheat and barley, two principal ingredients in the brewing of beer, are a member of the grass family. Not the type you smoke, but the type you begrudgingly mow. Beer fact or fiction? Who cares? Time to go quench that panda sized thirst… cheers eh!
Category: 1001 Beer Facts and Fiction
Beer Fact or Fiction #994: King Henry VIII outlawed useless ale-houses to promote archery.
Concerned for the protection of the country, King Henry VIII of England put into the law the outlawing of ale-houses that were seen to be contrary to the well being of the common wealth. Based on the law passed in 1495, Henry felt that people were spending too much time playing games and drinking ales…
Beer Fact or Fiction #995: Canada’s First Nations people were also our first brewmasters.
Historians will generally go back to the early 1600’s when mapping out the origins of modern beer in Canada. However, long before the Jesuits were brewing up batches of frothy ales, our indigenous people were crafting their own spruce beers. A source of vitamin C, spruce beer was used by Jacques Cartier in 1536 to…
Beer Fact or Fiction #996: Beer makes you more attractive.
Okay. Maybe if you consume it and look in a mirror, but it doesn’t make you physically sexier to another person. However, through beer goggles, another person will find you more attractive and there is scientific proof to back that up. Do the math In a study commissioned by Bausch and Lomb Purevision, University of…
Beer Fact or Fiction #997: Beer was first named after a Roman goddess.
The Romans and Greeks of ancient days called beer “cerevisia” which is derived from Ceres, the Roman goddess of agriculture, and “vis” which is latin for strength. This probably explains how indestructible one gets after a few barley sandwiches.
Beer Fact or Fiction #999: Hops and marijuana are kissing cousins.
“Perhaps that is why beer and nachos go so well together!”
Beer Fact or Fiction #998: The Czech Republic is the #1 beer drinking country in the world.
Famous for its pilsner style lager, the Czech Republic boasts an annual per capita consumption of some 156 litres of beer. That’s a whole lot of pilsner.
Beer Fact or Fiction #1000: India Pale Ale was originally called October Ale
Problem: Back in the late 1700’s you couldn’t brew beer in India because it was too darn hot, and the standard brews of the day couldn’t make the 6 month journey from England. The British Empire being well steeped in barley sandwich tradition could not go without, and the need for a solution was paramount….
Beer Fact or Fiction #1001: Hops were not the original flavouring for beer
Hops were thought to have been introduced as a flavouring and stabilizing agent in beer around the 9th century. Before that they used, among other things, dandelions, ivy, heather, and marigolds.
