BEER FACTS

Did You Know...
About 4000 years ago, it was the accepted practice in Babylonia 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" or what we know to day as the "Honey moon"

Before invention of the thermometer, brewers used to check the temperature by dipping their thumb, to find whether appropriate for adding Yeast. Too hot, the yeast would die. This is where we get the phrase " The Rule of the Thumb"

In English pubs, ale is ordered by pints and quarts. So in old England, when customers got unruly, the bartender used to yell at them to mind their own pints and quarts and settle down. From where we get "mind your own P's and Q's".

After consuming a vibrant brew called Aul or Ale, the Vikings would go fearlessly to the battlefield, without their Armour, or even their shirts. The "Berserk" means "bear shirt" in Norse, and eventually to the meaning of wild battles.

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.

Long ago in England, pub frequenters had a whistle baked into the rim of their beer mugs or ceramic/glass cups. The whistle was used to order services. Thus we get the phrase, "wet your whistle".

Did You Know...

Hops were originally used... Hops are used to provide bittering to beer. Without them, the beverage would be exceptionally sweet. But years ago, hops were found to be a preservative because the resins and oils in them prevented bacterial infection.

Beer in school

The brewer is a marvelous kind of extremist, one who is a cross between a chemist and a magician, infused with a bit of artistic surrealism...and a love of hops!

Between 10,000 and 15,000 years ago, some humans discontinued their nomadic hunting and gathering and settled down to farm. Grain was the first domesticated crop that started that farming process.

The oldest proven records of brewing are about 6,000 years old and refer to the Sumerians.  Sumeria lay between the .  It is said that the Sumerians discovered the fermentation process by chance.  No one knows today exactly how this occurred, but it could be that a piece of bread or grain became wet and a short time later, it began to ferment and a inebriating pulp resulted.  A seal around 4,000 years old is a Sumerian "Hymn to Ninkasi", the goddess of brewing.  This "hymn" is also a recipe for making beer. A description of the making of beer on this ancient engraving in the Sumerian language is the earliest account of what is easily recognized as barley, followed by a pictograph of bread being baked, crumbled into water to form a mash, and then made into a drink that is recorded as having made people feel "exhilarated, wonderful and blissful." It could be that baked bread was a convenient method of storing and transporting a resource for making beer.  The Sumerians were able to repeat this process and are assumed to be he first civilized culture to brew beer. They had discovered a "divine drink" which certainly was a gift from the gods.

Medieval times

Even in medieval times, beer was generally brewed by women. Being the cooks, they had responsibility for beer which was regarded as 'food-drink'. After the monasteries had established the best methods of brewing, the 'ale-wives' took the responsibility for further brewing.

In England at this time a chequered flag indicated a place where ale and beer could be purchased.

Of course few people other than the clergy could read or write, and a written sign would have been of little use.

Many events of this era incorporate the word 'ale', reflecting its importance in society. Brides traditionally sold ale on their wedding day to defray the expenses - hence 'bride-ale' which became 'bridal'. The Christmas expression 'yule-tide' actually means 'ale-tide'.

Saint Thomas A'Becket, martyred archbishop of Canterbury, was selected as patron saint of one of the London Guilds, the Brewers' Company. When he went to France in 1158 to seek the hand of a French princess for Prince Henry of England, he took several barrels of British ale as gifts.

Beer was also handed out free of charge to weary travelers when the Wayfarer Dole was established in England. A Pilgrim's Dole of ale and bread can still be claimed by all wayfarers at the Hospital of St Cross, Winchester, England. This is said to have been founded by William of Wykeham, (1367-1404), and was claimed by Emerson, the American essayist, when visiting Winchester.

Now Did You Know...you can appreciate the importance of BEER throughout history.

Lodi beer Company,105 South School Street, Lodi, CA, 95240
Phone: (209)368-9931, Fax: (209)368-9938.