Fun Beer Facts

Here is some beer trivia to enjoy as you drink your next beer. Cheers!

• Germany serves beer ice cream in popsicle form. Its alcoholic content is less than that found in “classic” beer.
• In 1962, Iron City beer was the brand used to test-market the concept of tab opening aluminum cans. By 1970, over 90% of all beer cans were self-opening.
• Prohibition, beginning on January 16, 1920, lasted 13 years, 10 months, 19 days, 17 hours, and 32-1/2 minutes, and was rescinded on December 5, 1933, at 3:32 p.m.
• Centuries ago in England, pub visitors used a novel innovation that enabled them to get their beer served quickly. They used mugs with a whistle baked into the rim, the whistle being used to summon the barmaid. It has been suggested this practice gave birth to the phrase “wet your whistle.”
• A beer lover or enthusiast is called a cerevisaphile.
• During the European Middle Ages and the Renaissance, beer was often a nutritional necessity and was sometimes used in a medicinal setting. It could be flavored with almost anything, from the bark of fir trees to fresh eggs and thyme. Everyone drank beer, including children.
• President Theodore Roosevelt took more than 500 gallons of beer with him on an African safari. Must have been thirsty work.
• Most saloons were owned by the breweries by the 1900s. The bartenders earned $10 to $15 per week, with Sunday bringing in the most business.
• There is an Egyptian beer, called bousa, that is brewed from millet and has been a favorite drink of many for over 3,000 years. Modern Ethiopia has a version made from wheat. It has been hypothesized that this might have been the origin for the word “booze.” Other spellings used are boza, bouza, and booza. Take your pick.