BEER
Beer is defined as a staple food in Bavaria.
Duke Wilhelm IV of Bavaria decreed in 1516 that beer could only be brewed from barley malt, hops and water. This Rheinheitsgebot (purity law) was the world's first consumer protection law.
At the 1893 Chicago Fair, Pabst beer won a blue ribbon, and was called 'Pabst Blue Ribbon" beer from then on.
Ale is the primary style of beer consumed in England. Lager beer is the dominant beer style throughout the rest of the brewing world.
The oldest known code of laws is the Code of Hammurabi from ancient Babylonia, about 1750 B.C. It regulated the practices of drinking houses, and called for the death penalty for proprietors found guilty of watering down their beer.
In 1935 a method for lining tin cans with vinyl plastic was developed for use with canned beers.
The most popular beverage in the world is tea, and beer is number two. However, in England and Ireland, beer is the most popular beverage.
The ancient Babylonians were making more than a dozen different varieties of beer from various grains and honey in 4000 B.C.
The Egyptians believed that the god of agriculture, Osiris, taught humans how to make beer.
Historians report that during the Middle Ages, when monks were brewing their beer in their monasteries, each monk was allowed to drink 5 quarts of beer a day.
In 1900 there were over 1,800 breweries in the U.S. In 1980 there were 44, and in 2001 there were close to 2,000. The ups and downs of brewing beer!
Supposedly the oldest known written recipe is for beer.
Part of a 19th century BC epic poem (hymn) devoted to the ancient Sumerian goddess of brewing.
http://www.piney.com/BabNinkasi.html
One of the reasons the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock in 1620, rather than sail further south to warmer climate, was because their supplies were dwindling, "especially our beere."
Annual 2001 beer production in the U.S.: 195,000,000 barrels.
Annual 2001 beer production of Anheuser-Busch: 93,000,000
The largest brewery in the U.S. is the Anheuser-Busch brewery in St. Louis, Missouri.
* Peter Minuit established the first public brewery in America at the Market Field in lower Manhattan.
* The first brewery in America was built in Hoboken, New Jersey in 1642.