Liquid Lunch: Beer - The Nectar of the God's

By Joe Ferro @FranchiseFerro

Beer. A lovely beverage we may tend to take for granted these days. Sure we all love to crack one when we get out of work and sit back and relax but what do you truly know about beer? Sure I enjoy a High Life but some just see it as something to throw a ping pong ball into. The depth of the history of beer is often not even touched by the masses who enjoy this gift from the gods.

"Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy." -Benjamin Franklin

Here's a few facts about beer you might not have known:

• Hops used for making beer comes from the same family as the marijuana plant.
• The Code of Hammurabi decreed that bartenders who watered down beer would be executed.
• In Egypt there is a beer called "bousa", which is brewed from millet and
• has been around for over 3,000 years. Modern Ethiopia has a version made from
• wheat. It has been speculated that this may have been the origin for the word "booze."
• Speaking of Egypt, the workers/slaves building the pyramids were paid in beer. The minimum wage was two containers of beer. 
• Cenosillicaphobia  is the fear of an empty glass.
• When British brewers first tried to send their product to the Indian colonies it would go bad during the long voyage by boat. Extra hops and alcohol were added to preserve the beer until it reached its destination. So was born the extra bitter and strong style of beer now none as the Indian Pale Ale.
• A cloud near the constellation Aquila contains enough ethyl alcohol to fill 400  trillion trillion pints of beer.
• 4000 years ago in Babylon, it was accepted practice that for a month after a 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 today as the "honeymoon".
• Pilgrims stopped at Plymouth Rock rather than continuing to the Virginia area because they ran out of beer.
• Beer was and still is safer to drink than much of the water in many countries

Morale of the story is, enjoy your beer, never compromise. There's many out there for everyone's taste. Find yours and enjoy.

Cheers!