Beer Facts

Doing a presentation tomorrow on beer styles for a final. wanted to make the last slide of the presentation just some general beer facts. i googled beer facts but am wondering about the legitimacy of some of the info i am finding. First off i found this, "The first consumer protection law ever written was enacted over beer by Duke Wilhelm IV of Bavaria in 1516. It was a purity law limiting the ingredients of beer to barley, hops and water." - was the reason this law was past because of a shortage of food grain?

also was wondering if someone could cite some info on how beer is the worlds oldest profession and how civilization started because of a need to cultivate cereal grains for brewing.

i also remember reading somewhere that the reason the pilgrims landed on plymouth rock was because they were out of beer - and had initially planed to sail further south to the land given to them.

i am also interested in knowing any other beer facts you all may know.

HomelessWook said:

Doing a presentation tomorrow on beer styles for a final. wanted to make the last slide of the presentation just some general beer facts. i googled beer facts but am wondering about the legitimacy of some of the info i am finding. First off i found this, "The first consumer protection law ever written was enacted over beer by Duke Wilhelm IV of Bavaria in 1516. It was a purity law limiting the ingredients of beer to barley, hops and water." - was the reason this law was past because of a shortage of food grain?

Click to expand...

That is the Reinheitsgabot (sp?). It wasn't enacted because of a shortage of grain for food, but because brewers had put unsafe ingredients into their beers. It was a quality control bill to make sure no one got sick by drinking the safest drink around.

It was also put into effect to control food prices. Barley for beer, wheat and oats for food.

GaryJohn said:

It was also put into effect to control food prices. Barley for beer, wheat and oats for food.

Click to expand...

ah, i think that is what i actually heard. not a food shortage, but to control food cost.

thanks for giving me the name also.

http://www.beerinstitute.org/tier.asp?bid=129

http://tinyurl.com/33xw597

is it true that yeast was not included in the ingredients of that law because yeast had not been discovered yet?

Some beer facts:

The pilgrims landed at plymouth rock partly because the sailors on the Mayflower were running out of beer, and didn't want to share with the colonists. They wanted to embark further south, but the sailors basically said "we're stopping here."
(Brewed in America : a history of beer and ale in the United States / by Wade Stanley Baron.)


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

Everyone knows that civilization started with agriculture, and a stable food source (bread), right? Well there is a competing theory that nomads starting settling down and growing grains to make beer...not bread. Beer is nutritious like bread, but keeps much longer.
(http://www.independent.co.uk/life-s...irst-for-beer-spark-civilization-1869187.html)

Early Dutch settlers in the Americas considered the English settlers to live a "sober lifestyle...having only 3 drinks during each meal." That gives us an idea of just how much the Dutch drank!
(Brewed in America : a history of beer and ale in the United States / by Wade Stanley Baron.)

Beer was very popular with our forebearers because water sources were not reliably potable. They didn't realize it, but the boiling of the wort sanitized the drink.

Again, in the early days of brewing, no one really knew how the brew actually fermented and became beer. An early name for "yeast" is "Godisgood" because it was thought to be a gift from God...beer is a little miracle!
(from Radical Brewing, by Randy Mosher)

Most of my beer facts are historical. Hope some are useful!

Dogphish said:

is it true that yeast was not included in the ingredients of that law because yeast had not been discovered yet?

Click to expand...

yes

Dogphish said:

is it true that yeast was not included in the ingredients of that law because yeast had not been discovered yet?

Click to expand...

That's what I have heard. I think it was Carlsberg who discovered yeasts or at least isolated the yeast cells. In fact, I read about families handing down from generation to generation their "brew sticks". Apparently they would use the same stick to stir the beer which would have had the yeast imbedded in it. Not sure of the fact on this one though!

One theory I have read about is that civilation went from hunter/gatherer to an agricultural based civilation due in part to the growing of barley/grains for beer! As the need for more and better graingrew, so did the research and development of better agriculture practices and procedures!

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/beer - true facts, funny presentation.

Also, I highly recommend wasting the next hour reading all of The Oatmeals comics and quizzes.

Dogphish said:

is it true that yeast was not included in the ingredients of that law because yeast had not been discovered yet?

Click to expand...

I always thought that was really funny. No yeast allowed, only God or magic!

knotquiteawake said:

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/beer - true facts, funny presentation.

Also, I highly recommend wasting the next hour reading all of The Oatmeals comics and quizzes.

Click to expand...

I would also recommend that.

GaryJohn said:

Some beer facts:

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

Click to expand...

http://allaboutbeer.com/learn-beer/history/2010/07/the-froth-of-july/

Franklin’s most famous connection with beer turns out to be a misattribution. He never penned well-loved quote “Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy,” but that fact hasn’t stood in the way of thousands of t-shirt sales to happy beer enthusiasts.

Click to expand...

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin#Misattributed

The quote, and its many variants, has been widely attributed to Franklin; however, there has never been an authoritative source for the quote, and research indicates that it is very likely a misquotation of Franklin's words regarding wine: "Behold the rain which descends from heaven upon our vineyards; there it enters the roots of the vines, to be changed into wine; a constant proof that God loves us, and loves to see us happy." (see sourced section above for a more extensive quotation of this passage from a letter to André Morellet), written in 1779.

Click to expand...

See you March 30th

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/declaration-3-30-misquote-ben-franklin-day-111414/

<----Is currently wasting the next hour reading The Oatmeals comics LOL