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5 Fun Facts About Beer

Discover a 200-year-old drinkable beer, a 55% ABV brew sold in a stuffed squirrel, and other shocking beer facts you won't believe are real.

5 Fun Facts About Beer

Beer is not just one of the favorite drinks, it is a cultural institution with several centuries of the art of beer making. Beer has gone through various stages of transformation since its early days in ancient cultures, through to its revamp by current modern brewers, with no end in sight as it makes a transition to the future without losing its touch on tradition. 

As if you fancy yourself as a hardened connoisseur or an uncertain fan, these five curious facts will provide a better understanding of the long tradition and universal popularity of beer.

1. The Sumerians Drank Beer From Cellars Through Straws

The drink was usually prepared at home and aged under the floor in clay or stone vats. It was quite thick and resembled sour porridge; the liquid was only on top. When Sumerian aristocrats wanted to drink or treat their friends, they took very long hollow sticks, dipped them into the cellar vats, and sucked the beer through them. 

These tubes were quite large, so much so that scientists initially thought the specimens they found were scepters or poles for supporting canopies. Gold or silver tips with decorative bull figures were attached to their ends. They filtered out the thick sludge, allowing only the liquid to be sipped.

2. The Oldest Beer Is Over 200 Years Old, And You Can Drink It

Finnish divers explored a drowned ship in the Baltic Sea, and in 2011, five bottles of beer were retrieved. The ship was wrecked in the years 1800 to 183, and thus the drink was more than 200 years old. 

Such a test will probably appear too risky to drink a liquid that has had a 2-hundred-year experience on the bottom of the ocean, yet some courageous Finnish men did exactly that. Do you like gambling and having fun? Then this is the place for you – play Wolf Moon Pays at top social casino

3. Paulan Monks Drank Beer During Lent Because It Was “Liquid Bread.”

In general, monks have always been remarkably inventive when it comes to finding things to eat during Lent. They would record beavers as fish so they could eat their tails with horseradish, or they would eat capybaras. They even wrote an entire scientific treatise proving that birds grow on trees, which means that a goose is not meat and can therefore be eaten. 

The Paulaner monks from Neudeck ob der Aa in Germany also resorted to all sorts of tricks to brighten up Lent and not anger their lords. For example, they came up with the idea of brewing an incredibly strong and malty beer, so thick that it could be scooped up with a spoon.

4. Beer With An Alcohol Content Of 55% Was Sold In A Squirrel Costume

There was a time when brewers of the Scottish firm BrewDog, like Black Ale, had a whimsical idea to create the strongest beer in the world, and they have brewed a beverage whose alcohol content is 55%. The beer is produced using this concoction, which is generated by freezing the beer repeatedly until it discards the water, leaving behind the greatest percentage of alcohol. 

BrewDog has never been one to abide by convention, though. To make the launch of their 765-buck beer an event truly to remember, they stashed the initial 12 bottles made in a taxidermy, yes, stuffed squirrels, weasels, and a hare. Particularly quirky yet challenging, the packaging was created to break established ideas of the way the presentations should look and bring a conversation to the collectors and beer enthusiasts.

5. Beer Can Not Only Be Drunk, But Also Spread On Bread

Add to this the fact that some people like beer but want to avoid the alcohol content, and Italy has something that will be of surprise, spreadable beer. A non-alcoholic cream made of 40 percent beer, sugar, and glucose syrup, Birra Spalmabile was created by Pietro Napoleone, the proprietor of an artisanal chocolate store. 

This flexible delicacy would go fantastically with everything cured meats and roasted game to cheese, fish, and even desserts, and it will have the gourmet element of beer appreciation.