The first Friday in August is International Beer Day–perhaps because a hot summer Friday seems like the perfect time to enjoy a frosty glass of beer. As you and your friends celebrate over Happy Hour, impress them with this beer trivia, and check out a few of the library’s books about brewing, enjoying, and learning about beer (please read responsibly).
- The first law governing the production of beer goes back quite a ways–to the Code of Hammurabi. The infamous Babylonian king put forth a law explicitly punishing those who watered down beer to maximize their profits and the resulting punishment was exceptionally harsh: they’d be executed in a most personal fashion, drowned in the beer they made.
- After scientist Niels Bohr won his Nobel Prize, he was gifted a house by the Carlsberg brewery. And for an extra perk? It was connected via pipeline to the brewery itself.
- Pabst won its Blue Ribbon in 1893 (a year that’s familiar to us!). Known as Best Select, the brewery competed at the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago, where beers were judged on purity, color, and flavor. The winning score was celebrated with an enormous blue ribbon around the factory in Milwaukee, and a name change.
- Let it never be said that George Washington wasn’t concerned about his troops; he made it a requirement that his continental army be given a quart of beer as part of their rations.
- The most potent beer on the planet is Snake Venom, courtesy the U.K. company Brewmeister. Too alcoholic to be carbonated, the beer has an ABV of 67.5 percent, making it 135 proof–that’s more than hard liquor!
If you’re thirsty for more about beer, try one of these titles from our nonfiction collection:
The Audacity of Hops: The History of America’s Craft Beer Revolution, by Tom Acitelli
Barrel-Aged Stout and Selling Out: Goose Island, Annheuser-Busch, and How Craft Beer Became Big Business, by Josh Noel
Beer Lover’s New York by Sarah Annese
The Comic Story of Beer: The World’s Favorite Beverage from 7,000 B.C. to Today’s Craft-Brewing Revolution, by Jonathan Hennessey
Home Brew Recipe Bible: An Incredibly Array of 101 Craft Beer Recipes from Classic Styles to Experimental Wilds, by Chris Colby