Five fun little-known beer facts

Beer, elixir of the gods and social lubricant of everyone else, has its secrets, but we’re here to bring you five of the best little known secrets of the amber nectar.

We’re aware that there is already a goldmine of information/facts/factoids/trivia/witty badinage all over the net when it comes to spilling the inner workings over everyone’s favourite malted masterpieces, but after trawling through the vats at Vinepair, we’re pretty convinced these five facts will not be anything you’ve heard before.

Whether you’re just interested (or nosey) or are looking for a few facts to load up your sleeve the next time you’re at a craft beer meet up, it’s good to know that there is always something new you can learn about a subject you love.

Scroll through the following pages to find them out.

The Egyptian myth

It’s already well known that the Egyptians drank a few beers and that the slaves used to build the pyramids were paid in beer, but did you know their gods loved a skinful, too? The sun god Ra is said to have fallen madly in love with his daughter, Hathor (stick with us). Whenever Hathor drank beer, “she turned into the goddess of love, lust, joy, singing, dancing, and laughter.” Whether or not the Egyptians invented karaoke is still a pending investigation…

England’s deadly beer flood

Two-hundred-years-ago an employee of London’s Horse Shoe brewery spotted that the metal hoops on one of the brewery’s enormous porter barrels was badly corroded, but instead of getting on it and fixing it straight away his bosses told him to simply leave a note for someone to take care of it the following morning.

However, as you’d expect, overnight the vat broke open and flooded the streets with 135,000 gallons of porter, leaving a number of casualties in its wake.

America has beaten its own brewery record

Back in 1873 there were a recorded 4,131 breweries in the United States. However, once everybody had gotten over the civil war and hurtled toward the 20th century, that number took a huge dip during the prohibition era, naturally. But since then there has been a fair few causes to drink, and that number rose back up to a healthy 4,269 by 2015.

Belgium is copying America as much as America is copying Belgium

Lately there has been a trend of American breweries producing some strong Belgian-style beers because the latter, over time, has proved itself to be one of the most idiosyncratic beer countries in the world. Belgium has proved this by turning to the American influence and producing some tremendous IPA-style beers. The numbers being cranked out by both sides show that there is an unspoken relationship between the two countries, who are seemingly using each other to stay innovative.

Ladies benefit from moderate beer consumption

Depending on who you ask, there will be entire catalogues of info on both sides claiming that beer is both good and bad for the health. However, among women, beer can prove to be a good post-work out recovery drink as well as promoting bone density and prevent cognitive impairment in women.