148 Fun Facts About Beer

What are the four basic ingredients of beer?

Water, Barley, Hops, Yeast: water makes up most of the drink, and its minerals shaped regional styles, soft Bohemian water suiting pale lager and Burton's gypsum-rich water bitter pale ale.

Which ancient civilisation left some of the earliest beer-brewing records, including a hymn to Ninkasi?

Sumerians: the Hymn to Ninkasi, written around 1800 BC, doubles as a brewing recipe, and earlier Sumerian tablets already record many distinct barley and emmer beers; brewing there was largely women's work.

The German Beer Purity Law, or Reinheitsgebot, was originally enacted in 1516 in which German region?

The Reinheitsgebot, a famous regulation limiting beer ingredients, was first proclaimed in Bavaria in 1516 by Duke Wilhelm IV.

What type of yeast is typically used for brewing lagers and ferments at colder temperatures, usually settling at the bottom of the fermenter?

Lagers are brewed using Saccharomyces pastorianus (lager yeast), which is a bottom-fermenting yeast that works at cooler temperatures, resulting in a cleaner, crisper flavor profile.

In brewing, what is the sugary liquid drained from the mash tun called, before it is boiled with hops and fermented?

Wort is 'sweet' until the hops go in and 'bitter' afterwards; grist is the milled grain that goes into the tun, and trub is the sludge left in the kettle.

Beer in clear or green bottles turns 'skunky' when exposed to what?

Light: ultraviolet and blue light break down hop iso-alpha acids into 3-methyl-2-butene-1-thiol, a sulfur compound closely related to those in skunk spray; brown glass blocks most of it.

What brewing process steeps grain, lets it germinate, then dries it to convert starches to fermentable sugars?

Malting is the process where cereal grains, typically barley, are steeped in water, allowed to germinate, and then kiln-dried. This activates enzymes that convert the grain's starches into the fermentable sugars needed for brewing.

Which beer ingredient contributes bitterness and aroma and acts as a natural preservative?

Hops, the cone-shaped flowers of Humulus lupulus, add bitterness and aroma, and their alpha acids inhibit spoilage bacteria; before hops spread, brewers bittered beer with herb mixtures called gruit.

The banana and clove notes in a Bavarian Hefeweizen come mainly from which ingredient?

The yeast strain: clove-like 4-vinyl guaiacol and banana-like isoamyl acetate are by-products of the Bavarian weizen yeast's fermentation, not of the wheat malt, hops or water.

Top-fermented ales ferment in which temperature range?

15 to 25 °C: ale yeast works at these warmer temperatures and throws off fruity esters of apple, pear or banana; lager yeast ferments colder, around 7 to 13 °C, for a cleaner beer.

Which three ingredients did the 1516 Reinheitsgebot, the German Beer Purity Law, allow?

Water, barley and hops: yeast went unmentioned because its role was not yet understood, so brewers reused sediment from the last batch, and wheat was excluded partly to reserve it for bakers.

Which of these is NOT one of the four classic European 'noble' hop varieties?

The classic four are Hallertau, Tettnanger, Spalt, and Saaz, all central European. Cascade was bred in Oregon and released in 1972; its grapefruit character became the signature of American pale ales.

On beer writer Michael Jackson's five-level serving scale, pale lagers get the coldest rating, 'well chilled', at about what temperature?

7 °C (45 °F) is 'well chilled' on a scale that climbs to room temperature, 15.5 °C, for barley wine and strong Trappist ales; below about 10 °C chilling starts to blunt the palate.

What is the process of steeping milled malt in hot water so enzymes convert starches to sugars called?

Mashing: brewers call the water 'liquor' and the milled grain 'grist', and the vessel is the mash tun; sparging then rinses the spent grain to recover the last of the sugars.

Which Bavarian brewer produced the first batch of Pilsner Urquell on 5 October 1842?

Groll's golden, clear lager was a sensation in an era of murky brown beer, and 'Pilsner Bier' was registered as a brand name in 1859. Sedlmayr and Dreher pioneered Munich and Vienna lagers instead.

Under BJCP style guidelines, a Double IPA's alcohol by volume starts at about what level?

7.5% is the BJCP floor for Double IPA, with the range running to 10%; Vinnie Cilurzo is credited with inventing the style at Blind Pig Brewery in Temecula in 1994 and later brewed Pliny the Elder.

How much beer did workers on the Great Pyramids at Giza get as a daily ration?

Four to five liters a day: the thick, low-alcohol brew was as much food as drink, made from lightly baked loaves of dough crumbled into water and left to ferment.

Which top-fermenting yeast species is commonly known as 'ale yeast'?

Saccharomyces cerevisiae clumps and rises to the surface as it works, which is why brewers once skimmed it off the top to seed the next batch.

A German Weizenbier that has been filtered clear of the sediment that normally clouds it is sold as what?

Kristallweizen means 'crystal wheat': it is filtered to remove the yeast and wheat proteins that cloud a Hefeweizen, the unfiltered version.

What do brewers call the corn, rice and other grains used alongside malted barley?

Adjuncts: unmalted grains such as corn and rice, used as flakes, grits, flour or syrups; rice gives some American lagers their light body, and syrups go straight into the kettle.

Under the Brewers Association's definition, an American craft brewer produces at most how many barrels a year?

6 million barrels a year is the Brewers Association cap, raised from 2 million in 2010; a craft brewer must also be at least 75% owned by a craft brewer, and 'microbrewery' meant under 15,000 barrels.

Which 1976 Sonoma brewery served as the blueprint for America's small-scale craft breweries?

New Albion, founded in Sonoma by Jack McAuliffe in 1976, closed in 1982, but its hand-built small-batch plant inspired Sierra Nevada's Ken Grossman and a generation of American microbrewers.

IPA originated in Britain as a strongly hopped pale ale brewed to survive the voyage to where?

George Hodgson's Bow Brewery near the East India Docks was among the first exporters, helped by an 18-month credit line.

Sierra Nevada Brewing was founded in 1980 by two homebrewers in which California city?

Chico: Ken Grossman and Paul Camusi opened the brewery there in 1980, naming it for the mountains Grossman loved hiking; its Cascade-hopped Pale Ale became America's best-selling pale ale.

Which heir to an appliance fortune bought San Francisco's failing Anchor Brewing in 1965?

Fritz Maytag, of the washing-machine family, paid a few thousand dollars for 51% of Anchor in 1965 and rebuilt it; Sapporo bought the brewery for $85 million in 2017 and closed it in 2023.

Which US president signed the 1978 bill legalising homebrewing?

Jimmy Carter signed H.R. 1337 in October 1978, exempting home-brewed beer from federal excise tax from February 1979; within months Charlie Papazian founded the American Homebrewers Association.

Which company, founded by Jim Koch in 1984, brews Samuel Adams?

Boston Beer Company, founded by Jim Koch in 1984, brewed its first Samuel Adams Boston Lager from a 19th-century recipe of Koch's great-great-grandfather Louis Koch, a Cincinnati brewer.

Dogfish Head's 60 Minute IPA takes its name from what?

The time hops are added during the boil: 60 Minute IPA is 'continually hopped' for a full hour; the Milton, Delaware brewery also makes 90 Minute and 120 Minute versions and merged with Boston Beer in 2019.

Fat Tire, a Fort Collins brewery's flagship ale, is named after a co-founder's brewery bike trip through which country?

Belgium: co-founder Jeff Lebesch toured Belgian breweries by fat-tired mountain bike in 1989 and came home to found New Belgium Brewing in Fort Collins in 1991, naming its flagship amber ale after the trip.

Which beer, launched in 1997, carries the label taunt 'You're not worthy'?

Arrogant Bastard Ale, Stone Brewing's 1997 strong ale, told drinkers 'You're not worthy' on its label; Stone had opened in San Marcos, north of San Diego, in 1996.

The hazy New England IPA style was invented in 2004 by John Kimmich at which Vermont brewery?

The Alchemist: John Kimmich first brewed Heady Topper at his Waterbury, Vermont brewpub in 2004, and its unfiltered, juicy double IPA became the template for hazy New England IPAs.

The Great American Beer Festival, founded by Charlie Papazian in 1982, is held annually in which city?

Denver: the festival moved there in 1984 after two Boulder editions; the first, in 1982, drew 24 breweries, 47 beers and about 800 attendees.

What is a 'growler'?

A jug for carrying draft beer home: the growler is glass, ceramic or stainless steel and usually holds 64 US fluid ounces, filled straight from the tap at breweries and bottle shops.

Chicago's Goose Island, maker of Bourbon County Stout, was bought in 2011 by which giant?

Anheuser-Busch InBev paid $38.8 million for Goose Island in March 2011, the first big craft buyout; Bourbon County Stout dates from 1992, brewed for the brewpub's 1,000th batch.

How much did Constellation Brands pay for San Diego's Ballast Point brewery in 2015?

$1 billion: Constellation Brands' November 2015 purchase was the largest craft-brewery deal at the time; four years later it sold Ballast Point to a small Chicago-area brewery, Kings & Convicts, for an undisclosed sum.

Founders Brewing's celebrated KBS stands for what?

Kentucky Breakfast Stout: the coffee-and-chocolate imperial stout is aged in bourbon barrels in old gypsum mines beneath Grand Rapids; an April-only release until it went year-round in 2020.

Which Michigan brewery, maker of Two Hearted Ale, began as a homebrew shop in 1983?

Larry Bell started brewing commercially two years later.

Lagunitas Brewing stopped counting as craft after which company bought 50% in 2015?

Heineken took the rest in 2017; Tony Magee had founded the brewery in 1993.

In the US, a brewpub is defined as selling at least what share of its beer on the premises?

25 percent: the Brewers Association classes a brewery that sells at least a quarter of its beer on site as a brewpub; Buffalo Bill's in Hayward, California, opened in 1983 as one of the first modern brewpubs.

In which year was the Beer Judge Certification Program, whose guidelines many contests use, formed?

1985: the Beer Judge Certification Program was founded that year by the American Homebrewers Association and the Home Wine and Beer Trade Association, and it supplies ranked judges to amateur and commercial competitions.

In which year did Arthur Guinness sign his 9,000-year lease on Dublin's St. James's Gate brewery?

1759: on 31 December that year Arthur Guinness signed a 9,000-year lease on the disused St. James's Gate brewery at £45 a year, having brewed in Leixlip since 1756.

The Guinness logo is modelled on which instrument?

The Trinity College harp, a medieval instrument kept at Trinity College Dublin and often called the Brian Boru harp, was adopted as the Guinness emblem by Benjamin Lee Guinness in 1862 and trademarked in 1876.

Which gas did Guinness start using in 1959 to give its beer a creamier head?

Nitrogen bubbles are much smaller than CO2 bubbles.

An argument about which bird led Guinness boss Hugh Beaver to conceive the Guinness Book of Records?

The golden plover: Beaver missed one on a 1951 shoot on the North Slob in County Wexford and could not find a reference book settling whether it was Europe's fastest game bird.

Which twin brothers co-founded the Guinness Book of Records in 1955?

The McWhirters: Norris and Ross McWhirter, twin sports journalists running a London fact-finding agency, compiled the first Guinness Book of Records, published in August 1955, to settle pub arguments.

What was the name of the Amsterdam brewery Gerard Heineken bought in 1864?

De Hooiberg ('The Haystack'), founded in 1592, was bought by 22-year-old Gerard Adriaan Heineken on 15 February 1864 and became the seed of the Heineken company.

Budweiser is brewed with up to 30% of which grain besides barley malt?

Rice: Budweiser's grain bill is up to 30% rice, which gives its light body and crisp finish; the beer was introduced in 1876 by Carl Conrad & Co. of St. Louis and brewed by Anheuser-Busch.

Adolphus Busch was the first American brewer to keep beer fresh using what?

Pasteurization: Busch adopted Louis Pasteur's heat treatment in the 1870s, the first American brewer to do so, and paired it with refrigerated railroad cars from 1876 to ship Budweiser nationwide.

Which breed of draught horse hauls the Budweiser beer wagon?

Clydesdales have pulled the Budweiser wagon since 1933, when August Busch Jr. gave his father a team to mark the end of Prohibition; a rotation of them lives at the St. Louis headquarters.

In which year was Corona beer officially introduced?

1925: Cervecería Modelo launched Corona in Mexico City that year, and it went on to become Mexico's best-selling export beer, often served with a lime wedge in the bottle neck.

Stella Artois was first brewed in 1926 in which Belgian city?

Leuven: Brouwerij Artois released Stella as a Christmas beer there in 1926, and its label carries 1366, the year the Den Hoorn brewery it descends from was first recorded in the city.

Carlsberg's first export, in 1868, was a single barrel sent to which city?

Edinburgh: J.C. Jacobsen's first export, in 1868, was a single barrel of lager sent to Scotland, twenty-one years after Carlsberg's first brew was finished in November 1847.

Who isolated the pale-lager yeast Saccharomyces carlsbergensis at Carlsberg in 1883?

Emil Christian Hansen, head of the Carlsberg Laboratory, isolated a pure single-cell culture of lager yeast in 1883, and J.C. Jacobsen gave it away free to other brewers rather than patenting it.

Tsingtao Brewery was founded in 1903 as a business of which two nationalities?

Anglo-German: British and German settlers founded the Germania-Brauerei in 1903 in the German-leased Kiautschou Bay territory, with German master brewers supervising the plant; Japan took it over in 1916.

Which is the oldest brand of beer in Japan, first brewed in 1876?

Sapporo: the Hokkaido Development Commission's brewery made its first Sapporo Lager in 1876 under German-trained brewer Seibei Nakagawa, making it Japan's oldest surviving beer brand.

Which Japanese beer, launched in 1987, transformed the industry with its crisp dry taste?

Asahi Super Dry, launched in March 1987, set off Japan's 'dry wars' with its crisp karakuchi finish and by 2001 had lifted Asahi from a fading third place to Japan's top-selling brewer.

What do brewers call the rocky foam that crowns beer at the height of fermentation?

Kräusen is the rocky, tan foam of yeast, protein and hop resin that crowns beer at the height of fermentation; adding fresh kräusen to finished beer, or 'kräusening', carbonates it naturally.

Foster's Lager was created in 1888 by two brothers from which country?

America: William and Ralph Foster, brothers from New York, began brewing the lager in Melbourne in November 1888, bringing refrigeration equipment from the United States to make cold lager in the Australian heat.

Which Coors brand, launched in 1978, is nicknamed the 'Silver Bullet'?

Coors Light, launched in 1978 in a silver can, earned the 'Silver Bullet' nickname and in 2011 passed Budweiser to become America's second-best-selling beer behind Bud Light.

Miller Brewing was founded in 1855 in which city?

Milwaukee: Frederick Miller, a brewer from Riedlingen in Germany, bought the small Plank Road Brewery on the city's west side in 1855, reputedly carrying his own yeast strain across the Atlantic.

Pabst Blue Ribbon takes its name from ribbons tied around bottle necks between which years?

1882-1916: Pabst began hand-tying blue silk ribbons around bottles of its Best Select in 1882 and dropped them in 1916 amid wartime silk shortages, by which time the nickname had become the brand name.

Which is the oldest operating brewing company in the United States?

Yuengling: David G. Yuengling founded the Eagle Brewery in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, in 1829, and the family-owned company has run continuously since, surviving Prohibition on near beer and ice cream.

Which Japanese company bought Italy's Peroni in 2016?

Asahi paid about €2.55 billion in 2016 for Peroni, Grolsch and Meantime, brands AB InBev had to divest to win approval for its SABMiller takeover.

The key on the Beck's logo comes from the coat of arms of which German city?

Bremen's coat of arms shows the silver key of St. Peter, the city's patron, which Beck's took as its emblem; Heinrich Beck, Lüder Rutenberg and Thomas May founded the brewery there in 1873.

Grupo Modelo, maker of Corona, was founded by immigrants from which country?

Spain: Braulio Iriarte, a Spanish-born baker, led a group of 25 investors, many of them Spanish immigrants, who founded Cervecería Modelo in Mexico City in 1925; Pablo Díez, from León, later ran it.

The Snow ('Snowflake') beer brand originated at a brewery in which Chinese city?

Shenyang: the Xuehua ('Snowflake') brand came from the Shenyang Brewery, which China Resources acquired in 1993 and built into CR Snow, whose Snow lager was the world's best-selling beer by volume through the 2010s.

In which decade did porter first emerge in London?

1720s: porter, a dark, well-hopped brown beer, emerged in London around 1722 and took its name from the street and river porters who drank it; stronger versions were called 'stout porter', the origin of stout.

Which Shoreditch brewer is credited with inventing porter?

Ralph Harwood of the Bell Brewhouse in Shoreditch is credited, in a story first printed in 1802, with brewing 'entire butt' around 1722 to replace the three-beer 'three threads' blend, the origin of porter.

Bock beer takes its name from a Bavarian mispronunciation of which town?

Einbeck: the strong beer of this Lower Saxony town was imported to Munich, where locals slurred 'Einbeck' into 'ein Bock', 'a billy goat', which is why bock labels show a goat.

Lambic beer is brewed in the Pajottenland region southwest of which city?

Brussels: lambic is brewed in the Pajottenland and the city's Zenne valley, where wort is cooled overnight in open koelschips and fermented by wild Brettanomyces yeasts and bacteria.

Gueuze is made by blending young lambic with lambic of what age?

2 to 3 years: gueuze blends one-year-old lambic, still rich in sugars, with lambic aged two or three years, then bottles the mix for a second fermentation that makes it sparkling.

Altbier is a copper-coloured beer associated with which German city?

Düsseldorf: Altbier, 'old beer', keeps the city's traditional top-fermenting method but is cold-conditioned like a lager; Altstadt brewpubs such as Uerige and Füchschen serve it in small straight glasses.

Gose beer breaks the Reinheitsgebot by including salt and which spice?

Coriander: Gose, from Goslar and later Leipzig, is brewed with coriander seed and salt alongside lactic souring, and German law allows it as a regional specialty exempt from the Reinheitsgebot.

Which was the first Trappist brewery outside Europe, opened in Massachusetts in 2013?

Spencer Brewery, at St. Joseph's Abbey in Spencer, Massachusetts, became the first Trappist brewery outside Europe in 2013; the monks closed it in 2022.

The dubbel style originated in 1856 as a strong brown beer at which abbey?

Westmalle: the abbey's monks brewed a strong brown beer in 1856, the ancestor of the dubbel, and began selling beer at the gate in June 1861; the modern Dubbel recipe dates from 1926.

Which Ruhr city's pale 'Export' lager became the favourite of its coal and steel workers?

Dortmund: Dortmunder Export, a pale, slightly stronger lager first brewed by the Dortmunder Union brewery in 1873, fuelled the Ruhr's miners and steelworkers and made the city Germany's biggest brewing centre.

Doppelbock was first brewed in Munich by which order of friars?

Paulaners: the Minim friars of St. Francis of Paola in Munich's Au district brewed the first doppelbock, later named Salvator, in the 17th century as 'liquid bread' to sustain them through Lenten fasting.

Rauchbier gets its smoky flavour from malt dried how?

Over an open flame: Rauchbier malt is kilned over burning beechwood logs, which lends the smoke; Bamberg's Schlenkerla tavern has brewed it since at least 1678.

Berliner Weisse is a sour wheat beer of roughly what strength?

3.5%: Berliner Weisse is a light, tart wheat beer of roughly 3 to 3.5% alcohol, soured with Lactobacillus; Napoleon's troops reputedly called it 'the Champagne of the North'.

Which brewery's No. 1 Ale was the first beer marketed as barley wine, around 1870?

Bass: its No. 1 Ale was the first beer sold as 'barley wine', around 1870; in America, Anchor's Old Foghorn of 1975 came first and Sierra Nevada's Bigfoot of 1983 second.

Which brewery trademarked the term 'steam beer' in 1981?

Anchor Brewing registered 'Steam Beer' as a trademark in 1981, so other brewers call the style California common: lager yeast fermented at ale temperatures in shallow open pans, a Gold Rush-era San Francisco method.

The first Oktoberfest, in 1810, celebrated whose wedding?

Ludwig I and Therese: Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria married Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen on 12 October 1810, and the horse race held on the meadow five days later, named Theresienwiese for the bride, began Oktoberfest.

What does Munich's mayor shout after tapping the first keg to open Oktoberfest?

'O'zapft is!' ('It's tapped!') is the cry after the mayor drives a tap into the first keg at noon on opening day, a ritual begun by mayor Thomas Wimmer in 1950.

Bass Brewery's red triangle holds what distinction in Britain?

First registered trade mark: when Britain's Trade Mark Registration Act took effect on 1 January 1876, a Bass employee queued overnight to file the red triangle as UK trade mark No. 1; William Bass had founded the brewery in 1777.

Which amendment repealed US Prohibition in December 1933?

The 21st Amendment, ratified on 5 December 1933, repealed the 18th, which had imposed Prohibition from January 1920; it is the only amendment to repeal another.

In which US city was the first commercially canned beer sold in 1935?

Richmond, Virginia: the Gottfried Krueger Brewing Company of Newark test-marketed the first canned beer there on 24 January 1935; Wales's Felinfoel Brewery canned beer that December, the first outside the US.

Which company introduced the recyclable aluminium beer can in 1959?

Adolph Coors Company introduced the first all-aluminium, recyclable beer can in 1959, a 7-ounce size, and paid a penny for every can returned for recycling.

How tall was the wooden vat that burst to cause the 1814 London Beer Flood?

22 feet: the vat at Meux's Horse Shoe Brewery held over 3,500 barrels of porter; on 17 October 1814 its iron hoops gave way and the wave smashed the back wall and swept into the St Giles rookery.

How many people were killed in the London Beer Flood?

Eight people died in the 1814 London Beer Flood, five of them mourners at a wake for a two-year-old boy in a New Street cellar; the brewery was cleared of blame as an 'act of God'.

Which Bavarian abbey brewery, dating to at least 1040, claims to be the world's oldest still operating?

Weihenstephan: the Benedictine abbey at Freising was licensed to brew in 1040, and a document from 768 already records a hop garden paying tithes there; the Bavarian state has run the brewery since 1803.

In which year did UNESCO add Belgian beer culture to its intangible heritage list?

2016: UNESCO inscribed 'Beer culture in Belgium' on its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity on 30 November that year, citing the roughly 1,500 beers the country's breweries produce.

Beer pong is believed to have originated at which US college?

Dartmouth: the paddle version of beer pong emerged in the college's fraternities in the 1950s and 1960s, played on a real ping-pong table; the throwing version that spread nationwide came later.

By what other name is beer pong known?

Beirut: the throwing version of beer pong, played without paddles, picked up the name at East Coast colleges in the 1980s, reputedly a reference to the bombings of the Lebanese civil war.

Duff Beer began as a fictional brand on which TV show?

The Simpsons: Homer's favourite Duff Beer was fictional until Fox licensed an official version, first sold in Chile in 2015, partly to stop unlicensed 'Duff' brands trading on the show's name.

Which country had the world's highest beer consumption per capita in 2023?

It has topped the per-capita table for decades, even as average consumption there has fallen from its peak.

Isinglass, used to clarify beer, is obtained from what?

Fish swim bladders: isinglass is collagen from the dried swim bladders of fish, originally only sturgeon; stirred into cask beer it binds yeast and drags it to the bottom.

The floating widget in a beer can is a hollow plastic sphere roughly how wide?

3 cm: the floating widget is a nitrogen-filled plastic ball about 3 cm across that releases its gas when the can is opened, recreating draught Guinness's creamy surge; Guinness patented the original widget in 1969.

What does the IBU scale measure?

Isohumulones from hops are responsible for the bitter taste.

What instrument measures the specific gravity of beer before and after fermentation?

Hydrometer: a weighted glass float that sinks less in denser, sugar-rich wort; comparing readings before and after fermentation gives the alcohol content, and UK brewers quote water as 1000, so 1.050 reads 1050.

The saying 'mind your P's and Q's' is said to derive from which beer measures?

Steins usually hold a half litre or a full litre.

How many millilitres are in a British imperial pint?

568 ml: the imperial pint is 20 imperial fluid ounces, 568.26 ml, while the US pint is 16 US fluid ounces, about 473 ml.

What is the bulging pint glass designed to stop rims chipping called?

Nonik: the 'no-nick' glass, patented by American Hugo Pick in 1913, has a bulge an inch below the rim that stops chipping, improves grip and keeps stacked glasses from sticking.

International Beer Day is celebrated on which day?

First Friday of August: International Beer Day was founded in Santa Cruz, California, in 2007 by Jesse Avshalomov and was held on 5 August until 2012, when it moved to the first Friday.

Which country became the world's largest consumer of beer in the 21st century?

China overtook the United States as the world's largest beer market by volume in 2002; modern brewing had arrived around 1900 with lagers from Harbin (1900) and Tsingtao (1903).

The Trappist abbey that brews Westvleteren is dedicated to which saint?

Sixtus: the Sint-Sixtusabdij at Westvleteren, founded in 1831, began brewing in 1838, and its monks sell beer only at the abbey gate, which is why Westvleteren 12 is so hard to find.

Besides beer, the Trappist monks of Chimay make what?

Cheese: Chimay's monks have made cheese since 1876, fourteen years after founding the brewery in 1862, and some wheels are washed in the abbey's own beer.

Orval's distinctive flavour comes from which wild yeast strain?

Brettanomyces bruxellensis: Orval adds the wild yeast during a three-week dry-hopped maturation before bottling, giving the beer its leathery, earthy 'Brett' character that deepens with age.

Under what name was Blue Moon's witbier originally launched in 1995?

Bellyslide Belgian White: Keith Villa brewed it in 1995 at Coors's Sandlot Brewery inside Denver's Coors Field, and it took the Blue Moon name for its wider release.

Who launched Newcastle Brown Ale in 1927?

Colonel Jim Porter, a chemist and decorated First World War officer at Newcastle Breweries, spent three years developing the ale before its 1927 launch; its label's blue star honours the company's five founding breweries.

Red Stripe lager is brewed by Desnoes & Geddes in which country?

Jamaica: Desnoes & Geddes first brewed Red Stripe in Kingston in 1928, and the lager became a Heineken brand when Heineken bought a majority of D&G in 2015.

Tiger Beer, launched in 1932, comes from which country?

Singapore: Tiger was first brewed there in 1932 by Malayan Breweries, a Fraser & Neave and Heineken joint venture, whose successor Asia Pacific Breweries has been fully owned by Heineken since 2012.

Which royal symbol was Singha's brewer, Boon Rawd, granted the right to display in 1939?

The Garuda: in 1939 the Thai crown granted Boon Rawd Brewery, founded in 1933 by Phraya Bhirom Bhakdi, the right to show the royal Garuda on Singha labels as a mark of royal warrant.

The Campaign for Real Ale was founded in 1971 in a bar in which country?

Ireland: Michael Hardman, Graham Lees, Jim Makin and Bill Mellor founded the Campaign for Real Ale in March 1971 while on holiday at Kruger's Bar in Dunquin, County Kerry.

Roughly how much beer does a yard of ale hold?

2.5 pints: a yard of ale holds about 1.4 litres, two and a half imperial pints, in a glass roughly 90 cm long with a bulb at the bottom that splashes the unwary when the last beer rushes out.

What punishment did Hammurabi's code set for tavern-keepers who short-measured beer?

Drowning: law 108 of Hammurabi's code, from about 1750 BC, ordered a tavern-keeper who gave short measure or refused grain as payment for beer to be convicted and thrown into the water.

Hops belong to the same plant family as what?

Cannabis: hops (Humulus lupulus) and cannabis are both in the family Cannabaceae; only female hop plants, which bear the resinous cones, are grown commercially.

The first documented hop cultivation, in 736, was in which German region?

Hallertau: a document from 736 records hop growing at Geisenfeld in the Hallertau, and the region north of Munich grew into the world's largest continuous hop-growing area.

Bière de garde is a farmhouse ale traditionally brewed in which French region?

Nord-Pas-de-Calais: bière de garde, 'beer for keeping', was brewed on farms in early spring and cellared for summer drinking; Jenlain, from Brasserie Duyck, revived the style in the 1970s.

Which animal features on the labels of the Delirium range from Huyghe Brewery?

A pink elephant: Delirium Tremens, launched at the end of the 1980s, carries the pink elephant of drunken hallucination on its grey ceramic-look bottle; Leon Huyghe founded the Melle brewery in 1906.

What does 'Duvel' mean in the Flemish dialects of Ghent and Antwerp?

Devil: the name comes from a tale that a shoemaker tasting the beer in 1923 called it 'a real devil' ('nen echten duvel'); Moortgat, founded in Breendonk in 1871, adopted it.

Which milkman revived Hoegaarden's witbier style in the 1960s?

Pierre Celis, a Hoegaarden milkman who had once helped at the village's last witbier brewery, revived the style in 1966 at his De Kluis brewery, spicing it with coriander and dried Curaçao orange peel.

Samuel Smith's, established in 1758, claims to be the oldest brewery in which county?

Yorkshire: Samuel Smith's Old Brewery in Tadcaster dates from 1758, the town's gypsum-rich well water made it a brewing centre from the 14th century, and the brewery ferments in stone 'Yorkshire squares'.

Fuller's Griffin Brewery, sold to Asahi in 2019, is in which London district?

Chiswick: Fuller's Griffin Brewery stands beside the Thames at Chiswick, where beer has been brewed since the 17th century; Asahi bought the brewing business for £250 million in 2019, leaving Fuller's with its pubs.

Which Canadian brewer was founded in London, Ontario, in 1847?

Labatt: John Kinder Labatt bought into a London, Ontario brewery in 1847; Interbrew acquired the company in 1995, and it has belonged to Anheuser-Busch InBev since the 2008 merger.

Which family owns Moosehead, Canada's oldest independent brewery?

The Olands: Susannah Oland began brewing in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, in 1867, and her descendants have run the family company from Saint John, New Brunswick, since 1928, under the Moosehead name since 1947.

In which year was Munich's Hofbräuhaus, the ducal court brewery, founded?

1589: the Hofbräuhaus began as the Bavarian court's own brewery; a new brewhouse at the Platzl followed in 1607, and Ludwig I opened it to the general public in 1828.

Hitler's failed 1923 putsch began at which Munich beer hall?

Bürgerbräukeller: on the evening of 8 November 1923 Hitler's stormtroopers surrounded the hall while Bavarian leader Gustav von Kahr was speaking, and the next day's march through Munich ended in gunfire at the Odeonsplatz.

Skol lager was first brewed in which country?

Scotland: Skol began as Graham's Golden Lager at Arrol's brewery in Alloa and was relaunched under the Skol name in 1959 by Ind Coope; Carlsberg owns the brand worldwide except in Africa and South America.

Cobra Beer was founded in 1989 by Karan Bilimoria while he was how much in debt?

£20,000: Karan Bilimoria, a Cambridge law graduate carrying £20,000 of student debt, founded Cobra in 1989, and its first shipments arrived in the UK from the Mysore Brewery in Bangalore in 1990.

Under what name is Czech Budweiser Budvar sold in some countries due to a trademark dispute?

The dispute with Anheuser-Busch dates from the start of the 20th century.

Which American brewer did Belgium's InBev buy for about $52 billion in 2008?

Anheuser-Busch: InBev paid about $52 billion for the maker of Budweiser in November 2008, creating Anheuser-Busch InBev, based in Leuven, which became the world's largest brewer.

BrewDog's Ghost Deer, at 28%, was claimed in 2011 as the strongest beer made how?

By fermentation alone: BrewDog said Ghost Deer's 28% came purely from yeast, without the freeze-distilling it had used for its 55% End of History in 2010; it was poured only from a mounted stag's head.

San Miguel Brewery, the Philippines' first, opened in Manila in which year?

1890: La Fábrica de Cerveza de San Miguel opened in Manila on 29 September 1890 under a Spanish royal grant, Southeast Asia's first brewery, and its Pale Pilsen became its flagship.

Beerlao is brewed from which locally grown ingredient?

Jasmine rice: Beerlao blends locally grown jasmine rice with imported malt, hops and yeast; the Lao Brewery Company, founded in Vientiane in 1973, makes it, and Carlsberg owns half the company.

Castle Lager traces its origins to which 1886 event?

The Johannesburg gold rush: Charles Glass began brewing for the miners who flooded the Witwatersrand after gold was found in 1886, and his Castle Brewery became the seed of South African Breweries in 1895.

Which Munich duke found the local beer so bad he imported it from Saxony before founding the Hofbräuhaus?

William V: the duke, unhappy with Munich's beer, had been importing it from Einbeck in Lower Saxony, and founded the Hofbräuhaus as the court's own brewery in 1589.

At which site in Iran's Zagros Mountains was the earliest chemically confirmed barley beer found?

Godin Tepe: jar fragments from about 3500-3100 BC at this Zagros trading post were coated with calcium oxalate, or beerstone, the residue barley beer leaves, the earliest chemical evidence of brewing.

Kölsch has held EU protected status since 1997 for beer brewed within 50 km of which city?

Cologne: since 1997 the EU has protected Kölsch as a geographical indication for beer brewed within 50 km of the city under the 1986 Kölsch Konvention; the bright, pale-gold ale is served in small straight glasses.

What is the tall, thin 200 ml glass in which Kölsch is traditionally served called?

Stange: the word means 'pole' or 'rod'; Köbes waiters carry eleven or twelve of the 200 ml glasses in a circular tray called a Kranz and keep replacing empties until a beer mat is laid on top.

Saison, the Walloon farmhouse ale, is most associated with which Belgian province?

Hainaut: saison was brewed on the farms of French-speaking Hainaut for summer field hands, and Brasserie Dupont at Tourpes, a farm-brewery dating from 1844, made Saison Dupont the style's benchmark.

Which American importer, urged by writer Michael Jackson, restyled Belgian saison as 'farmhouse ale'?

Don Feinberg of Vanberg & DeWulf brought Brasserie Dupont's saison to America in the late 1980s and, on Michael Jackson's advice, sold it as 'farmhouse ale' because Americans did not know the word saison.

The Radler, a beer and lemon-soda mix, takes its name from the German word for what?

The name comes from a 'cyclist litre' drink first served at a Bavarian inn; it is usually a half-and-half mix.

Who invented the crown cork bottle cap in Baltimore in 1892?

William Painter patented the crown cork in 1892, the first commercially successful bottle cap, and founded the Crown Cork & Seal Company in Baltimore; his salesman King C. Gillette later invented the safety razor.

In which year did Guinness launch its widget can of draught-style stout in Britain?

1989: Guinness launched canned Draught Guinness with the widget in Britain in 1989, after Alan Forage and William Byrne's 1985 design, and the invention won the Queen's Award for Technological Achievement in 1991.

Michelob, developed by Adolphus Busch in 1896, takes its name from a market town in which country today?

It was conceived as a 'draught beer for connoisseurs'; the town is Měcholupy.

Which light beer, launched in 1982, became America's best-selling beer in 2001?

Bud Light, launched nationally in 1982, passed Budweiser to become America's best-selling beer in 2001 and held the top spot until Modelo Especial overtook it in 2023.

In which town outside Munich did innkeeper Franz Kugler create the 'Radlermass'?

Deisenhofen: innkeeper Franz Kugler reputedly mixed beer with lemon soda at his Kugler-Alm in June 1922 when a huge crowd of day-trippers arrived and his beer ran short, naming the drink Radlermass.

A michelada is a Mexican drink combining beer with lime juice and what else?

Assorted sauces and spices: a michelada adds hot sauce, Worcestershire or soy sauce and chili powder to beer and lime in a salt-rimmed glass; some regions add Clamato or tomato juice.