Some would argue there’s nothing more refreshing than cracking open a cold beer on a hot summer afternoon (should we get any) and many will have celebrated ‘International Beer Day’ last week as it takes place on the first Friday of August and was founded in 2007 in Santa Cruz, California by Jesse Avshalomov.
So to celebrate one of Britain’s favourite beverages, this Five Fact Friday is all about beer!
Curing ale-ments
- The strongest beer in the world, with 67.5% alcohol by volume, is ‘Snake Venom’ by Scottish brewery Brewmeister. Without dispute this beer has a strong kick and may result in you being on the floor very soon. Using everything from smoked peat malt to two types of yeast during production to achieve the high alcohol volume and frozen multiple times during fermentation. Despite the name there is no snake venom. Would you dare drink this?
Older, bud-wiser
- Our gratitude for the creation of beer should go to the Ancient Persians. Chemical tests of old pottery jars found in Ancient Persia suggest it was used to brew beer back in approximately 3500 BC.. We now know beer lovers have been around for thousands of years!
Keep em flowing, I'm a cenosillicaphobiac
- Cenosillicaphobia is the term for when a person feels irrationally agitated, anxious or has feelings of dread when there is an empty glass around. Next time you're out for dinner, or at the pub, drop your newly learned term, Cenosillicaphobia, so you can avoid sitting around with an empty beer glass infront of you.
Beer-ly Legal
- In 1814 London suffered the Great Beer Flood when between 580,000–1,470,000 litre of beer flooded the streets around Tottenham Court Road after wooden vats of a fermenting porter at Meux Brewery burst. At least 8 people drowned and stories later arose of mass drunkenness, hundreds of people collecting beer and alcohol poisoning.
Legally, it was declared that the incident was an ‘Act of God’ and therefore Meux Brewery was not liable and did not need to pay compensation.
And look at this law!
- It is illegal to be drunk in a pub. SERIOUSLY!
The 1872 Licensing Act states ‘Every person found drunk in any highway or other public place, whether a building or not, or on any licensed premises, shall be liable to a penalty.”
Given a pub’s principal purpose this seems a rather strange idea, but it was brought in to encourage lower levels of drinking. The theory was that if rolling out of the pub and being found drunk would result in a night in police custody, it would encourage people to be more moderate in their drinking. Today, it is difficult to say how widely this is exact law is enforced, although you can be arrested for being drunk and disorderly.
