Do you enjoy trivial enlightenment? Take up some brain space and learn more about The 1516 Reinheitsgebot and what Terroir is in this fact filled fun blurb.
IS BEER AN ANTIBIOTIC?
Tetracycline is an antibiotic produced by streptomyces, a soil bacteria.
Ancient Egyptian workers received 8 pints of beer a day to give them energy. Almost half of grain production was dedicated to beer (40%), and beer was even prescribed as medicine as noted in the Ebers Papyrus (1550 BCE). Archaeologists have recently discovered tetracycline in the bones of ancient Nubians, indicating that beer was used as an antibiotic. Or, Tetracycline may have found its way into Nubian beer vats!
Does that mean we can treat Chlamydia with beer? Asking for a friend…
ANY AUSTRALIANS OUT THERE?
Since 2008, Crown Ambassador Reserve has produced only four batches of 8000 individually numbered bottles. Brewed in Australia, it is aged for a year in French oak barrels and sells for about 65 pounds a bottle.
HOW MUCH WATER DOES IT TAKE TO MAKE BEER?
It takes up to 192 pints of water to make a pint of beer (60 - 180 litres). This includes the total water used for the cultivation of ingredients: hops, barley, wheat, rice. The actual brewing process uses about 5 litres of water for every litre of beer produced.
Seems unfair that beer is so much more thirst quenching than water. Or maybe it’s just me.
THE 1516 REINHEITSGEBOT (BEER PURITY LAW)
The Beer Purity Law decreed that only water, barley and hops could be used in the production of beer. Today, malted grains are also permitted. Despite these ingredients eradicating many variations, there are more than 100 types of hops, 40 types of malt and 200 strains of yeast, so the taste possibilities remain limitless. Do the math: you could drink a different German beer every day for 15 years.
BEER BAPTISM
In the middle ages, children were often baptised in beer due to lack of clean water. Pope Gregory IX declared beer baptisms invalid as it says in John 3:5 “to be reborn from water and the Holy Spirit”.
THE OLDEST LICENSED BREWERY SITE IN BRITAIN
The Three Tuns Brewery in Bishop’s Castle, Shropshire, England was established in 1642. It creates “Three Tuns Pilgrims” beer from 125 year old yeast. The first brewery in North America was also built in 1642 in Hoboken, New Jersey, USA.
TERROIR
Artisanal crops such as wine, coffee, tobacco, chocolate, chili peppers, hops, agave, tomatoes, heritage wheat, maple syrup, tea and cannabis are all affected by terroir. Terroir is the character and taste that is formed from the set of environmental factors that affect a crop’s phenotype (physical form and structure), habitat, farming practices and environmental contexts.
(information courtesy of wikipedia and Michael Powell)