the fabric of human society that the word "beer'' derives from the Latin bibere , meaning to drink. 2. Beer has been brewed and consumed by man since before records were kept. It is believed that early man gave up his nomadic lifestyle and settled into civilisations in order to cultivate barley to make beer. It is difficult to make appetising bread from barley because the gluten content is low, however by baking grains into hard loaves, the ancients could create a partially processed resource that could be conveniently stored and transported for later use. 3. The earliest record of beer brewed from barley is found in the Egyptian Book of the Dead , estimated at 5,000 years old. 4.

What has been described as the world's oldest recipe consists of a series of tablets inscribed with pictograms in the Sumerian language showing what is recognisably barley being baked into bread, then crumbled into water to make a mash, which is then made into a drink that is recorded as having made people feel "exhilarated, wonderful and blissful''. 5. Traces of beer residue have been found on a clay jar dated at 5,000 years old from a site in present day Iran. 6. After the Dark Ages, Christian abbeys, as centres of agriculture, knowledge and science, refined brewing methods. The modern abbeys that make beer today are all Roman Catholic. Protestant disapproval of drinking is a relatively recent phenomenon. 7. When Columbus dropped anchor off American shores, a fermented beverage prepared from corn was among the first things offered to him and his crew by the Indians. Perhaps that's why so many US beers continue to use corn syrups as adjuncts. 8. The first record of a commercial brewery in America was one built by Don Alfonso de Herrera in 1544 near Mexico City. 9. Beer has been considered a dietary supplement throughout the ages since it was often the only safe source of drink. No harmful pathogens can live in beer, making it an extremely valuable commodity in areas where drinking water may be polluted. 10. Beer has been used as a measure of workers' wages throughout time. It was paid to labourers by the Egyptians in building the pyramids. It was paid by the Romans to their legions with higher ranks receiving successively greater quantities. It was used as a staple for monks throughout the Middle Ages. 11. The Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1620 because they were out of beer. At that time, beer was a dietary staple for all from infants to the aged. Being out of beer was a threat to the very lives of the early colonists. 12. Voyagers, such as The Mayflower , or that of Sir George Somers and The Sea Venture , carried, as a matter of course, three times more beer than water in the hold. 13. For most colonists, beer was "God's good creature'' and by comparison to today's standards, Pilgrims drank ale in large quantities. Records from the 17th Century show that beer consumption was an amazing three quarts daily per person! That's equivalent to nine bottles of beer per person per day! Of course in the 17th Century they didn't have cars and the horse could probably find his own way home. 14. The first child of European descent born in 1614 New York, Jean Vigne, was delivered inside New York's first commercial brewery. The momentous event obviously influenced his life as Vigne went on to become a prosperous brewer himself by age 19 and helped finance New York's first paved street. 15. Wall Street in New York was paved in 1630 to ease the delivery of beer in mud season. 16. The oldest continuous brewery in North America is Molson's, started by John Molson in 1786 at the age of 22 in Montreal. He had arrived earlier that year from Lincolnshire bringing with him a few barrels of barley, a little hops and a booklet entitled, Theoretical Hints on the Improved Practice of Brewing . 17. The making of beer and bread both involve the same biological process. The production of bread involves an alcoholic fermentation. The alcohol is then driven off in baking. In fact, beer is often referred to as "liquid bread''. 18. The very first Congress of the United States in 1789 wrote laws designed to assist their domestic brewing operation by imposing taxes on imported ale, cider, beer and rum. 19. The very first "help wanted'' ad in the US was an ad for a brewer and was placed in a London newspaper. 20. Germany's first Octoberfest was actually the celebration of the marriage of the Bavarian Crown Prince in 1810. 21. Early American patriots John Adams, Ethan Allen and George Washington all brewed their own beer. 22. There are more than 5,000 breweries around the world producing more than 15,000 different brands of beer. 23. Only the flower of the female hop plant is used in beer. Hop plants are perennial and are propagated from cuttings. Seeds are not needed and therefore neither is the male hop plant. In Continental Europe, the wild male hop plant has been exterminated. 24. Only the best ten percent of the world's barley is used in brewing. The remaining ninety percent is used primarily for cattle feed. 25. Many small breweries in the Czech Republic proudly demonstrate the quality of their beers by placing a heavy coin on top of the foam. The head is so dense that the coin floats instead of sinking and more than one brewmaster has been known to claim, "Our beer is so good that it keeps our currency afloat''. Perhaps with the recent fall of the US Dollar, the big American breweries should give more consideration to brewing "good'' beer! 26. The strongest ale is brewed by Ross Brewing Company, a brewpub in England and is called `Uncle Igor's Famous Falling Down Water'. It is aptly named, with an alcohol strength of 21 percent.

27. The strongest lager is Samichlaus Dark 1987 brewed by Brauerei Huerlimann in Zurich, Switzerland and has an alcohol content of 14.93 percent.

28. The bitterest beer is Buffalo Bill's Alimony Ale, billed as "The bitterest beer in America'' with an IBU of 100.