--5537--

BEER FACTS - Famous Moments in Beer

4300 BC Babylonian clay tablets from this time depict brewing and show detailed recipes for beer.

1600 BC An Egyptian text from this period contains 100 medical prescriptions that call for beer.

1200 AD Beer-making is firmly established as an important commercial enterprise in Germany, Austria and England.

1420 German brewers begin to make lager.

1516 Germany's "Reinheitsgebot" purity law takes effect (it states that the only ingredients permitted for brewing beer are water, malted barley, malted wheat, hops and water).

1602 Dr. Alexanders Nowell discovers that ale will keep longer if stored in glass bottles, sealed with corks.

1620 The Pilgrims land at Plymouth Rock, bringing beer with them.

1623 The New World's first brewery is built in Manhattan.

1786 Molson, the oldest surviving brewery in the New World, is founded.

1788 Ale is proclaimed "the proper drink for Americans" at a huge parade in New York City.

1789 In the first year in which the U.S. Constitution is effective, James Madison proposes in Congress that a duty of 8-cents per barrel be levied on malt liquors in the hope "that this low rate will such an encouragement as to induce the manufacture of beer in every State in the Union."

1810 Oktoberfest is established in Munich as an official citywide celebration.

1842 The first clear, golden-hued lager is produced in the town of Pilsen in Bohemia. (The town was granted brewing rights by King Wenceslas in 1295.)

1850's The modern era of brewing in the U.S. begins to take shape as German immigrants bring a love of lager and the technological expertise to make it to their new land. By the late
1800's, aided by the development of commercial refrigeration, automatic bottling and pasteurization, the modern era of big brands is in full swing.

1860's The first federal excise tax on beer was imposed as a "temporary" measure to help the Union during the Civil War.

1876 Louis Pasteur publishes Studies on Fermentation-The Diseases of Beer, Their Causes, and Means of Preventing Them.
Source: Cheers - Knowing and Understanding Beer - June 1996

__________________
-Toast-
"It takes a lot of brains to enjoy satire, humor and wit - but none to be offended by them." -- Johnny Hart ("BC", cartoonist, 2000)
"Analyzing humor is like dissecting a frog: Nobody really enjoys it and the frog generally dies as a result." -- E. B. White