People have been drinking beer for thousands of years, leading to many facts both funny and historical, about this golden nectar. Martin Luther once said “Whoever drinks beer, he is quick to sleep; whoever sleeps long, does not sin; whoever does not sin, enters Heaven! Thus, let us drink beer!” Let us cheer the love for beer with few of those fun facts.
Beer and sports
In South Africa, watching a sporting event would not be complete without a glass of beer in hand. In 2015, Carling Black Label Cup broke the record for the most spectators when 94 807 fans were inside the stadium to witness the Soweto derby between Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs in Johannesburg. The previous record was 94 713 that was set when South Africa’s rugby team the Springboks hosted New Zealand at the Johannesburg Stadium back in 2010.
Nobel Prize winner beer gift
Nobel Prize winner Niels Bohr, one of the greatest scientists that ever lived, was given a gift of a house next to the Carlsberg Brewery in Copenhagen in Denmark after he won the prize in 1922. His house had a direct pipeline to the brewery so that Bohr had free beer on tap whenever he wanted.
World Beer Chugging Champion
Steven Petrosino of New Cumberland, Pennsylvania downed 1 liter of beer or 33 ounces in a lightning fast 1.3 seconds in 1977 which makes him the World Beer Chugging Champion according to the Guinness Book of World Records.
The world’s largest beer festival is Oktoberfest
The world’s largest beer festival is Oktoberfest. Held annually in Munich, Germany, it is a 16-day funfair running from late September to the first weekend in October with more than 6 million people from around the world attending the event every year.
The London Beer Flood
The London Beer Flood happened on 17 October 1814 in the parish of St. Giles, London, England. At the Meux and Company Breweryon Tottenham Court Road, a huge storage tank containing over 135,000 imperial gallons (610,000 L) of beer ruptured, causing other vats in the same building to fall in a domino effect. As a result, more than 323,000 imperial gallons (1,470,000 L) of beer burst out and gushed into the streets. The wave of beer destroyed two homes and crumbled the wall of the Tavistock Arms Pub, trapping teenage employee Eleanor Cooper under the rubble. Within minutes neighbouring George Street and New Street were swamped with beer, killing a mother and daughter who were taking tea, and surging through a room of people gathered for a wake.
Cenosillicaphobia
Cenosillicaphobia is the fear of an empty beer glass and the bartender heals that fear by filling the empty glass with a beer. According to some sources, the Fact-Archive and the Urban Dictionary, the word means “the fear of an empty glass,” as “commonly experienced by drinkers.”
Reprinted with permission of South African Breweries.