The Super Bowl and its accompanying
camaraderie are just around the corner. It is the perfect time to wow
your buddies with Super Bowl trivia, especially that concerning odd
pieces of information on that great American alcoholic beverage, beer.
and other tidbits about alcoholic drinks.
The first Super Bowl football championship was played in 1967, pitting
the Green Bay Packers against the Kansas City Chiefs. The
sports-history breaking game took place on January 15, 1967, at the Los
Angeles Memorial Coliseum, following the merger of the NFL with the
fledgling AFL. The AFL, under new Commissioner Al Davis, was well on
its way to bringing the NFL to its knees by signing more and more top
NFL players away from the NFL, along with top college talent, but AFL
team owners, who dreamt more of being part of the NFL establishment
than dominating professional football with their own league, accepted
the NFL's merger terms, to combine into a single league, with the Super
Bowl game to decide the league's championship.
Ancient Egyptian pyramid builders were partial to beer, which they
usually drank through a straw. The beer's flavor was much like that of
Chardonnay.
During the Middle Ages, a popular alcoholic drink given to the ill and
infirm was known as a caudle, containing eggs, bread, sugar, and spices.
Colonial New Englanders worked with the environment to their advantage.
After putting barrels of cider outside in cold weather, they would
remove the forming ice to increase the alcohol content of the leftover
beverage.
We've all heard of the phrase "rule of thumb." Legend has it that it
evolved from the practice of brewers, in the days before the invention
of thermometers, would poke a thumb or finger into the beer mixture in
an attempt to find the most suitable temperature for adding yeast. If
the mixture was too cold, the yeast wouldn't grow but if it was too
hot, the yeast would die.
England is the home of the word "toddlers." The drinking water was so
contaminated that it was prohibited to be used for that purpose. Beer
was used as a substitute beverage because it was inexpensive, abundant,
and during the brewing process the water was boiled. Toddlers were
being weaned off mother's milk and the logical substitution was beer.
Unfortunately, the children were not acclimated to the side effects of
beer. This, paired with their large motor muscles being unaccustomed to
supporting their bodies, really demonstrated how to toddle across the
room.
Low in vitamins? Beer is loaded with the B-complex vitamins.
To remove the head of foam from the top of your beer, stick your
fingers in it. If you put salted peanuts in a glass of beer, the nuts
will dance around.
A person who collects beer mats practices tegestology while a collector of beer bottles is a labeorphilist.
From 1651 to 1970, every sailor in the British Navy was provided with a daily allocation of rum.
In the 13th century, it was common practice to use beer to baptize children.
It is suspected that Attila the Hun died of suffocation induced by a
bloody nose after passing out from too much alcohol at his bachelor
party.