15 Things You Didn't Know About Beer

2. Burn Baby Burn
Before people understood the science behind brewing, tasty beer was considered a gift from heaven and foul beer the work of the devil. Women suspected of being “brew witches,” satanic souls who turned the good booze funky, were set aflame in the 1500s. When hops, initially used as a preservative, became more prevalent about a hundred years later, brew witch burnings began to dwindle (though people found plenty of other reasons to set chicks on fire).

3. The German Purity Law
When brewers started tossing soot, lime and beans into their beer for color, taste and preservative qualities (and also to rip people off), the powers that be in 16th Century Bavaria laid the smack down, passing “Reinheitsgebot,” a purity order that said beer could only include three ingredients by law: barley, hops and water. While the rules have bent a bit, all beer brewed in Germany still abides by the regulation.

4. Beer-Making Monks
Disease-ridden drinking water, led most people to brew their own beer during the Middle Ages. For monks, the beverage also provided important sustenance during fasting periods that prohibited eating but allowed drinking. The dudes in robes took their brewing more seriously than the average Joe, studying the process and perfecting recipes. Initially offered for free to travelers, the monks were eventually able to sell their beer at local taprooms.

5. Don’t Judge a Beer by its Color
No matter what you’ve been told, the color of a beer has absolutely nothing to do with its heaviness, strength, bitterness or alcohol level. Since most Americans drink mass-market beers that are light in all of the categories above—like Bud, Coors and Miller—we mistakenly associate the light color with these other light characteristics. Guinness is impressively dark, but has a low alcohol content, while Sierra Nevada IPA is light but packs a hard alcoholic punch.

6. Getting Yeasty
While brewers knew a scientific process was behind their beer creation they didn’t understand the specifics until the late 19th Century when biological badass Louis Pasteur declared that yeast, a naturally occurring fungus, was responsible for making the beverage. Yeasts eat the sugar in beer’s ingredients, and in turn produce CO2 (the bubbles in beer) and alcohol (the awesomeness in beer).

7. Getting Crafty
Bored of mass-produced lagers, but held back by a law that prohibited at-home brewing in the U.S, beer aficionados turned to President Jimmy Carter in the late 70’s for some help. Carter repealed the regulation and microbrew pioneers got to work in the 80’s, experimenting with unique styles and ingredients adapted from Europe. At-home operations grew into small breweries and the craft beer movement was born. In the time since, American beer has become more varied and well respected.

8. In the Wild
Lambics, a particularly sour style of beer, are the only type of brew still made from the wild yeast used by our ancestors. When partiers of the past left their ingredient-filled buckets out in the open, they didn’t know that airborne yeast was landing inside to create the liquid happiness. Today’s lambic makers mimic this process, using the particularly powerful fungi floating in and around the village of Lembeeck in Belguim (from which the style derives its name) to create beer.

9. Near Beer
Very low-alcohol beer, called “near beer” by the general public, was first marketed during Prohibition. The term has more recently been applied to brews available in the state of Utah, where it is illegal to sell beer that exceeds 3.2% alcohol by weight. We highly doubt you’re seeking barely-alcoholic beer, but just in case, know that near beer is only available in four states outside of Utah: Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma and Minnesota.

10. Seriously Sloshed
In 2009, a Scottish microbrewery called BrewDog released Tactical Nuclear Penguin, then the world’s most alcoholic beer, with 32% alcohol by volume (ABV)—about six times the general average. When German brewer Schorschbrau attempted to take the title with a 40% ABV brew, the Scotts fired back with a 41% varietal. After another back and forth, and possibly some stomach pumping, BrewDog won the battle with The End of History, a 55% ABV beer that we don’t recommend funneling.

11. It Does a Body Good
If you’re sick of everyone—namely, your girlfriend— touting the health benefits of wine, you’ll be happy to hear that recent studies have shown beer to be equally beneficial. One to two beers a night reduce your chances of stroke, heart disease and vascular disorders. Full of antioxidants and loaded with vitamin B6, most beer has fewer calories than a glass of milk. From now on you can literally toast to health.

12. Happiness of Hops
The hops used in beer are in the same family of flowering plants as cannabis. Beer’s feel-good qualities made the beverage popular in early homeopathy, much like medicinal marijuana is today. Before you try to smoke hops or make beer with weed, we should note that the two are not interchangeable.

13. India Pale Ale
When British brewers tried to send their pale ales over to India, the beer would go bad during the long ocean voyage. Beer makers began to add extra alcohol and hops to help with the preservation. This inadvertently created a new style of extra bitter, extra powerful beers called India Pale Ales (IPAs). People developed a taste for this new varietal and kept on brewing ‘em bitter long after advances in transportation and preservation.

14. Certified Beer Freak
Beer connoisseurs can take a written and tasting test to become a “cicerone”, the beer equivalent to a wine “sommelier.” There are three levels of beer mastery: Certified Beer Server, Certified Cicerone and Certified Master Cicerone. Since the program began in early 2008, only four people in the U.S. have earned the Master title … and one of them is a woman. We’re not sure if she’s single, but feel free to dream.