Interesting Facts on How Alcohol has Shaped Our Society
The Honeymoon
Babylonia, 4,000 years ago, it was customary that one month after the wedding, the bride’s father would provide his son-in-law with all the mead, (A honey beer/wine) that he could drink for its supposed aphrodisiac qualities. At that time, the calendar was lunar based, so the period called the honey month, or as we know it today as the honeymoon.
Rule of Thumb
Before the thermometer was created, brewers would immerse their thumb into the wort to ascertain the correct temperature before pitching the yeast. Too hot would kill the yeast, too cold and the yeast would not multiply. This thumb in beer antic would become what we know as the “rule of thumb”.
Mind Your P’s and Q’s
The English publicans served ale in days gone by, in pints and quarts. At times the pubs drinkers would become unruly, so the bartender would yell to the patrons to mind their pints and quarts and simmer down their anger and settle down. Today, the saying has been abbreviated to mind your p’s and q’s.
Grog
Around the year 1740, Admiral E.Vernon, of the British fleet, decided to water down the navy’s rum. This was not well received by the sailors and the admiral became known as the Old Grog after the rigid woollen grogram. Coats that he wore. The expression, grog, quickly became attached to the meaning of watered down drink. When one became drunk after consuming this grog, they were groggy. Thus the term Grog, was first coined.
Some Trivia
Fredrick the Great of Prussia tried to ban the consumption of coffee and demanded that the populace drink alcohol instead.
President Lincoln, when informed that the General Grant whisky while leading his troops, reportedly replied “find out the brand name of that whisky so I can feed it to my other generals”
During the reign of William the 3rd, a garden fountain was once used as a giant punch bowl. The recipe include 560 gallons of brandy, 1200 pounds of sugar, 25,000 lemons, 20 gallons of lime juice and five pounds of nutmeg. The bartender rowed around in a small boat, filling up guests punch cups.
The shallow champagne glass originated with Marie Antoinette. It was first formed from wax moulds made of her breasts.
In the 1800’s, rum was considered excellent for cleaning hair and keeping it healthy. Brandy was believed to strengthen hair roots.
“The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog” is commonly believed to be the only sentence in the English language devised to include all the letters of the alphabet. However, typesetters have another such sentence: “Pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs”
A raisin dropped into a glass of champagne will repeatedly bounce up and down between the top and bottom of the glass.
Did you know that the human body produces its own supply of alcohol naturally on a continuos basis, 24 hours a day, seven days a week? Did you know that the world’s oldest known recipe is for beer