A lot of places I’ve been in the world have their own “local” beer. A lot of them I’d never heard of before and many were only available near the location where they were brewed. One beer that we usually have in our house is Yuengling. It bills itself as America’s oldest brewery. A couple of the guys that I play golf with have remarked that when they first heard of it, they thought Yuengling was a Chinese beer. I guess that’s kind of understandable, because one of the world’s most popular beers is Yanjing — a Chinese beer created in 1980. Since then, it’s become the third-best selling beer in the world.
Well, anyhow, that got me to thinking about beer….
The first barley beer was most likely born in the Middle East, where good evidence of beer production dates back about 5,000 years to the Sumerians of ancient Mesopotamia.
Beer is the world’s most widely consumed, and probably the oldest, alcoholic beverage. It’s the third most popular drink, period (after water and tea.)
There are about 195 countries in the world and beer is produced in about 160 of them — some do not produce beer, because alcohol is banned. Some of the beers I remember from various countries are: Ghana – Club Premium Lager, Indonesia – Bintang, Ireland – Guinness Draught, Kenya – Tusker Lager, Laos – Beerlao, Philippines – San Miguel, Russia – Bajihka, Saudia Arabia – Moussy, Singapore – Tiger Beer, Taiwan – Taiwan Beer, Vietnam – 333, Brazil – Skol, Cambodia – Angkor Beer, China – Tsingtao, Ethiopia – St. George Beer, Greece – Mythos, India – Kingfisher, Jamaica – Red Stripe, Thailand – Singha.
I mentioned Skol — the only place I’ve had Skol was in Brazil, even though it was supposedly created by a combination of British, Canadian, Swedish and Belgian breweries and intended to be an international lager.
Yuengling claims to be America’s oldest brewery, but the Bavarian State Brewery Weihenstephan claims to be the oldest operating brewery in the world. It’s located on the site of the former Weihenstephan Abbey in Freising, Bavaria. That may be one reason a lot of people think beer was invented in Germany.
And I should mention the the word “beer” comes from the Latin word “bibere.” meaning to drink.
Cheers!!