Beer Facts

It was the accepted practice in Babylonia 4,000 years ago that for a month after
the wedding, the bride's father would supply his son-in-law with all the mead he
could drink. Mead is a honey beer, and because their calendar was lunar based,
this period was called the "honey month" or what we know today as the
"honeymoon".

Before thermometers were invented, brewers would dip a thumb or finger into the
mix to find the right temperature for adding yeast. Too cold, and the yeast wouldn't
grow. Too hot, and the yeast would die. This thumb in the beer is where we get the
phrase "rule of thumb".

In English pubs, ale is ordered by pints and quarts. So in old England, when
customers got unruly, the bartender would yell at them to mind their own pints and
quarts and settle down. It's where we get the phrase "mind your P's and Q's".

After consuming a bucket or two of vibrant brew they called aul, or ale, the Vikings
would head fearlessly into battle often without armor or even shirts. In fact, the
term "berserk" means "bare shirt" in Norse, and eventually took on the meaning of
their wild battles.

In 1740 Admiral Vernon of the British fleet decided to water down the navy's rum.
Needless to say, the sailors weren't too pleased and called Admiral Vernon, Old
Grog, after the stiff wool grogram coats he wore. The term "grog" soon began to
mean the watered down drink itself. When you were drunk on this grog, you were
"groggy", a word still in use today.

Many years ago in England, pub frequenters had a whistle baked into the rim or
handle of their ceramic cups. When they needed a refill, they used the whistle to get
some service. "Wet your whistle", is the phrase inspired by this practice.

The Bronze Rat

A tourist wanders into a back-alley antique shop in San Francisco's Chinatown. Picking through the objects on display he
discovers a detailed, life-sized bronze sculpture of a rat. The sculpture is so interesting and unique that he picks it up and asks
the shop owner what it costs.

"Twelve dollars for the rat, sir," says the shop owner, "and a thousand dollars more for the story behind it."

"You can keep the story, old man," he replies, "but I'll take the rat."

The transaction complete, the tourist leaves the store with the bronze rat under his arm. As he crosses the street in front of the
store, two live rats emerge from a sewer drain and fall into step behind him. Nervously looking over his shoulder, he begins to
walk faster, but every time he passes another sewer drain, more rats come out and follow him.

By the time he's walked two blocks, at least a hundred rats are at his heels, and people begin to point and shout. He walks
even faster, and soon breaks into a trot as multitudes of rats swarm from sewers, basements, vacant lots, and abandoned cars.
Rats by the thousands are at his heels, and as he sees the waterfront at the bottom of the hill, he panics and starts to run full tilt.

No matter how fast he runs, the rats keep up, squealing hideously, now not just thousands but millions, so that by the time he
comes rushing up to the water's edge a trail of rats twelve city blocks long is behind him. Making a mighty leap, he jumps up
onto a light post, grasping it with one arm while he hurls the bronze rat into San Francisco Bay with the other, as far as he can
heave it. Pulling his legs up and clinging to the light post, he watches in amazement as the seething tide of rats surges over the
breakwater into the sea, where they drown.

Shaken and mumbling, he makes his way back to the antique shop.

"Ah, so you've come back for the rest of the story," says the owner.

"No," says the tourist, "but I was wondering if you have any bronze lawyers!"