Beer History

To see it full size (and to buy it) click the picture.
Thanks to my friend Brad for sending this along.

Mark this day in your calendars. This is the anniversary of the first sale of a can of beer in the United States.

This article in Wired gives a fairly good run down of the history, and then brings up the trend of microbreweries claiming that cans are better for beer than bottles.

“This isn’t the heresy it sounds,” the article states. “Beer’s main enemies are light, oxygen and heat. A can’s complete opacity blocks out the light that can make a beer taste ‘skunked.’”

To back this up, they link to this article on chow.com: “Canned Beer that’s Actually Good: Craft Brewers See Sense in Cans.”

I’m sure that cans are better than glass – especially clear glass like a Corona – for storing beer over longer periods of time.  But that argument is silly, because you can always put it in dark brown glass and store it away from sunlight.  And, also, beer doesn’t age well anyway.

The fresher the beer the better. Ship it quick. Buy it quick. Drink it quick.

I don’t care what anyone says, beer out of cans does not taste anywhere near as good as beer out of glass bottles. I can always, always taste the tang of metal. So when the breweries tell you that canning is better for the beer, what they really mean is canning is better for them – because it helps their profits.

So, you’re a brewery and you want to put your beer in cans? Bah! Go ahead. Just don’t expect me to drink it.

According to the New York Times, you’re looking at one of the earliest known recipes ever written down by man.

It’s for beer.

One of the contentions of the novel I’m currently writing is that humanity’s entire modern civilization owes everything to the discovery of beer, that mankind changed from hunter-gatherers to farmers, and then developed cities and society, specifically so that they could produce beer.  Beer to them was divine and the nectar of the Gods.  It got them buzzed, helped them forget about their worries, and got even the ugly guys laid.

Anyway, I stumbled upon this while doing research and thought I’d share it with you.  The picture links to the article that I stole it from.