A Brief History
On August 3, 2018, just as on every first Friday in August, we celebrate International Beer Day. In fact, here in History and Headlines Land, we celebrate International Beer Day everyday! For those readers that are underage, teetotalers, or lightweight non-hackers, forget this important holiday and go right to National Watermelon Day, which is celebrated on August 3 each year. For that matter, so is Grab Some Nuts Day, a holiday favored by squirrels everywhere. Today is also Airplane Crop Duster Day and Pie Day. We think Pie Day is the more important of those last 2 days named.
Digging Deeper
On International Beer Day Americans are reminded of all those great imported beers readily available now that just about every gas station and grocery store carries an incredible assortment of imported beers. Not to be neglected, the United States is no longer a collection of Budweiser guzzling Neanderthals with no discriminating taste in beer, for there are also a bajillion really great American craft brews available. In fact, micro-breweries have sprung up all over the country, producing some darn good varieties of local beers. When this author was a lad, you could only find Coors out West, but by the 1980’s that great brand spread all over the land. Likewise, Yuengling, the oldest brewer in the United States, is now available over a wide area, which coincidentally happens to be the author’s favorite American beer. Samuel Adams runs a close second, and the beers produced by Crooked River Brewing in Cleveland are also darn good. Britain celebrates National Beer Day on June 15, probably just to be different. (Brew-xit?) For those Americans too much embroiled in Making America Great Again to drink foreign brew, the American version of the beer holiday, National Beer Day, is celebrated on April 7. We generally think of beer during hotter months, but perhaps April was picked in celebration of Winter coming to an end. Who knows? For a beverage that dates back about 11,500 years ago, maybe we should have a National Beer Day every month. I would.
Getting back to those who eschew drinking alcoholic beverages, there are now a myriad of non-alcoholic beers available, many of which are pretty good. Price does not necessarily indicate good taste, as my personal favorite non-alcoholic brew is Busch NA. What is yours? (If in fact you stoop to drinking a non-alcoholic product.) There are also some fine Root Beers out there, not just the mass market kind but craft made soda pop Root Beer as well. (Not to mention “diet” types.) Plus, a favorite of ours is Birch Beer, and for others there is Ginger Beer and Ginger Ale as well. You see, there really is no excuse for not celebrating International Beer Day!
Please see our other Beer related articles, “April 23, 1516: German Beer Purity Law (Reinheitsgebot) Signed in Bavaria,” “January 10, 2015: The Great Mozambique Crocodile Bile Beer Poisoning,” “June 4, 1974: 10 Cent Beer Night Riot (Indians vs. Rangers),” “June 15, 2017: Happy National Beer Day!” and “December 31, 1759: 10 Greatest Beers.”
Question for students (and subscribers) to ponder: How do you spend International Beer Day? Do you have any suggestions on how others should celebrate this important holiday? Also, what are your favorite beers, foreign and domestic?
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Hoalst-Pullen, Nancy and Mark W. Patterson. National Geographic Atlas of Beer: A Globe-Trotting Journey Through the World of Beer. National Geographic, 2017.
Beaumont, Stephen and Tim Webb. The World Atlas of Beer, Revised & Expanded: The Essential Guide to the Beers of the World. Sterling Epicure, 2016.
The featured image in this article, François Jaques’s Peasants Enjoying Beer at Pub in Fribourg (Switzerland, 1923), is a faithful photographic reproduction of a two-dimensional, public domain work of art. The work of art itself is in the public domain for the following reason: This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author’s life plus 70 years or fewer. This work is in the public domain in the United States, because it was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before January 1, 1924.
