World traditions

Ancient Egyptians used the phrase "bread and beer" as a greeting.

Four millennia ago, Babylon had a custom that required the bride's father to give the son-in-law all the honey beer he could drink for the first month after the wedding. It is thus that the word honeymoon came to be.

In medieval European monasteries, beer-brewing monks were allowed to drink almost ten pints of beer per day.

Beer is an officially recognized antidepressant in some Scandinavian countries.

The US Department of Health recommends drinking dark beer to prevent cardiovascular disease.

The Czechs use beer to treat kidney and bladder disorders.

Medieval Czech communities were required to have a court, a customs office, and a beer brewery to qualify for a city charter.

Beer is a required staple for polar researchers in the Arctic and Antarctica.

Czech and Slovak hockey players have beer on their required menus.

Malays rub beer into their children's skin to ward off illnesses.

Workers at hazardous industrial facilities in Germany, Denmark, Sweden, and Austria receive free non-alcoholic beer instead of milk.

Sierra Leone diamond miners examine diamonds in a glass of beer, the better to see their properties.

The Japanese feed beer to cows and then take them to a special treadmill. In this way they obtain the famous marbled meat so valued by gourmands.

German grammar confirms the special status of this beverage: all alcoholic drinks (vodka, whisky, liquor, and schnapps) are masculine-gender nouns, and only beer is a neuter noun: das Bier.