Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Hi I’m John Green. Welcome to Mental Floss Video. THIS is my salon - wait a second, this
isn’t my salon! This is Sun King Brewery in beautiful Indianapolis, Indiana. And this
is Sun King employee Joe, who’s also a fan of Mental Floss Video. Joe, I just wanted
to ask you a question. Did Sun King pay us to be here today? Awesome. Thank you.
Joe’s wife would also like us to point out that while you are watching this in the future,
it was filmed during Movember. Today I’m going to tell you some fun facts and tips
about beer so that you can sound like a genius the next time you go on a brewery tour with
your friends or at least to insure that you no longer order Keystone Light at the bar.
Beer dates all the way back to at least 3000 BCE, but is probably even earlier than that.
In fact, some people even cite 10,000 BCE! Oh my god, that’s a lot of beer! The ancient
Sumerians, for instance, used to make beer, which they would call “kas,” meaning “what
the mouth desires.” We know this, by the way, because there are literally ancient tablets
detailing beer recipes. You know, it was pre-Twitter era. By the way, I’m sorry about all the
noise. It’s almost like we’re in an actual working brewery.
The first professional beer brewers were women. In fact, in ancient Peru, the only people
who were allowed to brew beer were women of nobility. And in Ancient Egypt, there was
a law against men brewing and selling beer.
To jump ahead in history, the pilgrims stopped at Plymouth Rock for a very specific reason.
As described by one passenger in his diary, “We could not now take time for further
search or consideration; our victuals being much spent, especially our beere.” They
were probably playing that classic drinking game too much. You know, the one where you
drink every time you see the ocean.
So there are four main ingredients in beer: water, barley (or some kind of starch source),
hops, and yeast. Water is over 90% of beer, so the water source is a huge determinant
of how a beer tastes.
But of course so are the other ingredients. All right, have you ever heard of the “cannabaceae”
family? It’s the family of plants containing both hops and cannabis. Yes, that cannabis.
Beer and marijuana are basically plant cousins.
There are two types of beers: ales and lagers. Wait a second, Meredith, is that really true,
there are only two types of beers? She says it’s true. Ale means that the yeast is fermented
at the top. Lager uses yeast that is fermented at the bottom. And it also uses much lower
temperatures in the beer making and aging process.
Now of course there are endless beers within those two categories, and I could just list
them, but that’s probably not going to be as interesting as that beer and marijuana
fact, so instead I’m gonna focus on a few.
Pale lager, or as Europeans call it, “sparkling water,” is the most popular beer style in
the world. And you’re probably familiar with pale lagers like Budweiser and Coors.
But, you may never even have heard of the most popular beer in the world, which is also
a lager: Snow Beer from China.
By the way, I’d like to greet all of the Mental Floss Video Chinese fans drinking Snow
Beer in China. Just kidding, the great firewall makes it impossible for you to see this video.
Pilsners also fit into the pale lager category. You probably know pilsner as Amstel or Heineken.
This style is named after the city where it was invented, Pilsen in the Czech Republic
[pronunciation]. Pilsen started its own brewery in the 1840s and hired a Bavarian brewer named
Josef Groll, who created the first batch of Pilsner beer.
Then there’s IPA, or India Pale Ale, which you’ll be surprised to learn is an ale.
This one is most famous for its bitter taste, which comes from the prominent hops. Now despite
the name, this beer wasn’t actually invented in India. It was created in Europe during
the 1700s so that the East India Company could bring along beer that would survive the trip
to India. Sun King Osiris Pale Ale is what I like to call an INDIANA Pale Ale. Anyone?
No? All right, moving on.
Then we have cream ale, like my favorite beer in the world, Sun King Sunlight Cream Ale.
Cream ales are confusing because they live in the ale family, but they are stored at
cold temperatures, just like lagers are. They’re basically the best of both worlds. Oh, and
for the record, I’m not being paid to say that although they are giving us all of these
beers. Wait, they’re not? Dangit!
Other popular ales includes stouts and brown ale. Like Sun King has an English brown ale
called Wee Mac Scottish Ale. Oh! There it is. Wee Mac. Stouts are typically dark and
strong. And despite people usually describing them as “rich” or “heavy,” they’re
often fairly low in calories and alcohol content. In fact, twelve ounces of Guinness is just
176 calories. That’s less than a Hershey’s bar, although I guess you don’t drink thirteen
Hershey’s bars in a day. I’m just kidding. No one can drink thirteen Guinnesses in a
day. And please don’t take that as a challenge
Another example of ale comes straight from the White House. That’s right, the White
House brews its own beer. In fact, there’s a recipe for their beer on their website,
so you can drink what the president drinks.
And all of this is legal. Now you probably know that it was FDR who ended Prohibition,
but it was President Jimmy Carter who legalized homebrewing in 1978. Arguably the greatest
achievement of his presidency.
Speaking of which, famous beer brewers who were also presidents include Thomas Jefferson,
George Washington, and James Madison.
Okay, one last Founding Father fact: a quote often attributed to Benjamin Franklin goes,
“Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.” But of course, that is
a misquote. Like all quotations on the Internet. Here’s what he actually wrote, “Behold
the rain which descends from heaven upon our vineyards; there it enters into the roots
of the vines, to be changed into wine, a constant proof that God loves us, and loves to see
us happy.” That’s much more poetic, but it is less about beer.
Speaking of Internet lies, there is a persistent rumor online that it is illegal in the United
States to have a beer commercial featuring someone actually drinking beer. Alcohol advertising
is actually self-regulating industry in the United States, although they do generally
adhere to that guideline.
So what makes your beer go skunky? Well, people usually believe that it’s time or temperature
change, but it’s actually light.
Okay, let’s have a list of things that were partially written in pubs or bars, which includes:
Harry Potter, the Declaration of Independence, the play A Few Good Men.
So the most important and famous beer expert and popularizer is Michael Jackson, who worked
as a beer journalist and connoisseur for almost thirty years until he died in 2007. But he
was much more fun than the pretentious beer-drinker and/or King of Pop that you’re probably
picturing.
Like, Jackson had a show on the Discovery Channel called “The Beer Hunter,” which
if you ask me, is the best kind of hunter. And he would also frequently do lectures on
beer and he liked to tell European audiences that the U.S. was the best place to find and
drink good beer, which infuriated them. And I will now infuriate Europeans by stating
that as you can see from the warehouse behind me, he was correct.
And our last fact today: In 2010, the small, local Michigan brewery, Dark Horse Brewery,
turned down a huge endorsement deal from Nickelback because the staff didn’t like the band.
Nickelback approached the company because they wanted to put Dark Horse beer in a music
video, set at a fraternity party, but the company declined. Head brewer Aaron Morse
later told a local newspaper, “I absolutely hate that band.” Dark Horse Brewery: truly
the Reddit of breweries.
Thanks for watching Mental Floss here on YouTube, which is made with the help of all of these
nice people. Every week we endeavor to answer one of your mind-blowing questions.
This week’s question comes from Marc Weathersby who asks, “Who invented what was formerly
known as the sidebar being called the ‘doobly doo’ on YouTube?”
The answer, Marc, is WheezyWaiter. You can see his episode of Mental Floss about coffee
if you click right here.
Thanks again for watching. Thanks to Sun King for sharing their brewery with us and also
for making wonderful beer and as we say in my hometown - Don’t forget to beer awesome!