The Hard-Working Irish Laborers Who Drank 14 Pints of Beer a Day

photo by ireland-calling.com

For many, Ireland is synonymous with green meadows and Guinness. As it turns out, associating Éire with beer isn’t entirely unfounded. In 2017, an Irish historian and lecturer presented a shocking discovery at a food research seminar in London. In 16th-century Ireland, laborers drank more than two gallons of beer per day.

Dr. Susan Flavin, who is now associate professor of history at Trinity College in Dublin, presented documents dated January 1565 indicating stonemasons at a Dublin quarry were permitted a daily allotment of “14 pints of ale.”

Beer, Not Bread, was Man’s Motivation for Cultivating Cereals

image source

Archaeologists working in Israel recently uncovered 13,000-year-old evidence of ancient beer. The discovery predates the previously-accepted origin of brewing by around six thousand years, and supports a 60-year-old hypothesis that mankind may have domesticated cereals for beer production, not bread.

The research team, led by Stanford University professor of Chinese archaeology Li Liu, uncovered brewing tools used by the ancient Natufian people at a graveyard site near Haifa, Stanford News reports. The tools, including stone mortars, contained evidence of beer brewing in collected residue samples.

5 Beer Cocktails You've Never Heard Of

image: postprohibition.com

"On a hot summer day, there’s nothing like cracking open a cold beer and chugging the heat away. Refreshingly delicious, beer is great on its own but why not also make it a staple in your cocktail regime? 

Cathay Pacific Airlines Debuts Beer that Tastes Better in the Air

"There’s a real problem with airline food. No, not just that the meals themselves can be lackluster. It's that our palates get a little out of whack when the cabin pressure sets in and we reach our cruising altitude. In short, it’s the crappy airplane coffee conundrum, which applies to everything on the menu. But if you’re flying Cathay Pacific, your beer could be the best thing you’ve ever tasted at 35,000 feet.

The Hong Kong-based airline, partnering with Hong Kong Brewing Co., has developed Betsy Beer, a brew named for the company’s first airplane and designed with mile-high drinking in mind. “We know that when you fly, your sense of taste changes. Airlines address this for food in certain ways. But nobody has ever tried to improve the taste of beer at altitude. That seemed like a great opportunity for us to help our beer-loving passengers travel well,” says Julian Lynden, the airline’s General Manager of Marketing and Loyalty.

As far as the process, the press release only states that the beer was developed with “a combination of science and traditional brewing methods.” The beer is a combination of Hong Kong and United Kingdom-sourced ingredients, featuring New Territories honey, Chinese longan fruit, and the aromatic British hop, Fuggle. The fruity, floral and sweet notes would seem to be this beer’s way of combating the near 30% loss of taste sense we experience while in flight..."

Learn More:

http://www.foodandwine.com/fwx/drink/cathay-pacific-high-altitude-beer