International Beer Day: Top 20 facts about the hoppy beverage

Today the world celebrates an unofficial holiday - International Beer Day (International Beer Day). UNN has collected for you interesting facts about the popular hop drink.

1. Beer is the third most popular drink in the world after water and tea. 
2. The earliest evidence of brewing dates from around 3500-2900 B.C. Ancient evidence in the form of chemical residues has been found in ancient Iran. 
3. Brewers in ancient Egypt were women. 
4. The earliest written mention of beer is found in the 5th century BC in the writings of the ancient Greek writer Xenophontes.
5. An important contribution to the development of brewing was made by the Danish botanist Emil Christian Hansen. In 1881, he was the first to obtain a pure culture of beer yeast, which significantly improved the quality of the product. Beer yeast developed using Hansen's technology is still produced today.
6. In ancient China, beer was brewed from sprouted rice, as well as from rice with added fruit.
7. Non-alcoholic beer is produced either by eliminating fermentation or by removing alcohol from the finished beer. Compared to the production of conventional beer, the technology for producing non-alcoholic beer is a more complex procedure. 
8. The top three largest beer producing countries are China, USA, Germany.
9. The largest museum dedicated to brewing is located in Altenburg, Germany.
10. The strongest beer in the world has a strength of 67.5%. It was created in 2017 by the Scottish brewery Brewmeister. The beer is called Snake Venom. This stout is quite strong and is made using smoked peat malt with the addition of ale and champagne yeast. Considering that vodka and whisky usually have a strength of 40%, the creators recommend consuming only 30-35 ml at a time. There's even a yellow warning label on the neck.
11. The largest beer producer in the world is the Belgian corporation Anheuser-Busch InBev. This company owns about 400 beer brands in 50 countries (Budweiser, Corona, Stella Artois, Beck's, Hoegaarden and Leffe, etc.).
12. The most common type of beer is lager, its share in global consumption reaches 80%.
13. The popular beer snack of chips is believed to have been invented by accident. A chef named George Crum, in response to a wealthy visitor's criticism that his potatoes were cut too thick, sliced the potatoes into thin slices and fried them. The visitor and his guests enjoyed the dish. After a while, chips became the most popular dish of the restaurant where George Crum worked.
14. The oldest brewery in the world today is the Weihenstephan Brewery in Freising, Germany. It was founded in 1040.
15. Budweiser is the most famous beer in the world. 
16. The Czech Republic was the first country in the world to have a beer museum.
17. The world's largest beer festival, Oktoberfest, is held annually in Germany. The festival is attended by about 6 million people. 
18. Former President Barack Obama was the first president to brew beer in the White House.
19. At the Schloss Starkenberger brewery in Tarrenz, Austria, you can swim in a pool of beer. 
20. Beer was illegal in Iceland until 1989. It was all about views on patriotism. When in 1922 Iceland lifted the ban on other alcoholic beverages, which had been in force since 1915, it was decided to keep beer under the ban because it was very much loved in Denmark, from which Iceland became fully independent only in 1944 and relations with which had been tense for a long time. In Iceland it was considered unpatriotic to drink the favorite drink of the Danes.