An 18-year study by the National Institute on Aging found that 50-plus men who consumed a drink a day during middle age scored significantly better on cognitive tests later in life than did non-drinkers.

Beer and video games have a long association. Tapper, originally a 1983 arcade game and now a computer one, tests players’ skills by challenging them to coordinate the movements of beers, a bartender, empty mugs, and patrons.

Bottle caps, or “crowns,” were invented in Baltimore in 1892 by William Painter. Painter proved his invention’s worth when he convinced a local brewer to ship a few hundred cases of beer to South America and back and they returned without a leak.

Pennsylvania has had more breweries in its history than any other state. In 1910 alone, 119 of the state’s towns had at least one licensed beermaker.

Beck’s in not only Germany’s top export beer, it also accounts for 85% of all German beer exports to the United States.

Studying the experimentally induced intoxicated behavior of ants in 1888, naturalist John Lubbock noticed that the insects that had too much to drink were picked up by nest mates and carried home. Conversely, drunken strangers were summarily tossed in a ditch.

Unlike wines, most beers should be stored upright to minimize oxidation and metal or plastic contamination from the cap. High-alcohol ales, however, which continue to ferment in their corked bottles, should be stored on their sides.

In old England, town inns paid a government tax known as a ’scot’ for serving beer. Beer lovers who left town to drink at rural pubs were said to be drinking ’scot free’.

The United States two-dollar bill features three brewers: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Samuel Adams. In fact, George Washington installed a brewhouse on his grounds at Mount Vernon.

The Egyptian pyramids were built on beer. Stonecutters, slaves and public officials were paid in a type of beer called ‘kash’ – which is where the word ‘cash’ originated.