Subject: beer factoids
 
 It was the accepted practice in Babylonia 4,000 years ago that for a  
 month after the wedding, the bride's father would supply his son-in-law  
 with all the mead he could drink. Mead is a honey beer, and because their 
 calendar was lunar based, this period was called the "honey month" or 
 what we know today as the "honeymoon".
 
 Before thermometers were invented, brewers would dip a thumb or finger
 into the mix to find the right temperature for adding yeast.  Too cold,
 and the yeast wouldn't grow.  Too hot, and the yeast would die.  This
 thumb in the beer is where we get the phrase "rule of thumb".
 
 In English pubs, ale is ordered by pints and quarts.  So in old England,
 when customers got unruly, the bartender would yell at them to mind
 their own pints and quarts and settle down.  It's where we get the
 phrase "mind your P's and Q's".
 
 Beer was the reason the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock.  It's clear
 from the Mayflower's log that the crew didn't want to waste beer looking
 for a better site.  The log goes on to state that the passengers "were
 hasted ashore and made to drink water that the seamen might have the
 more beer".
 
 After consuming a bucket or two of vibrant brew they called aul, or ale,
 the Vikings would head fearlessly into battle often without armor or
 even shirts.  In fact, the term "berserk" means "bare shirt" in Norse,
 and eventually took on the meaning of their wild battles.
 
 In 1740 Admiral Vernon of the British fleet decided to water down the
 navy's rum.  Needless to say, the sailors weren't too pleased and called
 Admiral Vernon, Old Grog, after the stiff wool grogram coats he wore.
 The term "grog" soon began to mean the watered down drink itself.  When
 you were drunk on this grog, you were "groggy", a word still in use
 today.
 
 Many years ago in England, pub frequenters had a whistle baked into the
 rim or handle of their ceramic cups.  When they needed a refill, they
 used the whistle to get some service.  "Wet your whistle", is the phrase
 inspired by this practice.
 
 In the middle ages, "nunchion" was the word for liquid lunches.  It was
 a combination of the words "noon scheken", or noon drinking.  In those
 days, a large chunk of bread was called lunch.  So if you ate bread with
 your nunchion, you had what we still today call a luncheon.
 
 From: Dave

Wil Stark, wstark04 (at) pobox _dot_com

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