The Thanksgiving story

When the pilgrims came to America they were running low on provisions, specifically beer.  The crew was concerned about provisions for the trip back so they dumped the pilgrims on Plymouth Rock, packed up and left.  The pilgrims immediately built a brewery and had a happy Thanksgiving dinner with the locals.

Did the Pilgrims really stop in Plymouth to build a brewery?

That is the story, but is it really true?  Would religious puritans really drink beer?  Did they build a brewery?  What was the brew choice at the first Thanksgiving?  Here’s what I found out.

Did the pilgrims drink beer?

Water is essential to life, but at the time of the Mayflower water could also make you sick.  You’ve heard “don’t drink the water” when traveling to Mexico or you’ll get Montezuma’s Revenge.  Back then, you didn’t drink the water anywhere.  This made beer an important commodity at the time, because beer was a much safer beverage than water.  To survive the trip across an ocean, you needed some source of water.  During the Mayflower times, that source of water was beer and wine.

The reason for beer’s advantage over water is harmful microorganisms cannot survive long in beer (or wine).  Of course you can boil water to make it safe, but in the 1600s no one knew microorganisms were the source of their health problems.  People just knew beer was safe and water was not.  So yes, the pilgrims drank beer.

• Beer was the main source of water at the time
• Ships carried wine and beer for long voyages
• The Mayflower was a wine vessel capable of carrying 180 casks of wine

So what kind of beer did the pilgrims drink?

Were the party pilgrims getting drunk on the way over to America?  Beer does not need to be strong for its anti microbial effects.  The polyphenols (not alcohol) in beer and wine act as an anti-microbial agent and prevent bacterial diarrhoea.  Small beers were common at dinner time during Colonial times.

These small beers were usually consumed soon after brewing.  The reason is small beers tend to spoil quickly.  So while the beers were much better than water, they didn’t survive long.  This is true even now, which is probably why Budweiser advertises their “born on” dating system so often.  A small beer would most likely not make the trip to the Americas and back.

I could not find a definitive word on the exact type of beer the pilgrims drank, but it most likely was some type of bitter.  The beer couldn’t be a pale ale since pale ales arrived on the scene in England around 1700.  Porters are very nutritional and would have been my first guess, but the beer style didn’t show up until 1722.  IPAs came even later, however the recipe construction of IPAs do give us some insight into the beer the pilgrims might have been drinking.

India Pale Ales (IPA) were created later in history specifically to make the long journey to India.  Brewers added hops to these beers to travel to much warmer regions of the world over longer periods of time without spoiling.  Hops act as an anti-microbial agent, which is why these beers tend to be very hoppy.  However these beers rarely had initial gravities over 1.070, and most were between 1.050 and 1.070.  These gravities correspond to an alcohol content around 5% to 7.5% ABV.  IPAs were actually brewed lower in gravity to have less residual sugars.  Any remaining sugars would attract spoilage organisms.  This is why IPAs are traditionally dry.

Any beer the pilgrims would be carrying on the Mayflower most likely would not be too strong.  You don’t want people getting drunk on a ship, especially when you are going nuts anyway from sheer boredom.  A stronger beer would also run the risk of more residual sugars.  Spoiled beer is a bigger problem than drunk puritans.  I’m guessing the beer was a very dry, slightly over-hopped, medium strength bitter.  If you know for sure the beer they brought (with a reference), let me know.

• IPAs were developed later for long trips, but they were rarely stronger than 7% ABV
• Higher alcohol beers contain residual sugars, a target for spoiling microorganisms
• Ethanol is not anti-microbial, but hops and polyphenols are

Were they dumped on Plymouth Rock due to low beer supplies?

Many websites point to the ship logs of Captain Christopher Jones as proof the ship’s crew was concerned about beer supplies.  The only problem is Captain Christopher Jones either didn’t keep a log, or it was long lost.  Other accounts of what happened were not written until many years later.

Here’s what likely happened.  The Mayflower was supposed to leave England much earlier and with another ship, the Speedwell.  The puritans had an initial delay negotiating debts with their investment company, and then when they eventually set sail the Speedwell took on water.  The ships had to go back, cram pack most everyone on one ship, and set sail for the Americas again on September 6th.

They reached land in the Americas on November 9th, but they didn’t make for shore until a few days later.  When they arrived they realized the Mayflower was no where close to where they needed to be (Virginia Colony) and many colonists questioned if they had the legal right to settle in Cape Cod.  The last thing you wanted to do was colonize the land and have another group of settlers take the land from you over a legal dispute.  That was ok to do to the natives, but not so cool to each other.  That’s why they wrote the Mayflower Compact.  It was to alleviate the legal fears of the settlers.

The pilgrims got the heave ho from the Mayflower because they were out of time, not out of beer.  And they really didn’t get the “heave ho” as many would imply.  The Mayflower set sail for England April 5th the following year.  That’s five months after reaching America.  If the crew was worried about supplies, they would have left much earlier. The ship had at least half of their beer left at this point, because they needed it for the return trip.  They were not low on beer.

The pilgrims wasted five weeks running around New England, robbed a few Native American graves for buried corn and beans, and eventually landed on Plymouth Rock on December 17th.  They picked the spot because the ship needed to get the colonists established before winter really set in.  Three days later, December 21st, they agreed on a site to settle and set out on their first task.

• The pilgrams were forced to land at Plymouth rock because they were out of time
• The crew had beer through the winter, and left with enough supplies for the voyage back
• The Mayflower set sail for England in April of the following year

Was the first pilgrim structure a brewery?

If you’ve been on a ship for two months, winter is already here, people are dying, and someone told you the first building was going to be a brewery you would laugh at them,  probably after beating the silly person senseless.

The first structure was not a brewery, it was shelter.  The pilgrims planned on building nineteen structures, but they only made four common houses.   Only 45 people of the original 102 settlers survived the first winter.  A brewery was the last thing on anyone’s mind.

• Only 45 people survived the winter, a brewery was the last thing they would think to build

Was the first Thanksgiving happy with beer?

The first real Thanksgiving most likely wasn’t until July of 1623 when more colonists and supplies arrived.  The famous dinner with the Native Americans happened in October 1621.  The “harvest festival” lasted three days, and probably didn’t have beer.  Any beer from England was long gone, the Mayflower was long gone, and the grains in New England were not suitable for beer.

When the pilgrims landed at Plymouth, surviving was their only goal

The colonists did plant some barley the first year, but there is no evidence it was used for beer.  Barley wasn’t grown in large amounts in the Americas until the late 1700s to create a brewing industry.  In short, there was no beer at the first dinner with the locals.

• President Washington declared the first Thanksgiving Day, but it wasn’t a regular national holiday until Lincoln
• The first Thanksgiving was really a harvest festival with the natives
• There was no record of beer served

Who lied to me?

Budweiser, who else.  Well not just Budweiser, but all the breweries collectively as the United Brewers Industrial Foundation.  The brewers before and after prohibition were scared silly of losing their industry, with good reason.  They wanted to paint beer as American as apple pie in an effort to improve beer’s image and prevent prohibition.

The brewers ran ads stating “the pilgrims drank beer” and created the myths surrounding the beer habits of the early settlers.  These ads ran before prohibition and after prohibition.  The ads are the source of many of the pilgrim myths, and unfortunately what many know about early American History.

• “Pilgrims drank beer” was a marketing campaign to help beer’s tarnished image during prohibition

Sources

• Beer and the Pilgrims
• Designing Great Beers by Ray Daniels
• Thanksgiving (United States) Wikipedia.org

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A Budweiser beer truck exploded outside of Toronto Tuesday night.  The truck reportedly swerved into a guard rail to avoid a car before catching on fire.  The driver had serious injuries, but none were life threatening.  He was pulled from the truck by a citizen shortly before the truck burst into flames.  The bottles were exploding from the truck, and the smoke and flames lit up the sky.  People reported seeing the blaze for miles.

The beer bottles were empty, so no beer was lost.

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2. Beer truck accident means free beer for locals
3. Yet another beer heist!

While researching information for other articles, here are some interesting beer facts I’ve come across.  Many of these may surprise you!

Beer has fewer calories than many healthy drinks

Here’s a list of one ounce drinks and the number of calories in each.  We’re not claiming that 5 beers are healthier than 5 glasses of milk, but if you are counting calories, beer has fewer calories.

18 calories in one ounce milk
9 calories in one ounce bud light
21 calories in red wine
20 calories in white wine
15 calories in one ounce of Guinness
8 calories in one ounce of Amstel Light
15 calories in orange juice

Homebrewers pitch too little yeast

Brewers usually pitch 10 million yeast cells for every milliliter of wort.  To match commercial pitching rates, homebrewers should pitch 200-400 billion yeast cells.  A dry yeast packet typically contains 50 billion cells.  A liquid vial contains 70 to 140 billion cells.  The smack packs contain around 100 billion cells.  This means if you do not create a starter, you are under pitching.  Smack packs are not starters.  They activate the yeast metabolism, but they do not increase cell counts.

History of Pilsner and Budweiser

Pilsner and Budweiser origins come from the Czech Republic.  The pilsner style originated in the city of Pilsen in 1840, and is now known as Pilsner Urquell.  “Urquell” is the German word for “original source”.  Budweiser’s history is more suspect.

The Budweiser pilsner comes from the city of Budejovice.  Budweiser describes where the beer comes from, much like Bordeaux describes where in France the wine originates.  The beer has been brewed in Budejovice since the 14th century.  So how does Budweiser have rights to the copyright?  Anheuser-Busch was founded by German immigrants in 1876.  The Czech company Budejovicky Budvar was founded in 1895.

You have to admit the logos look very similar

Both companies claim the name Budweiser, and there are legal disputes to this day.  The United States has ruled in favor of Anheuser-Busch, and Budvar is sold under a different name.  In Switzerland and Germany, Anheuser-Busch must use a different name.  The United Kingdom recognizes that both companies can use Budweiser.  I asked about this on a Budweiser brewery tour in Fort Collins, Colorado.  The response was “I’m not familiar with that microbrew”.  Pilsner Urquel is the original source of pilsner, but it is still up for debate to the original source of Budweiser.

Hathor is the goddess of destruction and drunkenness

The Egyptian goddess Hathor/ Sekhmet goes my many titles (and names).  One is the goddess of destruction and drunkenness.  Her story goes like this.  The Sun god Ra wasn’t getting the love he needed from his subjects, so he sent Hathor to set them straight.  She took the job to extremes, turned into a leopard and started killing all the humans (where is SG-1 when you need them).  Ra, realizing that dead subjects don’t worship well, decided to stop Hathor.  He threw barley and dates into the blood that flowed through the streets.  It turned to beer and Hathor drank it up.  Hathor got drunk and became a much more fun loving god – the god of beer.  She’s also known as the god of fertility.  This is most likely because, as many women have found out, consuming too much alcohol can lead to pregnancy.

Egypt created the first no alcohol beer

The first non-alcoholic beer came from ancient Egypt.  A priestess would create a strong ale, then heat it over a fire.  The alcohol would burn off, and rise to make the goddess (Hathor?) very drunk.  The remaining beer, now non-alcoholic, was sold to the public (probably in France to soccer fans from other countries).

Bass Ale got the very first trademark

The distinctive triangle is the oldest trademark in Britain.  After the 1875 Trademarks Registration Act was passed a Bass employee was instructed to wait outside the patent office on New Year’s Eve.  If my boss told me to stand in line on New Year’s Eve, I know what my reaction would be.  The employee camped out at the office over night.  The new law went into effect January 1st, 1876 and the first two patents were awarded to Bass.

Breweries created the “pilgrims stopped for beer” myth

There is some debate to why the puritans settled in Plymouth .  While there is no debate that the puritans left England with plenty of beer, rumor had it that they stopped in Plymouth because they were out of beer and built a brewery.  There is no truth to this rumor, and the Mayflower probably had plenty of beer for the return trip to England.  The myth actually came from the American breweries shortly before and after prohibition.  Before prohibition, breweries (led by Budweiser) wanted to claim that beer was a part of American heritage.  They ran large ads in newspapers stating “Pilgrim fathers drank it”.  After prohibition, beer sales were down, so in an effort to increase sales the breweries ran ads creating the “pilgrims stopped for beer” myth.

The real prohibition repeal date in the United States is December 5

When was the 21st Amendment passed? (April 7, 1933 or December 5, 1933)

The Twenty First Amendment was passed by Congress February 20, 1933.  It was ratified December 5, 1933.  April 7, 1933 the federal government legalized 3.2% ABV beer.  Many confuse the two and celebrate the repeal of prohibition on April 7th.  While you could have purchased something that was technically beer, you could not get wine, full-strength beer, or spirits until December 5, 1933.

The real beer drinkers

The Czech Republic drinks more beer per capita than any other country.  For the past two years, China drinks more beer than any other country (350 million hectoliters).  China is the fastest growing beer market in the world.  The United States ranks number two by amount, but ranks 11 per capita.

The first beer cans

The first beer cans were produced in 1935.  Drinkers were no longer going to taverns, and breweries needed to get beer into the homes.  The smaller packages made it much easier to get beer home.  1939 ushered in a new era of beer on the go (and formaldehyde in beer).

Reinheitsgebot is missing an ingredient

The famous German Purity Law of 1516, “Reinheitsgebot”, is missing an essential ingredient for beer.  The original text decreed that beer can contain only water, barley and hops.  They did not understand the role of micro-organisms until the 1800s, so yeast was not a known ingredient.  Brewers knew to add a bit of the slurry from the previous batch, but did not know it contained yeast.  Yeast was added as an ingredient to the German law during the 20th century.  Reinheitsgebot remained in effect until the European Court of Justice repealed the law in May of 1987!

The first brewery in the United States

As I mentioned earlier, the pilgrims did not build a brewery when they landed in Plymouth in 1620.  Nicholas Varlett obtained from Peter Stuyvesant a patent for the first brewery in America on February 5, 1663 (it was a Monday for the incurably curious).  This brewery was on Castle Point in Hoboken, New Jersey.  The oldest active brewery is the D.G. Yuengling & Son brewery in Pottsville, Pennsylvania.  The Yuengling brewery was founded in 1829.

Hops are a recent addition to beer

The first reported use of hops in beer was 736 AD, but brewers didn’t really use hops until the 1500s.  Before the 1500s, gruit beer used ingredients like wormwood or other herbs to balance the sweetness.  Medieval brewers did not like hops in beer because they thought it caused “melancholy and tormenting disease.”  They also thought tomatoes were poisonous.

Beer is not just beer

Most people know that there are ales and there are lagers.  Ales are top-fermented beers, while lagers are bottom fermented beers.  Ales and lagers have many beer styles that taste very unique.  In the 2007 Great American Beer Festival, there were 76 distinct beer categories.  Each category represented a unique beer style.

Beer isn’t made in a day

It takes a while to make beer.  The quickest time from grain to glass can usually be accomplished in a week.  This short fermentation is possible in low gravity beers (low alcohol).  Budweiser’s fermentation and lagering process takes about a month.  The fastest reported time from grain to glass was at the F.X. Matt Brewery in Utica, New York.  F.X. Matt was the first brewer to get a brewing license after the repeal of prohibition, one hour after the law went into effect.  Defying the known laws of fermentation science, F.X. Matt delivered kegs of “fresh” lager 24 hours later.  This feat has never been “repeated”.

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NOTE:  This article and website are not affiliated with the Facebook  fan page  “22 crazy alcohol myths you swore were true”.  Someone stole the content and the facebook fan page points to another site who is posting the stolen article.  The official Facebook fan page for fermentarium is located here.

Some myths are just wives tales, others are started to advance an agenda.  Here’s a list of many alcohol urban legends.

These myths are as true as the unicorn

Does this beer make me look fat? (the beer belly)

A study published in 2003 by the Journal of Nutrition looked at the bellies of beer drinkers, wine drinkers, spirit drinkers, and no drinkers.  They measured the body-mass index (BMI) and the abdominal height of each subject.  The abdominal height is the distance from your spine to the top of your abdomen (how far your tummy sticks out).  The results showed beer drinkers had no more body fat than non drinkers on average .  Beers range between 100 and 200 calories.   You need 3500 calories to create a pound of fat.  Of course beer can only add to your caloric intake, but lifestyle and genetics most likely play a bigger part in your tummy fat.

The minimum drinking age in America is 21 by federal law

Each state can set the minimum drinking age to any number they like.  Unfortunately, the federal government passed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act in 1984, which coerces states to keep the drinking age at 21.  The law does not state the drinking age should be 21.  It states any state that does not make the drinking age 21 will lose 10% of their federal highway funding.  Louisiana held out as long as they could, but eventually caved in with the rest of the nation.

Alcohol destroys brain cells and makes you stupid

Alcohol has no effect on the lifecycle of brain cells .  According to Queensland Brain Institute director Professor Perry Bartlett in Australia, drinking alcohol does not kill brain cells, even if it feels like it did the next morning. The commonly accepted notion that alcohol creates huge craters of dead cells in your brain turns out to be an old wives’ tale.  In moderate amounts, Italian researchers have demonstrated that red wine helps the brain and can prevent dementia in old age.

Parents can serve their children alcohol in America

This is true in only 30 states in America, and you can serve the alcohol only in your home to your own children.  The other 20 states state that it is never ok to give your own children alcohol in any amount.  You’ll have to look up the laws in your state to see if your state trusts you enough to know what is best for your children.

The puritans were the original forces behind the prohibitionist movement in America

There was more beer on the Mayflower than water.  Before people understood micro-organisms, drinking water was a good way to get sick.  People who drank beer were healthier and lived longer.  In fact, the first Thanksgiving had plenty of beer, brandy, gin and wine. [ed- There is some contention to the fact that the Pilgrims had beer on Thanksgiving.  The point I was making was more that the Pilgrims did drink alcohol.  The Pilgrim's beer supplies most likely were exhausted by the first Thanksgiving.  Thanks to Bob S. for this correction on his site and the reference at Joe Sixpack .]

The large American breweries make watery beer because it’s easier

As any homebrewer will attest, it is very difficult to make the American pale lager with the same crispness and lack flavor found in the macro brews.  The large breweries make the beer that way, because that is what sells.  The majority of beer drinkers prefer this lager to other lagers.  Hopefully the craft brew movement in America will change these preferences.

Budweiser contains formaldehyde

We were so sure that this rumor was a myth, we added it to the list to research later.  This might come as a shock to you.  It shocked us when we found this on Notre Dame’s website .  Canned beer does contain a small amount of the same junk that keeps your dead Kermit (frog) fresh for biology class.  At least it used to.

Formaldehyde was used to kill bacteria that attacked the lubricant used in the manufacturing process of cans.  The cans were rinsed, but a small amount always remained.  People got used to this flavor in their canned beer.  Other emulsions are used now, so there is no formaldehyde in current beers in America (there are reports that Chinese and Thai beers are using formaldehyde).  Its legacy does remain – the newer emulsions created must have the formaldehyde flavor, otherwise it will change the flavor of the beer.  People are so used to it, that they expect it.

European/Organic wines contain no sulfites

All wines, even wines that state “No Sulfite Added” contain sulfites.  Sulfites are used as a natural preservative in wine.  The fermentation process for creating wine produces sulfites in the wine.  Additional sulfites in the form of potassium metabisulfite are added to help preserve the wine.  Since sulfite is a natural by-product of the fermentation process, there is always around 10 mg/liter of sulfite in wine.  This is true for organic wine.

Good luck at finding wine with no sulfites. It's a natural by-product, so all wine has it.

It is a myth European wines do not contain sulfites; the EU does not require wine makers to list a warning label.  European wines still contain 40-80mg/liter just like their American and Australian counterparts.

Sulfites causes red wine headaches

Australian researchers published in Thorax (2001 Oct; 56 (10):763-9), showed that “only a small number of wine sensitive asthmatic patients responded to a single dose challenge with sulfited wine under laboratory conditions. This may suggest that the role of sulphites [sic] and / or wine in triggering asthmatic responses has been overestimated.”  However, an asthmatic reaction is very different from a headache.  No scientific study has shown any sulfite links to red wine headaches.

Beer has the same amount of alcohol as a shot of 80 proof liquor or 5 ounces of wine

Anyone who has ever had a few Belgian ales knows this just isn’t right.  Different beers and wines have a wide variety of alcohol contents.  The wine and beer are listed in this often repeated fact with incomplete information.

80 proof liquor contains 40% alcohol.  Proof is double the alcohol content.  This means that a 1 ounce shot of 80 proof spirits contains 0.4 ounces of alcohol.  Shots are usually defined as 1 ¼ ounces to 1 ½ ounces.  We’ll be generous and go with the lower figure.  One 1 ¼ ounce shot of 80 proof liquor will have 0.5 ounces of alcohol. (1 ½ ounces contains 0.6 ounces of alcohol)

Assume that the beer we are drinking is 4% ABV.  Most beers in America are around 4%.  In a 1 ounce shot of beer we would have 0.04 ounces of alcohol.  Most beers are 12 ounces, so that is 0.04 x 12 = 0.48.  If your beer is 12 ounces and 4% ABV, then one beer equals one shot of 80 proof alcohol.  Most pubs serve pints which are 16 ounces.  One pint is 0.64 ounces of alcohol.  That’s more than a shot.  If you are drinking a craft brew, this number will go up even more.

Wine alcohol contents are anywhere from 10% to 16%.  We’ll assume 14% ABV for this example.  One ounce of wine will have 0.14 ounces of alcohol.  Five ounces of wine will have 0.70 ounces of alcohol.  That is much more than a shot too.

Lesson learned: shots actually have less alcohol than typical servings of beers and wine.  You need to pay attention to the alcohol content to make accurate comparisons.

Bottles of tequila in Mexico have worms in them

Tequila does not have worms.  You are thinking of tequila’s close cousin mescal.  In the 1950s, Jacobo Lozano Paez started bottling mescal and noticed the worms gave mescal a distinctive flavor.  The worms were getting into the beverage during the processing of the agave plant.  He came up with the idea of adding whole worms to mescal.  The worms are harmless, and are more of a marketing gimmick.  The worms will not make you hallucinate.

Rolling Rock’s “33” refers to the year prohibition was repealed

While Amendment XVIII was repealed in December of 1933, the source of 33 has a different origin.  It refers to the number of words in their slogan on the bottles of Rolling Rock.  The author was keeping track of the words in each proposed slogan and forgot to remove it.  The number made it to production and was included on the bottles.  The mystique surrounding the number encouraged the brewery to keep the number on the bottle.

Alcohol will make you feel warmer

It’s the reverse.  Alcohol lowers your body temperature.  Too much alcohol in very cold weather can cause hypothermia.

Corona beer contains urine from the workers

This myth was traced back to a Heineken distributor in 1987.  The myth is false, and one can only wonder why this myth was started.  Heineken was the number one beer import in America in 1987, and Corona was a close second.  Corona learned of the rumor when Nevada grocers started removing Corona from their shelves.  Corona traced the rumor back to Luce and Sons of Reno, a Heineken distributor.  Corona sued and the case was dropped after Luce recanted the rumor.

Pennies under the tongue will help you pass a breathalyzer test

It won’t.  We couldn’t even find the fake science behind this myth.  This myth is so “out there” it is hard to believe anyone would believe it.  The copper in the penny, which is mostly zinc, does nothing to the breathalyzer.  Breath mints and prayer do not defeat the breathalyzer test either.

Coffee will sober you up

Your body processes about 0.015 percent of blood alcohol content per hour.  Coffee, showers, nor exercise will speed this process.  Gender, weight, age or any other factor has no influence on this process.  You just have to wait to sober up.

Beer before liquor, never been sicker – liquor before beer, you’re in the clear.

The rate of consumption determines if you get sick.  The mix or order has no influence on your ability to “hold your liquor”.

Aspirin while or before drinking prevents hangovers

Aspirin will not prevent or reduce your hangover.  Taking an aspirin before drinking will actually increase the speed of intoxication and make your intoxication more severe.  The Journal of the American Medical Association published a study that found aspirin before alcohol will actually increase you blood alcohol levels by 26%.  They also found that the alcohol will stay in your system longer because your metabolism is slower.

Acetaminophen can be even scarier.  This drug, commonly found in Tylenol, is toxic to your liver when it mixes with alcohol.  Aspirin or Ibuprofen might help with the headache the next morning, and are a safer choice.

Absinthe is a hallucinogen

This is a very famous myth that resulted in the beverage’s ban in many countries.  Many believe the main ingredient wormwood causes insanity, because it contains thujone.  Researchers believe the alcohol content (~70% ABV) would have a much stronger affect than any amount of thujone in the drink.  Researchers also question if absinthe in the 1800s contained the reported amounts of thujone required to have its toxic effect.  In 2007, three licenses were granted to make Absinthe in the United States.  These absinthes are thujone-free (less than 10ppm).  The modern versions will get you drunk, but if you see pink elephants it is because you had too much.

Homebrewers should avoid lambic yeasts because they will infect everything

Many myths surround these yeast and bacteria.  Since they are “wild”, it is assumed they have supernatural powers above and beyond the normal beer yeast.  Brewers worry the critters will lurk in every crevice of your home or brewery and infect every beer you ever make again.  If you are using porous fermenters (wood barrels), you might need to be concerned for that particular container, but glass, better bottles, and stainless steel are all safe.  Just make sure you clean your equipment, and properly sanitize it.

Coors supports Nazis

With a name like Adolph, how can this be wrong?  Well for starters, the Coors brewery was founded sixteen years before Hitler was born.  There is no evidence ever reported that anyone in the Coors family were Nazis or ever supported Nazis.  This is an unfounded rumor, most likely started due to the company and families conservative leanings.

The name is German, but the Coors family were in the USA long before the Nazis were in power

Canadian (or insert another country here) beer is stronger than American beer

90% of the beer in the world is under 5.5% ABV.  The myth most likely results in the conversion from ABV (alcohol by volume) to ABW (alcohol by weight), or the fact American macro beers tend to be lighter in flavor and body.  The alcohol contained is similar in all countries.

Darker beers contain more alcohol

Coors Extra Beer is about 4.84% ABV.  Guinness Stout contains 4.27% ABV.  Budweiser has 4.6% ABV.  Samiclaus, a dark Swiss beer, is about 12% ABV.  Typical Belgian Golden ales are around 7%-10%.  You get the idea.

The color of the beer has no corolation to the amount of alcohol in the beer.  You can usually find a beer (ligher or darker) which has more alcohol than another beer.

What myths have you heard?

Hopefully you found this enlightening.  Next time someone pops one of these myths on you, you can direct them here for the truth.  I’m sure there are more myths out there.  Which ones have you heard?

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