It's Thirsty Thursday!

[Vicky]

fun beer facts #1

About 4000 years ago, it was the accepted practice in
Babylonia 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 calender was lunar based,
this period was called the "honey month"
or what we know to day as the "Honey moon"

fun beer facts #2

Before invention of the thermometer,
brewers used to check the temperature by dipping their thumb,
to find whether appropriate for adding Yeast.
Too hot, the yeast would die.
This is where we get the phrase " The Rule of the Thumb"

fun beer facts #3

In English pubs, ale is ordered by pints and quarts.
So in old England, when customers got unruly, t
he bartender used to yell at them to mind
their own pints and quarts and settle down.
From where we get "mind your own P's and Q's".

last but not least fun facts of beer #4

Long ago in England, pub frequenters had a
whistle baked into the rim of their beer mugs
or ceremic/glass cups. The whistle was used to order services.
Thus we get the phrase, "wet your whistle".

 

[luckymenan]

Good post,Vicky! I didn't know any of these facts. But I have to tell ya once again, I dislike beer...smell stink, give you big puff belly, when you burp after beer~OMG! you don't even get drunk so why drink? all my family except me and my hubby drink like maniacs and every time my family gets together, there is beer-dark, light, american, japanese, korean,chinese..., wine-my uncle is a wine maker, hard boose, and of course Karaokee...

 

[FEARFACTOR4]

Great post.
I love learning about life in the past.
Here are a few more fun facts.

** LIFE IN THE 1500'S ***

The next time you are washing your hands and complain because the water temperature isn't just how you like it, think about how things used to be. Here are some facts about the 1500s:


Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May, and still smelled pretty good by June. However, they were starting to smell, so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odor. Hence the custom today of carrying a bouquet when getting married.

Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and men, then the women and finally the children. Last of all the babies. By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it. Hence the saying, Don't throw the baby out with the Bath water..

Houses had thatched roofs-thick straw-piled high, with no wood underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the cats and other small animals (mice, bugs) lived in the roof. When it rained it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof. Hence the saying It's raining cats and dogs.
There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house. This posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings could mess up your nice clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection. That's how canopy beds came into existence.

The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt. Hence the saying, Dirt poor. The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery in the winter when wet, so they spread thresh (straw) on floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they added more thresh until, when you opened the door, it wou ld all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entranceway. Hence the saying a thresh hold.



In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire. Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then start over the next day. Sometimes stew had food in it that had been there for quite a while. Hence the rhyme, Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old..

Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special. When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man could, bring home the bacon. They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and chew the fat..

Those with money had pl ates made of pewter. Food with high acid content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.

Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or the upper crust.

Lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky. The combination would sometimes knock a person out for a couple of days. Someone walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial. They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up. Hence the custom of holding a wake.

England is old and small and the local folks started running out of places to bury people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a bone-house, and reuse the grave. When reope ning these coffins, 1 out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized they had been burying people alive. So they would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night (the graveyard shift.) to listen for the bell; thus, someone could be, saved by the bell or was considered a ...dead ringer..

And that's the truth. Now, whoever said History was boring ! ! !

 

[Vicky]

WOW That was very interesting FEARFACTOR!
Thanks!