Are you a beer nerd? Do you have a thirst for knowledge? Quench that thirst by reading these little known beer facts:

• The oldest known beer recipe is for a 4,000 year old recipe made by the Sumerians.
• The Code of Hammurabi decreed that bartenders who watered down beer would be executed.
• The builders of the Great Pyramid of Giza were paid with a daily ration of beer.
• Beer was the drink of choice in the middle ages because clean water was difficult to find and the alcohol in beer killed most of the microorganisms making it safer to drink.
• Virginia colonists first brewed ale in 1587 using corn.
• The agricultural revolution largely began as the result of needing to growing more grain for beer.
• At the end of Prohibition, FDR said, “What America needs now is a drink.”
• The first professional brewers were women referred to as brewsters.
• A New England Journal of Medicine Study found women that drank beer moderately had better cognitive function.
• At spas in Europe, you can literally bathe in beer as a physical and mental therapeutic treatment.
• At the Wife Carrying World Championships, first prize is the wife’s weight in beer.
• A Buddhist temple in the Thai countryside was built with over a million recycled beer bottles.
• The moon has a crater named Beer.
• Fried beer won Most Creative Fried Food at the 2010 Texas State Fair.
• As of 2016, there are now 5,005 breweries in the U.S. Almost all (99%) are small and independent craft brewers.
• Ethanol, the intoxicant in beer is a very powerful antiseptic.
• Try soaking your feet in a combination of warm water and beer. Why? The yeast will soften the soles of your feet, while the antibacterial and antiseptic alcohol sanitizes.

The next time you are out with friends and run out of things to talk about, try throwing out some of these beer facts to get the conversation started again. Cheers!