Since 7000 BC when people in Mesopotamia brewed the first beer, the popularity of this beverage keeps on growing. Today, beer is the world’s most popular alcoholic beverage and the fourth most popular drink.
Unless you are in Kuwait where beer is illegal, enjoying a bottle of beer with friends is a favorite past time. People drink beer when they are celebrating and when they are mourning. However, beer sales are highest during the holiday month of December. According to the latest alcohol statistics here are the top 20 beer drinking countries per capita.
1. Germany
Germany appears to be the booziest country with an average of 147.8 liters per year per capita. In 2014, Germany produced 9,560,000 kl of beer.
2. Ireland
The Irish average is 138.3 liters per year per person. The country brewed 728,800 kl of beer in 2014.
3.Czech Republic
The Czech Republic has led for many years but has now slipped to the third position with an average of 138.1 per person per year. The country produced 1,851,000 kl of beer in 2014.
4. Australia
Australia consumes an average of 119.2 liters per capita per year. The country produced 1,691,000 kg of beer in 2014.
5. Austria
106.3 liters per person per year is Austria average. Austria brewed 901,000 kl of beer in 2014.
6. United Kingdom
The UK drinks an average of 96.8 liters per person per year. The UK produced 4,120,400 kl of beer in 2014.
7. Belgium
Belgians consumed an average of 93.0 liters per capita. The country produced 1,820,700 kl of beer in 2014.
8. Denmark
The Danes consumed an average of 89.9 liters per capita. Denmark produced a total of 61,100 kl in 2014.
9. Finland
The Finnish average is 85.0 liters per person per year. Finland production for 2014 was 410,000kl of beer.
10. Luxembourg
Luxembourg has an approximate beer consumption rate of 84.4 liters per capita. The country produced 27,100kl of beer in 2014.
11. Slovakia
Slovakia average beer consumption rate is 84.1 liters per capita within the year. In 2014, the country brewed 285,700 kl of beer.
12. Spain
Spain has an average of 83.8 liters per person. Spain production for 2014 stood at 3,353,500 kl of beer.
13. United States
The US average is 81.6 liters per person per year. In 2014, the country produced 22,547,400 kl of beer.
14. Croatia
Croatians drank an average of 81.2 liters per capita within the year. Croatia brewed 340,500kl of beer in 2014.
15. Netherlands
The Dutch consumed an average of 79.0 liters per capita. The country produced 2,369,600 kl of beer in 2014.
16. New Zealand
New Zealand average per person for a year is 77.0 liters. In 2014, the country brewed 457m liters of beer.
17. Hungary
Although they don’t like the clinking of mugs or glasses when drinking beer, Hungarians love beer. This European country consumes approximately 75.3 liters per capita. Hungary brewed 623,900 kl of beer in 2014.
18. Poland
Poland’s average consumption rate is 69.1 liters per capita. The country beer production in 2014 stood at 3,987,000kl.
19. Canada
Canadians consumes an approximate 68.3 liters per person per year. In 2014, Canada produced 1,894,000 kl of beer.
20. Portugal
The Portuguese consumed 59.6 liters per capita within the year. The country brewed 729,000kl of beer in 2014.
21. Bulgaria
Bulgarian average for the year is 59.5 liters per capita. The country produced 489,000 kl of beer in 2014.
22. South Africa
South Africa produced 3,150,000 kl of beer in 2014. The country has an average of 59.2 liters per capita per year.
23. Russia
The Russian average is 58.9 liters of beer per person per year. Russia beer production for 2014 was 7,636,100kl of beer.
24. Venezuela
Venezuela’s average is 58.6 liters per capita per year. In 2014, Venezuela produced 2,065,000 kl of beer.
25. Romania
Romanians consumed an average of 58.2 liters per capita within the year.1,475,000kl of beer in 2014.
Photo Credit: FreeImages.com/ biborné veres dorottya
A strange combination of beer, alcohol and fire that winds up tasting like Dr. Pepper. It also tastes like Dr. Pepper coming back up so I would recommend only having a couple of these.
Supplies:
1/4 oz 151 Rum
3/4 oz Amaretto
1 12 oz Beer
1 pint glass
1 shot glass
Matches or a lighter
Directions:
1) Fill the pint glass 3/4 full with a cheap lager such as Coors, Bud, etc. This should amount to about 1 12 oz beer.
2) Take the shot glass and fill it 3/4 full with Amaretto. Fill the rest of the glass with 151 Rum. The Rum must go in last.
3) Light the liquid in the shot glass on fire.
4) Drop the shot glass into the pint glass full of beer.
5) Chug the drink as fast as you can.
Source: Beer Shot
Photo Credit: Shutterstock
When I go home to Tennessee, nobody ever asks me if I want a beer. “How ’bout a col’beer?” say the Southerners as they toss a can through the air. (All one word.) The ice cold brew cuts through the summertime humidity nicely. This frigid February in New York City deserves a different kind of cocktail.
How about hot beer? Mulled wine is nice. Hot toddies are delicious. Why not warm up porter in a mug or sip a steamy spiced ale? Earlier this month, I was turned on to the idea by an Atlantic article about the history of the once-popular hot beer, an idea that sounds utterly insane in the era of Coors cold-activated can technology. Americans love col’beer. Purists prefer a more nuanced approach, where each style of beer is chilled or warmed to the appropriate temperature for maximum enjoyment. (That’s about 45-degrees for pilsners and light beers and 55-degrees for ales and stouts.) Right now, in the Hoth that is Gotham, that right temperature is piping hot.
The idea really isn’t as insane as it sounds. The Atlantic’s historic take suggests that hot beer was actually more popular than cold beer in the centuries before refrigeration. One pamphlet from 1641 insisted that drinking beer “hot as blood” could restore health, since the stomach worked like a cauldron according to medical knowledge at the time. An 1888 book argued, “When beer was the staple drink, morning, noon, and night, it was natural that our ancestors would prefer their breakfast beer warm and ‘night-caps’ flavoured.” Even Charles Dickens wrote about “the happy circumstances attendant upon mulled malt.”
So I did some Googling. A search for “mulled beer” returned half a million results, but a recipe highlighted by Bon Appetit caught my attention. It came from an 1891 bartending guide and basically sounded like a hot toddy made with beer:
Dissolve a spoonful of bar sugar in a little hot water in a mug, fill the mug with ale, grate nutmeg over the top and serve.
As I tend to do—often with questionable results—I improvised on the recipe. Instead of sugar, I used honey, and instead of nutmeg, I used cinnamon. I also added lemon because hot toddy. Since “ale” is such a broad class of beers, I also decided to get a mixed six-pack and experiment on my coworkers. The results were questionable, but amazingly, two of the mulled malt cocktails turned out to be pretty damn delicious. Here’s the breakdown, in some specific order.
Einstöck Icelandic White Ale
Hot damn, this was good. I’d read that steamy brews taste better when they’re made with a wheat beer or a white ale. This almost white-chocolatey ale from Iceland is delicious cold and downright heart-warming when hot. The lemon really brought out the citrus flavors, and it was the only hot beer that the Gizmodo staff universally enjoyed.
Budweiser
LOL. This was supposed to be the joke entry, but it was fucking fantastic. The watery soda beer ended up tasting a bit like hot apple cider with a curious malty finish. Seriously, amazing if you’re on a hot beer budget.
Two Roads Ol’Factory Pils
This is where things get iffy. Long story short, the hoppy taste that gives beer a pleasant punch when it’s cold basically tastes like shit when it’s hot. The sweet aromas from the honey and lemon make for good sniffing, but once you toss it back, there’s a bitter aftermath. The Two Roads wasn’t too bad. But it wasn’t too good either.
Firestone Double Jack Double IPA
This elegant double IPA was perhaps the most interesting warm beer cocktail—not necessarily in a delicious way, though. The complexity of the brew really made this a head scratcher, but nobody at Gizmodo could stomach more than a sip. This is the thinking man’s or woman’s hot beer.
Coopers Brewery Sparkling Ale
Australia’s fancy Budweiser wannabe didn’t taste so hot, literally. It tasted so barfy. So gross. So sad.
Photo Credit: Shutterstock
Source: Hot Beer
Even though I’ve never chased a sip of creamy beer with a a few squirts of cock sauce, I know Sriracha is going to make it better. Hot sauce makes everything better. Just to make sure, though, I poured myself a glass of Rogue Sriracha Hot Stout Beer.
Not that beer needs improving, mind you, it is a Fine and Good thing on its own. But I’m one of those uncultured eaters who puts hot sauce on everything (OATMEAL?!?!) so that my tongue can’t register flavor unless I’ve doused my meal in some caustic red stuff that measures death on the Scoville Scale.
Made by the free spirited brewers at Oregon’s Rogue Ale house, this brew is basically perfectly designed for me. I’m more of a pale ale guy, so I always find stouts a little flat and syrupy for my taste, and Rogue’s beer succeeds in kicking up the flavor to something a little more interesting.
When I first pulled the bottle out of the fridge it was a little too cold, I could only barely glean the spice in the aftertaste. As the beer warms up a little bit you can taste the bite all the way through.
Though my colleague Adam described the flavor as “like squeezing a Sriracha into a good porter,” I don’t entirely agree. Sriracha is wonderful stuff but the flavor isn’t exactly subtle, and I wouldn’t say the spice or flavoring totally overpowers the the stout. It’s got a nice tingle throughout.
Right now I’m about 3/4 of a way through a 750mL bottle, and I’m not regretting it at all. It’s a slow sipper of a beer-you don’t want to drink this too fast any more than you want to plow through a enchilada stuffed jalapeños and covered in green chili sauce. I’ve got another bottle under my desk, and I don’t know that I would necessarily want to dive in for another round. This is a nice novelty, but not a get drunk beer. Or even a drink multiple beer. This is a drink one beer, pound your chest two times, and move on to something else beer.
Even as I write this I can feel my heartburn kicking in. It hurts. I like it. Confirmed: Spicy beer is good.
Source: Hot Sauce Makes Everything Better, even Beer
TOP 20 BEER QUOTES OF ALL TIME
Alcohol drinking seems to produce some of the best quotes which are written by notable authors including Plato, Benjamin Franklin, Ron Burgundy, Jim Morrison and many more. Such quotes bring fun and can be used to convert serious situations into funny ones. Below is a list of some of the most memorable beer quotes of all time from around the world.
- Beer is a proof that God loves people and wants them to be happy – Benjamin Franklin.
- Whoever invented beer is a wise man – Plato.
- I would kill everyone in the room just for one drop of just a drop of quality beer – Homer Simpson.
- No doubt, beer is the greatest invention in the entire history of mankind. The wheel was also a great invention, but it does not go nearly as well with pizza as beer – Dave Barry.
- 24 hours a day and 24 beers in a case equals coincidence – Stephen Wright.
- Since everybody has to believe in something, I believe I’ll get another drink – W.C. Fields.
- May your glass always be full, and the roof over your head always strong. And may you be in heaven for half an hour before the devil realizes that you’re dead – Irish Toast.
- An intelligent man is sometimes forced to drink in order to spend time with fools – Earnest Hemingway.
- Always remember that I have taken more out of alcohol than what alcohol has taken out of me – Winston Churchill.
- Beer is the cause and solution of all the problems of life – Homer Simpson.
- God made years and dough, and loves fermentation just as he loves vegetation – Ralph Waldo Emerson.
- A quart of ale is enough meal for a King – Tufail Mehraj.
- You cannot be a real country minus beer and an airline – it is good to have a football team or nuclear weapons, but at least you should have beer – Frank Zappa.
- Do what you said you’d do drunk when you are sober, it will teach you to keep your mouth shut – Ernest Hemingway.
- A woman drove me to drinking yet I didn’t have the audacity to thank her – W.C. Fields.
- Beauty is in the hands of the beer holder – Anonymous.
- Not all chemicals are harmful. Without hydrogen and oxygen, which are chemicals, there would be no water, which is a vital ingredient in beer – Dave Barry.
- A non-drinker is a weak person, who succumbs to the who yields to the lure of denying himself pleasure.
- Women are like beer, they look and smell good, and you would step over your mother just to get one – Homer Simpson.
- Apparently beer contains the hormones of a woman, once you drink enough you can neither drive nor shut up – Tufail Mehraj.
In a way, beer mats are the unsung heroes of the beer world. They’re not something that people think too much about, which is a real pity, because if you stop to take a look at them, you’ll find some true gems. Some beer mats are simple advertisements; those typically aren’t all that interesting, but there are a wealth of others. Some of the most interesting and colorful ones we’ve come across are presented below. The hope is that once your attention has been drawn to them, you’ll keep a watchful eye out the next time you pull into your local pub for a libation. Read on and enjoy!
“I’m Not Getting Drunk, I’m Getting Awesome”
This one kind of says it all, doesn’t it? It’s quite possibly the perfect beer mat.
“Dear Karma: I have a list of people you missed…”
A wonderful beer mat with a philosophic bent, or at least, as philosophic as one can rightly expect a beer mat to get.
“You can’t drink all day if you don’t start in the morning!”
This beer mat is white with green lettering, and comes complete with a Shamrock, revealing its Irish roots.
“Trust me, you can dance.”
A great beer mat, recently seen on display at a bar that featured a fair sized dance floor. If you’ve ever seen people ‘beer dancing,’ you’ll know how often people who have been drinking are convinced that this is true.
“I’d rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy.”
Wise words indeed. Any beer drinker would be proud to display this beer mat at his or her table.
And we’ll end our list on a historic note with,
“It takes a Viking to raze a village.”
A truly fabulous beer mat, no matter how you slice it.
Keep an eye peeled on the beer mats in your favorite watering hole. Some of them will surprise, and often amuse you. You might even think about starting a collection. Drink up and enjoy.
To start you beer mat collection, visit the Edomonton International Beer Festival, where you’ll find lots of great examples being given away to visitors.
