Five Little Known Facts About Beer and Religion
Hard to believe, but beer and religion have a long history together. Here are five things you probably were not aware of.
- Beer brewing goes back to the ancient Sumerians, who recorded a recipe for beer on a clay tablet estimated to be 4,000 years old, just a few centuries before Moses' time.
- Back in the 1700's, the Paulaner monks of Germany brewed their own beer to help them get through a 40-day fast during Lent. The name of the beer is Doppelbock, and it is still around today.
- Benjamin Franklin has always been thought of as a beer lover after saying, "Beer is proof God loves us and wants us to be happy." But that was actually a misquote and the saying was actually about wine.
- Arthur Guinness was Christian, and created Guinness because he wanted to keep people from getting drunk off hard liquor.
- The Greenbelt Festival in London is a Christian music and arts festival, and they actually have a tent where people can go drink beer while singing traditional hymns.
For more on this story check it out at NPR.org.