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.

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. Arthur Guinness was Christian, and created Guinness because he wanted to keep people from getting drunk off hard liquor.
5. 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.