Hi I’m John Green.
Welcome to Mental Floss Video.
THIS is my salon - wait a second, this isn’t my salon!
This is Sun King Brewery in beautiful Indianapolis, Indiana.
And this is Sun King employee Joe, who’s also a fan of Mental Floss Video.
Joe, I just wanted to ask you a question.
Did Sun King pay us to be here today?
Awesome.
Thank you.
Joe’s wife would also like us to point out that while you are watching this in the future,
it was filmed during Movember.
Today I’m going to tell you some fun facts and tips about beer so that you can sound
like a genius the next time you go on a brewery tour with your friends or at least to insure
that you no longer order Keystone Light at the bar.
Beer dates all the way back to at least 3000 BCE, but is probably even earlier than that.
In fact, some people even cite 10,000 BCE!
Oh my god, that’s a lot of beer!
The ancient Sumerians, for instance, used to make beer, which they would call “kas,”
meaning “what the mouth desires.”
We know this, by the way, because there are literally ancient tablets detailing beer recipes.
You know, it was pre-Twitter era.
By the way, I’m sorry about all the noise.
It’s almost like we’re in an actual working brewery.
The first professional beer brewers were women.
In fact, in ancient Peru, the only people who were allowed to brew beer were women of
nobility.
And in Ancient Egypt, there was a law against men brewing and selling beer.
To jump ahead in history, the pilgrims stopped at Plymouth Rock for a very specific reason.
As described by one passenger in his diary, “We could not now take time for further
search or consideration; our victuals being much spent, especially our beere.”
They were probably playing that classic drinking game too much.
You know, the one where you drink every time you see the ocean.
So there are four main ingredients in beer: water, barley (or some kind of starch source),
hops, and yeast.
Water is over 90% of beer, so the water source is a huge determinant of how a beer tastes.
But of course so are the other ingredients.
All right, have you ever heard of the “cannabaceae” family?
It’s the family of plants containing both hops and cannabis.
Yes, that cannabis.
Beer and marijuana are basically plant cousins.
There are two types of beers: ales and lagers.
Wait a second, Meredith, is that really true, there are only two types of beers?
She says it’s true.
Ale means that the yeast is fermented at the top.
Lager uses yeast that is fermented at the bottom.
And it also uses much lower temperatures in the beer making and aging process.
Now of course there are endless beers within those two categories, and I could just list
them, but that’s probably not going to be as interesting as that beer and marijuana
fact, so instead I’m gonna focus on a few.
Pale lager, or as Europeans call it, “sparkling water,” is the most popular beer style in
the world.
And you’re probably familiar with pale lagers like Budweiser and Coors.
But, you may never even have heard of the most popular beer in the world, which is also
a lager: Snow Beer from China.
By the way, I’d like to greet all of the Mental Floss Video Chinese fans drinking Snow
Beer in China.
Just kidding, the great firewall makes it impossible for you to see this video.
Pilsners also fit into the pale lager category.
You probably know pilsner as Amstel or Heineken.
This style is named after the city where it was invented, Pilsen in the Czech Republic
[pronunciation].
Pilsen started its own brewery in the 1840s and hired a Bavarian brewer named Josef Groll,
who created the first batch of Pilsner beer.
Then there’s IPA, or India Pale Ale, which you’ll be surprised to learn is an ale.
This one is most famous for its bitter taste, which comes from the prominent hops.
Now despite the name, this beer wasn’t actually invented in India.
It was created in Europe during the 1700s so that the East India Company could bring
along beer that would survive the trip to India.
Sun King Osiris Pale Ale is what I like to call an INDIANA Pale Ale.
Anyone?
No?
All right, moving on.
Then we have cream ale, like my favorite beer in the world, Sun King Sunlight Cream Ale.
Cream ales are confusing because they live in the ale family, but they are stored at
cold temperatures, just like lagers are.
They’re basically the best of both worlds.
Oh, and for the record, I’m not being paid to say that although they are giving us all
of these beers.
Wait, they’re not?
Dangit!
Other popular ales includes stouts and brown ale.
Like Sun King has an English brown ale called Wee Mac Scottish Ale.
Oh!
There it is.
Wee Mac.
Stouts are typically dark and strong.
And despite people usually describing them as “rich” or “heavy,” they’re often
fairly low in calories and alcohol content.
In fact, twelve ounces of Guinness is just 176 calories.
That’s less than a Hershey’s bar, although I guess you don’t drink thirteen Hershey’s
bars in a day.
I’m just kidding.
No one can drink thirteen Guinnesses in a day.
And please don’t take that as a challenge
Another example of ale comes straight from the White House.
That’s right, the White House brews its own beer.
In fact, there’s a recipe for their beer on their website, so you can drink what the
president drinks.
And all of this is legal.
Now you probably know that it was FDR who ended Prohibition, but it was President Jimmy
Carter who legalized homebrewing in 1978.
Arguably the greatest achievement of his presidency.
Speaking of which, famous beer brewers who were also presidents include Thomas Jefferson,
George Washington, and James Madison.
Okay, one last Founding Father fact: a quote often attributed to Benjamin Franklin goes,
“Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.”
But of course, that is a misquote.
Like all quotations on the Internet.
Here’s what he actually wrote, “Behold the rain which descends from heaven upon our
vineyards; there it enters into the roots of the vines, to be changed into wine, a constant
proof that God loves us, and loves to see us happy.”
That’s much more poetic, but it is less about beer.
Speaking of Internet lies, there is a persistent rumor online that it is illegal in the United
States to have a beer commercial featuring someone actually drinking beer.
Alcohol advertising is actually self-regulating industry in the United States, although they
do generally adhere to that guideline.
So what makes your beer go skunky?
Well, people usually believe that it’s time or temperature change, but it’s actually
light.
Okay, let’s have a list of things that were partially written in pubs or bars, which includes:
Harry Potter, the Declaration of Independence, the play A Few Good Men.
So the most important and famous beer expert and popularizer is Michael Jackson, who worked
as a beer journalist and connoisseur for almost thirty years until he died in 2007.
But he was much more fun than the pretentious beer-drinker and/or King of Pop that you’re
probably picturing.
Like, Jackson had a show on the Discovery Channel called “The Beer Hunter,” which
if you ask me, is the best kind of hunter.
And he would also frequently do lectures on beer and he liked to tell European audiences
that the U.S. was the best place to find and drink good beer, which infuriated them.
And I will now infuriate Europeans by stating that as you can see from the warehouse behind
me, he was correct.
And our last fact today: In 2010, the small, local Michigan brewery, Dark Horse Brewery,
turned down a huge endorsement deal from Nickelback because the staff didn’t like the band.
Nickelback approached the company because they wanted to put Dark Horse beer in a music
video, set at a fraternity party, but the company declined.
Head brewer Aaron Morse later told a local newspaper, “I absolutely hate that band.”
Dark Horse Brewery: truly the Reddit of breweries.
Thanks for watching Mental Floss here on YouTube, which is made with the help of all of these
nice people.
Every week we endeavor to answer one of your mind-blowing questions.
This week’s question comes from Marc Weathersby who asks, “Who invented what was formerly
known as the sidebar being called the ‘doobly doo’ on YouTube?”
The answer, Marc, is WheezyWaiter.
You can see his episode of Mental Floss about coffee if you click right here.
Thanks again for watching.
Thanks to Sun King for sharing their brewery with us and also for making wonderful beer
and as we say in my hometown - Don’t forget to beer awesome!