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The United States of beer vs. wine

Rajesh Korde, a data tinker and software programmer who runs the blog Significant Digits, has mapped the per capita beer and wine consumption of all states using information in the Brewers almanac from the Beer Institute website. He then created a beer wine index by dividing the wine consumption rate by the beer consumption rate. The purple areas in the map above consume a greater proportion of wine, while the yellow areas prefer beer.

According to Korde, Washington, D.C., is the nations wine capital, with a wine consumption that is 2.85 times the national average. New Hampshire tops the beer charts, consuming 1.57 times the national average of beer. Its also the booziest state overall, with the second-highest wine consumption in the nation. The least boozy state is, of course, Utah, which drinks only about two-thirds as much beer as the national average and one-third as much wine.

Thanks to Korde for letting us republish the map.

source http://allofbeer.com/the-united-states-of-beer-vs-wine/

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5,000-year-old brewery discovered in China

(CNN)An archeological find in China may be the first evidence that beer was an important product in China many years before the experts originally thought. It may have even inspired the development of a sophisticated society.

Archeologists from Stanford University unearthed what they think is an ancient brewery at the Mijiaya site in China’s Shaanxi province. Their findings were published in the latest edition of PNAS.

The team found two subterranean pits with beer-making equipment that included funnels, pots and amphorae holding the residue of what probably was 5,000-year-old beer.

“The shapes and styles of the vessels show stylistic similarities to the brewing equipment in the historical period and modern ethnographic records,” said study co-author Jiajing Wang.

The archeologists believe the pits would have acted like an ancient cooler, helping in the beer-making process and with storage.

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Archeologists have found evidence of 11,000-year-old brewing troughs at Gobekli Tepe in Turkey.

Beer was also the national drink in Mesopotamia and Egypt, according to research from Xavier University theologist Michael Homan. You could get paid in beer or pay for your bride with it. It was used as medicine and as a cosmetic.

There are ancient gods dedicated to beer, like the Sumerian goddess Ninkasi, who has her own drinking hymn. Temples kept their own brewers on the payroll.

Even the modern God (i.e. Yahweh), was believed to have a sizable drinking habit. The ancients were encouraged to offer it as a daily libation as is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, Numbers 28: 7-10.

The benefits of beer

Beer in the ancient world was used much like it is now, as a kind of social lubricant. (“Hey, handsome ancient Sumarian stonecutter, let me buy you a beer. You come here often?”). Beer has also been found in paintings at ancient brothels.

But it also served in a more important everyday role: Beer was a much safer alternative to drinking water in the pre-Brita-filter era. The alcohol killed many of the microorganisms you’d find in your local watering hole.

In this study, the authors suggest that beer drinking, often a habit we associate more with frat parties than with sophisticated ftes, may have actually spawned a social complexity not seen in Chinese culture previously.

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Public buildings from that time period suggest a kind of hierarchy in the culture. It may have had an elite class that engaged in a kind of competitive feasting and drinking.

Beer, the researchers argue, “may have contributed to the emergence of hierarchical societies.” In other words, it may have been one of the driving forces behind the development of sophisticated cultures in an area known as the cradle of Chinese civilization.

The development of beer bellies, however, is probably a more modern phenomenon.

source http://allofbeer.com/5000-year-old-brewery-discovered-in-china/