Beer has been a vitally important drink through much of human history, be it just as a drink that was safe to consume when water might not have been, through to having significant economic and even political significance.
The earliest written laws included regulations on beer, tax income from beer funded centuries of British imperialist conquests, and beer is the subject of the oldest international trademark dispute — between the American Budweiser and Czech Budweiser Budvar. The industrial and scientific revolutions had a profound impact on the beer brewing industry, and while for many years cheap and reliable lagers were the tipple of choice, we are now in the midst of a craft beer revolution against industrial brewing. Beer is a lens, or glass if you will, through which we can look at the history of the world and maybe better our understanding, but only until the third pint.
Take a look at some more fun beer facts and figures in our infographic below, with content taken from Beeronomics: How Beer Explains the World.
Featured image credit: Beverages Beer Box Bottle by maxmann. CC0 via Pixabay.