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Brit "Binge-drinking".
It's not big and it's not clever
but it's still part of your worship.
Binge-drinking is plugged by our press as the new odious phenomena infecting our community. We have a whole new directory of terms and phrases for the Second Millennia social disease of what can turn from harmless high spirits to vicious and mindless violence on the streets of our towns and cities.
Getting hammered. Bladdered caned and lashed. Pop-eyed, legless, chemist and mortal. Mullered, blasted, K.O'd, and n(e)(u)(w)ted. Sloshed, smashed and stoned. Bevvied up, lagged up, lushed up, tanked up and buggered up with drink. Boozy woozy, tipsy wispy, and well oiled. Stewed and lubed. Lammered, reeling, stinking and falling, crawling. Paralytic and sozzled. Glassy-eyed pickled and swilled. Out of your box, your tree and off your trolley. High as a kite and blown away. Lit up, ginned up and roaring. Soused and soaked. Quaffing and lurching. Bombed and beered up. Pink-eyed and smelling like a liver donor for Sarson's. Stoked and staggering. Stacked and stiffened. Maudlin and dawdlin'. Stuffed, three sheets, swollen lips and bruised ribs. One over the eight, shafted and shagged. Pie eyed, piddled and puddled. Lathered and squiffy. Burned and steaming. Pissed up, fucked up and arseholed.
The morning after offers you no more than a very selective memory and bells in the head, a tongue to surf on, and a feeling that a monkey had slept in your mouth. Don't get me wrong. I have drunk to oblivion on occasions and would never preach the evils of drink because I love the feeling of euphoria and lowering of inhibitions personally. It's the incontinence I always regret and trying on my wife's clothes. If I can stop peeing on house pets and the VCR and stay out of prison then I am more than satisfied it was a very quiet night. But what is it about the stuff that makes you feel like shit in the morning? Delirium tremens or the 'Charlie Drakes'. Itchy teeth, and eyes. Skin eruptions and cravings for fried food and a bottle of milk that leaves you draped over the toilet for an hour and confined to watching black and white films on the sofa for the rest of the day. Cuddling your knees and not answering the phone.
The touch of the 'never agains' and promises of 'going on the wagon' bring another resolve as you have already used all the other hangover cures from pharmacies. Drying out. De-tox and tee-totalling. Yet, come the next Friday night as sure as God gave us a pancreas to abuse for this reason. Sure as we have a hole in our arse, we go straight down the old pub, to get 'well on it' again? Throwing all hope or need of further sobriety or abstention out of the pub window.
Need I go on? The fact is the media have jumped on this as a new social dilemma. As usual and in my own way I can explain in great detail how this happened and why.
Religion is to blame for 'binge-drinking'.
Nonsense you say what about the Salvation Army who abhor intemperance? They don't mind peddling pamphlets around the boozer though do they? Catching you out with the last of your change so you end up having to walk home. Jesus turned the water into wine at a wedding. The bible says 'a little wine is good for the stomach'. If we are to stigmatise and stereo type, why are all Irish churchman depicted as hipflask swilling inebriates? Is this why they wear their shirts back to front? Do all 'bead mumblers' binge-drink? My research bears out that while held in contempt by Catholicism in fact most gaitered and aproned 'men of the cloth' are pissed to the gills and shovel hats. They pontificate from the pulpit pie-eyed, and grinning like a doorknocker most of the time.
What has religious piety got to do with 'binge-drinking'?
Look at the pub industry in this country as a whole. Pubs still open and close to the rigours of archaic licensing laws of yesteryear. Like the stupid mortgaging laws in the UK (another subject to explore later) they are well over 300 years old. This means that drinking here is restricted far more than any other country in Europe. Ancient bylaws that based a pubs early closure until now down to the fact that Northern coal miners had to be up at the crack of sparrows fart to be 'downt pit'. Or the local Calvinist priest might scold you for missing church. What's the sketch on this one then? Well, the coalmines have all but disappeared and churches have been in steady decline.
 How did pubs begin in the first place?
Well, since the time of the Anglo Saxon, Normans and the Viking and not necessarily in that order, folk brewed beer in the home. Water was poisonous because chlorine hadn't been invented, and so yeast from home-baked bread was used to create the fermenting process. This chemical action destroyed bad bacteria and made good bacteria. What ever was left from the crops was boiled up, strained and left in sealed barrels to work the magic. Even children were weaned on the amber nectar. This caused quite a lot of underage drinking and hopeless addicts over a generation and so the Monks seeing people becoming alcoholics saw a corner in the market. They got in on the act. They turned their monasteries into giant breweries. This was heresy and not idle gossip. They sold this new 'ale' to merchants who then sold it off to homes off the back of carts pulled by horses. The Abbots and Bishops of olden times are named after beer now. The tradition lives on. It wasn't until the Papacy and Royalists realised how much the local monasteries were 'coining' that this spurred the Reformation. People think this is about God and Christ and that. No. It was about beer. Beer was big business then as it is today. Just 300 years ago in the mining towns of Wales and The North homes were strung together in long lines. Huddled together in terraces. Why? The houses were ad-joined by a parlour door, so neighbours literally walked through your house. Imagine that happening now? The reason for this strange ritual was because a barrel of beer could be rolled from one house to the other and shared by all in the street. When the ale cart came around every family took a turn from the tap. A forty pint keg could get the whole street wasted.
This is how the 'Public House' was so named. People got fed up rolling barrels through your house at midnight and stains on their carpet with all the noise of people collapsing over Yorkshire pudding. What happened next? The house at the end of the street became the 'pub' as it is known today. But opening and closing times were very strict so that miners didn't get as drunk as a boiled owl and lose their job at the colliery and the family who ran the 'pub' had some respite from constant visitors. Boys and girls of 10 were sent down the pit but were not allowed in the pub. That's because they were minors. Women were not miners and so not allowed to sup from the bar either. In some parts of 'Geordieland' today women still are not allowed in the bar. They must sit in the 'snug' and only allowed milk stout and pork scratchings. Some miners liked the 'spit and sawdust' type pub. Pubs where you could sweat spit and swear. Smoke tobacco twist and sample the mead. These places were rough and ready and a bit like 'the pits' anyway. The 'sawdust' was for spilled ale and the 'spit' was how glasses were cleaned by the barmaid. It was only up until 1976 that 'huffing' on glasses to polish them was considered a health and safety risk. However a recent study researched how many different types of urine were found on bar snacks such as a courtesy bowl of peanuts for the purpose of finding out who washed their hands after using the toilet. Personally do not fear this. Urine is full of ammonia. An effective cleaning fluid you can get from hardware stores. Egyptian women put camel urine on their face to improve their complexion. Irish curblayers love to wee into cupped hands to warm them in the winter. It stops infection and toughens calluses. Actually, our homemade 'Perry' is filtered water that has passed through many organs to come out as a golden braid of sparkling champagne. Imagine how clean it gets when it has a chance to pass through another body again? Stale urine causes scale and odour only because, it is 'yeasty' like beer anyway. Be honest, what is worse? Smelling of stale beer or stale wee? Nobody gives a shit down the daycare centre about it? If I was dying of thirst, I would gladly re-cycle my own urine. Anything's better than what they let the olives float in.
The Monks beer scam was crushed by the Papacy and the Monarch back in the 1300's because they made too much money. The King and the Pope suddenly became anti-alcohol.
The clergy hated the stuff and preached temperance but in fact, Monks and priests were the biggest pissheads going and even invented the word 'brothel', a bastardisation of the word 'Brother' that sounds like 'brothel' only when you are completely bladdered, and already enjoying a 'sniff of the barmaids apron.' They loved a fumble under the cassocks. The word 'whore' derives from 'Who are?' When Monks 'in their cups' would be accused of leering at women and their 'busty substances'. Example: " 'ere , Mr Friar, are you just looking at my tits or are you too drunk to get it up and do you want a bit of business?"  The Monk answers: "Who are?" The wench will respond, "Oh, please yourself you dirty bugger, and don't call me that."
Monasteries turned their attention to beer brewing. The reason the monks were so intensively concerned with making beer was because they wanted a pleasant tasting, nutritious drink to serve with their meals, which were frugal at best, especially during the fasting periods. As the consumption of liquids was not considered to break the fast, beer was always permitted. The consumption of beer in the monasteries reached astounding levels: Historians report that each monk was allowed to imbibe 5 liters of beer per day.
So think of words connected with the church and say them when you are pissed and see how they resemble what a religious binge drinker might say. Go on get loaded. Read how everyday churchy words explain why the clergy love to 'tie one on'.
"Christendom." (Shortened from "Christ's Kingdom")
"Denominationalism" ( To hard to say when inebriated and now they just say "Cults")
" The Latitudinarianism" (Shortened from " The late and intruding librarian… is him.)
"Heathen" (Shortened to "protestant")
"Sanctimonious" ( Shortened from "Thanks for moaning at us")
"Santification" (Shortened from " Thanks for this occasion")
"Exaltation" (Taken from the act of stealing beer "Next.. I'll take some.)
"Sectarianism" (Shortened from "Sex tours in my prison")
"Salvation" (Derivation from drooling over prostitutes or "Salivation.")
"Blasphemy" ( Means, or sounds like "The beers for me")
"Brethren" (Sounds like "The beers already in.")
"Convent" (This is known as the C-Word in Catholicism. Don't ever be called a "Convent")
"Font" (When the F-word gets mixed up with the C-word while inebriated)
"Evangelist" (Means "His van goes like shit")
"Pentacostalist" (Means "My pants cost more than this")
"Epistle" (Means "He's pissed, a little.")
"Episcopal" (Means "He's pissed OK pal")
"Ecclesiastical" (Means "He's clearly lashed and pickled")
"Fundamentalistic" (Means "Funny and demented, isn't it?")
"Archdeacon" (Means "brother bender")
"Bishopric" (Or unpopular priest)
"Subdeacon" (A clergyman who is always good for the price of a drink)
"Sisters of Mercy" (Scouse Nuns. Latin was invented by scousers. Example: "Dey dooh dooh dat doh don't dey?")
"Theologicum" (Means "The others are largin' it? Come on!)
"Presbyterianism" (Means "Perhaps she's a lesbian")
"Hierarchy" (From a line in Eastenders "Hiya Ricky")
"Sodom and Gomorrah" (Or, when its last orders, "Sod them, and go tomorrow.")
"Hell and Purgatory" (Mean "Helen, 'puts out' doesn't she?)
"Vatican Papacy" (Heard by vicars when unwittingly caught 'cottageing' by the press and they first see the headlines, "Wait I can explain, wassa paper say?")
"Parishioners" (Or, "Pass us those beers")
"Baptism" (Means "Do you want to wet the baby's head?")
"The Little Flock" (Means a sex encounter of no real consequence)
"Lay sister" (Means an unpopular sex act even by today's standards)
"Sacrosanct" ( Means "Your sacked, you sacked", usually for the above)
"Missionary" (The Orthodox position)
"Novice" ( Shortened from "No Vice" or means, 'she won't go all the way'.)
"Vestal virgin" (Same as the above but uglier and that's why.)
"Hymn" (The thin membrane in the vagina that stays intact when you are ugly.)
"Diocese" (What you get from girls who aren't Novices.)
"Curate" (Well, only if the antibiotics work!)
"Cleric" ('Eric' with a cleft palate.)
"Vigil" (A puppet out of 'Thunderbirds')
"Popedom" (A small crispy side dish in Indian restaurants)
"Deacon the Dean with his Canon" (A homosexual act between three religious men.)
"Divinity" (If they all enjoy it)
"Viaticum' (A cross between an impotency pill and toilet cleaner)
"Circumambulation" (What happens when you get caught playing a game of 'wheelbarrow' with another monk.)
"Homage"(An elderly monk who is queer)
"Eucharist and Lamentation" (What a monk mends a bike puncture with.)
"Canonicals" (What a pushbike crossbar can damage when you discover you have a puncture going down a hill)
"Tabernacles" (Yes those)
"Nuptial mass" (A serious case of the above.)
"Confession" (When you can't fix it)
"Cassocks" (What you say when you can't fix it)
"Crucifix" (When you can fix it)
"Piety" ("Pie for tea?" All sex makes you hungry.)
"Laity" ("Late for tea")
"Lay community" (In your dreams)
"Lay reader" (only in the interval)
"Lay brother" (We've been through this.)
"Lay preacher" (No stopping you now.)
"Brother hood" (Condom)
"Sister hood" (One of those internal things that sound like a cat in a carrier bag)
"Rector" (Religious wife abuser)
"Holy Reverend" (A stabbed vicar)
"His Most holiness" (When the Pope was shot 3 times)
"Right Reverend" (A vicar whose a bit of a lad)
"The very Right Reverend" (A vicar who votes for the BNP)
"Chaplain" (Gay 'cruising' for vicars i.e Chap Plan.)
"Malediction" (Being addicted to the above)
"Benediction" ( The same again, especially if his name is 'BEN')
"Aisle, altar, hymn" (No you won't!)
This is just to point out that a fish-hat and a crook means you can catch choir boys easily and still have somewhere to hide your pint. The swinging of incense is to disguise the effect of a kebab afterwards. After all who wants to have to walk into a Pot pourri shop to 'let one go' dressed like a colour blind poove in Emerald City.
Here are some facts about beer courtesy with my thanks to
www.eat-online.net/english/habits/history_of_beer
Monastery Breweries
turned their attention to beer brewing. The reason the monks were so intensively concerned with making beer was because they wanted a pleasant tasting, nutritious drink to serve with their meals, which were frugal at best, especially during the fasting periods. As the consumption of liquids was not considered to break the fast, beer was always permitted. The consumption of beer in the monasteries reached astounding levels: Historians report that each monk was allowed to imbibe 5 liters of beer per day.
sell beer and with this many monasteries developed.
 Gambrinus
"In life be I called Gambrinus, King of Flanders and Brabant. I have made malt from barley and first conceived of the brewing of beer. Hence, the brewers can say they have a king as master brewer."
King Gambinus is still revered today as the patron saint of beer. The use of hops in the making of beer started a "bitter" argument about the so-called
("Grutrecht" in old German). Grut was a mixture of all sorts of herbs used to flavor beer. The flavoring license was similar to a patent, allowing a brewery to produce its own flavoring mixture and became the legal  basis for every brewery and ensured a monopoly position for the respective brewmaster. With the advent of hops as a flavoring, Grut was no longer necessary and therefore the monopoly position of the breweries endangered. For this reason, the use of hops was often simply and forcibly forbidden. Among other things, juniper berries, sweet gale , blackthorn, oak bark, wormwood, caraway seed, aniseed, bay leaves, yarrow, thorn apple, gentian, rosemary, tansy, Saint-John's-wort, spruce chips, pine roots - and above all henbane found their way into these Grut mixtures. Some of these herbs were downright poisonous, others induced hallucinations. As we know today, the hallucinogen Alkaloid, for example, is produced from henbane during the brewing process. This could well be the reason that superstition played an important role around the brewing kettle. The main victims of this superstition were the
 Beer Witches
Because things often went wrong with the beer brewing which nobody could explain with the body of beer brewing knowledge available in early times, the guilty parties were often sought in the mystical realm. Many wondrous herbs and cult objects still surrounded brewing kettles into the late middle ages. Superstition went so far that brewing failures were blamed on "brew witches" or "beer witches". The last known burning of a "brew witch" took place in 1591. This practice can be referred to as the "darkest" chapter of beer brewing history. The end of this superstitious era came when the use of hops caught on. Even though often forbidden at first, this practice prevailed in the long run. For one thing, the beer became less perishable and the brewing process more stabile. Things didn't go wrong as often and fewer witches had to be hunted. With the use of hops the beer revealed its "clear character". Beer began to closely resemble the modern product range, both in taste and appearance. In order to guarantee a high level of reliability, quality and consistency, the Duke of Bavaria, Wilhelm IV, proclaimed the
German Beer Purity Law
in 1516. This decree established for the first time that only barley (later malted barley), hops and pure water could be used to brew beer. The use of yeast was not yet known at that time. The success of the fermentation process was left to chance, as the brewers unknowingly relied on yeast particles in the air. Today this Beer Purity Law is the oldest still valid food law in the world. In the eyes of the European Union, however, this law was inhibitive to competition. Now, as a result of the EU ruling, beer may be imported into Germany which was not brewed in accordance with the Beer Purity Law, as long as this fact is clearly stated. The German brewers still abide by their centuries-old tradition. Of course the Beer Purity Law had its predecessors. A regulation promulgated in 1493 by the Duke of Bayers-Landshut, for example, stated that:
Hansa
As time passed, export took on an ever increasing role. Regular  brewing centers developed. In the 14th century Bremen was the primary beer supplier for the Netherlands, England and the Nordic countries. Due to international beer export by the Hansa, Hamburg also developed into one of these brewing centers. In 1500 there were 600 breweries in Hamburg alone. The Hansa even exported beer to far away India. In the small middle German and Maerkish (Brandenburg) communities of this period, breweries were the most important financial contributors to the local economy. Other German beer centers were Brunswick and Einbeck. Bock beer was first created in Einbeck and became such a favorite of a Bavarian duke, that he soon hired away the Einbeck master brewer. There is, of course, also a long-standing brewing tradition in Berlin, residence of the Soldier King,
Friedrich Willhelm I.
Under his rule beer became socially acceptable and presentable at court. His legendary "Tobacco Council" was, in principle, nothing more than the first collection of  drinking buddies. His son, later known as Friedrich the Great, learned the brewing trade as a young man. Industrial developments did not simply pass over the beer brewers but started to take their effect at the beginning of the 19th century. Two extremely important inventions revolutionized beer brewing. The first was James Watt's steam engine and the second invention was artificial cooling by Carl von Linde. At that time it had already been scientifically proven that the making of good beer required certain temperatures. Some of these temperatures occurred naturally only in winter. From the time of von Linde's invention on, brewing could take place in summer too.
The Brewing of beer since the 17oo's was commonplace in all English cities and towns.
Now they are closed. Beer was sold by the keg to householders. Terraced houses in the 1800's were adjoining so that drinking could happen at one end and the barrel rolled (Hence the 100year old cockney song "Roll out the barrel") from house to house via doors from the sitting rooms. The whole street used to get hammered.
How The Discovery of Beer
Led to Civilization As We Know It
More facts from www.beerinstitute.org/history1.htm
... How The Discovery of Beer Led to Civilization As We Know It. According ... nutrition. Beer gave people protein that unfermented grain couldn't supply. ... according to one prominent anthropologist, what lured our ancient ancestors out of their caves may not have been a thirst for knowledge, but a thirst for beer.
Dr. Solomon Katz theorizes that when man learned to ferment grain into beer more than 10,000 years ago, it became one of his most important sources of nutrition. Beer gave people protein that unfermented grain couldn't supply. And besides, it tasted a whole lot better than the unfermented grain did. But in order to have a steady supply of beer, it was necessary to have a steady supply of beer's ingredients. Man had to give up his nomadic ways, settle down, and begin farming. And once he did, civilization was just a stone's throw away. Prized possessions were often buried with the remains of important officials in ancient Mesopotamia. A glittering metal tube discovered in one tomb proved to be a golden straw for sipping beer.
 Barley for brewing was so important to the early Romans that they honored the grain on their gold and silver coins. After civilization got rolling, beer was always an important part of it. Noah carried beer on the ark. Sumerian laborers received rations of it. Egyptians made it from barley, Babylonians made it from wheat, and Incas made it from corn. And so it went, through the centuries. From ancient times to the present day, beer has been an important part of celebration and good fellowship. And while America's brewers were not making beer in ancient times, we are proud to provide Americans with beers of exceptional quality today.
We hope you will find yourself at a party or other gathering where beer adds to your enjoyment. If so, we suggest you toast our primitive ancestors. Without their ingenuity, life would be very different, indeed. We wouldn't have fire, the wheel, or any of the  other rewards of civilization. Including one of the best rewards of all: beer itself. Historians have called beer the national drink of ancient Egypt. The pharoahs appointed a "royal chief beer inspector" to protect its quality. Long before the time of Confucius, the Chinese brewed with millet, a cereal grain. According to the very old sacred books, beer played an important role in early Chinese religious rituals.
This is the oldest written recipe in the world.
And it's for beer.
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When archaeologists discovered a four-thousand-year old Mesopotamian clay tablet, they were naturally curious to learn what it was all about. So a good deal of scholarly effort was put into the task of deciphering its cryptic markings.
As it turns out, the ancient Mesopotamians were recording a recipe for beer. And not just any recipe, but a formula handed down from the god Enki himself. This probably came as no surprise to the archaeologists, since the subject of beer pops up regularly in their work. Images of people brewing, storing, and drinking beer are found in ruined cities and forgotten tombs scattered throughout the ancient world. The Babylonians made sixteen kinds of beer, using everything from white and black barley to wheat and honey. Beer was extolled in the Egyptian Book of the Dead, where the varieties listed include "beer of truth" and "beer of eternity." A short lesson in Ancient Sumerian In the picture language of the people who once lived between the Tigris and the Euphrates, this symbol  meant "clay vessel."
But when lines were drawn through it like this,  it mean just one thing:
the vessel was filled with beer.
Through the ages, people of all classes and cultures have felt the need to fashion special vessels for drinking beer. Pictured from left to right are a decorated drinking horn from the time of the Vikings, a hand-carved ceremonial cup used in old Norwegian rituals, a brass bowl from the Niger region of Africa, and a Scandinavian vessel in the shape of a long ship.  America's brewers don't claim to make the beer of eternity, but we are proud to provide Americans with beers of exceptional quality today. We have no way of knowing if our beer would have pleased Enki, the Mesopotamian god. But after studying his recipe closely, we are reasonably certain of one thing: his beer would not have pleased us.
The Kalevala, an ancient saga of Finland, tells of a bee sent across the ocean for honey to sweeten the beer made by Osmotar. The bee is shown here with the lupine plant, which was added to beer centuries ago, perhaps as a preservative.  Beers and breweries around the world have been named in honor of King Gambrinus, often referred to as the patron saint of brewers. In fact, Gambrinus was neither king nor saint. The name is a corruption of Jan Primus, a medieval German duke who was made an honorary member of the Cologne brewers' guild in 1288.
If The Mayflower Had Been
Carrying More Beer, It Might Never Have
Landed At Plymouth Rock
When the Pilgrims sailed for America, they hoped to find a place to settle where the farmland would be rich and the climate congenial. Instead, they found themselves struggling with the stony soil and harsh winters of New England. And all because of a shortage of beer.
An entry in the diary of a Mayflower passenger explains the unplanned landing at Plymouth Rock: "We could not now take time for further search...our victuals being much spent, especially our beer..." That may have been the last time America's settlers ran short of beer. They soon learned from their Indian neighbors how to make beer from maize. Local breweries sprouted up throughout the colonies, and experienced brewmasters were eagerly recruited from London. By 1770 the American brewing industry was so well established that George Washington, Patrick Henry, and other patriots argued for a boycott of English beer imports. The Boston Tea Party almost became the Boston Beer Party.  William Penn wrote that the beer in his colony was made of "Molasses...well boyled, with Sassafras or Pine infused into it." The taste of such a concoction must have been interesting, especially from the popular drinking vessel of the period: a waxed leather tankard known as a "black jack."
In 1637, the legislature of the Massachusetts Bay Colony met to fix the price of beer. After lengthy deliberation, the new price was announced: "not more than one penny a quart at the most." All that, of course, is history. But the enjoyment of beer remains as important to Americans today as it was to our colonial forebears. And America's brewers are proud to contribute to that enjoyment. The next time you're enjoying a beer, you might think about the poor Pilgrims who had to settle for the bitter conditions in New England when they might have sailed on to Miami Beach. The moral is clear: always make sure you have enough beer on hand.
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By law, beer in Colonial America had to be served in standard half-pint, pint or quart vessels. When tin could no longer be imported from England, American pewter production stopped. It then became fashionable to melt down and recast old pewter mugs from England. While beer has been made from many different grains through the ages, barley has proven to be the world's most valued brewing ingredient. In fact, the word beer itself probably comes from the old Anglo-Saxon word baere, meaning barley.
Celebrate America's Holidays
The Way The Men Who Started Them Did.
With A Glass of Beer.
It is widely known that the framers of American Independence were men of vision, courage, and wisdom. Less well known is the fact that they were also great imbibers of beer.
 Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Adams, and James Madison vigorously promoted the brewing industry in the colonies. George Washington operated a small brewery at Mount Vernon. And during the Revolutionary War, he made sure his troops received a quart of beer each day. In their fondness for beer, these great men were only following an American tradition that was already well established. No sooner had the colonies of Pennsylvania, Vermont and New York been founded, than their governors established breweries to provide their subjects with refreshment. Since the first of these was built in 1623, it can be seen that the practice of enjoying beer in America is older than America itself. America observed its 50th birthday on July 4, 1826. By that time there were already hundreds of breweries to help the new nation celebrate.
 Thomas Jefferson wrote much of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia's Indian Queen Tavern. Later, after two terms as President, he experimented with brewing techniques during his retirement years at Monticello. Our founding fathers would no doubt be pleased at the role beer has come to play in American life today. It is as much a part of our Fourth of July and Memorial Day celebrations as the sound of a parade or the smell of a barbeque. From the eastern seaboard to the Pacific coast, it's a traditional part of a family reunion, a day at the beach, or an afternoon at the ballpark. And the traditional reward for mowing the lawn, clipping the hedge, or cleaning the garage.
So the next time a national holiday provides an occasion to celebrate with a beer, why not toast the men who made it all possible. We suggest you start with Adams, and work your way carefully through to Washington. Benjamin Franklin is said to have conducted business regularly in Philadelphia's taverns. Many consider this additional evidence that he was the wisest of the Founding Fathers.
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The British called the taverns of colonial America "hotbeds of sedition." And they were right. Paul Revere and the Sons of Liberty planned the Boston Tea Party at their favorite meeting place--the Green Dragon Tavern.
He Fought the British For Independence.
And Congress For Beer.
One of George Washington's first acts as Commander of the Continental Army was to proclaim that every one of his troops would receive a quart of beer with his daily rations.
 As the Revolutionary War progressed, however, supplies of beer dwindled. And an irate Washington had to  do battle with another opponent--the Continental Congress--in order to have his troops' rations restored. Perhaps Washington's interest in beer had something to do with the fact that he was an accomplished brewmaster himself. The father of our country maintained a private at Mount Vernon. And his handwritten recipe for beer--said by his peers to be superb--is still on display at the New York Public Library. In ancient times, beer was flavored with such things as coriander, rosemary, and lupine. Eventually, the people of Northern Europe learned to use hops instead. Hops added flavor to beer, made it clearer, and helped to preserve it. Anyone who has tasted beer flavored with coriander has reason to be grateful for this discovery.
 Inspired by the Boston Tea Party, colonial rebels met in New York's Fraunces Tavern to plan a similar raid on British ships in the Hudson river. After the surrender of Cornwallis, the same tavern was the scene of George Washington's famous farewell speech to his officers. Nor was George Washington the only founding father with a passion for beer. Patrick Henry, Samuel Adams and James Madison eagerly promoted America's fledgling brewing industry. And Thomas Jefferson was said to have composed the first draft of the Declaration Independence over a cold draft at the Indian Queen tavern in Philadelphia. 
These great men would no doubt be pleased that the enjoyment of beer remains an American tradition to this day. And America's brewers are proud to be an important part of that tradition. We hope you find an occasion to enjoy a beer in the very near future. And when you do, we suggest you gather your friends and drink a toast to George Washington. The man who was first in war, first in peace, and almost certainly first in the esteem of his thirsty troops. Colonial Americans used the term "small beer" to describe home brew which was generally lower in alcohol than commercially prepared "strong beer." George Washington's personal recipe called for a generous measure of molasses.
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The Pilgrims had much to be grateful for at the first Thanksgiving. High on the list was something the Indians taught them: how to make beer from corn.
Authors note: we have much to thank beer for. It is a huge indusyyyeerr
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