At this time of year, it is not unusual to find ourselves at parties where we don’t know too many people. Whether it is your significant other’s office party, a church function you promised your parents you would go to, or your hanging out with an old college buddy you haven’t seen in years (that has a whole new group of friends), it can be kind of hard to fit in and get into the holiday spirit.

But rather than feel like The Odd Can Out, there is a solution to the awkwardness—beer.
Yes, when you Kraken Into A Cold One it can make starting conversations with new people easier. But you still need to have something interesting to say. You need to have something strangers will find compelling and provocative; something that they will want to listen to.

The answer, once again, is beer. To be more specific, beer trivia.

Let’s be real here. Beer is cool. Beer Is The New Black and for Cultivated Tastes. Beer is something that we can all appreciate; it is interesting from a scientific, cultural, legal, and historical perspective. You could even call it the glue that binds us all together—in some cultures, in more ways than you could imagine.

Did you know that a common practice in Babylon 4,000 years ago was for the father-in-law to provide his new son-in-law with all the mead (honey beer) he could drink for a month? This time was known as the “honey month” or since time was based on a lunar calendar, the “honey moon.”

Most beer drinkers are aware that beer has been around for centuries, but few are probably aware of its historical significance. Did you know….

•  the reason the pilgrims landed at Pride Rock was because they were out of beer and decided to stop rather than continue to Virginia without it?
• that the very first beer came from an ancient Sumerian (Iraqi) by accident? He left a loaf of bread out until the yeast fermented (so that’s why we love bread so much!)
• the U.S. Marine Corps opened their first recruiting station in a bar?
• that the first consumer protection law ever written involved beer? It was enacted by Duke Wilhelm IV of Bavaria in 1516and limited the ingredients of beer to barley, hops, and water (so, apparently there were no microbeers in 16th century Bavaria).
• During the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, beer was considered a nutritional necessity and was often served with breakfast— for children as well as adults (that’s one way to get the kids to go to bed).
• Parents in ancient Egypt sent their kids to school with bread and beer for lunch (those poor teachers).
  
  

Beer is apart of our history and culture, more so than most people realize. We are all aware of the drinking laws that states have. But there are many laws that we may not know we are breaking when we drink our favorite NoCoast Beer.

Did you know…

• that it is illegal to sit on a curb in St. Louis and drink beer from a bucket?
• that it is illegal to take more than three sips of a beer while standing in Texas?
  
• Nebraska bars are legally required to be cooking a kettle of soup when beer is available?
• North Dakota bars and restaurants are not allowed by law to serve beer and pretzels at the same time?
• sending a gift of beer in Kentucky is an offense punishable with up to five years of imprisonment?
• according to the Babylonian Code of Hammurabi (in 1750 B.C.), watering down beer was an offense punishable by death.

Surprised by some of the laws? Well, then the cultural significance beer has had in some cultures will shock you. Did you know…

• When a male member of the Tiriki tribe (in Vihiga district, Hamisi Division in the Western province of Kenya) wants to propose, he offers his significant other beer. To signify her acceptance of the proposal, she spits some out.
• When a Baganda king (in Uganda) passes away, his wives have the ‘honor’ of drinking the beer used to clean his entrails.
• To the Abipone people of Paraguay, people that do not drink beer are “cowardly, degenerate and stupid.”=
• To honor their dead, the Uape Indians, in the upper Amazon region of Brazil, cremate the body, mix the ashes with beer for members of the family to drink

Become the life of the party. Share a NoCoast – and some fascinating beer trivia – at your next holiday gathering.