Ten Things You Might Not Know About Beer-- Part 2

I sure enjoy it whenever the Chicago Tribune runs one of Mark Jacob's Ten Things You Might Not Know articles. Always interesting and informative and often with Chicago tie-ins.. I don't know how he comes up with all that great stuff.

Continuing from yesterday.


6. The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 devastated Chicago's brewery scene allowing Milwaukee folks to swoop in and grab market. Then, Schlitz, Miller, Pabst and others took advantage of the Chicago railroad hub to expand their products across the US. So, "What made Milwaukee famous" owes a lot to a little old Chicago fire.

7. "The Guiness Book of World Records" was begun in 1955 at the suggestion of the boss of Guiness Brewery in Ireland to settle disputes in bars. And you thought it was a tool for people to come up with and do stupid things!! Well, folks drinking beer are sometimes prone to do wild and crazy things.

8. Joe Charboneau of Belvidere, Illinois, and also an outfielder for the Cleveland Indians in the 80s, used to open beer bottles with his eye socket and drink them through a straw in his nose. How GROSS!!

9. "Beer Goggles" referring to how folks of the opposite sex start looking better as more beer is consumed, might just have a bottle to stand on. A Glasgow University survey in 2002, found drunk students 25% more likely to rate a person as sexually attractive than sober ones. I sure would have liked to see that test.

10. During Prohibition, only "near beer" (less than 0.5% alcohol) could be sold. Sometimes folks got around this by injecting alcohol into the barrel.

BONUS. While I used to deejay at the Puppet Bar in Fox Lake, Illinois, we had a little activity called "Bobbing For Bottles" on Thursday nights. A friend had taken a bath tub, enclosed it, and put it on wheels. We'd fill it up with ice and bottles of import beer. For a buck, you could put your head in (hands behind the back) and if you could snag one with your teeth, got the bottle. If not, you were just out of a dollar.

We finally had to put a shower curtain up between my equipment and the tub as people invariably shook their heads upon coming out of that horrific cold. I always refused to do it, but eventually was talked into it. Well, I chipped a tooth and would have to say it must have been like dying. It was horrible, BUT...I did get the bottle.

The Things We Do for a Beer. Thanks Mark and Thanks Tribune for the Inciteful Info. --Old Coot