American Beer day

By Diane Forrest,

Benjamin Franklin once said that Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy. Beer is the most popular alcoholic beverage in the United States, where over 1,400 breweries produce more than 6 billion gallons annually.  Beer has been around for thousands of years.  The earliest known chemical evidence of beer dates to circa 3500–3100 BC.

It is the third most popular beverage, behind tea and water.  Beer in the United States is manufactured by more than 1,700 breweries.   Americans drink more than 50 billion pints of beer each year—that's enough to fill 1 out of every 25 residential in-ground pools in the U.S.!

I can remember being around beer from an early age.  My father would sip some suds on the weekends, I grew up singing 99 bottles of beer on the wall, and when I went to college there were always games to play that involved drinking beer. Even when I started working at the hospital I had a doctor to order beer for one of his patients.

One of the best beers I ever drank was on a hot summer day out at the lake and the only thing I had to drink was an ice cold beer.  While I am not a beer drinker, I have used it on occasion as a rinse for my hair and in batter for frying onion rings.

Today is American Beer day, and you have many different brands to choose from.  One of the best selling brands is Budweiser.  While I’m not an expert on the taste, I have to admit they have some great commercials.  Who can forget the singing frogs, and the beautiful Christmas ads with the Clydesdale horses, or the awesome memorial tribute to the victims of 9/11.

So today, on American Beer day, why not relax and blow the froth off a few, and if your aren't a beer drinker, have some beer battered onion rings...or even rinse out your hair, but enjoy celebrating this fun day.