Top 10 beer facts

With the royal wedding. Crown Prince Ludwig, later to become King of Bavaria, Ludwig I, was married to Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen on October 12, 1810. The citizens of Munich were invited to attend the festivities held on the fields in front of the city gates to celebrate the happy royal event. Since then, Otoberfest is held at the same place every year (except for epidemics and wars).

In September. The world's largest beer festival once took place in October, but was eventually prolonged and moved ahead to September to allow for better weather conditions. Today, the last day of the festival is the first Sunday in October.

It was designed for coachmen. The brewery claims the glass was designed by the innkeeper Pauwel Kwak in the early 19th century for coachmen. The shape of the glass allowed them to fix the beer to the carriage and avoid spills.

London. The London Beer Flood happened on 17 October 1814 in London. A huge vat containing over 610,000 litres of beer ruptured, causing other vats in the same building to succumb in a domino effect. As a result, more than 1,470,000 litres of beer burst out and gushed into the streets, killing couple of people in the process.

Saint Arnulf of Metz (c. 582 – 640 AD) was a Frankish bishop of Metz and advisor to the Merovingian court of Austrasia, who retired to the Abbey of Remiremont. This bishop became famous by miraculous reproduction of beer in south France. Also he is author of prayer to beer.

Johannes Hevelius was also a known brewer. His astronomical observatory was set on the rooftop of his brewery.

IBU. The International Bittering Units scale, or simply IBU scale, is used to approximately quantify the bitterness of beer. This scale is not measured on the perceived bitterness of the beer, but rather the amount of iso-alpha acids.

Baltic Porter is a very high alcohol, sweet, robust porter that originated in the Baltic states. Baltic Porter reflects both the character of original British Porters and the character of sweeter, highly alcoholic Russian Imperial Stouts.

Beer style. American IPAs (India Pale Ale) are typically brewed with American hops, such as Cascade, Centennial, Citra, Columbus, Chinook, Simcoe, Amarillo, Tomahawk, Warrior, Neomexicanus, and Nugget.

Cherry. Kriek lambic is a style of Belgian beer, made by fermenting lambic with sour Morello cherries. Traditionally "Schaarbeekse krieken" (a rare Belgian Morello variety) from the area around Brussels are used. As the Schaarbeek type cherries have become more difficult to find, some brewers have replaced these (partly or completely) with other varieties of sour cherries, sometimes imported.