A Day Late And A Dollar Short

It's been a little hectic around here lately - so hectic that I totally missed National Beer Day.

Yes, Tuesday 7 April was National Beer Day, "an unofficial holiday in the United States celebrated every year on April 7th" which just happens to be the day that Prohibition ended.

In honor of that day, here's a few interesting beer tidbits.

Egypt was likely the first civilization to tax beer. Queen Cleopatra imposed a tax on beer in order, she claimed, to discourage public drunkenness, though it is widely believed that the tax was actually used to raise money to fund war with Rome.

Beer is the most popular alcoholic beverage in the United States. As a country, we consume 205.8 million barrels per year, or about 20 gallons per person per year. In 2012, the federal government collected $9.7 billion in revenue from excise taxes on distilled spirits, beer, and wine.

In 1695, Great Britain raised taxes on beer, making gin the cheapest beverage in England.

In the United States, taxes on the production, distribution and sale eat up 40% of the retail price of beer.

German beers are often labeled “Gebraut nach dem Bayerischen Reinheitsgebot von 1516″ which translates roughly to “brewed according to the Bavarian Purity Law of 1516.” The law originally limited the ingredients which can be used to make beer in Germany (barley malt, hops, yeast and water) and allowed the government to tax beer.

To help pay for the Civil War, Congress imposed an excise tax on beer.

Arthur Guinness II – the father of Guinness stout – altered the family beer recipe to include unmalted roasted barley instead of black malt. The unmalted barley wasn’t subject to tax ... it also made the beer’s taste distinctive. By the end of the 19th century, Guinness was the largest brewery in Europe.

The first beer cans were produced in 1935. The great United States/Canadian beer can war, however, started nearly 60 years later in 1992, when Ontario announced an “environmental tax” of 10% per aluminum beer can. At the time, United States brewers sold most of their beer in cans, while Canadian brewers bottled most (80%) of their beer. Ontario claimed that the tax wasn’t meant to target United States brewers although the tax did not apply to aluminum soft drink cans. In response, the United States imposed a $3 per case tax on beer imported from Ontario. Ontario fired back with a $3 per case tax on beer imported from Stroh and Heileman breweries which were, at the time, the two largest United States exporters of beer into Ontario.

In 1991, former President George H.W. Bush signed a bill which raised taxes on luxuries such as furs, yachts, private jets, jewelry and expensive cars (yes, despite the “no new taxes” pledge) – that same bill nearly doubled the tax on beer.

The most expensive state to buy a beer may well be Tennessee where state excise taxes reach $1.29 per gallon. The cheapest state to buy a beer? Wyoming with an excise tax of just .02 per gallon.

At the North America Wife Carrying Championship, first prize is the wife’s weight in beer... In the United States, prizes – even paid in beer – are taxable for federal income tax purposes.

The oldest operating brewing company in the U.S. is D.G. Yuengling & Son ... based in Pottsville, PA.

Cenosillicaphobia is the fear of an empty beer glass. Don’t suffer any more. Go, get a beer.