Beer is an alcoholic beverage primarily made from water, grains, hops, and yeast. The drink comes in many styles, flavors, and alcohol levels, with over 100 types of beer consumed worldwide.
> Learn the difference between the most popular styles of beer. (More, w/video)
> See how Oktoberfest is celebrated around the globe, and find out which unexpected US city hosts the biggest festival. (More)
The beverage can be traced back to ancient societies, with some scholars suggesting that the oldest brewery may have been found in modern-day Israel over 13,000 years ago. The drink has a long history in America, too, with the country's first president, George Washington, once inscribing his own recipe for "Small Beer."
> Read a Sumerian poem that many believe provided a recipe for ancient beer. (More)
> During Prohibition, Pabst Brewing Company switched from brewing its Blue Ribbon beer to making cheese. (More)
> Svalbard Brewery is the northernmost brewery in the world, located in a remote Arctic village where there are nearly as many polar bears as people. (More, w/video)
Recent trends and demographic shifts have contributed to declining sales in the beer industry, though the drink remains a cornerstone of celebrations, sporting events, and cultural scenes.
> The craft beer industry has been in decline since 2024 due to changing demographics and a wider variety of alcoholic beverages. (More)
> See if your state is a top-10 beer producer in the US. (More, w/map)
> Explore the history of alcohol and how it impacts our bodies. (More, w/audio)
Discover more:
> For his 1922 Nobel Prize in physics, Niels Bohr was awarded a lifetime of free beer by Denmark's Carlsberg Brewery. (More)
> Jimmy Carter signed a 1978 bill that legalized homebrewing, a move credited with kick-starting the craft beer industry. (More, w/video)
> In the 2010s, Australian researchers turned 220-year-old yeast preserved from a 1797 shipwreck into a new beer. (More)
