Image by Artturi Mäntysaari from Pixabay
Today is National Beer Day. Turns out this celebration of a hugely popular fermented grain drink is relatively new, but the actual stuff? Pretty old. Like 5th millennium BC old!
According to Wikipedia’s History of beer page, ancient pottery unearthed in modern-day Iran contained beer reside and was estimated to be 7,000 years old.
But getting back to National Beer Day. The United States Census Bureau has a page on National Beer Day linking to the first record of Congressional recognition of National Beer Day was by the Honorable Dave Brat of Virginia on Thursday, April 6, 2017.
According to Rep. Brat, “On April 7, 1933, the Cullen-Harrison Act, named after the legislation’s sponsors, went into effect and for the first time since 1920 the purchase, sale and consumption of beer and wine with an alcohol content of 3.2 percent was legal.”
Then in 2009, Rep. Brat says, one of his constituents thought of celebrating the return of legalized sale of beer with a National Beer Day. By 2017, National Beer Day was recognized by the governor of Virginia, and the rest is history!
What does that have to do with barley farmers? Well, barley is typically divided into two categories: malting barley and feed barley. Malting barley is of a higher quality than feed barley and is used to make “malted” beverages like beer.
North Dakota farmers ranked third in the production of barley in 2020, growing 17.5% of the nation’s production. Only Idaho and Montana grew more barley than North Dakota. The number one producing county in barley production in 2020 was Ramsey County, followed by Benson County, and Cavalier County.
According to the Institute of Beer, it takes between 830 to 3,375 kernels of barley to produce one 12-ounce bottle of beer. It all depends on the type of beer being produced. IPAs require more malted barley than a typical lager.
So if you are so inclined, raise a glass to a North Dakota barley farmer today on National Beer Day!