扎克·麥克 唐靜

There is something undeniably American about the philosophy of drinking a beer. It’s the everyman’s drink to be enjoyed during backyard celebrations， or baseball games， or while watching moon landings， or simply as a reward for finishing mowing the lawn. It’s a beverage ingrained in our national ethos， passed around by intramural softball champions and Super Bowl winners alike. To hell with apple pie： beer is what makes America gleam.

In honor of the Fourth， we’ve compiled some of our favorite moments in American beer history. Swap them at your holiday BBQ. Pass them along to your favorite bartender. Shout them out while watching fireworks. Because knowledge is power， and as a man named Abraham Lincoln once said： “If given the truth， [the people] can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts—and beer.”

Native Americans were making beer long before European settlers arrived

Archaeologists have discovered fragments of pottery that prove that ancient Pueblos were brewing beer in New Mexico as far back as the 13th century， more than 300 years before Spanish settlers arrived in the area. The brew was made using corn， similar to a weak beer tribes in Arizona and Mexico made called tiswin. Thanksgiving， it seems， was much more fun than the old paintings let on.

America’s first public brewery opened in 1612 in New Amsterdam

Even though colonists in Virginia had been making beer for personal use for years， it wasn’t until Adrian Block and Hans Christiansen opened their doors in New Amsterdam that a public brewery stood on North American soil， right at the southern tip of Manhattan. As perhaps what you could call a pretty good omen， the first brewer ever born in the New World （and purportedly the first non-Native American male born in New Amsterdam） was delivered right in the brewhouse. There’s no record on what eventually happened to the brewery， but most believe it was priced out of the neighborhood by a chain drugstore1.

The Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock because they were running out of beer

Anyone who has been through primary school has learned the story of the Mayflower， and anyone who has picked up a history book since has learned that the actual events were pretty different than the kid version. One huge difference？ The Pilgrims themselves actually had plans to sail south to Virginia after landing on Cape Cod， but were forced to land at Plymouth Rock as they were running out of vital supplies， chief among them being beer.

The founding fathers were big on beer in both their personal and professional lives

Does it really come as a surprise that there was beer on the minds of the architects of the United States？ At a time when drinking water was a risky proposition， brew was considered a safe alternative to death by dysentery. George Washington insisted his continental army be permitted a quart of beer as part of their daily rations during the Revolutionary War （and luckily for them， Congress agreed and upheld the request）.

But even outside of troop sustenance， George Washington was known for both buying beer （kind of ironically， it was often English porter） and using homebrewing as a means of providing their households with beer. According to the Mount Vernon Historical Society， there was a recipe written in his handwriting discovered on the last page of a notebook he kept.

Thomas Jefferson， always the showboat， went even further with his devotion to homebrew. After retiring from public life to Monticello， he quickly developed an interest in producing his own beer， right down to roasting his own malts. Naturally， word spread and his brew became so popular that the sitting governor of Virginia and sitting President James Madison both requested his recipes （to which he replied， “No way， Jose，” or something similar in his Jeffersonian wit）.

James Madison tried to make beer a federally official thing

Leave it to ol’ One-Upmanship James Madison to try to take the beer spotlight from the rest of the founding fathers！ Early during his first term in 1809， he proposed the creation of a national brewery to ensure the country had a reliable supply of beer for the masses. He even proposed to have it overseen by an appointed Secretary of Beer who would sit on his cabinet. Of course， this may have less to do with his love for beer and more with the fact that he was trying to 1） protect the domestic beer market by undercutting imports with tariffs， and 2） make beer more popular than whiskey， which he found to be a huge drag on families and society in general. In any case， it didn’t matter： party-pooper Congress rejected his idea， denying it from ever taking off.

The oldest bar in the country predates the actual country itself by over a century

Long before craft beer bars were in vogue， or before we had really delved into the idea that “hey， maybe the British aren’t so great，” someone in Rhode Island got the idea to open a tavern. And that’s why in 1673， the White Horse Tavern in Newport opened its doors and became an active participant in early American history. Colonial councilmen gathered here， charging their beer- and spirit-fueled lunches to the public treasury， while Hessianic mercenaries （or German soldiers paid to police the British colonies） drank nearby. And it was run by a pirate for while！ These days， the German mercenaries are long gone， but it does serve crazy-good seafood and kick-ass local beer.

In the 1980s， a beer-drinking goat was elected mayor of a town in Texas

Perhaps as proof that people are willing to vote for anyone with a schtick， the small town of Lajitas， TX once elected a beer-swilling goat as their town’s leader in the late ’80s. Henry Clay was famous for taking a long-neck bottle of Lone Star beer from tourists， upending it in his own mouth， and spitting the bottle to the ground when it was finished. He was viewed as a firm-yet-benevolent leader by his people until he was killed by his own son in a heated act of jealousy.

Obama is the first to brew his own beer in the White House

Since George Washington never actually lived there， and since every president in between was more a “bodega run” kind of guy， Obama’s homebrew program marks the first time a sitting president has made his own beer in the White House. Public interest in the brew has been intense ever since he got a homebrew kit for the kitchen during his first year in office... so much so that two lawyers actually requested the recipes be made public under the Freedom of Information Act. And they won！

討論喝啤酒的哲學(xué)，必有美國(guó)人的一席之地。人人都好這一口，后花園家庭聚會(huì)、棒球比賽，或者大到觀看登月，小到只是剪完草坪犒勞自己，隨時(shí)都愛(ài)喝。這一飲品根植于美國(guó)國(guó)家精神，由校園壘球賽冠軍和超級(jí)碗獲勝者代代傳承。讓蘋(píng)果派見(jiàn)鬼去吧：啤酒才讓美國(guó)熠熠生輝。

為紀(jì)念獨(dú)立日，我們摘編了美國(guó)啤酒史上一些喜聞樂(lè)見(jiàn)的花絮，大家可以在假日燒烤時(shí)聊聊，給你喜歡的酒吧店員講講，觀看煙花的時(shí)候吼吼。知識(shí)就是力量嘛，有個(gè)名叫亞伯拉罕·林肯的人曾經(jīng)說(shuō)過(guò)：“若曉之以真相，在民族危亡之際，則可信賴于人民。重要的是，要給他們真正的事實(shí)——和啤酒?！?/p>

美國(guó)土著早在歐洲殖民者到來(lái)前就開(kāi)始釀造啤酒

考古學(xué)家已發(fā)現(xiàn)的陶片證明，早在13世紀(jì)，古代普韋布洛人就曾在新墨西哥釀造啤酒，300多年后，西班牙殖民者才抵達(dá)這一地區(qū)。這種啤酒用玉米釀成，類似于亞利桑那和墨西哥一些部落釀造的一款叫作提斯溫的淡啤酒。以前的感恩節(jié)似乎要比一些老畫(huà)兒描述的更歡樂(lè)。

美國(guó)第一家大眾啤酒廠于1612年在新阿姆斯特丹開(kāi)業(yè)

盡管弗吉尼亞的殖民者多年釀造啤酒，但屬于私釀，直到阿德里安·布洛克和漢斯·克里斯琴森在新阿姆斯特丹開(kāi)門(mén)營(yíng)業(yè)，北美土地上才算有了第一家大眾啤酒廠，就坐落在曼哈頓的最南端。或許是個(gè)所謂的好兆頭吧，恰好就在這家酒廠，誕生了新世界第一個(gè)釀酒師，據(jù)說(shuō)也是新阿姆斯特丹出生的第一個(gè)非土著美國(guó)男孩。這家酒廠最終命運(yùn)如何，沒(méi)有記錄可尋，但大多數(shù)人覺(jué)得是一家連鎖雜貨店利用價(jià)格戰(zhàn)把它擠出了這片地方。

清教徒前輩移民在普利茅斯巖上岸是因?yàn)槠【坪裙饬?/p>

上過(guò)小學(xué)的人都知道“五月花”號(hào)的故事，不過(guò)后來(lái)再拿起一本歷史書(shū)學(xué)習(xí)的人都會(huì)了解到，實(shí)情和孩提時(shí)知道的截然不同。最大差異在哪？清教徒前輩移民在科德角登陸后，其實(shí)本來(lái)計(jì)劃向南航行到弗吉尼亞，但不得不在普利茅斯巖上岸，因?yàn)橹匾难a(bǔ)給耗盡——主要是啤酒喝光了。

美國(guó)開(kāi)國(guó)元?jiǎng)谉o(wú)論公開(kāi)還是私下都是啤酒膩?zhàn)?/p>

美國(guó)奠基者的心里一直裝著啤酒，這應(yīng)該不足為怪吧？那段時(shí)間，喝水是件危險(xiǎn)的事，為避免得痢疾而亡，大家認(rèn)為喝啤酒相對(duì)安全。美國(guó)獨(dú)立戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)期間，喬治·華盛頓堅(jiān)持他的大陸軍須每天配給一夸脫啤酒作為口糧。所幸，國(guó)會(huì)同意并支持了這一要求。

即使不在部隊(duì)吃飯，喬治·華盛頓愛(ài)喝啤酒也是出了名的，不僅買(mǎi)酒喝（有點(diǎn)兒諷刺的是，他經(jīng)常買(mǎi)英式波特黑啤），還在家自釀啤酒。據(jù)弗農(nóng)山歷史協(xié)會(huì)介紹，在華盛頓保存的一個(gè)筆記本的最后一頁(yè)上，有他手寫(xiě)的釀酒配方。

托馬斯·杰斐遜愛(ài)出風(fēng)頭，對(duì)于家釀啤酒如癡如醉，造詣更深。從公職退下來(lái)回到蒙蒂塞洛以后，他很快找到了自己的興趣，生產(chǎn)一款自己的啤酒，甚至自己烘焙麥芽。自然，消息一傳開(kāi)，他的啤酒大受歡迎，時(shí)任弗吉尼亞州州長(zhǎng)和時(shí)任總統(tǒng)詹姆斯·麥迪遜都向他討要啤酒配方，他一概拒絕，要么回復(fù)“沒(méi)門(mén)，各位”，要么靠他杰裴遜式的機(jī)智做出類似回答。

詹姆斯·麥迪遜試圖把啤酒升級(jí)為“國(guó)營(yíng)”

詹姆斯·麥迪遜總覺(jué)得自己高人一等，他當(dāng)仁不讓地試圖要把閃耀在開(kāi)國(guó)元?jiǎng)咨砩系钠【凭酃鉄艮D(zhuǎn)移到自己身上來(lái)！1809年第一任期之初，他就提議創(chuàng)辦一家國(guó)家啤酒廠，以確保全國(guó)老百姓獲得穩(wěn)定充足的啤酒供應(yīng)。他甚至建議任命一位啤酒部長(zhǎng)來(lái)入駐內(nèi)閣，監(jiān)管此事。當(dāng)然，他這么做與他熱衷喝啤酒關(guān)系不大，主要是因?yàn)椋?）他想靠關(guān)稅來(lái)削減進(jìn)口，從而保護(hù)國(guó)內(nèi)啤酒市場(chǎng);2）他想讓啤酒比威士忌更受歡迎，因?yàn)樗J(rèn)為后者拖累了社會(huì)和家庭的總體發(fā)展。不管怎么說(shuō)，這都不重要了：不識(shí)好歹的國(guó)會(huì)拒絕了他的想法，計(jì)劃還沒(méi)起步就徹底夭折。

美國(guó)最古老酒吧的建立比美國(guó)建國(guó)還要早100來(lái)年

早在精釀啤酒盛行之前，或在我們真正開(kāi)始琢磨“嘿，或許英國(guó)人也沒(méi)那么偉大”之前，羅德島就有人突發(fā)奇想，要開(kāi)一家酒館。于是乎，1673年，紐波特白馬酒館開(kāi)張，它也成了早期美國(guó)歷史的積極參與者。殖民政府各議長(zhǎng)在此高談闊論，觥籌交錯(cuò)，頓頓午餐都酒足飯飽，然后用公款記賬，附近還有黑森雇傭軍（即花錢(qián)雇來(lái)保護(hù)英國(guó)殖民地的德國(guó)兵）喝得酩酊大醉。有一陣，酒館竟然是個(gè)海盜在經(jīng)營(yíng)！如今，德國(guó)雇傭軍早已消失，不過(guò)酒館的海鮮是真好，啤酒也是真棒。

1980年代，喝啤酒的山羊當(dāng)選得克薩斯州某鎮(zhèn)鎮(zhèn)長(zhǎng)

得克薩斯州拉希塔斯小鎮(zhèn)曾在1980年代末選出一只狂飲啤酒的山羊當(dāng)鎮(zhèn)長(zhǎng)，或許人們是想證明他們?cè)敢馔七x任何能鬧出點(diǎn)噱頭的人物吧。這只山羊名叫亨利·克雷，因喝啤酒而聞名——它會(huì)接過(guò)游客給的長(zhǎng)頸瓶裝孤星牌啤酒，咬住酒瓶倒立嘴中，一飲而盡，然后把酒瓶吐到地上。小鎮(zhèn)居民覺(jué)得它是個(gè)堅(jiān)定且仁慈的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)，不過(guò)后來(lái)它兒子因嫉妒它而行為過(guò)激，把它殺了。

奧巴馬是第一位在白宮自釀啤酒的總統(tǒng)

因?yàn)閱讨巍とA盛頓事實(shí)上根本沒(méi)在白宮住過(guò)，還因?yàn)楹髞?lái)的每一任總統(tǒng)更多像“開(kāi)酒窖”的，所以?shī)W巴馬的家釀啤酒項(xiàng)目就標(biāo)志著他成為第一位在白宮自釀啤酒的在任總統(tǒng)。入主白宮第一年，他就給廚房置辦了一整套家釀設(shè)備，引發(fā)民眾對(duì)他釀酒的強(qiáng)烈關(guān)注……甚至真的有兩名律師根據(jù)《信息自由法案》要求他把啤酒配方公之于眾。他們竟然成功了！? ?□