Elephants Also Brew Beer: Beer Was Once Unpopular With Ale-Sucking English

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 12, Issue 26, 2 March 1948, Page 6

Elephants Also Brew Beer: Beer Was Once Unpopular With Ale-Sucking English

Natives of tropical Africa regard their brewing season as a'time of great danger, wrote J. M. Coole in the Sydney Morning Herald. It’s not the fear of raids by the excise men, but the more weighty problem of raiding elephants. These animals are very partial to native beer, and can smell it brewing. They come 1 from miles around with wagging trunks and gargantuan thirsts, guzzle all the liquor, wreck the “still” and depart, no doubt with floating visions of “pink men.” But elephants are somewhat impatient drinkers, they do not always wait for the natives to brew the grog, but indulge in a dash of home brew by eating over-ripe dates, mangoes, and other tropical fruits and then drinking copious draughts of water. This causes fermentation in the stomach, resulting in complete intoxication. Up to the 16th century malted ale was the most favoured drink in England, and when the Dutch endeavoured to introduce their bitter “Biere” (“the wicked weed called hops”) this brew was regarded as poison by ale-sucking Englishmen. For hundreds of years the Ale Conners of London had the task of testing the quality of that city’s beer. To ascertain its sugar content, they would pour some beer over a stool, then sit on it in their leather breeches. If the breeches stuck to the stool the beer was firstgrade, and 150 years ago commanded the princely price of l£d a gallon.

In London “The Castle” in Clerkenwell is a pawnshop as well as a pub. It is said that George had backed a loser at a cock-fight and went, incognito, to this hostelry to raise a temporary loan on his watch. The publican obliged, and on the following day a messenger redeemed the pledge and gave the publican a document giving “The Castle” the right of pawn-brokerage in perpetuity. The licence is still renewed, and the sign of the three golden balls is in one of the bars.

Germany has always taken beer seriously, and at Berlin University they once had a “Faculty of Beer” leading to the degree M.B. (Master Brewer).