San Diego – Museum of Man (Beer for Breakfast)
The Museum of Man in San Diego had a temporary exhibition when I visited in 2015 which was all about beer. I have to say (write), what a marvellous choice of exhibition…
And beer for breakfast? The text of this exhibits reads, “The Sphinx is a silent symbol of Egypt, but if he could talk he would tell tales of beer. Why? In Ancient Egypt beer was money and they paid a labourer a gallon of beer a day. By even modest calculations it took at least 231 million gallons of beer to build the Pyramid of Giza. To the Egyptian labourer, beer was a vital source of nutrition. Containing about 3% alcohol and packed with vitamins and minerals, it was a lot more like fermented oatmeal than our European-style beers”.
A gallon of beer a day? There are eight US pints in a US gallon (I think), but that’s about 6.7 UK pints. Nonetheless, 6.7 UK pints per day is still quite a lot. I’m not sure I’d want that much, although if this fermented oatmeal tastes like a fine oatmeal stout, then perhaps I might have been tempted….
