• Beer has become one of the top three most popular drinks in the world, only surpassed by water and tea. It is the most consumed alchoholic beverage on the planet.
• Beer is thought by some to be the oldest fermented beverage, possibly dating back to the early Neolithic or 9500 BC, when cereal was first farmed.
• The earliest known chemical evidence of barley beer dates to circa 3500 – 3100 BC from the site of Godin Tepe in the Zagros Mountains of western Iran.
• Some of the earliest Sumerian writings found in the region contain references to a type of beer; one such example, a prayer to the goddess Ninkasi, known as "The Hymn to Ninkasi", served as both a prayer as well as a method of remembering the recipe for beer in a culture with few literate people.