//
var numFacts = 54; // <=== Adjust the number of quotations here
var bf = null;
function initFacts() {
bf = new initArr(numFacts);
bf[1] = "1820: The United States boasts 14,000 distilleries, but only 200 breweries, all of which make English-style ale.";
bf[2] = "1840: Per capita, Americans consume 2.5 gallons of spirits each year and about a gallon of beer.";
bf[3] = "1844: Phillip Best, a newly arrived German immigrant, and his father and brothers establish Best Brewing in Milwaukee. Fifty years later, it would be the world's largest brewery.";
bf[4] = "1851: Maine passes the nation's first prohibition law, even as dozens of new breweries open during the decade.";
bf[5] = "1855: Anti-prohibition, anti-German riots erupt in cities with large German populations.";
bf[6] = "1857: Saloonkeepers in many cities go on trial for violating Sunday drink laws. One jury after another finds them not guilty on grounds that lager beer is not intoxicating.";
bf[7] = "1863: A physician studying camp conditions among Union troops recommends that they prevent constipation by drinking plenty of lager.";
bf[8] = "1864: Phillip Best takes on a partner, his son-in-law Frederick Pabst.";
bf[9] = "1865: Adolphus Busch buys a share of the brewery owned by his father-in-law, Eberhard Anheuser.";
bf[10] = "1868: The Uihlein brothers go to work for their uncle, Joseph Schlitz. Like Phillip Best and Eberhard Anheuser, Schlitz makes about 4,000 barrels of beer a year.";
bf[11] = "1873: The number of American breweries hits its all-time high: 4,131. Frederick Pabst's brewmaster begins experimenting with beers brewed from corn and barley.";
bf[12] = "1876: Carl Conrad, a St. Louis importer of wine and spirits, introduces Budweiser, a rice-based beer brewed for him by his close friend Adolphus Busch.";
bf[13] = "1878: Adolphus Busch's St. Louis Lager, a Bohemian-style beer made with rice, wins top honors at the Paris Exposition.";
bf[14] = "1880: Seventy-five percent of the nation's brewers make fewer than 4,000 barrels a year. The king of American brewers, George Ehret, produces more than 200,000, and his heir apparent, Frederick Pabst, lags by just a few thousand barrels.";
bf[15] = "1890: The world's three largest breweries are Pabst Brewing (formerly called Best Brewing), Anheuser-Busch, and Schlitz.";
bf[16] = "1893: Anheuser-Busch files suit to force Miller Brewing of Milwaukee to stop using the name 'Budweiser.' (In 1898, a judge ruled in favor of Anheuser-Busch.) Howard Hyde Russell founds the Anti-Saloon League and launches the crusade that will culminate in Prohibition. There are 1,930 breweries in the U.S.";
bf[17] = "1896: Americans drink a gallon of spirits per capita, and fifteen gallons of beer.";
bf[18] = "1909: The Anti-Saloon League's campaign is working: more than fifty percent of the American population lives under some form of state or local prohibition.";
bf[19] = "1914: The House of Representatives votes on constitutional prohibition. The tally, 197 to 190, is short of the two-thirds needed, but enough to galvanize the anti-alcohol crusade. On New Year's Eve, New York brewer Jacob Ruppert buys the New York Yankees.";
bf[20] = "1917: The United States enters the World War. There are only 1,237 breweries still open.";
bf[21] = "1918: In order to conserve grain and fuel, President Woodrow Wilson orders breweries to close their doors on December 1.";
bf[22] = "1919: New York brewer Jake Ruppert makes Yankees team history when he buys Babe Ruth from the Boston Red Sox.";
bf[23] = "1920: Constitutional Prohibition goes into effect.";
bf[24] = "1932: In May, Americans march in 'beer parades,' demanding 'Beer for Taxation.'";
bf[25] = "1933: Congress modifies the Volstead Act to allow 3.2% beer. At midnight on April 7, beer becomes legal once more. Some seven hundred breweries open their doors.";
bf[26] = "1935: Canned beer makes its debut in Richmond, Virginia.";
bf[27] = "1941: The United States declares war on Germany and Japan. Prohibitionists demand an end to all alcohol production, but the federal government declares brewing a vital component of the war effort.";
bf[28] = "1946: With the war and depression behind them, brewers march into the new era. Pabst, Anheuser-Busch, and Schlitz open new breweries on the east coast. Over the next few years, they will do the same on the west coast.";
bf[29] = "1949: Beer sales drop by a million barrels, an omen for the grim decade to come, when sales remain flat and per capita consumption drops to historic lows.";
bf[30] = "1953: Anheuser-Busch buys the St. Louis Cardinals and Miller Brewing president Frederick C. Miller persuades the Boston Braves to relocate to Milwaukee.";
bf[31] = "1954: Fred C. Miller dies in a plane crash.";
bf[32] = "1958: With the brewery ailing and near death, Pabst stockholders try to engineer a sale to Pepsi-Cola. The deal falls through. Instead, Pabst buys Blatz Brewing.";
bf[33] = "1959: Stagnant demand takes its toll: there are only 244 breweries left in the United States.";
bf[34] = "1965: Fritz Maytag buys Steam Beer Brewing Company, a small--and failing--outfit in San Francisco.";
bf[35] = "1966: Miller Brewing heiress Lorraine Mulberger sells her controlling shares to W. R. Grace.";
bf[36] = "1969: W. R. Grace sells Miller Brewing to Philip Morris.";
bf[37] = "1973: Chicago newspaper columnist Mike Royko complains that American beer tastes like it's been run 'through a horse.' He organizes a taste test. Beer made by tiny Stevens Point (capacity 30,000 barrels) comes in third behind two imports. Two Schlitz brands and Budweiser finish last.";
bf[38] = "1974: Lager made by Leinenkugel in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, ranks second in a taste test sponsored by Oui magazine.";
bf[39] = "1975: John Murphy and Miller Brewing introduce Miller Lite.";
bf[40] = "1976: In California, Jack McAuliffe files incorporation papers for his new Sonoma business venture, New Albion Brewing. A Massachusetts man, Larry McAvitt, founds the Committee for Real Ale, which he models after Britain's Campaign for Real Ale.";
bf[41] = "1977: A California magazine ranks Fritz Maytag's Anchor the best beer in America. In St. Louis, August Busch III has seen the light: He introduces Natural Light.";
bf[42] = "1978: Ken Grossman, a Chico homebrewer, visits New Albion. Charlie Papazian and Charlie Matzen launch the American Homebrewers Association. The number of American breweries drops to an all-time low: eighty-nine plants owned by forty-one companies.";
bf[43] = "1979: Ken Grossman and friend Paul Camusi rent a warehouse and begin building a new brewery, which they call Sierra Nevada.";
bf[44] = "1981: Grossman and Camusi begin selling their beer in and around Chico, 950 barrels worth that first year. Charlie Papazian hosts the first microbrewing conference. Executives at Schlitz close the doors of the Milwaukee brewery.";
bf[45] = "1982: Jack McAuliffe brews his last vat of New Albion Ale. The Great American Beer Festival debuts in Boulder, Colorado, the brainchild of Charlie Papazian. Stroh of Detroit buys ailing Schlitz.";
bf[46] = "1983: Michael Laybourn and Norm Franks buy Jack McAuliffe's brewery equipment and open Mendocino Brewing in Hopland, California. Charlie Papazian founds the Institute for Fermentation and Brewing Studies (later the Association of Brewers), an educational organization for microbrewers.";
bf[47] = "1985: Jim Koch launches Samuel Adams Lager in Boston.";
bf[48] = "1988: Jake Leinenkugel announces that he has sold his family's brewery to Miller Brewing.";
bf[49] = "1994: Anheuser-Busch buys a share of Redhook, a Seattle microbrewery. The number of breweries and brewpubs tops one thousand.";
bf[50] = "1995: Redhook and Jim Koch's Boston Beer Company issue stock offerings.";
bf[51] = "1996: The owners of Pabst Brewing close the Milwaukee brewery.";
bf[52] = "1997: Kurt Widmer of Widmer Brothers Brewing in Portland, Oregon, sells part of his company to Anheuser-Busch.";
bf[53] = "1998: Stroh Brewing of Detroit closes its doors. Dick Yuengling buys the company's Tampa facility.";
bf[54] = "2000: Sierra Nevada is the nation's tenth largest brewery. Yuengling is number eight, and Boston Beer is number six. In the number one slot is the same company that has occupied the throne for a half century: Anheuser-Busch.";
}
function getRandNum(n) {
//Returns a pseudorandom number between 1 and n
var today = new Date();
var bigNum = today.getSeconds() * today.getTime() * Math.sqrt(today.getMinutes());
var randNum = (bigNum % n) + 1;
return Math.floor(randNum);
}
function initArr(n) {
this.length = n;
for(var i = 1; i <= n; i++) {
this[i] = "";
}
return this;
}
function getRandomFact() {
var idx = getRandNum(numFacts);
return bf[idx];
}
function loadFact() {
var theFact = getRandomFact();
document.write(theFact);
}
initFacts();
document.write(" ");
document.write("
American beer history fact of the day (
see all)");
document.write("
");
document.write("