Is it time for beer yet?

When is it time for beer?

Granted: it is not a question that will change the world, but it is a question on everyone's lips. And the answer to the question "Is it time for beer yet?" has, over the centuries, been answered in different ways. We'd like to take you on a little history tour, with a tasty glass of beer to go with it!

Beer with breakfast - and for breakfast

Several centuries ago, the question "Is it time for beer yet?" was an unnecessary one: it was always time for beer. Indeed, beer was simply considered a foodstuff. The expression "a glass of beer equals a brown cheese sandwich" did not come out of the blue!

For example, anyone in sixteenth, seventeenth or eighteenth century Amsterdam who asked the question "Is it already time for beer?" did so before breakfast. An article on Amsterdam Table Manners that appeared recently reports that the Amsterdammer used to have breakfast with herring and beer. Plates and cutlery were hardly used, by the way. Not only is herring and beer a fine combination: the beer, especially in those days, contained a lot of unfermented sugars derived from the grain. And sugar is an important fuel for the human body: count your profits!

"Is it time for beer yet?" was certainly asked more often in those days. Because even at lunch - which was then the main meal of the day - and supper they served beer as an accompanying drink. Not because you would get sick from the water - city water only became so tainted in the nineteenth century that drinking it was unwise - but because it contained extra nutrients.

England

Three pubs still exist in London that maintain the time-honored tradition of "the morning pint. See the article"When London's pubs were full at 7 PM," which nicely describes that historical fact. In part, those pubs open so early to serve people coming off the night shift, but beer was simply part of breakfast a century ago. To this day, certain occupational groups are allowed through their collective bargaining agreements to drink beer with breakfast: especially construction workers and haulers. For them it is partly tradition, and especially the tradition of the extra nutrients, that makes it possible.

Furthermore, you can often find these pubs (and all pubs that used to open this early as well) near a market. Here deals were made and business concluded as early as dawn - a pub had to be open for that. The question "Is it time for beer yet?" was as nonsensical as the question "Shall we take a breath?". The thirsty market vendors, their staff and clientele saw a pint of beer at seven in the morning more like a beer with lunch. That's how it was back then!

Alcohol-free beer

Today, anyone who asks the question "Is it time for beer yet?" sometimes gets the answer "it's definitely five o'clock somewhere. And what we mean by 'the five is in the clock' is that for a long time it was customary to go for a quick glass of beer after work at your local pub. You came from work and were on your way home, mother the wife and the hot meal: just catch up with your friends and acquaintances in the pub! There was no Internet and the freshest news was heard at the bar. During the day you might drink a glass of beer with lunch, but certainly in the 1980s that became less and less common. Working with a swig on, we obviously don't do that anymore.

Another answer to the question "Is it time for beer yet?" is: yes! Now that there is a rich, quality and diverse range of non-alcoholic beers available, you can drink beer at lunch, at noon and, as far as we are concerned, at breakfast without any problem. It is, we want to say, always time for beer - but it doesn't always have to have alcohol in it! 

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