Philadelphia Weekly

FOOD

There's a Reason So Many Beers Are Named After Myths, Gods and Monsters

By Eric San Juan

Add Comment | Comments: 1 | Posted May. 30, 2012

Whether god, monster or mortal, we have tendency to connect great figures of the past with great beers, almost as if by virtue of their deeds we can make our beverages better. Or is it really the reverse? Maybe what we’re really doing is elevating these historical figures, fictional or otherwise, by attaching them to a beverage so near to our hearts. When Philly’s own Yards Brewing creates beers that follow in the footsteps of the Founding Fathers with their Ales of the Revolution series, or Jim Koch names his entire line of beers after Founder Samuel Adams, they are not merely lending their beers a sense of history, and by extension lending it credibility. In a strange way, they’re also etching those historical figures into our great myths—by attaching them to history’s most significant beverage.

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