Cheers! If you are a lover of beer, then today is the perfect holiday for you. Today is the first Friday of August, which means that it’s International Beer Day!

According to Wikipedia, International Beer Day was started in 2007 and has 3 purposes:

1. “To gather with friends and enjoy the taste of beer.”
2. “To celebrate those responsible for brewing and serving beer.”
3. “To unite the world under the banner of beer, by celebrating the beers of all nations together on a single day”

On this International Beer Day, here’s a lowdown on three basic rules to drinking beer:

1. The right serving temperature

Each style of beer requires an appropriate temperature to enjoy its best characteristics. As a general rule, higher the alcohol content and intensity of colour of the beer, the higher its serving temperature should be. What needs to be noted here is that at a temperature above 12° C, the beer loses the sensation of freshness, while below 0° C, the beer becomes tasteless. But in general, between 4-6° C is best suited.

2. The rule for pouring

Not many people know that it is the barm/ foam (cream) on the top of the glass that protects the beer from oxidation and maintains its carbonation and taste. The way you pour a beer has a drastic effect on the thickness of that foam. You should always hold the beer glass at a 45-degree angle, that is with a slight tilt, and only then start to pour it. Beer should neither be poured too fast nor too slow.

3. The right glassware

It is imperative that the glassware is clean, otherwise, the aroma, flavor and foam of the beer will be hampered. Use an appropriate glass for each beer style, in a way that allows you to enhance its characteristics.

According to the Japanese brewer Kirin, which has been tracking international beer consumption since 1975, the Czech Republic has been the number one beer-drinking country per capita every year since 1993 – the year the country came into existence.

And not by a small margin, either: according to figures for 2018, released at the end of last year, Czechs drank 192 litres of beer per capita (so including children and non-drinkers), compared to 108 litres for second-placed Austria, just 56% of the Czech total.

That works out at around 384 of the normal half-litre measures – or more than one velké pivo per day. Nine out of the ten biggest per capita beer consumers for 2018 were European countries, with Namibia sneaking into 9th place.

Data by Kirin Holdings