Boston Beer Company founder Jim Koch was once asked how he could possibly justify a menufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP) of $100 for a single bottle of his brewery's beer. "I would say taste it against a $200 cognac and see which one you enjoy more," he replied. "Plus, you get a nickel back on the bottle!"

[A bottle of the Boston Beer Company's "Samuel Adams Utopias" contains 24 ounces and 24 per cent alcohol by volume.]

[Archaeologists have suggested that Stone Age people living in the fertile crescent (the stretch of land in the eastern Mediterranean where animals were first domesticated), invented agriculture not for bread but to produce beer. University of Manchester archaeologist Merryn Dinely once found evidence of malt-processing techniques in early neolithic villages.]