Charlie Mopps

DESCRIPTION: "A long time ago... all they had to drink was nothing but cups of tea." Then came Charlie Mopps, who invented beer. This brought him great praise and even a ticket into heaven. "Lord bless Charlie Mopps, the man who invented beer!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: drink talltale
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 150-151, "Charlie Mopps" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10678
NOTES [90 words]: The amount of truth in this song is, to put it mildly, limited.
Stewart Gordon, A History of the World in Sixteen Shipwrecks, ForeEdge, 2015, p. 101, reports that the English weren't even the first to add hops to beer. It was first done in eastern Germany. The original purpose seems to have been to add flavor, but hops also prevented the beer from spoiling, so it turned beer into a product that could be mass-produced and transported. Thus, the man who added hops to beer really did change brewing, but the person involved is unknown. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.7
File: FaE150

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