7000 B.C. Evidence of a fermented beverage made of rice and fruit was found in China. The rice was most likely prepared for fermentation by mastication of malt.
3500 B.C. Earliest known chemical evidence of beer, found at Godin Tepe archaeological site in western Iran.
2500 B.C. First beer recipe written on the Ebla tablets in Ebla, Syria.
1040 First brewery is established, Weihenstephan Abbey, in Freising, Bavaria.
1516 William IV, Duke of Bavaria, declares the Reinheitsgebot, or the "German Purity Law," which restricts beer ingredients to water, hops, and barley. It's still in use today.
1632 First commercial U.S. brewery is established in lower Manhattan by the West India Company on Brewers Street.
1785 English inventor Joseph Bramah patents the first beer tap, called a "beer engine."
1857 German Purity Law is modified to include yeast.
1876 Budweiser brewery is established, dominates beer in America for the next 100 years.
1896 Miami is incorporated. Julia Tuttle and the Brickell family, the fledgling city's most prominent pioneers, envision a community free of "malt, vinous, or intoxicating liquors."
1912 Tobacco Road opens. Beer on the Miami River!
1913 Miami-Dade outlaws intoxicating beverages.
1919 Prohibition: Alcohol becomes contraband.
1922 Anheuser-Busch heir Clarence Busch builds huge Miami Beach mansion, later bought by Al Capone.
1926 Bacardi begins brewing Hatuey cerveza in Santiago de Cuba to satisfy the large numbers of Americans flocking to Cuba during Prohibition.
1933 Prohibition ends.
1934 Wagner Brewing Company opens in Miami at 637 NW 13th St.
1936 Kegs replace casks as a viable means of storing beer. The first keg stand is invented a short while later.
1939 American Brewing Company in New Orleans buys Wagner, becoming American Brewing Company in Miami, and begins brewing Regal, a lager.
1958 American Brewing Company is sold to National Brewing Company and begins brewing Colt 45.
1969 World's largest six-pack is created in La Crosse, Wisconsin.
1983 Canadian comedy The Adventures of Bob & Doug McKenzie: Strange Brew is released, starring Rick Moranis, Dave Thomas, and Max von Sydow.
1987 Spuds MacKenzie, a bull terrier, shows up in Bud Light TV commercials and gains a cult following.
1995 Hatuey is brewed again, this time in the United States. The experiment fails.
2000 Pabst Blue Ribbon becomes popular among urban hipsters.
2008 Hank Williams III records "Six Pack of Beer," on the Damn Right, Rebel Proud album.
2011 Bacardi re-introduces Hatuey. It's made in South Carolina.
