Beer in poetry, song and film

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Hops, Oh Wonderful Hops!

Hops, hops, oh wonderful hops
For you, our passion is true.
You flavor our beer
And at least once a year
We grind you up in a brew.


Your oils are essential
Your qualities diverse.
But, drink too much nectar
And our stomach might burst.


Hops are the gem
And the barkeepers friend
For keeping us stuck on that stool.
Cause if we order a beer
And the aroma is clear
With no citrus or spice to declare.
We'll throw it right back
On the bartender's lap
Then we'll get ourselves out of that chair.


Cascade! Chinook! Amarillo!
These are our favorite cheers.
For without these friends
We'd rather have the bends.
Our life would be moot
Things just wouldn't compute!


Not all might agree
But they will after three
Of our favorite hop bombs and brews
So go get some beer
There are some good ones we hear!
Just make sure that the hops do come through.


(Anonymous, published on the website ‘Seattlest’ in 2007)
 
The protagonist in Banjo Paterson's Bottle'O makes a living collecting bottles to avoid having to 'grift for every brown'.
I assume this is a reference to either a brown ale or a king brown long neck.
Feel free to correct me as I am only guessing.
 
Well coins could be brown. Maybe the meaning is intentionally ambiguous.

I just double checked in a copy of The Amber Nectar and it seems yes, that you could collect bottles for cash in early Oz - because bottles were such a costly item to make in the first place.
 
A memorable appearance of beer in film is a closing scence in the 1958 movie Ice Cold in Alex (Alexandria in Egypt).

In it actors John Mills and Anthony Quayle scull glasses of Carlsberg lager.

For context, this is an extract from the Wikipedia entry for the movie:

A British unit at Tobruk is attacked by the German Afrika Korps in the Western Desert Campaign of World War II. During the resulting evacuation, Captain Anson (John Mills), a transport pool officer suffering from battle fatigue and almost an alcoholic, MSM Tom Pugh (Harry Andrews) and two nurses – Diana Murdoch (Sylvia Syms) and Denise Norton (Diane Clare) – crew an Austin K2/Y ambulance, nicknamed 'Katy', and decide to drive across the desert back to British lines… Anson motivates himself by thinking of the ice cold lager he will order when they finally reach the safety of Alexandria – the 'Alex' of the title.

Seems Mills and Quayle had to do a few takes of this scence before the director was happy and they got a bit pissed in the process.

Here's a link to a YouTube clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9Ra7hQoHpE
 

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