The mystery of why pub dwellers drink this yellowy bubbling swill has confused the gentry for centuries. Nowadays the English cannot afford refrigerators or even ice cubes to chill their beer, as they spend their meager salaries on nicotine, sugar, Chinese trinkets, burberry hats (see chavs), and the latest fashions from India. But since the invention of refrigeration is historically recent, and certainly doesn't explain why Brits first began to down the dreary suds, a brief look into the fog of history may provide answers.