Friday is International Beer Day, and it's great timing -- what better way to start off the weekend than with a cold one? International Beer Day was started in 2007 by a California man named Jesse Avshalomov and his colleagues. They simply wanted to designate a day where people around the country -- and eventually, the world -- could celebrate the alcoholic beverage. Since then, people everywhere from Turkey to Australia have observed it.

They're not alone in loving beer, brewers and the companionship that comes with sitting at a bar drinking with friends. Humor writer Dave Barry once said that beer is "the greatest invention in the history of mankind." Author Charles Bukowski put it more elegantly, writing: "Stay with the beer. Beer is continuous blood. A continuous lover."

Here are 17 interesting facts about beer, collected from BeerAdvocate, Mental Floss and the Huffington Post: