As the classic Canadian bar band Goddo sang once a million years ago: ♫ Next verse is as worse as the first... ♫ (Granted, the song in question, "Sweet Thing" was, in hindsight, a lurid look at a 16-year-old girl which didn't strike me as odd since I was only 18... but the boys in the band were considerably older. I always wondered why Goddo never made it bigger. Turns out they probably weren't allowed out of the country.)

Yup, looks like I'm gonna keep writing this bad boy. Take that as either a treat or a threat... the only difference being one single 'h'. Now the beauty of writing a Beer Blog is that your buddies instantly start sending you goodies to insert. After Blog #1, that was precisely the case with my young bro, Robert Martin, who read it and fired off a "24 Things You Didn't Know About Beer" graphic to me. Some I did know, thanks to a stint at the Beer Academy in Toronto... but many I didn't know. And since my mother always taught me to share (my grandfather, to his credit, made sure I knew that dictate didn't extend to either girlfriends or beer), here's my Top-5 of the better Beer Facts you might not know...

Beer Fact #1: "Zythology is the study of beer and beer making, including the role that particular ingredients play in the brewing process." Is it just me or did anyone else assume that was the study of Zyths? Which, coincidentally, is how you pronounce "sixth" after your fifth pint.

Beer Fact #2: "Hops used in beer are from the same family of flowering plants as marijuana." Now we know how "Bud"weiser got its name.

Beer Fact #3: "Cenosillicaphobia is the fear of an empty beer glass." That figures. My biggest fear and I won't even be able to pronounce it because my glass is empty. Also the fact that it's my "zyth" empty glass-in-a-row. At that point, "hello" is hard to pronounce.

Beer Fact #4: "Beer prevents kidney stones. A study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology (what the hell is that exactly??) found that beer consumption was inversely associated with the risk of kidney stones in middle-age men. Each bottle of beer consumed per day lowered the risk by 40%." As Jesse says on Breaking Bad: "Science, bitch!" This is very cool news. Also noteworthy? Yesterday alone, I decreased my chances of kidney stone by 520%.

Beer Fact #5: In the 19th century, nursing mothers in Munich, Germany would drink up to 7 pints of beer a day under the belief that this was required in order to breast-feed their babies. So what we have here, if I understand this correctly is German mommies with boobs that are filled with beer?? That's not Munich... that's Nirvana to every man on this planet.

Okay, thank you, Robert! That's very cool. Robert will be reading this from his 6-month trip to New Zealand where I have connected him with my old college drinking buddy, Steve, who now resides in Wellington, N.Z. After they meet, I expect a two-day delay (for his initial recovery) whereupon Robert will either email me to say "Thanks, Donny!" or more likely "Why didn't you warn me about Steve, you asshole??" Hey, bro, you party with Steve, you either play or pay... but likely both.

This edition of Brew-Ha-Ha! is taking us out of the country and we will be making stops in Mexico and the Phillipines. Get your drinking passport ready, please...

Now I recognize the popularity of both Corona and Sol but if you want my opinion (and why wouldn't you - I'm Don The Beer Lover, dammit!), try these two: Dos Equis and Tecate.

Of the two, I give Dos Equis a slight edge in flavour and there's also a Dos Equis Amber which is truly a full-bodied brewski. But Tecate is not without charms of its own. Both beers are excellent and both are brewed by Cuauhtémoc-Moctezuma Brewery, by a major brewery based in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico, The brewery was found in 1890 so it's not a new kid on the Mexican beer block.

As for Corona, which is far too light-tasting for me, well, it doesn't exactly need my seal of approval since it outsells Sol, Dos Equis and Tecate combined by a HUGE market-share. In North America (or at least my little corner of Canada), Corona is hugely popular with women - virtually tied with Coors Light as the beer of choice for the fairer sex. And when your "niche" market represents half the population, well, that's one helluva niche, isn't it? Granted, women tend to do girly things with their Corona - like add a slice of lime to it. If I ever saw a dude do that, I swear to you I would beat him unconscious with his own purse. Just sayin'...

Okay, this baby from the Phillipines, San Miguel Pale Pilsen, just landed in the Beer Store last week so I grabbed a six-pack and headed upstairs in my "luxury complex" to visit my neighbours, Amy and Simon, so I could get their opinions, too. Amy and I go wayyyy back to my Mississauga Beer Store days back in the 1990s. Actually, the entire 1990s since I worked part-time from 1991 to 2000 there. I would say those were quiet and productive days for us but frankly, I think by 2000, head office created stricter rules just to corral people like her and me. Those were wild days. Simon is Amy's British hubby who she met while overseas in the U.K. She brought him back as a souvenir and well, he just stayed until they got hitched last month.

So when I hiked upstairs with this little treat from the San Miguel Brewery,  which has an astonishing 95% market-share of the Filipino beer drinkers, I suspected a little surprise. As usual, with Amy and Simon, there were no surprises. Being world travellers, they were more than familiar with it. "Ohmigawd, I love that beer!" gushed Amy before regaling me with tales of small tiny backwater bar in God-Knows-Where that she and Simon used to drink it on tap. Suffice it to say, the San Miguel was a big hit and a pleasant surprise for me. It was delicious. Okay, time to sign off. So let's end this frat party with another famous beer quote from Dave Berry, the Miami-based syndicated humour columnist...

"Without question, the greatest invention in the history of mankind is beer. Oh, I grant you that the wheel was also a fine invention but the wheel does not go nearly as well with pizza..."

True dat, Dave. Until next time, keep your glasses full, my friends... no one wants to see you get a bad case of  Cenosillicaphobia!!!! Cheers!