King Gambrinus has long been a universal symbol of beer and brewing. The good king was purportedly the creator of beer made with hops.
While some attribute the invention of hopped malt-beer to Jan Primus (John I), a scion of the stock of Burgundy princes, who lived about the year 1251, others ascribe it to Jean Sans Peur (1371-1419), otherwise known as Ganbrivius. A corruption of either name may plausibly be shown to have resulted in the present name of the King of Beer, Gambrinus, who we are accustomed to see represented in the habit of a knight of the middle-ages, with the occasional addition of a crown. Popular imagination, it seems, has attached such great importance to beer, that in according the honor of its invention, it could not be satisfied with anything less than a king |
