Looking like brown beer with spit

But where does the saying actually come from? After all, one would not necessarily think of a pale appearance in connection with brown beer, but rather of a vacation tan.

For centuries, only barley and wheat were permitted as brewing grains in many areas of Central Europe. Pure barley beers were called brown beers, as opposed to wheat beers, which are brewed from wheat and barley. Brown beers were brewed as thin beer and were drunk at all times of the day and even by children.

Spit, on the other hand, does not mean that someone spits in your glass, but it refers to the only thin foam of the brown beer.

So if you look like brown beer with spit - that is, like a thin, weak beer with little foam - you look weak, thin and sick.