EBCU

Trying to keep it as short as possible…

History
How and when exactly beer came about in Switzerland is not known precisely.
There are assumptions about the Helvetii, celtic tribes living in what now is Switzerland, producing beer, as other Celts have, but no firm evidence. The area was subsequently romanised, and then invaded by Germanic tribes, but again, no firm evidence here.
The infamous 9th-Century plans for St Gall Abbey showing three breweries again do not constitute solid evidence, since they were plans for ideal buildings that would not have fitted the abbey grounds.
Yet there are records about one Century later, of beer being delivered to St Gall Abbey by the local population as a tribute. The same records show beer disappearing gradually from the deliveries in favour of wine by the end of the 13th Century or so.

Biel / Bienne:

Just so you know what you're in for...

Biel/Bienne is the largest bilingual city in Switzerland, with 50,000 inhabitants, and about 85,000 in the "agglomération" (i.e. the "greater Bienne").

Biel is the German form, Bienne the French form (usually also used in english).
BNC is a joking shorthand for "Bienne City" (=> "Bee-Enn-Cee") with a nod to NYC, which you may encounter locally.

A the north-eastern end of Lake Bienne, the city is at a crossroads between the (french-speaking) Jura mountains to the north, the (French- and German-speaking) vineyards along the northern shore of the lake to the west, the (German-speaking) Seeland countryside, very much Switzerland's vegetable garden to the south and the Swiss-German industrial hinterland along the plain to the east, towards Zurich.

Bienne's sister rival Nidau, bordering to the south-west, is very much german-speaking, although the area is built-up throughout. From your hotels walking a few hundredmetres to the north will get you to bustling multi-cultural, bilingual Bienne, and the same distance to the south-east will get you to Nidau's german-speaking old town, clean and quiet, if not sedate.