Light vs. Regular Beer

Most light beers contain about 100 calories, while regular only contains about 145 calories. Budweiser regular has 143 calories and Bud Light has 110, not much difference. According to Wikipedia, Budweiser Light has 3.5% ABV per 12 US fl oz (355 mL) and Budweiser regular is 5.0% ABV. It is made with up to 30% rice in addition to hops and barley malt.

Light beer has been brewed to be lower in alcohol, lower in calories, or lower in both, depending on the brand. Low-carb beer has only been brewed to remove carbohydrates, but can have the same alcohol content. Most light beers are made from a process made possible in 1964 with the commercial introduction of amyloglucosidase. This enzyme makes all the dextrins fermentable. Brewers generally add water to adjust the alcohol content to slightly below that of a regular beer.

Bottom line, with less alcohol, many tend to drink more light beer, negating any calorie reduction benefits, and costing more money in addition to consuming amyloglucosidase.

Holiday Healthy Drinking

There is a myth that says wine has health benefits, while beer and liquor do not.
There are many studies outlining the health benefits of wine, but not as many for other alcohols. However, in addition to the antioxidants in wine, all alcohols, when consumed in moderate doses can raise the body's levels of HDL, the good cholesterol.

Boston-based nutritionist and wellness counselor Alannah DiBona explains, "Wine (as well as beer and all types of alcohol) in moderate doses raise the body's levels of HDL, or good cholesterol, which protects the heart against the plaque buildup that may cause strokes and heart attacks. As Europeans have proven for centuries, 1 to 2 alcoholic beverages per day helps to reduce the risks of heart disease."

Developing an alcohol problem in the name of good heart health and lower cholesterol is not a good idea, but a glass of wine, or a few shots, or a few beers can actually reduce your risk for heart disease when combined with a good diet and exercise. Also remember the calories you intake when drinking alcohol, wine, or six-pack of beer can cause weight gain.

Beer, Wine, and Spirits

The spirits industry, as of 2016 commands 35.9% of the total alcohol market vs. 47% for beer and 17.1% for wine. Beer made up close to 60% of the alcohol market during the 1990s.

Spring Cleaning with Beer

Wash wooden furniture to get the winter grime off, then pour a bit of flat beer onto a microfiber or soft cloth and rub it onto the surface of your favorite outdoor wood furniture. It works like a traditional furniture polish product, removing the dullness of years of wear and tear and instilling a shining, rich color. Works indoors. also.

Beer Can Origin

Prohibition was finally repealed during December 1933. During that same year, the first beer can patent was issued. After much testing and changing designs, the American Can Company finally was ready to sell its cans. On January 24, 1935 the Krueger Brewing and Ale company began selling beer in cans for the first time. By the end of the year, 36 other brewers were also selling beer in cans.

A 'churchkey' type can opener was patented by another company that same year. One end was used for opening bottles and the other for puncturing the top of beer cans. They were usually given away for free. Young people will never be able to appreciate the versatility of this handy device.

Incidentally, Churchkey Can Company is a brewery founded in 2012 by actor Adrian Grenier and former Nike designer Justin Hawkins in Seattle, USA. The brewery's name refers to its flagship beer, which must be opened using a can piercer, or 'church key'.

Beer Myths Debunked

False - If Cold Beer Gets Warm, Cooling It Again Will Make It Stale
This is a myth brought on by marketers. The fact is, beer experiences substantial fluctuations in temperature during shipping. Of course, you do not want these changes to be drastic, and excessive heat will certainly ruin beer.

Maybe - The Color of the Bottle Affects Beer’s Shelf Life
It is not the color of the bottle so much as its translucence that affects beer’s long-term quality. Clear and green bottles allow in significantly more UV light than brown ones. If you store green or clear bottles in complete darkness, there is no discernible difference in shelf life from that of a brown bottle in similar conditions.

True - Putting Beer in the Freezer Is an Easy Way to Quick Chill It.
This is true as long as you do not freeze it. Beer will explode when frozen. Placing a beer in the freezer for a short period should be fine. According to the American Homebrewers Association, freezing beer alters the molecular structure of the proteins in the beverage. It can also reduce the carbonation level and, in the case of bottle-conditioned brew, possibly kill the yeast.

True - Beer Should Be Stored Upright.
There are a few reasons why beer should not be placed on its side, and this applies to both corked and capped bottles. Yeast is critical to beer, but the sediment it leaves behind has a way of corrupting flavor. You want the yeast sediment to settle at the bottom of the beer. According to Beer Advocate, prolonged storage on the side will create a “yeast ring” along the walls of the bottle. Upright storage slows the process of oxidation and prolongs the life of the beer.

False - Bottles Are Better Than Cans. This is a matter of personal taste. Canned beer has is often associated with mass-market. cheap beer and so the myth. It is not so much the receptacle, it is the beer that makes the taste. Many craft brewers have begun to can their beer. Some craft brew fanatics even swear by the distinctive flavor of canned brew. The Huffington Post conducted a blind taste test and found participants preferred the taste of canned beer to bottled three times out of four.

Alcohol and Calories

Good news for the holidays, a five-ounce glass of red, white, or rosé has about 100 calories per glass. Many believe wine is high in sugar because it is made from grapes, but because the fermentation process in wine-making converts sugars into alcohol. Only sweet or dessert wines are high in sugar. Wine is considered a heart healthy drink, especially red wine, which contains resveratrol, the antioxidant compound linked to heart health benefits. The American Heart Association recommends 1-2 four-ounce servings of wine per day.

Hard liquor is higher in calories per-ounce than wine, but not by much since after distillation, spirits such as vodka, whiskey, gin, and rum have nothing left but the alcohol. They contain zero carbs, which makes them a diet-friendly option, plus, the standard 1.5 ounce serving of spirits has 105 calories.

The average 12-ounce serving of beer contains 150 calories and 13g carbs, higher than wine and spirits. Choosing light versions of beer will save about 50 calories per serving and cut carbs in half. Lager and wheat beers are generally lower in both calories and carbs per serving compared to heavier beers such as ales, stouts, and porters. Beers differ in color, flavor, and consistency, and the good news all offer some nutritional value. The brewer’s yeast used to ferment beer contains B vitamins that benefit the nervous system health and reduce homocysteine, a chemical that can contribute to cardiovascular disease. Bottoms up!

Beer Benefits and Sexual Performance

Moderate beer drinking decreases risk of heart disease by 31 percent (the same as wine). A study published in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology also found that moderate consumption of beer reduces the risk of developing kidney stones by 41 percent, and is one of the few plant sources of vitamin B12.

It makes you last longer. The phytoestrogens in beer can help delay premature ejaculation.

Dark brews can help get you in the mood better, because they increase both red blood cells and overall circulation. Dark contains more iron than pale beers.

Beer increases stamina and is good for heart health.

Guinness is great for stomach issues, low in calories and alcohol content, and is rich in vitamins, minerals, and probiotics. It contains only 128 calories and 11 grams of carbohydrates per serving.

50 Shades of Green beer is like green juice and Viagra combined. It is specifically engineered to enhance performance. It contains ginseng, ginkgo biloba, and damiana to achieve increased sexual desire, blood flow, and nerve stimulation. Gives a whole new meaning to 'Bottoms up!'

National Drink Beer Day

It is celebrated on Monday, September 28, 2015. Not to be confused with National Beer Day an unofficial holiday in the United States celebrated every year on April 7, celebrating the day in 1933, the first day in 13 years, that people could legally buy, sell, and drink beer.

The best way to celebrate Drink Beer Day is to gather a group of friends for a beer tasting at home or at your favorite pub. Be sure to check for promotions and giveaways that might be going on in your area.

Vikings

Vikings believed that a giant goat whose udders provide an endless supply of beer was waiting for them in Valhalla (Viking Heaven).

Holiday Boozing

Many equate the holidays with drinking, so I looked up some of the common terms we use, beginning with 'crapulous' (a substitute for hangover), from the 18th century Greek kraipale (drunken headache or nausea). I love that word.

Booze first appeared in Middle Dutch as bûsen, which meant 'to drink to excess.' There was also the Old High German word bausen, which meant 'to bulge or billow.'" It took 200 years for English speakers to start using it as both a verb (to booze) and a noun (give me some booze). It is a common misconception that the word was borrowed from a brand of whiskey sold by E.S. Booz in the 1800s, but the word much older. The 1529 Oxford dictionary defined it as “affected by drinking.”

Hooch comes from Alaska. There was a native tribe there called the Hoochinoo that distilled rum made primarily from molasses and introduced it to soldiers from the lower 48.

Alcohol began as an Arabic word describing a fine metallic powder used as eye shadow (al-kuhul). The word was broadened to mean 'the pure spirit of anything'. Later it was expanded to include a distilled spirit or liquor. Alcoholic meaning 'caused by drunkenness' is attested by the 1800s and meaning 'habitually drunk' by 1910.

Liquor dates back to at least 1200, likur "any matter in a liquid state," and the Latin verb liquere, meaning "to be fluid", from Latin liquorem. The definition including a fermented or distilled drink followed about a hundred years later. In North America, the term hard liquor is used to distinguish distilled beverages from undistilled ones and does not include beverages such as beer, wine, and cider, which are fermented, but not distilled.

Spirits refers to a distilled beverage that contains no added sugar and has at least 20% alcohol by volume. It probably originated with ancient alchemists, who referred to the vapor given off and collected during an alchemical process (like the distillation of alcohol) as the 'spirit' of the original material. Early European Monks believed that the spirit was removed from the mash during the distilling process.

Cocktail refers to any beverage that contains two or more ingredients with at least one of them being alcohol. When a cocktail contains only a distilled spirit and a mixer, it is a highball. The Oxford English dictionary cites the word as originating in the US. The first recorded use of the word cocktail as a beverage was during the early 1800s. Of the many origins, two stand out: an old French recipe for mixed wines, called a coquetel, brought to America by General Lafayette’s soldiers in 1777; and New Orleans brandy drink in an egg-cup called a coquetier in French. The latter was a morning drink served at the time the tail of the evening met with the morning cock-a-doodle-do of a rooster.

Bar is an abbreviation of barrier, the counter that separates drinks from the drinkers. Toward the end of the 16th century it expanded to mean the building that housed the barrier. Barmaid didn’t appear in print until the mid 1700s and bartender arrived about fifty years later and barfly came about during the early 1900s. Bottom line, beer, wine, cider, hooch, and alcohol are booze, but only hooch, and alcohol are liquors. Spirits are alcohol and both are liquor. All highballs are cocktails, but not all cocktails are highballs.

How Much Water

Speaking of hydration, North American companies use 1.39 liters of water to make one liter of bottled water. That is less than the global averages of a liter of soda, which requires 2.02 liters of water. A liter of beer needs 4 liters of water, wine needs 4.74 liters. Hard alcohol guzzles 34.55 liters of water for every liter.

Seventeen Beer Facts

Much beer is guzzled during the holidays so here are a few beer facts that can be used  to impress the relatives.

After he won the Nobel Prize, Niels Bohr was given a perpetual supply of beer piped into his house. (He lived next to a brewery).

The Code of Hammurabi decreed that bartenders who watered down beer would be executed.

At the Annual Wife Carrying World Championships (in Finland), the first prize is the wife's weight in beer.

The builders of the Great Pyramid of Giza were paid with a daily ration of beer.

The top five states for beer consumption per capita: 1. North Dakota, 2. New Hampshire, 3. Montana, 4. South Dakota, 5. Wisconsin.

Germany is home to a beer pipeline. Taps in Veltsin-Arena are connected by a 5km (3 mile) tube of beer.

Thomas Jefferson wrote parts of the Declaration of Independence in a Philadelphia tavern.

George Washington insisted his continental army be permitted a quart of beer as part of their daily rations.

At spas in Europe, you can literally bathe in beer as a physical and mental therapeutic treatment.

In the 1990s, the Beer Lovers Party ran candidates in Belarus and Russia.

J.K. Rowling, of Harry Potter fame invented Quidditch in a pub.

Beer helped Joseph Priestly discover oxygen. He noticed gases rising from the big vats of beer at a brewery and asked to do some experiments.

A Buddhist temple in the Thai countryside was built with over a million recycled beer bottles.

The moon has a crater named Beer.

Beer soup was a common breakfast in medieval Europe.

At the start of Bavarian Beer Week in Germany, an open-air beer fountain dispenses free beer to the public.

In the 1980s, a beer-drinking goat was elected mayor of Lajitas, TX.

Beer Myths Debunked

More game day stuff. The myth says if cold beer gets warm, cooling it again will make it stale. This is a myth was started by marketing people. Beer experiences substantial fluctuations in temperature during shipping, although excessive heat will ruin beer. The notion that beer can only be refrigerated once is a total myth.

Are Bottles Better Than Cans - Canned beer is often associated with mass-market, “cheap” beer. However, craft brewers are beginning to can their beer. In fact, at least 212 breweries, according to CraftCans.com now sell canned beer.

The Huffington Post conducted a blind taste test and found participants preferred the taste of canned beer to bottled three times out of four. During the game you can pop or twist or flip a top and know the beer is all the same.

How Many Kinds of Beer

Here is a great poster of the many kinds of beer and how they relate to each other. You will need to expand it to see the detail. Very interesting. LINK

American Drinking

Sixty four percent of American adults drink alcohol. Of those who imbibe, 36% prefer wine, 35% beer and 23% hard liquor.

St. Pauli Girl Beer

Interesting facts for the beer aficionados in the crowd. St. Pauli is the famous red light district of Hamburg, Germany. In 1977, St. Pauli Girl Beer started to choose a spokesmodel to represent the beer brand and appear on the popular St. Pauli Girl poster. 

In 1999, they started using Playboy magazine playmates as the girl (the 2008 St. Pauli Girl is Irina Voronina). Here's the gallery of St. Pauli Girls from 1977 to 2007. There were actually a few that were not blond. Don't worry, it is PG. LINK

More Beer News

A British brewery said it has created the world's first beer laced with Viagra in honor of the royal wedding. The Brewdog brewery said the beer, called Royal Virility Performance, contains the same amount of Viagra in three bottles as one erectile dysfunction pill. It said only 40 bottles will initially be sold when it is released today, April 29, the day of the wedding, but will make more if the batch is successful.

It said several bottles of the beer, which bear labels reading "Arise Prince Willy" and "Celebrate Big Willy Style" have been sent to Prince William as gifts for the night of his wedding to Kate Middleton.

Top Six Things Found in College Refrigerators

Beer, part of a pita sandwich, ranch dressing, text books, expired milk, hard liquor. I think the books come from not having much beer or liquor remaining.

Remote Beer Opener

Here is one of those, 'I wonder who thought of that' inventions. It is actually available on the web for $25. A nine function universal remote control with built in beer opener. Hmmm.