Is Beer Good For You?

Beer and Health

Just about everyone who enjoys beer has wondered if it is good or bad for their health. There is no simple answer to this question. But, the vast majority of beer aficionados are neither neo-prohibitionists, nor alcoholics; they are folks like you who Savor the Flavor Responsibly®.

In our society, we are taught from an early age that alcohol consumption is a social vice, and one only to be risked by adults. This is an oversimplification of a very complex set of historical, social, and health-related issues that have made beer a very integral part of history. Beer has been intertwined in American culture since the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock. The end of Prohibition marked the only constitutional amendment to ever be repealed. As a society, we've had a love-hate relationship with our drink; the history of beer alone is enough to make you wonder.

Well, wonder no more. An ever-growing body of research confirms that responsibly enjoying beer as part of a healthy diet can promote your well being. In fact, the USDA dietary guidelines specifically mention the health benefits of moderate consumption of alcoholic beverages. The next time you pour yourself a craft beer, or maybe you are enjoying one now, you should know that there are a variety of health benefits from moderate consumption of your favorite malted beverage, including longevity, decreased risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, kidney stones, and more. On the flip side, overindulgence of beer, or any alcoholic beverage, will have negative effects.

One excellent source for information on both the positive and negative effects of alcohol consumption is the Foundation for Alcohol Research (ABMRF). ABMRF funds and supports research on the medical and social effects of alcohol consumption, and distributes a weekly email update which summarizes and links to current research findings. You can sign up to receive these updates at the bottom right of the ABMRF homepage. A directorysummarizing ABMRF funded research since 1982 is also available. ABMRF research is supported in part by U.S. and Canadian brewers, beer importers, suppliers, wholesalers, individuals, as well as the Brewers Association, publishers of CraftBeer.com. ABMRF can also be found on Facebook and Twitter, with posts outlining current research topics and results.

Here are a few more articles exploring beer and health:

• "Defensive Drinking: Alcohol and Your Health" - Brighams and Women's Hospital
• "Alcohol over time: Still under control?" - The Harvard Medical School
• "Celiac Disease, Beer and Brewing" - Michael J. Lewis

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Chris Swersey is the Technical Brewing Projects Coordinator for the Brewers Association and he monitors the topic of Beer and Health for the Association. He can be reached at chris@brewersassociation.org.

New York Loves our Cherny Bock Schwarzbier!

Yeah I know, I got a lot of big-name brewery beers while I was in NYC, so why I am reviewing a lesser-known brewery from Utah? Well, it's Sunday afternoon and I want something to just chill out with that would be a quick and easy to review. Plus I've never had a beer from Utah before, so that sounded like fun to me. I do have something special planned for all of next week, though!

B / 3.68 rDev -7.1%
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

I poured a 12oz can into a tulip class (because the can actually recommends a tulip for this beer)

Appearance: jet black with hazy ruby red glow on the underside. Forms a two-finger, off-white, soapy head. Retention is decent with minor lacing.

Smell: Lager yeast and slight toasted malts. Fairly sweet-smelling, but for the most part it's unaromatic.

Taste: For such a statistically "small" beer Cherny Bock has a lot of flavor, especially for a lager. Despite the name, this beer is more in the style of a schwarzbier than a bock with light malty sweetness up front and distinct roasted malt on the backend. Seems a bit like a light cola with an almost artificial sweetener taste at the beginning and end, but the can indicates this beer is brewed under the conditions of the Germany Purity Law of 1516.

While not the most robust beer in the world, the roasted malt flavor remains quite strong throughout and finishes mostly clean with a slight biscuity aftertaste.

Mouthfeel: Thin, cold and wet, but not watery per se. Seems noticeably fizzy at first, but carbonation seems to die down quickly. Not quite a light-bodied beer, but on the lower end of medium-bodied.

Drinkability: With a mild, but genuinely flavorful palate combined with easy mouthfeel, Cherny Bock is indeed a sessionable beer at only 4% ABV. It's refreshing while it's in the mouth and goes down extremely smooth. Might be too mild to stand up to a meal, but could be used as a beverage for chips and finger foods or just to session a six-pack while watching the game.

Overall, an impressive beer for what it's able to accomplish. Nothing spectacular in the big scheme of things, though, but will satisfy most beer drinkers.

National Beer Day

Today is national beer day. What does that mean?

Well, here's a little history:

Mama, don't let your babies grow up to be beer pourer-outers.

It's impossible to fathom that a mere 77 years ago a person couldn't legally drink beer in this country. But for 13 years - from the moment "The Great (Failed) Experiment" was enacted on January 16, 1920 through 1933 - that was precisely the case. Although the actual repeal of Prohibition occurred on December 5 of that year, beer drinkers got a reprieve a full eight months beforehand. On April 7 then President Franklin D. Roosevelt repealed the Volstead Act (aka the National Prohibition Act), legalizing 3.2% alcohol by weight beer. In the first 24-hours after Roosevelt signed on the dotted line over 1.5 million barrels of beer were consumed. The country was thirsty... for beer!

Over the years there have been a few - rather failed - attempts at recognizing April 7 as the historic day it is. And not just because it ironically happens to also be my day of birth. In 2003 the Brewers' Association (then known as the Brewers' Association of America) announced a national promotion called New Beer's Eve. "People need to be reminded of the single biggest cause of brewery closure," said Daniel Bradford, who was the President of the BAA then (he's now the publisher of the prestigious All About Beer magazine). "Prohibition lead to the demise of thousands of breweries and the creation of a violent criminal element. We need to remember this travesty, because it could happen again." While truer words were never spoken, this campaign never really took off. In 2008 there was a big deal made about 75 Years of Beer, complete with "Celebrate April 7th" posters, but then that got morphed into a "Celebrate December 5th" thing instead, which made it all confusing. A few weeks ago I found something on the new CraftBeer.com website called Brew Years Eve. Personally, I'm not a big fan of that name. It's too kitschy and doesn't really impart the significance of the day.

The anatomy of beer

The anatomy of beer
By Mark Tichenor and Bruce Lish

I think we can all agree that beer in its modern form is the pinnacle of human achievement. But when it comes to educating the masses about beer, there’s still a long way to go. Not everyone’s a home brewer or beer connoisseur, so let’s take a look at what’s really in your pint glass.

Beer is simple yet complex, like Mexican food. There are only four main ingredients, but the variety of colors, flavors, and aroma is staggering. Today, we’ll talk about those ingredients and what they do.

First off, there’s the water. It might all be clear, but water varies in hardness, acidity, salinity, and proportion of mineral salts, and has a tremendous impact on the beer in which it goes. Great brewing towns like Munich or Burton-on-Trent have become brewing centers because the quality of the water in those areas was the best for brewing.

Interestingly, the water from Hemlock Lake is quite similar to the water in southern Germany, which is why many German brewers set up shop in the Flour City during the 19th century. With dissimilar H20, it would have been much more difficult to brew their beer to the style they were looking for.

Malted barley is the primary grain used in brewing. To make malt, the barley is germinated and then dried. This creates enzymes that convert the grain’s starch into fermentable sugar.

The germinated grain is dried in a kiln, and often roasted to various degrees. When you roast barley, it gets dark. That’s where dark beer comes from. Stouts like Guinness are made from barley that’s roasted until it’s almost black, whereas a light lager would use malt that’s just dried in the kiln.

Because of its sugar content, malt by itself would make for a very sweet beer. What’s needed is a flavor that balances that sweetness. That’s why we have hops.

Hops are a flower that stabilizes the beer and imparts bitter and floral characteristics. They also work as an antibiotic that kills microorganisms competing with the yeast. By themselves, hop flowers are oily and strong-smelling, and there are many types. The Saaz and Hallertau hops used in German beer differ noticeably in flavor and smell than the Fuggles and Goldings hops used in British ales. American IPAs often contain the piney Cascade hops from Washington State and Oregon.

For centuries, brewers combined these ingredients in various ways, adding a little beer from a previous batch, and then waited, and presto! New beer. It wasn’t until guys like Louis Pasteur came along in the middle of the 19th century that the function of the fourth essential ingredient, yeast, was understood.

Yeast is a microorganism that eats sugar and poops out alcohol. When introduced to the wort (as the freshly brewed pre-alcoholic beer is called), the yeast begins a wild orgy of gorging and reproduction, converting the sugars to alcohol until all that fuel is used up. Brewers can measure and control the sweetness and alcohol content by stopping the fermentation at the appropriate measurement.

As you’ve probably already guessed, there are multiple types of yeast, each with its own long, Latin name you probably don’t care about. Suffice it to say there are two categories: Top-fermenting and bottom-fermenting.

The top-fermenting yeast makes ale. It foams up on the surface of the wort, thriving at higher temperatures than its bottom-feeding cousin. Lager is made from the bottom-fermenting stuff. These yeasts need a longer, colder fermentation period, and impart a crisper taste.

Finally, there are adjuncts: Grains like rice and corn that are fermentable, but cost less than barley. American macro brewers use them to lower the cost of brewing so their shareholders can be happy. These grains also have their taste characteristics, as anyone who’s ever suffered through a warm Molson Golden can tell you, and give American light lager its signature flavor.

We don’t condemn the use of adjuncts, although our consumption of these beers is minimal. You drink what you like, and if you like Bud, than by all means, gulp away.

We, on the other hand, will be searching the internet for the definition of Reinheitsgebot.

Bruce is a certified beer judge and former commercial brewer. Mark owns a laptop and likes beer. For more on beer, check out the beercraft blog, updated regularly, at http://beercraft.blogspot.com. Send your questions, suggestions, or comments to beercraft@rochester.rr.com.

Recycling Aluminum - what's going on?

What Happens to Recycled Aluminum?

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What Happens to Recycled Aluminum?

Overview

Aluminum is the most valuable of all recyclable materials, according to The Aluminum Association, with a value four times greater than other recycled consumer materials. Most recycled aluminum goes into the production of new beverage containers, but that demand is decreasing due to the increased use of plastic containers. However, recycled aluminum is becoming more popular in the automotive industry because it is lightweight, strong and durable.

Considerations

In 2008, the United States manufactured almost 2 million tons of aluminum in the form of containers and packaging, according the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and approximately 1.4 million tons of aluminum went into the production of durable and nondurable goods, such as automobile parts and appliances. In the same year, Americans contributed 3.4 million tons of aluminum to the municipal solid waste system.

Recyclebank Official Site Enter the Green Your Home Challenge for tips on greening your home. recyclebank.com

Sponsored Links

Features

Used beverage containers, such as beer cans and soft drink cans, make up the bulk of recycled aluminum. The Can Manufacturers Institute reports that in 2005, 51.4 billion aluminum cans were recycled--the energy equivalent of conserving over 15 million barrels of oil. Recycling just 40 aluminum cans is equivalent to conserving the energy of 1 gallon of gasoline.

The Process

The primary use of most recycled aluminum is to make more aluminum cans. When aluminum is recycled, manufacturers melt it down, reshape it and make it into new cans and other products. The process begins when consumers deposit used aluminum products at the curbside or at designated drop-off centers. Haulers collect the aluminum waste and deliver it to a material recovery facility, where workers separate other beverage and food containers from aluminum cans, which contain the highest quality of scrap aluminum.



The facility then bales the aluminum cans and sells them to can sheet manufacturers or brokers, who hire toll processors to refine the aluminum, melt it and shape it into ingots, or blocks. Finally, the can sheet manufacturers melt the ingots into can sheet, make it into cans and produce lids separately. The manufacturers then sell the cans back to beverage producers.

Other Uses of Recycled Aluminum

The second largest market for recycled aluminum is the automotive industry, which uses it to produce die-casts. The EPA predicts an increase in recycled aluminum usage by the automotive industry in the future, as the demand for lightweight, fuel-efficient cars increases. Other uses of recycled aluminum include building and construction materials, machinery and equipment, and consumer durables.

Significance

Aluminum comes from bauxite, an ore that is extracted from the earth. This means that aluminum does not break down or decompose, which makes aluminum recycling a critical issue. If an aluminum can is not recycled, it will still be an aluminum can hundreds of years from now. However, when you recycle an aluminum can, it can appear as a new aluminum can in as little as 60 days, reports the Aluminum Association.

Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/article/160836-what-happens-to-recycled-aluminum/#ixzz1KIp4RDOZ

Local Spotlight

From utahstories.com

Bohemian Brewery

Posted by Utah Stories in Local Spotlight

YES – THEY CAN!

Bohemian Brewery is without a doubt the coolest place in all of. Midvale City is home to Laser Quest, The Family Center, the I-215 freeway, dozens of strip malls.

Joe Petras (Founder of Bohemian Brewery) along with son Pete Petras.

But Bohemian Brewery and restaurant are like a beautiful oasis for anyone who loves good food and good beer. Like all other Utah breweries we’ve mentioned, Bohemian has been in expansion for the past three years. They expanded their building adding an additional 3,633 square feet tripling their brewing capacity.

Unlike all other Utah microbreweries Bohemian has chosen to go with cans instead of bottles. They prove they are not so odd in this regard by posting photos of the Microbrewery Can Festival, an annual event in Reno, Nevada.
Trying their cans from the grocery store next to the likes of Pabst and Miller Light it’s hard to believe that canned beer can actually taste so good.

Pete and Joe Petras are the father and son duo who defend can usage like Cheny defends gun rights. Yes, while it may be a little weird to put an incredible microbrew in a can, there are great benefits. First of all, a can is more portable for outdoor activities. Second, a can blocks 100% of the harmful UV light that can spoil beer. Third, a can is more environmentally friendly. OK I’m convinced there is nothing better in Midvale than Bohemian brewpub and there is nothing better in a can than Bohemian Beer. They have added two new lines to cans in recent months, their award winning Cherny Bock and their Viennese Lager. Head Brewer Bobby Jackson is another in the list of excellent, awarded Utah Brewers.

Check out our online video on Bohemian Brewery where they teach us “The Art of Pouring Beer.”

It's still snowing!!!

Well, we thought spring was coming. But we are so wrong. It's snowing like crazy and I'll tell you. I've had some of the best powder days this week. It's the best season we've seen in years and it doesn't look like it's over anytime soon.