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Jay R. Brooks on Beer

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Anti-Alcohol Propaganda About Alcohol Being 3rd-Leading Preventable Cause Of Death

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alcohol-justice
I saw this tweet earlier today from my neighbors at the Marin Institute — now Alcohol Justice:

#Alcohol is the third-leading #preventable cause of death in the U.S. Fact sheets – #free to download… http://bit.ly/r8KoO5

First of all, somebody at Alcohol Justice (AJ) doesn’t quite understand the hashtag, using it on alcohol, preventable and free!

But Twitter etiquette aside, that statement is false, and they probably know that, making it a lie, to my way of thinking. But saying it that way makes it sound scarier, and AJ is all about propaganda these days as IMHO they’ve become more and more neo-prohibitionist since becoming the self-appointed sheriff, and changing their name.

That statement about alcohol being the “third-leading preventable cause of death in the U.S.” comes from the CDC. It’s from a 2001 study entitled “Alcohol-Attributable Deaths and Years of Potential Life Lost — United States, 2001,” and published in 2004. The very first words of the summary give you the spin, as it begins “Excessive alcohol consumption is the third leading preventable cause of death in the United States.” That’s right, it’s not alcohol, but excessive alcohol. Those of you drinking in moderation and responsibly — that is, the vast majority of adult drinkers — can breathe a sigh a relief. They weren’t talking about you. But they did materially change the “facts” to suit their needs and agenda. Put less charitably, they lied, at least in my opinion. Here’s the first few sentences:

Excessive alcohol consumption is the third leading preventable cause of death in the United States and is associated with multiple adverse health consequences, including liver cirrhosis, various cancers, unintentional injuries, and violence. To analyze alcohol-related health impacts, CDC estimated the number of alcohol-attributable deaths (AADs) and years of potential life lost (YPLLs) in the United States during 2001.

There’s a table at the bottom that reiterates that they’re taking about “the harmful effects of excessive alcohol use.” That table then lists all sorts of diseases, many of which may be related to alcohol, but many or most of which are only marginally associated. These sorts of reports have been discredited before, because they include a disease that excessive alcohol use may make worse, but which won’t cause the disease all on its own. Other factors are always involved. More generally, these are estimates that take a lot of liberties in their calculations. They are not hard numbers by any stretch.

The second report that AJ attributes to this statement is another study, this one also from 2004 in JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association. In that article, Actual Causes of Death in the United States, 2000, they found that heart disease, tumors and strokes were the three leading causes of death for Americans. You can see from the numbers that those statistics were relatively precise.

leading-death-causes-2000-1

But now look at the next chart, where alcohol consumption is listed as the third highest among what they term “actual causes of death.” Those are obvious estimates, and based on how round the numbers are, probably more like guesses. They come from several studies conducted by interview, some by phone, in both the U.S. and Australia that were aggregated together. So at least a half-dozen studies using different methodologies, questions and sample sizes were lumped together to create their findings. And if you review the study’s limitations near the bottom at the “Comments” section you’ll see that there were many factors, such as genetics and cholesterol levels, that were simply not considered, further clouding the results.

leading-death-causes-2000-2

But something else is apparent, too. Even if we accept those guesses (and you shouldn’t) tobacco and overeating/not exercising account for nearly 10 times the deaths that are attributed to alcohol. Those first two account for 34.7%, over a third, while alcohol is 3.5%. And from 1990 to 2000, alcohol actually went down 1.5%, from 100,000 estimated deaths to 85,000.

And while any death is regrettable and a tragedy, especially to their loved ones, roughly 2,437,163 die every year in America. Every one of us will one day become a part of that statistic. The current CDC estimates are that the most likely reasons for our demise will be heart disease, cancer, chronic lower respiratory disease, stroke, accidents (unintentional injuries), Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, influenza and pneumonia, nephritis (kidney trouble), nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis (different kidney diseases) and suicide. Some of those diseases may be exacerbated by excessive alcohol consumption, but these, and many other diseases, will be held at bay by moderate alcohol drinking and will also most likely result in our living longer than both teetotalers or excessive drinkers.

Responsible alcohol consumption will also enhance our lives in ways that reduce stress and make our lives more enjoyable. Such positive associations and outcomes are never included in these types of studies, however. Any harm to individuals, often of their own making, is never balanced by the enhancement to our life experience that responsible drinking brings to a majority of Americans. When you go looking for harm, that’s all you will find. But when you set about to twist even these questionable studies to make them seem far worse than even they represent, that’s shameful propaganda and does little to actually address the real problems that some individuals do have with drinking.

Moderate Drinking Prevents Bone Loss In Women

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bone
The ABMRF is reporting the results of a new study conducted at Oregon State University published in Menopause, the Journal of the North American Menopause Society. The study, Moderate alcohol intake lowers biochemical markers of bone turnover in postmenopausal women, appears to conclude that “Drinking alcohol in moderation with a healthy lifestyle may benefit women’s bone health, lowering their risk of developing osteoporosis.”

From the abstract:

Objective: Epidemiological studies indicate that higher bone mass is associated with moderate alcohol consumption in postmenopausal women. However, the underlying cellular mechanisms responsible for the putative beneficial effects of alcohol on bone are unknown. Excessive bone turnover, combined with an imbalance whereby bone resorption exceeds bone formation, is the principal cause of postmenopausal bone loss. This study investigated the hypothesis that moderate alcohol intake attenuates bone turnover after menopause.

Methods: Bone mineral density was determined by dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry in 40 healthy postmenopausal women (mean +/- SE age, 56.3 +/- 0.5 y) who consumed alcohol at 19 +/- 1 g/day. Serum levels of the bone formation marker osteocalcin and the resorption marker C-terminal telopeptide (CTx) were measured by immunoassay at baseline (day 0) and after alcohol withdrawal for 14 days. Participants then consumed alcohol and were assayed on the following morning.

Results: Bone mineral density at the trochanter and total hip were positively correlated to the level of alcohol consumption. Serum osteocalcin and CTx increased after abstinence (4.1 +/- 1.6%, P = 0.01 and 5.8 +/- 2.6%, P = 0.02 compared with baseline, respectively). Osteocalcin and CTx decreased after alcohol readministration, compared with the previous day (-3.4 +/- 1.4%, P = 0.01 and -3.5 +/- 2.1%, P = 0.05, respectively), to values that did not differ from baseline (P > 0.05).

Conclusions: Abstinence from alcohol results in increased markers of bone turnover, whereas resumption of alcohol reduces bone turnover markers. These results suggest a cellular mechanism for the increased bone density observed in postmenopausal moderate alcohol consumers. Specifically, the inhibitory effect of alcohol on bone turnover attenuates the detrimental skeletal consequences of excessive bone turnover associated with menopause.

The ABMRF report on the study:

Bones are in a constant state of remodeling with old bone being removed and replaced. In people with osteoporosis, more bone is lost than reformed resulting in porous, weak bones. About 80% of all people with osteoporosis are women, and postmenopausal women face an even greater risk because estrogen, a hormone that helps keep bone remodeling in balance, decreases after menopause.

A study by Oregon State University researchers assessed the effects of alcohol withdrawal on bone turnover in postmenopausal women who drank one or two drinks per day several times a week. A significant increase in blood markers of bone turnover was measured in women after they stopped drinking for just two weeks. Alcohol appears to behave similarly to estrogen in that it reduces bone turnover, the researchers said.

Investigators studied 40 early postmenopausal women who regularly had one or two drinks a day, were not on any hormone replacement therapies, and had no history of osteoporosis-related fractures.

Results suggest evidence for increased bone turnover, a risk factor for osteoporotic fractures, during the two week period when the participants stopped drinking. Less than a day after the women resumed their normal drinking, their bone turnover rates returned to previous levels.

“Drinking moderately as part of a healthy lifestyle that includes a good diet and exercise may be beneficial for bone health, especially in postmenopausal women,” said researchers. “After less than 24 hours to see such a measurable effect was really unexpected.”

Firestone Walker Sells Nectar Ales

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nectar
Yesterday, Firestone Walker Brewing announced that it’s selling Nectar Ales to Total Beverage Solution of South Carolina.

Nectar Ales was originally a line of beers brewed by Humboldt Brewing Company. The brewery was founded by Mario Celotto in 1987 in Humboldt County, California. Celotto was a linebacker with the Oakland Raiders. Shortly after being part of the 1980 Super Bowl team, he retired from football and used his Super Bowl bonus to start the brewery. Steve Parkes, who now owns and runs the brewing school, American Brewers Guild, created the original Red Nectar Ale.

Over lunch with Celotto around 1997, shortly after Frederick Brewing’s Hempen Ale became the first hemp beer, I suggested that Humboldt Brewing should make a hemp ale, it seemed like such a natural given Humboldt County’s reputation. I’m sure I wasn’t the only person to suggest such an obvious idea, but shortly thereafter, Humboldt’s Hemp Ale debuted and has proved very popular ever since. After some financial hardships, Firestone Walker Brewing bought the label in 2003, and has brewed them in Paso Robles ever since.

From the press release:

“It is sad to let these beers go, but production and operational demands will require us to focus on our core line of Firestone beers in the years ahead,” said co-proprietor Adam Firestone.

Added co-proprietor David Walker, “Nectar Ales was always a labor of love and our nod to keeping a pioneer of the California craft revolution healthy. It’s now time, however, for this iconic family of beers to become something more than we are able to provide.”

Total Beverage Solutions (TBS) is primarily an importer and distributor. Their current beer portfolio includes Affligem, Czech Rebel, Fischer, Gosser, Greene King, Maes Pils, Moretti, Mort Subite, Sea Dog, Shipyard, Southampton and Weihenstephan. So I’m still a little confused about the brand’s fate. Will Firestone Walker continue to brew the line, or will TBS take over that aspect of the brand. They don’t own a brewery as far as I can tell so will they have it contract brewed, or what? I made a few calls to Firestone Walker but it is a Monday morning, so I’ll update this when I find out more details.

UPDATE: I spoke to Adam Firestone yesterday and for the near term, Firestone Walker will continue to brew the Nectar Ales line. At some point in the future, he believes that TBS will most likely make other arrangements and will move production but for now, the brewing will remain the same.

Argentina Beer

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argentina
Today in 1816, Argentina gained their Independence from Spain.

Argentina
argentina-color

Argentina Breweries

Argentina Brewery Guides

Other Guides

  • CIA World Factbook
  • Official Website
  • U.S. Embassy
  • Wikipedia

Guilds: Asociacion de Cerveceros Artesanales; La Asociacion de Cerveceros Artesanales de la Republica Argentina

National Regulatory Agency: None

Beverage Alcohol Labeling Requirements: Not Known

Drunk Driving Laws: BAC 0.05%

argentina

  • Full Name: Argentine Republic
  • Location: Southern South America, bordering the South Atlantic Ocean, between Chile and Uruguay
  • Government Type: Republic
  • Language: Spanish (official), Italian, English, German, French
  • Religion(s): Nominally Roman Catholic 92% (less than 20% practicing), Protestant 2%, Jewish 2%, other 4%
  • Capital: Buenos Aires
  • Population: 42,192,494; 32nd
  • Area: 2,780,400 sq km, 8th
  • Comparative Area: Slightly less than three-tenths the size of the US
  • National Food: Asado, Empanada
  • National Symbols: Puma, Rufous Hornero (bird); Ceibo flower; Ceibo, Red Quebracho trees; Yerba mate, Obelisk of Buenos Aires; Sun of May, Cockade of Argentina; Río de la Plata (River Plate)
  • Affiliations: UN, OAS
  • Independence: From Spain, July 9, 1816

argentina-coa

  • Alcohol Legal: Yes
  • Minimum Drinking Age: 18
  • BAC: 0.05%
  • Label Requirements: N/A
  • Number of Breweries: 54

argentina-money

  • How to Say “Beer”: cerveza
  • How to Order a Beer: Una cerveza, por favor
  • How to Say “Cheers”: Salud / Cheers
  • Toasting Etiquette: If you are toasted, return the favor. In Argentina, ‘Salud!’ or ‘Cheers!’ are popular toasts.

argentina-map

Alcohol Consumption By Type:

  • Beer: 32%
  • Wine: 59%
  • Spirits: 7%
  • Other: 2%

Alcohol Consumption Per Capita (in litres):

  • Recorded: 8.00
  • Unrecorded: 2.00
  • Total: 10.00
  • Beer: 2.49

WHO Alcohol Data:

  • Per Capita Consumption: 8 litres
  • Alcohol Consumption Trend: Stable
  • Excise Taxes: N/A
  • Minimum Age: 18
  • Sales Restrictions: Time, specific events
  • Advertising Restrictions: No
  • Sponsorship/Promotional Restrictions: No

Patterns of Drinking Score: 2

Prohibition: None

argentina-so-amer

Welcome To The World ABInBevMo

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abim
By now you’ve already seen the news that Anheuser-Busch InBev has taken another step closer to realizing their quest for world domination in the beer business. They’d already owned half of Mexican powerhouse brewer Grupo Modelo — makers of Corona, among other brands — but it was non-voting stock and they asserted very little control over them. In fact, Corona is often a competitor in the U.S., usually with non-Bud distributors. The irony, of course, is whether you bought Bud or Corona, eventually at least some of that money still made its way to ABI. The phrase “laughing all the way to the bank” springs to mind. Hard as it to believe, they already have a new website up even though the merger’s only been finalized in the last twenty-four hours. The name of the new site is Global Beer Leader. Does anybody else think that sounds ominously close to North Korea’s “dear leader?”

ABI is paying Grupo Model $20.1 billion to become ABIM, making it the second-biggest deal ever brokered in the beer world. The first was the $52 billion InBev paid to merge with Anheuser-Busch in 2008. The deal still needs government approval, and will likely be addressed and decided in the first quarter of next year.

According to the deal, Crown Imports — the current importer of Corona and other Grupo Modelo brands under the Constellation Brands umbrella — will continue to be the importer to the U.S. In fact, part of the deal includes the sale of the half of Crown Imports owned by Grupo Modelo to Constellation Brands, who had owned the other half, for $1.85 billion. That gives them 100% control over the distribution of the Modelo brands in America. ABIM head honcho Carlos Brito told Harry Schumacher this morning that they’re looking at this as a golden opportunity primarily to combine Bud and Corona outside the U.S. in the global beer market.

Adam Nason at Beer Pulse has a helpful chart showing that the merger gives ABIM control over 8 of the top 15 global beer brands, just over half.

Full details of the deal can be found at the new website Global Beer Leader.

abim
NOTE: This NOT their official new logo, I made this up as a parody.

What We Spend On Alcohol

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npr
NPR’s Planet Money blog had an interesting report today entitled What America Spends On Booze, breaking it down with some recent data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and some great infographics by Lam Thuy Vo of NPR.

npr-booze-spending-1
As you can see, we drink outside our homes almost twice as much as we did three decades ago, though as Lam Thuy Vo notes, that’s a little deceptive at least partly because the price of alcohol in bars and restaurants has skyrocketed while real prices have fallen, when adjusted for inflation.

npr-booze-spending-2
Also, what we spend our alcohol dollars on has likewise shifted over the last thirty years. While beer is still on top, it has slipped a little. Wine is way up, while spirits have significantly dropped.

npr-booze-spending-3

The one thing I’m a bit surprised about is the drop in beer. Since the price of craft beer is generally higher than mainstream adjunct lagers, I would think that the higher dollar rings would cause the figures for beer to rise as the percentage of craft beer has increased. Perhaps the price wars among the big players that have kept the price of beer artificially low for so long have contributed, or at least partially account, for the extended dip.

Betty Crocker Beer?

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betty-crocker
Who knew that Betty Crocker even knew about beer? Today, I saw that they posted 35 Beer Terms Every Beer Lover Needs To Know, and it’s not a bad list. Of course, it helps that it was compiled by a Cicerone — Michael Agnew. But beyond that, there’s a whole section on Betty Crocker’s website dedicated to beer entitled Betty’s BrewHouse. Way to stay hip and with it, Betty. I guess she’s not just about cakes and brownies anymore.

Beer Fights Obesity

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health
Here’s an interesting one, if I’m reading it correctly. A new study published in the journal Cell Metabolism with the inscrutable title The NAD+ Precursor Nicotinamide Riboside Enhances Oxidative Metabolism and Protects against High-Fat Diet-Induced Obesity appears to suggest that beer (and milk) contain a molecule that helps fight against weight-gain, especially in high-fat diets. The wonder molecule is known as nicotinamide riboside, or NR. Here’s the abstract. See if you can get through it without your head spinning:

As NAD+ is a rate-limiting cosubstrate for the sirtuin enzymes, its modulation is emerging as a valuable tool to regulate sirtuin function and, consequently, oxidative metabolism. In line with this premise, decreased activity of PARP-1 or CD38—both NAD+ consumers—increases NAD+ bioavailability, resulting in SIRT1 activation and protection against metabolic disease. Here we evaluated whether similar effects could be achieved by increasing the supply of nicotinamide riboside (NR), a recently described natural NAD+ precursor with the ability to increase NAD+ levels, Sir2-dependent gene silencing, and replicative life span in yeast. We show that NR supplementation in mammalian cells and mouse tissues increases NAD+ levels and activates SIRT1 and SIRT3, culminating in enhanced oxidative metabolism and protection against high-fat diet-induced metabolic abnormalities. Consequently, our results indicate that the natural vitamin NR could be used as a nutritional supplement to ameliorate metabolic and age-related disorders characterized by defective mitochondrial function.

A mouthful, to be sure, but Jenny Hope, at the UK’s Daily Mail, who presumably had access to the full text, valiantly makes more sense of it in The miracle molecule: Hidden vitamin found in BEER and MILK can make you stronger, slimmer and healthier, and the story starts out very promisingly:

If you were planning on having a quick pint tonight, then this will be welcome news.

Beer may contain a vitamin which can fight obesity and improve muscle strength, scientists claim.

The ‘miracle molecule’, which has been found in milk and may also be present in beer and some foods, has no side effects and could even lengthen lifespan, they say.

The bad news — why does there always have to be bad news? — is that NR is found in vanishingly small quantities, so infinitesimal that you couldn’t really drink enough beer (or milk) to take advantage of NR’s positive effects. Oh, you could try, but such immoderate drinking would no doubt land you on MADD’s most wanted and possibly lead you to an early grave, as well, thus defeating the purpose.

Nonetheless, the results were impressive. In addition to fighting weight gain and improving muscle strength, NR also helped combat diabetes and improved endurance. And did I mention no side effects were found, not even in high doses? Apparently, NR “works by becoming trapped in cells where it boosts the metabolism, much like resveratrol, which is found in wine.”

In a statement, one of the study’s authors, Carles Canto said. “It really appears that cells use what they need when they need it, and the rest is set aside without being transformed into any kind of deleterious form.”

The next steps, besides human testing, will be figuring out how to better detect it and, more importantly, discovering if it can be synthesized economically so that sufficiently large quantities can be taken. I sure like the idea of Vitamin Beer. Flintstones chewable beer vitamins, anyone?

A-B InBev Trademarks 40+ Airport Codes

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airplane
Here’s a strange development. Remember Anheuser-Busch InBev filed trademark applications for over a dozen telephone area codes a few months ago. Speculation ran high that they were planning on duplicating the success of their recent acquisition, Goose Island Brewing, and their 312 Urban Wheat Ale, named after the local Chicago area code, but nobody could say for sure. This past Monday, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office granted ABI a 6-month extension to submit their mandatory “Statement of Use” forms, meaning we’ll have to wait a bit longer to discover exactly how they’re planning on using those area codes.

Pro Brewer is now reporting — though the original sources are Evan Benn on St. Louis Today and Jenn Litz at Craft Business Daily — that ABI has spent over $12,000 filing similar applications to lock-up over 40 airport codes, including “LAX (Los Angeles), SFO (San Francisco), MIA (Miami), BOS (Boston) and LGA (New York LaGuardia).” Again, no word on what the plan is for them, but it would have to be for a beer name, wouldn’t it? What else could it be? Surely not just making sure no one else uses them? ‘Cause that would be kinda evil. What’s next, famous zip codes? Two-digit state codes? There was a great joke Lily Tomlin used to tell in her stand-up act. “I love it how New York City named their streets after all the famous numbers.”

Father’s Day Fest This Sunday

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fathers
You know what you really want for Father’s Day: beer! And since it’s your day, how can your family say no? And now you really can get what you really want. Here’s how:

The Brewing Network’s Winter Brews Fest has spawned off-spring, and what better time to celebrate that than a Father’s Day-themed Summer Fest! The city of Concord and the East Bay- based craft beer radio company have joined forces once again to throw beer lovers a family friendly day, complete with a chili cook off, live music, an antique fair, a corvette car show, and more!

Unlike its January counter-part, this inaugural Summer Fest is open to all ages, with those over 21 getting a chance to sample dozens of different brews from local breweries such as 21st Amendment, Bear Republic, Creek Monkey, Deschutes, Drake’s, Firestone Walker, Heretic, Lagunitas, Ommegang, Stone, Uncommon Brewers, and more.

The Brewing Network’s 2012 Summer Fest will be held at Todos Santos Plaza in Concord, CA, on Sunday, June 17, 2012 from noon to 4pm. Rain or (what’s more likely) shine, they’ve got you covered, all you have to do is bring your fathers, surrogate or other, and give them a Father’s Day to remember. And with Concord BART just two blocks away, this event is bound to entice beer lovers from around the Bay to enjoy a responsible day celebrating Dad!

Tickets are $40 pre-sale and $50 at the gate and include unlimited tastes of beer, while-supplies-last chili, and a commemorative glass for the first 4,000 guests. Proceeds from the event will go to the Kiwanis Club and Contra Costa County Fire Department charities. For more information on the event, and to buy tickets please visit BNsummerfest.eventbrite.com.

Remember it’s your day. When they ask how you want to spend it, repeat after me. The Brewing Network’s Summer Fest on Father’s Day this Sunday.

BN-Fathers-day-fest-2012