Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

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Still More Beer Health Claims

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While reading over the text of the latest study showing a decreased risk of kidney cancer for moderate beer drinkers, I noticed in the References a couple of older studies that showed that beer and/or alcohol had both specific and general health benefits. Most of the 37 academic papers listed as references were about renal cell cancer (a.k.a. kidney cancer), but these two, both from 2000, were about other health benefits of beer consumption.

The first, Beer increases plasma antioxidant capacity in humans, was published in the February 2000 issue of the Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry. Here is the PubMed abstract:

The positive association of a moderate intake of alcoholic beverages with a low risk for cardiovascular disease, in addition to ethanol itself, may be linked to their polyphenol content. This article describes the effect of acute ingestion of beer, dealcoholized beer, and ethanol (4.5% v/v) on the total plasma antioxidant status of subjects, and the change in the high performance liquid chromatography profile of some selected phenolic acids (caffeic, sinapic, syringic, and vanillic acids) in 14 healthy humans. Plasma was collected at various times: before (T0), 1 hour after (T1), and 2 hours after (T2) drinking. The study is part of a larger research planned to identify both the impact of brewing on minor components potentially present in beer and their metabolic fate in humans. Beer was able to induce a significant (P < 0.05) increase in plasma antioxidant capacity at T1 (mean +/- SD: T0 1,353 +/- 320 microM; T1 1,578 +/- 282 microM), returning close to basal values at T2. All phenolic acids measured in plasma tended to increase after beer intake (20% at T1, 40% at T2). Syringic and sinapic acid reached statistical significance (P < 0.05 by one-way analysis of variance-Fisher’s test) at T1 and T2, respectively. Plasma metabolic parameters (glucose, total cholesterol, triglycerides, and uric acid) and plasma antioxidants (alpha-tocopherol and glutathione) remained unchanged. Ethanol removal impaired the absorption of phenolic acids, which did not change over the time of the experiment, accounting for the low (and not statistically significant) increase in plasma antioxidant capacity after dealcoholized beer drinking. Ethanol alone did not affect plasma antioxidant capacity or any of the antioxidant and metabolic parameters measured.

The second one, Nutritional and Health Benefits of Beer, was published in the November 2000 issue of The American Journal of the Medical Sciences. Here is the PubMed abstract:

Physicians should be aware of the growing evidence supporting the nutritional and health benefits of moderate consumption of alcohol as part of a healthy lifestyle. The recently approved voluntary label on wine (“the proud people who made this wine encourage you to consult your family doctor about the health effects of wine consumption”) implies that physicians should promote wine as the preferred source of dietary alcohol. However, studies evaluating the relative benefits of wine versus beer versus spirits suggest that moderate consumption of any alcoholic beverage is associated with lower rates of cardiovascular disease. From a nutritional standpoint, beer contains more protein and B vitamins than wine. The antioxidant content of beer is equivalent to that of wine, but the specific antioxidants are different because the barley and hops used in the production of beer contain flavonoids different from those in the grapes used in the production of wine. The benefits of moderate alcohol consumption have not been generally endorsed by physicians for fear that heavy consumers may consider any message as a permissive license to drink in excess. Discussions with patients regarding alcohol consumption should be made in the context of a general medical examination. There is no evidence to support endorsement of one type of alcoholic beverage over another. The physician should define moderate drinking (1 drink per day for women and 2 drinks per day for men) for the patient and should review consumption patterns associated with high risk.

Interesting stuff and not terribly surprising given that recent years have seen a growing body of such findings. What’s perhaps more curious is how silent the neo-prohibitionist groups are about all of the health benefits of moderate consumption. It’s getting harder and harder for them to maintain their shrill evils of alcohol position in light of these generally unbiased scientific findings. What’s perhaps more troubling is that their very inflexibility, especially their refusal to entertain lowering the drinking age or allow reasonable alcohol education, are actually causing the problems associated with immoderate drinking to increase. By forcing kids to drink underground, without benefit of parental or adult supervision or example, today’s generation seems far less equipped to learn moderation.

Take for example, the neo-prohibitionist position undertaken by government studies that defines binge drinking as five drinks in one session. If physicians in many other studies suggest that two drinks per days is considered to be the definition of moderate drinking, then the distance between healthy drinker to problem drinker seems fantastically small. That makes one or both standards all but meaningless. But since it would be hard to argue that the standard of two drinks per day is too high then it seems to me a prima facie conclusion that it’s the binge drinking standard that is out of whack.

But these groups with government collusion continue to demonize alcohol and refuse, where possible, to allow parents to teach their children about how to drink, with the predictable result that newly freed college students binge at the first opportunity. As former Middlebury College president John M. McCardell Jr. — and the founder of Choose Responsibility — asks, has making the drinking age 21 stopped kids from drinking? The answer is quite obviously “no,” which suggests that this approach does not work as intended. And with the growing body of health benefits associated with moderate drinking, aren’t these prohibitions simply doing more harm than good? I think an argument can be made that by not allowing alcohol education and making alcohol a forbidden taboo, neo-prohibitionist groups are actually causing more binge drinking and keeping young people from realizing the health benefits of moderation.
 

Craft Lagerfest Winners

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Although in its fifth year, the Craft Lager Fest is a festival I have not had the opportunity to attend. But I like the idea of it, being another niche festival that highlights a particular style of beer, in this case lagers broadly. But since the majority of craft beer is undoubtedly ales, shining a spotlight on lager styles is a great idea. In fact, I have an article coming out in the next issue of American Brewer on this very subject, the rise of the small, niche festival.

The Craft Lager Festival takes place in a small town in Colorado, Manitou Springs, which is near Pikes Peak. This year they got 30 breweries from Hawaii to Boston participating. The winning breweries are listed below.
 

2007 Winners List

PILSENER

  1. Blue Paddle (New Belgium)
  2. La Plata Pilsener (Carver Brewing)
  3. Polestar Pilsener (Lefthand Brewing)

EXPORT/HELLES:

  1. Light Lager (Rock Bottom Colorado Springs)
  2. Longboard Island Lager (Kona Brewing)
  3. Session Beer (Full Sail Brewing)

BOCK:

  1. Ltd. #2 (Full Sail Brewing.)
  2. Rye Bock Lager (Lefthand Brewing)
  3. Butthead Bock (Tommyknockers)

STRONG LAGER:

  1. No 1st Place Awarded
  2. Warning Sign Eis Bock (Good Ol’ Boys Brewing COOP)
  3. Dutch (Rockyard American Grill & Brewery)

OKTOBERFEST/VIENNA/MARZEN:

  1. No 1st Place Awarded
  2. Steam Engine Lager (Steamworks Brewing)
  3. Ornery Amber (Tommyknockers)

OTHER SPECIALTY LAGER:

  1. Spring Tonic Elixir (Carver Brewing)
  2. Cerbeza Real (Carver Brewing)
  3. Hop Goblin (Il Vicino Albuquerque)

 

Drink Up, Your Kidneys Will Thank You

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According to a study published in the British Journal of Cancer last month entitled Alcoholic beverages and risk of renal cell cancer, moderate consumption of alcohol — ideally strong beer or red and white wine — may lower the risk of renal cell cancer, better known as kidney cancer. The study concluded that your odds of getting kidney cancer was reduced around 40% by drinking approximately two glasses of wine or two bottles or beer per week. Curiously, while strong beer, red wine and white wine had this positive effect, light beer, medium-strong beer, strong wine, or hard liquor had virtually no effect.

The study’s authors speculated on the reasons for this in their concluding remarks.

A reduced risk associated with consumption of wine and beer might be due to the phenolics they contain as these possess antioxidant and antimutagenic properties (Elattar and Virji, 1999; Denke, 2000) or increase plasma antioxidant capacity in human (Ghiselli et al, 2000). However, the lower risk that we observed for three different alcoholic beverages and total ethanol intake suggests that alcohol itself rather than a particular type of drink is responsible for the reduction in risk. However, it is unclear why we observed an inverse association only for strong beer and not for medium-strong, or light beer, although this might be due to the lower ethanol content of light (1.8%) and medium-strong (2.8%) beer compared to strong beer (4.5%).

 

A Mammoth Time In Mammoth Lakes

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Earlier this month, the family and I drove the five plus hours to Mammoth Lakes, California, which is on the other side of the Sierras, near Mono Lake. It’s a bit of a trek to get there, especially with unruly toddlers in the back seat, but, in the end, well worth the trouble. If you’re a rock freak like I am, the place is just beautiful with all sort of alien landscapes with gorgeous views and places to explore. But the real reason we were in town was for the 12th annual Mammoth Festival of Beers & Bluesapalooza. This was my first time to this festival, but it’s won’t be my last. If you can manage to get yourself to this remote location in the seductive resort town of Mammoth Lakes, by all means go. This year there were over fifty craft brewers in attendance. But as great as the music is and as great as the beer festival is, be sure to save yourself some time to see the natural wonders that surround this wilderness area. There are parks galore with countless hiking trails, natural hot springs, volcanic remnants and, of course, Mono Lake. Beer, blues and Mother Nature. What more could you ask for of a weekend?

Arne Johnson and Shane Aldrich, both from Marin Brewing.

Brewer Chuck Silva from Green Flash Brewing.

“Crazy Dave” Heist from Hoptown Brewing.

For more photos from this year’s Mammoth Lakes Festival of Beers & Bluesapalooza, visit the photo gallery.
 

Back to Portland

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With the roller coaster I’ve been on lately, I never had a chance to finish posting photos from this year’s Oregon Brewers Festival at the end of July.

So without further ado, here’s three — count ’em, three — days of fun at the Oregon Brewers Festival that even includes singing watermelons, sort of.

To see the photos from this year’s Oregon Brewer’s Festival, visit the photo gallery.
 

Belgian Light

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A day after praising Eric Asimov for leading the way toward detente between beer and wine, his “Ales of the Times” column today is entitled More or Less Pale but All Belgian features a tasting of several lighter Belgian beers suitable for summer. As usual, it’s a reasoned look at several lighter style Belgian ales such as Affligem Blond, Corsendonk, De Koninck and Orval and how they might be every bit as thirst-quenching as an ice-cold industrial light lager but with oodles more flavor and variety. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, this is what we need more of in order to win the hearts and minds of all Americans toward enjoying better beer.
 

Oregon To Host Fresh Hop “Tastivals”

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Fresh Hop or Wet Hop beers have been an exciting development over the last ten years, ever since Sierra Nevada created the first one with their Harvest Ale around 1996. The number of breweries making these beers has grown exponentially since that time and the limited nature of these beers make them something beer lovers eagerly anticipate each fall. This year, the Oregon Brewers Guild has paired up with Oregon Bounty, part of the state’s official tourism organization, “to produce a series of “Tastivals” to celebrate the release of Oregon’s fresh hop beers.”

From the press release:

These much anticipated seasonal beers are brewed only once a year during hop harvest, which typically takes place in late August and early September. Beers created using fresh hops instead of traditional dried hops are given unique flavors that simply aren’t available the rest of the year. Similar to a beer festival, each of the four “Tastivals” will offer visitors the opportunity to sample some of the more than 30 beers from across the state crafted using fresh-off-the-vine hops.

“Fresh hops are extremely fragile and need to be dried or used in a brew within 24 hours of picking — so this type of beer is uniquely suited to Oregon where we have the largest amount of aroma and flavor hops grown locally,” says Brian Butenschoen, Executive Director of the Oregon Brewers Guild. “Nowhere else in the United States are so many breweries located so close to the hop fields. The tastivals will give hop enthusiasts an opportunity to celebrate harvest by tasting the enormous variety of fresh hops grown in Oregon and made into beers by Oregon’s craft brewers.”

Fresh Hop “Tastivals” will be held every Saturday during the month of October with scheduled locations including:

 

  • October 6: Hood River Hops, Hood River
  • October 13: McMenamins Edgefield, Troutdale
  • October 20: Ninkasi Brewing Company, Eugene
  • October 27: Deschutes Brewery, Bend

 

Admission to the Tastivals is free of charge. Souvenir tasting glasses are required to sample beers and are available for $5. Beer samples are $1 each. Food will also be available for purchase.

That sounds like it will be a fun time at any one of those events.

More about Oregon Bounty:

Each October and November, Oregon’s winemakers, cheese makers, brewmasters, chefs, growers and producers come together for a celebration of Oregon Bounty. In addition to intimate food and wine events, visitors can purchase special packages that offer them one-on-one time with Oregon’s culinary talent. Visitors can spend the day making wine with an Oregon vintner, making suds with a craft brewmaster, foraging for chanterelles in Mt. Hood’s foothills-even cruising a farmers’ market with a local chef in search of ingredients for a private cooking class. It’s all part of the annual Oregon Bounty Celebration.

Brookston Beer Bulletin Fantasy Football Season 2007

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NFL Football is pretty much the only major sport I pay much attention to these days. Of the arguably four major sports (baseball, football, basketball and ice hockey) it’s the only one I think that goes well with craft beer. Hear me out. I know you can get decent beer at most sporting events if you’re willing to pay a premium price and do some extensive searching around the park, stadium or whatever. But baseball is played in the summer months and both basketball and hockey are indoor sports so all three tend to favor warm weather light beers, the kind made in vats the size of Montana. Football, on the other hand, is usually played outdoors in the dead of fall or winter, in rain, sleet or snow, with the wind whipping through the frozen tundra turning everyone into human Popsicles. That’s the perfect time for a nice warming barleywine, doppelbock or Belgian tripel. Or perhaps a thick Imperial Russian Stout, an über hoppy Double IPA or even a nice Wee Heavy. Now those are football beers. Yum.

Despite having grown up in Pennsylvania, I’ve been a Green Bay fan my entire life. But after the Lombardi years, the Packers went through a twenty year drought that made my enthusiasm for the game pretty hard to sustain. It’s hard to keep rooting for a team that never wins, especially when all your friends are 49ers fans, it’s the Montana/Young era and they rub it in your face at every opportunity. But finally in the early nineties, Brett Favre joined the team and they finally started winning again. And ever since it’s been fun again to follow football.

So I’ve set up two free Yahoo fantasy football games, one a simple pick ’em game and the other a survival pool, and you’re invited to play along. Up to 50 people can play each game, so if you’re a regular Bulletin reader feel free to sign up. It’s free to play, all you need is a Yahoo ID, which is also free. Below is a description of each game and the details on how to play.

Pro Football Pick’em

In this Pick’em game, just pick the winner for every game each week, with no spread, and let’s see who gets the most correct throughout the season. All that’s at stake is bragging rights, but it’s fun.

In order to join the group, just go to Pro Football Pick’em, click the “Sign Up” button (or “Create or Join Group” if you are a returning user). From there, follow the path to join an existing private group and when prompted, enter the following information…

Group ID#: 32392
Password: bulletin

Survival Football

If picking all sixteen football game every week seems like too much, then Survival Football is for you. In Survival Football, you only have to pick one game each week. The only catch is you can’t pick the same team to win more than once all season. And you better be sure about each game you pick because if you’re wrong, you’re out for the season. Last man standing wins.

In order to join the group, just go to Survival Football, click the “Sign Up” button and choose to “Join an Existing Group”, then “Join a Private Group”. Then, when prompted, enter the following information…

Group ID#: 10094
Password: bulletin

 

Gushing Over the Pour

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I’ve long admired Eric Asimov’s column or blog at the New York Times entitled “The Pour.” Asimov is one of those rare wine writers who not only enjoys good beer but also understands it. He occasionally writes about it, too, and when he does so it compares favorably to the best beer writing. So while I often bristle at wine and food writers tackling a subject they know precious little about, Asimov is the exception to the rule. His column today, Beers Worth Waiting For, is another stellar example and as a study in contrasts neatly demolishes the debacle at the Wall Street Journal from last Friday.

Asimov, while waiting in a very long line in the hot sun for the outdoor salmon bake at this year’s International Pinot Noir Celebration with two French winemakers, was not having any fun. The winemakers fortuitously suggested a beer run. After enjoying several craft brews, their waiting was made considerably more congenial, sparking Asimov to ruminate about beer and wine. His sentiments filled me with admiration, and a lot of head nodding.

In the course of a day it seems that many winery workers drink a good bit more beer than wine. The two beverages in fact co-exist quite well, and therefore it irritates me when wine and beer are pitted against each other, especially when wine-lovers demean beer. Beer-lovers have a bit of catching up to do in terms of achieving status and understanding, so I have a little more tolerance for them when they feel compelled to demonstrate how well good beers can go with certain foods, usually at the expense of wine.

My friend Garrett Oliver, the brewmaster at the Brooklyn Brewery, has engaged in more than a few competitive wine-and-beer tastings, because he has a point to prove. Yet he has the excellent sense to be an unapologetic wine-lover as well as a beer-lover. Rigidity and self-deprivation rarely win people over, but open minds go a long way to opening other people’s minds.

Amen, brother. If only more wine writers and wine lovers shared his views, what a better world this would be for both grain and grapes.
 

Sparkling Hop Liqueur?

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Kirin Brewery announced today that they will releasing their third quasi-beer into the populy Japanese alcohol category known as “third-category.” The Japanese media came up with that name, officially they’re classified as “other miscellaneous alcohol” or “liquor.” Naturally they’re subject to lower taxes, are often made with soybeans but without malt. The first and second categories are “beer” and “happoshu,” which is a low-malt beer with less than 67% malt.

Kirin’s newest entry into the lucrative Japanese quasi-beer market is “Sparkling Hop,” which, according to the press release, will “feature a distinctive aroma created by blending Japanese and New Zealand hop varieties. Strong pressure gives the product a rich head and a refreshing finish, Kirin officials said.”

Sparkling Hop’s target demographic is twenty-somethings, the same group that are buying the dreaded alcopops.

Also from the press release:

Sparkling Hop is made by mixing a “happoshu” low-malt drink with spirits. Under Japan’s liquor tax system, the new product is classified as a liqueur, whose tax rate is lower than those for beer and happoshu.

This is Kirin’s third product in the third category, following “Ryoshitsu Sozai” and “Nodogoshi Nama.” With the three products, Kirin hopes to beat out its rivals in the heavily crowded third-category market.

These “third-category” products along with the low-malt happoshu will likely never reach our shores, because they’re largely a result of taxation. If Japan’s tax structure was different, they wouldn’t exist. But they appear to be having the same damaging effect as alcopops are having here, not so much in terms of underage drinking (in Japan it’s age 20), but insofar as the sweeter drinks are finding favor with kids raised on sweet soft drinks who are not acquiring a taste for bitter drinks like beer as they age. It’s somewhat ironic that Japan’s beer industry in trying to get around the tax laws, may be shooting themselves in the foot with these lower-taxed, highly sweetened alcoholic drinks.