Regardless of your political leanings, I think the beer aspects of this are pretty funny. Thanks to Ed Chainey for sending me the link. I suspect Republicans won’t be as amused as Democrats, but it’s true that alcohol is not allowed under Mormonism, along with coffee, tobacco and other items. I don’t know about above-ground swimming pools or truck nuts, but it wouldn’t surprise me. Still, from a strictly beer-centric point of view, the choice is clear.
The Mysteries Of Steam Beer
Nobody’s absolutely certain how Steam Beer was made back in the day, before Prohibition, or why it was called steam beer. Many theories abound, and in this fun, new video from Anchor Brewing, they explore some of the mythology and history surrounding Steam Beer.
Self-Opening Cantillon
Our friends Steve Shapiro and Gail Williams from Beer by BART are visiting, in part to go to the Cotati Accordion Festival to see Polkacide, and others. Last night we were opening beers and I pulled a 2007 bottle of Cantillon Rose de Gambrinus out of the cellar.
After opening the bottle, removing the crown, we were searching for a corkscrew (we’re still settling into our new home). I looked back at the cork and noticed it had risen up from the bottle a few centimeters on its own. It almost appeared like an unseen ghost was opening the bottle. We all stopped and watched the cork as it very, very slowly kept rising. It took long enough that Steve pulled out his phone and started video-taping it just before it popped. It took a long time, at least two or three minutes. It started moving very slowly and then picked up speed toward the dramatic conclusion. Eventually, the cork reached the end and rocketed out of the bottle, exploding up and out, hitting the ceiling. It even left a baptismal mark on the ceiling in our kitchen. I fully expected it to start gushing, but it didn’t at all. And most importantly, it tasted fantastic. That’s the first time I’ve ever seen a bottle open itself.
You Just Know This Is Going To End Badly
You just know this is going to end badly … or is it? There’s only one way to find out.
Dancing Malt & Hops: Maltoso Y Lupulin
Here’s a really fun, catchy video that my friend Pete Slosberg just sent me. It features dancing barley and hops whose dance eventually makes beer.
The video was done by Finn Cerveza Artesanal, a new Argentine brewery located in Lima, Buenos Aries.
Check out the video below, Maltoso y Lupulin:
DIY Brewing From The Daily
The iPad app news magazine The Daily had an interesting video on How to Brew Your Own Beer. It was shot at Bitter & Esters in Brooklyn, New York.
Red Stripe Sound Sculpture
This is kind of fun, and certainly an interesting way to reuse discarded beer cans. Red Stripe is apparently launching a marketing campaign under the banner “Make with a Red Stripe” and this is the first one. Below is the description from YouTube and the video itself is below here. And a hat tip to Adam for the link.
Make Something from Nothing, the first of a series of cultural projects called ‘Make with a Red Stripe’, features a unique sound sculpture created by sound artist Yuri Suzuki, in collaboration with DJ Al Fingers, singer/songwriter Gappy Ranks and designer Matthew Kneebone.
The 2.5 metre high, fully functioning sound sculpture is made using thousands of recycled Red Stripe beer cans partly collected at this year’s Notting Hill carnival. The project celebrates the DIY culture of the brand’s Jamaican roots, with Reggae, Dub and Jamaican music influences as well.
Make Something From Nothing debuts on 16th November with an exclusive launch party at Village Underground. Visit Facebook for more information.
Beer Fights Obesity
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?
Secrets Of Nature: Brewster’s Magic
Here’s an interesting old video from 1933. It’s from the British Pathe Archives, from the “Secrets of Nature” series entitled Brewster’s Magic. It was a British Instructional Film, photographed by F. Percy Smith, with Editing and Commentary by Mary Field and “Musical setting” by W. Hodgson.
The 8-minute black and white film shows time lapse photography of hops and barley growing plus microscopic images, as well. Here’s how they describe the film:
Hand pump being pulled in a pub. Hop root. The eyes are pointed out with a pencil. Time lapse photography of a hop shoot growing. C/U of the claws on the stem of the plant. Plant grows. The claws help the hop plant to twist its way around a smooth surface. Hop flowers growing on a male hop plant. Female hop plant produces flowers. We see them grow through time lapse. Comment on the voiceover about flowers being disappointed spinsters as they will not be fertilised. The flowers continue to grow. C/U of the sticky substance that grows on the petals. Lupelin (sp?) highly magnified. This is the substance that gives flavour and aroma to beer.
Hop garden. Barley ripening in the fields. C/U of barley submerged in water. Time lapse of the barley absorbing water. Barley puts out shoots in time lapse. The maltster turns them upside down to stop them from growing too quickly. Water supply is cut off and the barley withers. Graphic representation of the barley shoot. Animation. Maltster kills the barley grain when it has produced digestive fluid but not had time to use it. Grains are mashed up in hot water to make malt. Men roll barrels along in courtyard of brewery. C/U of yeast cells under a microscope beside a human hair. Moving yeast cells. Cells separate. Fermentation. Diagram of a molecule of sugar. Animated letters. Solution under the microscope. Bubbles are formed.
A pint of beer is pulled in a pub. Shot of man in flat cap drinking beer from a pewter tankard.
It’s a cool time capsule and definitely worth checking out.
My only quibble is that despite it being almost 80 years old, Pathe still asserts copyright on it. Which is fine, in and of itself, even if I generally disagree with how long copyrights now tend to run. But for some reason, they think it’s reasonable to charge you a whopping £50 ($77) to buy the 8-minute video, and that’s just for a download of it — no DVD or case or artwork, though they graciously will allow you to burn it to your own DVD. How thoughtful. Anyway, as a result, it can’t be embedded and viewed here. Fortunately, you can at least watch it at the Pathe website. Enjoy.
Also, there appear to be a wealth additional historic videos on both beer and hops that look like you could lose an entire day exploring.
MillerCoors Looking To Hire Bay Area Beer Ambassador
Thanks to an alert reader, Susan G., who noticed this video about a Monster.com job posting for an “Import & Craft Trade Brewer” position in the Bay Area advertised by MillerCoors. Actually, the person hired will work for 10th & Blake, which is their craft and import division. The company is looking for “a beer ambassador and homebrewing coach in the western U.S. [to] Teach sales teams and consult on new beer recipes.” They want someone who “knows all things beer.”