Tag Archives: alcohol

What alcohol does to you

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Lifehacker has an interesting piece on the effects of alcohol on your brain as well as the rest of you. Most of this isn’t news to me, but they do a good job debunking some persistent myths. If you’re going to enjoy beer in a responsible manner you should know this stuff.

Lifehacker: What Alcohol Actually Does to Your Brain and Body

Everyone, it seems, takes their cues on how alcohol affects the mind and body from an eclectic mix of knowledge: personal experience, pop culture, tall tales of long nights, the latest studies to make the health news wires, and second-hand tips. You might have gathered that alcohol is a depressant, that it’s dehydrating, that you can drink about one drink an hour and stay relatively sober. Some of that is true. But much of it depends on a large number of factors.

Bet you didn’t know: It’s not great as a sleep aid.

Just as with caffeine, your brain proves remarkably adept at adapting itself and responding to the ethanol molecules jamming up its receptors and interfering with neuron firings. It takes a bit for the brain to catch up, though, and when your brain starts kicking in and reclaiming all its nooks and crannies, it can wreak havoc on your crucial REM sleep, along with your more passive, general resting. If you’ve had caffeine, too, it’s a drug that can take up to 5 hours to break down half a dose. If it’s in your system at the same time as your brain is trying to compensate for alcohol, the combined “revenge” of both drugs can lead to some fairly restless sleep, according to [Stephen] Braun’s Buzz[: The Science and Lore of Alcohol and Caffeine].

Demon of Ale

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Now some beers are a bit higher in alchool than others. Normal might be considered 5%, 6%, 7% ABV, so by higher I am referring to beers with an ABV of 8%, 9% and even 10%. Some beers are considered barley wines because their alcohol content is on par with that of wine, around 11%, 12%.

So, I’m looking through my fridge to see what ale is next on my list. I’m feeling like a stout… Mephistopheles’ Stout looks very nice. I like the graphic on the label, I like the name and Mephistopheles is the final installment of “The Demons of Ale” series. This is going to be gr…. whoa! does that say 16.1% ABV??? Yikes!

That’s a bit strong for a Wednesday evening. It would be like having three beers at once. You and I will both have to wait to find out how this beer fairs, but I’m looking forward to it.

mephistopheles-stout
Avery’s Mephistopheles’ Stout
Beer Style: Stout
Hop Variety: Magnum, Styrian Goldings
Malt Variety: Two-row barley, black malt,roasted barley,Belgian special B, aromatic
OG: 1.135   Alcohol By Volume: 16.1%   IBU’s: 107
Color: Coal Black

Mephistopheles is the crafty shape shifter, the second fallen angel. Amazingly complex, coal black, velvety and liqueurish, this demon has a bouquet of vine-ripened grapes, anise and chocolate covered cherries with flavors of rum-soaked caramelized dark fruits and a double espresso finish. IBU’s 107.

Moderate drinkers happier, more successful, and healthier than teetotalers

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A recent article on Forbes.com was brought to my attention the other day. Arthur C. Brooks, author of Who Really Cares and Gross National Happiness, lists some of the ways that people who drink moderately (one or three drinks a day) have it better than people who don’t drink alcohol at all.

Drinking to Success

Moderate drinkers are richer than teetotalers, too. In 2001 the University of Michigan’s Panel Study of Income Dynamics found that light drinkers … had a mean income of $49,000, versus $36,000 among teetotalers. This is a nuanced statistic; drinking may be associated with other variables (like education) that influence income. So the researchers did their best to strip these other causes out. If two adults were identical with respect to education, age, family status, race and religion, except that the first had one or two drinks each night after work while the second was a teetotaler, the drinker would tend to enjoy a “drinker’s bonus” of about 10% higher income.

I have to wonder if causality can really be shown here. I mean, it seems likely that kind of people who are social and gregarious and like to take clients out to lunch or socialize with bosses and coworkers are going to do better. Those situations often involve some alcohol, and someone who is dead-set against booze is less likely to participate and, thus, won’t do as well. (It kinda reminds me of the false causality rife in sports, like the analysis that a team does better when its running back rushes for over 100 yards in a game.)

Still, there’s something there. The health benefits of moderate alcohol consumption are well-documented and seemingly reinforced on a weekly basis. I’m not advocating starting drinking to get ahead or anything, but the “evils of drinking” you hear about from some corners seems all the more hollow.

Alcohol can prevent erectile dysfunction

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What would happen if all the commercials they show during NFL games got mixed together? My current vision is of macro-brewed American light lager and pickup trucks helping old guys get it up.

Well, that may be partly true. A new study out of Australia suggests that moderate drinking may reduce the incidence of ED.

NewScientist: Alcohol stops men being a flop in bed

There is good evidence that excessive drinking can hinder sexual performance after a night out – a phenomenon sometimes called “brewer’s droop”. [We call it "whisky dick" - Ed.] The effect has been noted for many years: “[Drink] provokes the desire, but it takes away the performance,” Shakespeare reminds us in Macbeth.

But over longer periods, moderate drinking doesn’t seem to be linked to erectile dysfunction, says Kew-Kim Chew, an epidemiologist at the University of West Australia in Nedlands, whose team conducted an anonymous postal survey of 1770 West Australian men.

After accounting for differences due to age, smoking and heart disease – all risk factors for ED – Chew and colleagues found that drinkers experienced rates of impotence 25% to 30% below those of teetotallers.

I wonder if this plays into the psychosis of Neo-Prohibitionists?

(via Boing Boing)

Update: Of course, this article is going to be the target of comment spammers for time immemorial.

Genetics can make you an angry drunk

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A new study links a high-activity monoamine oxidase A (MAOA) gene with violent behavior, triggered by alcohol.

This genetic sparkplug has already been linked to violent behavior, but alcohol seems to bring out the worst in otherwise not-so-violent people.

Alcohol and a polymorphism of the monoamine oxidase A gene predict impulsive violence

“People react quite differently to acute alcohol exposure,” [Roope Tikkanen, a researcher in the department of psychiatry at Helsinki University Central Hospital and corresponding author for the study said]. “Most individuals become relaxed and talkative, while some – particularly persons who are introverted while sober – become expansively extroverted and aggressive. A dramatic change from a normally introverted personality to extroverted aggressiveness and uncontrolled behaviors under the influence of alcohol was formerly called ‘pathological intoxication’ in Finland.”

Regarding the decline in impulsive-aggressive behavior with aging among high-activity MAOA offenders, Tikkanen hypothesized that it may be due to a correction of low central serotonin levels in the central nervous system.

Tikkanen cautioned against genetic testing for individuals who may be worried for one reason or another about their risk. “Even though whole genome scans will one day be affordable, the average person probably has very many factors that differ from the violent offenders in the study,” he said. “For instance, the average Finnish consumption is two drinks a day or 10 kg pure alcohol per year, whereas the upper 10 percent of violent offenders drink approximately one 0.75 liter bottle of liquor a day or around 100 kg pure alcohol a year.”

I think I know a few of them. They may have already reproduced, though.

No word on any genetic causes for weepy drunks, sloppy drunks, or beer goggles. I expect to hear from a representative of Mothers Against Defective DNA any day now.

The study will be published in the March issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research

(via Geeks are Sexy)

How Brewers Measure Alcohol in Beer (Part 7)

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Brewers measure the amount of alcohol in beer by comparing the density of the wort (liquid before fermentation) to the density of the beer (liquid after fermentation). The difference between the two is the result of the creation of CO2 and alcohol during the fermentation process.

To measure density, brewers use a measurement known as “specific gravity.” Wikipedia defines specific gravity well, as:

Specific gravity (SG) is a special case of relative density defined as the ratio of the density of a given substance, to the density of water when both substances are at the same temperature. Substances with a specific gravity greater than 1 are more dense than water, and those with a specific gravity of less than 1 are less dense than water.

beer-hydrometer.jpgTo measure this, brewers use a hydrometer. A hydrometer, which contains a weight to float upright, works by floating and displacing some of the liquid it its container (usually a cylinder). The level of the surface of the liquid is noted where it falls on the scale of the hydrometer.

A hydrometer in water should read about 1.000, depending on temperature and mineral content. A hydrometer in wort will read higher because of the increased density due to all of the dissolved sugars. A hydrometer in beer, will be higher than 1.000, but lower than the initial reading (original gravity) because some of the sugar has been turned into ethyl alcohol (final gravity).

How Stuff Works goes on to explain the details of how to calculate the amount of alcohol present by weight. I will let you read all about molecular weight and chemical equations of sugar getting split into alcohol and CO2 on your own. For the brewer, the hydrometer not only has the scale for specific gravity, but also includes the scale for percent of potential alcohol by volume, already calculated out for you. (the conversion of alcohol by mass to alcohol by volume is already considered on the potential alcohol scale of a hydrometer) Potential alcohol is the amount of alcohol that would be produced if all of the sugar present in the wort is fermented into alcohol, but not all will be.

rons hydrometer with lines

For an example using approximations with a custom photo of my hydrometer, a wort with an original specific gravity of 1.069 has the potential alcohol of about 9%. If the beer then has a final gravity of 1.032, measuring a potential alcohol of about 4%, the difference gives us a result of 5% alcohol by volume.

Session #13 – Organic Beer, by Ron

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This edition of The Session is sponsored by Chris O’Brien’s, The Beer Activist. (I just love his tag line, “Drink Beer. Save the World.”) Session #13 is titled Organic Beer
The Session - Beer Blogging Friday

Here’s a bit of context to help inspire your observations on organic imbibing. “Organic beer” refers to beers that use ingredients, supplies, and production processes that have been certified as adhering to the rules of the National Organic Program administered by the US Department of Agriculture (and similar programs in other countries).

I was going to cheap out on this session and just refer to my review of Orlio beers by Magic Hat, but I thought it might be interesting to point out some stuff about Anheuser-Busch and how they are genetically engineering rice to be used in their beers. Now, I’m just guessing here, but I doubt GE rice is considered organic.

Greenpeace made this disgusting YouTube video to let you know. Disgusting, but that’s the point, and it is kind of funny…

All of the articles I have found are about why isn’t Anheuser-Busch pointing this out. I think it is pretty obvious… they don’t have to and it would wreck their advertising of “all-natural”. The question is, can they still advertise as all-natural?

Resources:
Anheuser Busch Using Genetically Engineered Rice in Beer: Greenpeace
Anheuser-Busch Pledges to Use Only Organic Hops In Organic Beer
Anheuser-Busch using experimental genetically-engineered (GE) rice to brew Budweiser
Greenpeace: Genetically altered rice in Budweiser
Budweiser Found to Contain Genetically Engineered Rice

Update: Session #13 Roundup

How Alcohol is Created in Beer (Part 6)

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Back in Packs a Punch, I withheld from my friend that my Guinness was less potent in alcohol than his Bud Light. If I didn’t, he would then have asked me how can that be? … No, actually he wouldn’t care, or wouldn’t believe me. But why is it that the darker, thicker, sweeter, stronger tasting beer has less alcohol?

To understand how alcohol is made in beer, you have to understand a little bit about yeast. I ask you… how much do you currently know about yeast? Try this yeast trivia questionnaire by A.B. first and see how you do…

Well, you don’t have to know all of the details about how yeast works, as yeast is a very complicated critter. Basically, yeast eats sugars, divides (and thus multiplies), and produces in turn carbon dioxide and ethanol (alcohol).

yeast.jpgSo, the amount of alcohol content in beer is dependent on the amount of fermentable sugars available in the wort. Those sugars are present from the mash process of the malted barely during brewing. But wait, there’s more! There are other factors, too, which make it more complicated than just that. For example, the more roasted a malt is, the less fermentable sugars it will produce during the mash. Plus, the environment needed for fermentation to take place has to be just right. For instance, there are enzymes needed as a catalyst for the process. Temperature, oxygen, and other things contribute to how efficient the yeast works.

Fermentable sugars are key. Remember back in Part 3 that specialty grains do not contain all, or as much, of the enzymes needed for fermentation. Also, specialty grains do not contain as much potentially fermentable sugars, but they certainly bring a lot of flavor and color to the party. (ok, I admit, I’ve been watching too much Good Eats)

yeast-sock-puppets.jpgBud Light uses rice (genetically engineered) to create more fermentable sugars without adding any taste, but still provide alcohol. Guinness uses lots of roasted malts for taste and color, much of which does not ferment and, thus, produces less alcohol while still packing a punch of flavor.

More from How Stuff Works…
How Beer works
Fermentation