Moderate drinking of ale and lager can cut the risk of diabetes and high blood pressure and even help people lose weight, doctors say.

The Spanish researchers suggest combining beer with exercise and a healthy Mediterranean diet high in fish, fruit and vegetables and olive oil.

Beer contains folic acid, vitamins, iron and calcium and has the same health benefits already attributed to moderate wine drinking, researchers found.

And they blamed fatty foods like chips, a lack of exercise and binge drinking for beer bellies in Britain.

Their no-holds-barred approach to brewing has them dancing in the flames of controversy often, but I think those flames just tickle their feet, and they love it. In fact, their joie de vivre and fearless approach to brewing experimentation are just what the beer world needs.

When I heard James would be visiting Stone Brewing for a tasting, I knew a trek up the road to Escondido was a must. With Dr. Bill pouring out Brewdog’s intriguing brews, James in his penguin suit, and a large-screen viewing of Stone’s visit to Brewdog in Scotland, the night was bound to be fun. Several hours later, as I headed back to San Diego, I recalled both the delicious and the wonderfully mind-bottling beers I had sampled that evening:

A story awaits…
5 a.m. Saint: 5% ABV: Ok,I admit it, my thought as I took the first sips of this deliciously drinkable beer was not its flavor profile, but promptly, “why oh why could I not have had this beer for when the Saints dominated in the Superbowl?” How perfectly appropriate!! But in my sensory defense, that instantaneous reaction came from its immediate likeability and perfect balance.

Nice bronze color with reddish highlights. A lovely nose of malt, light caramel, and gentle spice are hit with a big, refreshing dose of citrus peel, herb, and pine. Aromas follow through on the palate for a balanced, mouth-watering beer that I want to drink again. And again. But, (and imagine me with hands cupped to mouth), BOOOOO I cannot find this beer anywhere. What a treat that I hope to have again someday…

Upon request, I donned the infamous Penguin glasses. Not a bad look!
Black Dog: .5.5% ABV: Produced in collaboration with Stone’s brewer Jeremy, this wheat stout has comforting aromas of dark chocolate, charred wood, toast, and campfire, with a swift wallop of hops for balance. Smooth, with some smokiness on the palate, the beer carries a considerable heft that leads you to believe a higher ABV may be involved. But at 5.5% you can enjoy this at leisure, without having visions of a blackout.

Mmmmm…
Tokyo*: 18.2% ABV: Ever seen the movie Battle Royale? Remember the sweet Japanese schoolgirls that turned out to be cold-blooded knife-wielding killers? Uh huh. That’s this beer. Sweet aromas of chocolate covered cherries, raisins, fig, and molasses greet the nose. But lurking behind with a sheathed weapon, the Tokio’s ABV awaits. Twistedly intense. I WILL be reviewing this beer again in an upcoming tasting. Stay tuned.

Yay Penguin!
Tactical Nuclear Penguin: 32% ABV: When Smokey Sings…(Robinson, that is)…he would say, “I gotta change my name.” This is one of the SMOKIEST beers I have tried. Now, given, I don’t have alot of experience with Rauchbier, but hell can it be more intense than this? Smoky, peaty insanity. And I liked it. BUT, I only had a tiny sample, so everyone hold tight for a full review of this later. I have a bottle of this at home waiting to be torn from its paper sheath. Cue a vaudeville teaser complete with a burlesque melody…

Sink the Bismarck!: 41% ABV: This beer is liquid guerilla warfare. After the dethroning of Tactical Nuclear Penguin as World’s Strongest Beer by a German brewery, the fellas at Brewdog went to the trenches and released the ultimate strong ale, a Quad IPA with a cheeky nod to their German counterparts.

On the nose are wonderful vibrant hop aromas of grapefruit, citrus peel, and fresh pine needles, mingled with rounder notes of apricot, peach, and tropical fruit. It’s not precisely clear to me what I anticipated, but i suppose I expected the alcohol content to overwhelm the nose, and literally sear the hairs from the inside of my nose….What a pleasant surprise to not have the aromatic equivalent of too much wasabi on sushi. You know what I’m talking about!

But I’m no fool. I know I’m gonna feel the lightning bolts from Zeus at any moment, so I ever so gingerly take a sip….Holy sensory blitzkreig. I am rendered completely speechless. And numb.

The alcohol hits with gale force intensity, and all you can do is stare into your glass or out in space and wonder, “What in the hell did I just drink?” As your mind races to place it somewhere, to identify it with some other beer or spirit you have consumed, you finally accept the futility of such an endeavor, and just relish it, knowing you have had one of the most unique beverages on the planet….

Do your giggle box a favor and watch these two videos, on the Tactical Nuclear Penguin and Sink the Bismarck! Your jaws will ache with delight:

CHEERS!

This post was submitted by 100beers30days.

According to researchers, a pint of the black stuff a day may work as well as aspirin to prevent heart clots which raise the risk of heart attacks.

Drinking lager doesn’t yield the same benefits as a stout. A team of experts from Wisconsin University actually tested the health benefits of Guinness on dogs with narrowed arteries, similar to those found in human heart disease. They found that the dogs given Guinness (as compared to lager) had reduced clotting in their blood. Clotting is bad for hearts since a heart attack is triggered when a clot blocks an artery that supplies blood to the heart.

Guinness also contains heart-helping antioxidant compounds, similar to those found in certain fruits and vegetables, that slow down the deposit of harmful cholesterol on the artery walls.

It’s no secret that beer, especially craft beer, has health benefits. In fact, we’ve got an entire Beer and Health section right here on Beer Utopia to prove it. It’s good to see more research backing it up, though.

So, here’s to your health! And Happy St. Patrick’s day!!

The study was done by Dr. Lu Wang at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. We went to their website and found this press release

Press Release – Mar 8, 2010
Women Who Drink Moderately Appear to Gain Less Weight Than Non-Drinkers

Normal-weight women who drink a light to moderate amount of alcohol appear to gain less weight and have a lower risk of becoming overweight and obese than non-drinkers, according to a report in the March 8 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

More than half of American adults drink alcoholic beverages, according to background information in the article. Alcohol contains about 7 calories per gram (with approximately 28 grams per ounce) and alcohol drinking may possibly lead to weight gain through an imbalance of energy consumed and energy burned. However, research has not consistently provided evidence that consuming alcohol is a risk factor for obesity.

Lu Wang, M.D., Ph.D., of Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, and colleagues studied 19,220 U.S. women age 39 or older who had a body mass index (BMI) in the range classified as normal (18.5 to 25). On an initial questionnaire, participants reported how many alcoholic beverages they typically drank per day. A total of 7,346 (38.2 percent) reported drinking no alcohol; 6,312 (32.8 percent) drank less than 5 grams; 3,865 (20.1 percent) drank 5 to less than 15 grams; 1,129 (5.9 percent) drank 15 to less than 30 grams; and 568 (3 percent) drank 30 grams per day or more.

Over an average of 13 years of follow-up, women on average gained weight progressively. Women who did not drink alcohol at all gained the most weight, with weight gain decreasing as alcohol intake increased. A total of 7,942 (41.3 percent) women who initially had normal weight become overweight or obese (BMI of 25 or higher), including 732 (3.8 percent) who become obese (BMI of 30 or higher). Compared with women who did not drink at all, those who consumed some but less than 40 grams per day of alcohol were less likely to become overweight or obese. Women who drank 15 to less than 30 grams per day had the lowest risk, which was almost 30 percent lower than that of non-drinkers.

“An inverse association between alcohol intake and risk of becoming overweight or obese was noted for all four types of alcoholic beverages [red wine, white wine, beer and liquor], with the strongest association found for red wine and a weak yet significant association for white wine after multivariate adjustment,” the authors write.

The authors caution that, given potential medical and psychosocial problems related to drinking alcohol, its beneficial and adverse effects for each individual must be considered before making any recommendation about its use. “Further investigations are warranted to elucidate the role of alcohol intake and alcohol metabolism in energy balance and to identify behavioral, physiological and genetic factors that may modify the alcohol effects,” they conclude.

Based on the results of the study, researchers recommend moderate consumption of beer as a part of athletes’ diets. “Moderate consumption” for men is [...] read full article here.

I recently got an email from Men’s Health magazine with some facts about beer and health. I can’t find the information on their website (what’s up with that, guys?) so I can link to it. Researchers at Tuft’s University have found that “moderate drinking seems to prevent loss of bone mineral density (BMD) associated with aging.”

The researchers think silicon in beer might be the reason they found stronger bones in men who drink one to two beers or the equivalent in alcohol every day.

I think we should start a “beer foam mustache” ad campaign! Oh, someone already did:

Men’s Health goes on to say

Beer has even more health benefits. It increases good cholesterol, helps you sleep better, and can even be used—occasionally—as a post-workout recovery drink because of its potassium, carbohydrates, B vitamins, and water content.

That’s no revelation for regular Beer Utopia readers but it is validation of what we has said before. Prost! Here’s to your health!

Beer and steak

Grilling or frying meat creates cancer-causing compounds called heterocyclic amines (HAs). Actually, cooking any food increases HAs but meat is particularly bad because high temperatures convert the amino acids and sugars in muscle tissue into HAs.

There are substances which are known to mitigate HAs, such as olive oil, lemon juice, garlic marinade, and red wine, and now researchers have added another: beer.

Six hours of marinating in beer or red wine slashed levels of two types of HA by up to 90 per cent compared with unmarinated steak (Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, DOI: 10.1021/jf801837s).

For a third type of HA, beer was more efficient at reducing its content than wine, cutting levels significantly in 4 hours, while wine took 6. Beer contains more water-retaining sugars than wine and Ferreira says that may hinder the transport of water-soluble molecules to the steak’s surface, where high heat converts them into HAs. Tasters also preferred the smell, taste and appearance of beer-marinated steak.

Of course they prefered the smell, taste and appearance of beer-marinated steak, duh, it’s beer!

1. Hops
The fragrant flower of the hop vine is what gives beer its characteristic bitterness and fragrance, as well as acting as a natural preservative. Turns out, hops has health benefits, too.

Researchers have shown that [hops] also a significant source of cholesterol-lowering, cancer-fighting, and virus-killing compounds called polyphenols. What’s more, “Just one 12-ounce beer a day decreased fibrinogen, a clotting factor, and increased albumin, which is very important for protein metabolism,” says Shela Gorinstein, Ph.D., a researcher at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University and the author of a 2007 study on the bioactivity of beer.

Best Hops Delivery Vehicle
Avery Maharaja Imperial India Pale Ale

2. Low calorie beers don’t taste like diet drinks
While many think of beer as “fattening,” there are plenty of low-cal brews that taste great. You’ll never see the word “diet” on their labels, though.

Darker beers have a major advantage here: They’re relatively low in alcohol and have thick, creamy, smoky finishes. When the cans were emptied, Beamish stood tall. It contains about 130 calories per 12-ounce can, but with a full flavor and sturdy dark-chocolate notes.

Best Low-Cal Beer
Beamish Irish Stout

3. Organic beer
Most beer is not made with completely organic ingredients. However, more and more brewers are adding organic beers to their offerings.

A 2003 FDA study found that 27 percent of barley and 32 percent of nonorganic wheat products carried pesticide residues. What’s worse, a loophole in the USDA organic-certification standard allows pesticide-grown hops. Our winner, an IPA with a pleasant aftertaste, is made with wheat from organic farms near the brewer’s Vermont facility. “We track every detail of every organic ingredient,” says Max Oswald, a Wolaver’s spokesman.

Best Organic Beer
Wolaver’s India Pale Ale

4. Antioxidants
Beer naturally contains antioxidants, especially darker beers. (See #6 below.) However, fruits and other adjuncts can boost the antioxidant power of beer.

In our taste test, our top pick featured the antioxidant-laden superfruit, pomegranate, shown to combat cancer and lower your risk of Alzheimer’s and heart disease. In a 2006 UCLA study, for example, men who drank a glass of pomegranate juice every day reduced prostate-cancer cell growth by 12 percent. Brewers dump more than 150 gallons of pomegranate juice into every batch (equivalent to 10,000 pomegranates, or half of a fruit per bottle), giving the final product a rasp- berry-like flavor that allows the malt and hops to come through.

Best Alterna-Brew
He’Brew Origin Pomegranate Ale

5. Yeast
Without yeast, there would be no beer. These microscopic critters not only convert sugar to alcohol during fermentation, they are arguably the biggest contributor to the flavor profile of a beer. All beer contains yeast, but bottle-conditioned brews either have additional yeast added during bottling or at least don’t have much of the existing yeast filtered out.

“German doctors used to prescribe bottle-conditioned wheat beer to patients with vitamin deficiencies,” says Oliver. As a probiotic organism, yeast helps your body break down nutrients, regulates your digestive system, maintains your nervous system, and even helps modulate blood-sugar levels. Oliver’s Local 1 won with a balanced blend of spices and subtle malt flavors.

Best Bottle-Conditioned Beer
Brooklyn Brewery Local 1

6. Still more antioxidants
As mentioned, dark beers are king when it comes to antioxidants. Apparently, they are even better than antioxidants taken as pills.

The smooth, deep finish of a dark malt develops during the same high-temperature roasting process that fuels the formation of antioxidants. “Dark beers are loaded with them,” says Joe Vinson, Ph.D., a researcher at the University of Scranton. Vinson showed in a 2003 study that stouts, porters, and browns contain more than twice the antioxidants of lagers, on average. What’s more, “The antioxidants in beer are better at reacting with toxic free radicals than the ones in antioxidant vitamin pills.”

Best Dark Malt
Trappistes Rochefort 8

Prost! Here’s to your health.

Burleigh Brewing, a small independent craft brewer in Queensland, Australia, claims to have created the first no-carb beer. The 88 calorie BIGHEAD Beer is a “full-flavoured, full-strength lager that is 100% natural, free of additives and preservatives, and has a smooth, clean taste.” That’s an impressive claim.

Burleigh Brewing’s CEO, Peta Fielding, said BIGHEAD’s arrival would be welcome news for men and women across Australia who are conscious of their carbohydrate intake, but love their beer.

“There are a lot of low-carb beers on the Australian market, but only one no-carb – and that’s BIGHEAD Beer,” said Fielding. “For the past year, our customers have been asking us when we were going to create a low-carb beer and today, we’ve not only delivered, we’ve exceeded everyone’s expectations with a beer that is truly unique. We don’t know why this hasn’t been done before now, but we’re thrilled that the idea and ability has been developed by an independent Queensland company.”

My opinion of drinking beer and counting calories is well documented. I honestly don’t see how a beer can have zero carbs since malt = sugar and sugar = carbs. I suppose that if the yeast completely converted all sugar to alcohol, that might eliminate the carbs but my uneducated understanding is that complete conversion is virtually impossible. The zero-carb claim is backed up by testing in an independent lab so it must be legit but I would love to hear the science behind it. The Burleigh site doesn’t seem to have any information about the beer.

“Full-flavour, full-srength” and only 88 calories? If any of Beer Utopia’s Aussie readers have tried this brew please let us know how it tastes.