Chris Mooney is a visiting associate in the 
Well it's St. Patrick's Day and what better way to celebrate than taking pause to consider the science of BEER!
According to History.com, Americans annually consume 21.6 gallons per capita. Today, you might be able to imbibe green-dyed beer at one of the nation's 47,984 drinking places--many among them Irish pubs.Beer brewing has come down to a science. We've got approximately 40 flavors common to our two broad types of beer: lagers and ales. Ales include pale ales, amber ales, and stouts, with pilsners and bocks among the lagers.
So is all this drinking bad? Well, that depends. Everyone knows (or should) that copious amount of the stuff is not a good idea. Alcohol can damage your brain. It clouds thinking, impairs reasoning, and can cast inhibition to the wind. Too much over time poisons the liver and of course, even one night of binge drinking can lead to an unpleasant morning after... in a myriad of ways.
So whether you're part of the nation's 12% with Irish ancestry (24% in Massachusetts!), or even if you just love a good guinness, step over to my post at Correlations, where I've got the latest research behind your favorite brew...
Life Science
Brain & Behavior
Comments
Miss Sheril,
Funny you should talk about the science of beer brewing - last weekend the Red Headed Roomie and I went beer brewing in Virginia. Our Head Brewer as . . . wait for it . . . . a former EPA toxics program manager! I won't regale you with all the ways I find that so deliciously ironic.
There was indeed a recipe for our beers, with so many grams of this or that hop, brewed for so long in such and such a sequence. A far cry from the old days, when beer "by 3000 BC was so important to Mesopotamia and Egypt that it was being used to pay wages."
Posted by: Philip H. | March 17, 2008 9:38 AM
According to your WIRED post, beer kills brain cells, but wine is more likely to cause dementia. Which is the lesser of two evils?
Or like you said, eat drink and be merry!
Posted by: Cate | March 17, 2008 10:17 AM
Speaking of beer were you aware that Dr.Henrik Svensmark, author of "The Chilling Stars: A New Theory of Climate Change" was funded by Denmark's Carlsberg Foundation, which is funded by Carlsberg brewery, which sells beer, not oil.
Hmmm. Think about that. What do people drink a lot more of when it's hot outside? That's right BEER!
And what are all those little bubbles in beer. That's right CO2!
So while the environmental left has been focusing on the petroleum and transportation industries those bastards at Carlsberg have been pumping out vast quantities of CO2 laden beer to raise global temps to increase our dependency on foreign beer!
All this time we have been blaming "big oil" for global warming when the real culprit is BIG BEER.
Posted by: Lance | March 17, 2008 10:53 AM
Umm, beeeerrrr! Ha-ha!
Posted by: Nelson Muntz | March 17, 2008 12:58 PM