Love Good Beer

Drinking beer makes you smart

Sunday, October 24th, 2010 | Beer | No Comments

Not quite, but I’ve been in the UK long enough to learn the value of sensationalist, misleading headlines.  Drinking beer doesn’t make you smarter, but smart people might drink more in general if you believe this study.  So if you drink a lot, you might be really smart, or you might be an alcoholic.  When in doubt, ask your doctor.

An organisation in the UK together with one in the USA measured the intelligence of a bunch of kinds and then checked up on them throughout their lives to see how much they drank.  Turns out the smarter kids drank a lot more throughout their lives than the not as smart kids.  I’m not saying I put much stock in this survey, but it is interesting.  Here are some of my brilliant ideas on why smart people might drink more:

• Smart people go to university where you predominantly learn to drink
• Smart people are smart enough to know that drinking is fun
• Smart kids make more money later in life and can afford to drink more
• Smart people are more interesting and thus get invited out for drinks more often
• Smart people are driven to drink by the weight of their own genius
• Social kids seem smarter and social people drink more
• When people who aren’t smart drink they get arrested and go to jail where they can’t drink anymore

I’m expecting a call any day now from the researchers who performed this study to get my help with the conclusions.

Continuing on the science kick, the BBC filmed a group of Vervet monkeys in St. Kitts who have developed a taste for alcohol.  The monkeys were brought over from West Africa with slaves three hundred years ago and began consuming alcohol via fermented sugar cane.  Now they blatantly steal drinks from beach resorts.  Scientists have been analysing the monkeys to understand human drinking habits.  Turns out the same percentage of monkeys and humans drink alcohol.  The BBC points out the one big difference between humans and monkeys in terms of alcohol consumption is that monkeys tolerate alcoholic leaders where humans don’t.  What world are they living on?  Anyway, what’s really important in all of this is watching drunk monkeys stumble around:

Cheers,

Chris

Tags: alcoholic monkeys, drunk monkeys, fact of science, science, smart people drink more, st. kitts, vervet monkeys

Protect your beer from the sun

Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009 | Beer | 1 Comment

Have you ever been outside on a hot day and craved a cold beer ever so badly?  I have and I can remember finding that first sip of ice cold Corona (with a lime) gloriously refreshing.  Have you ever noticed how that same Corona doesn’t taste nearly so good a few minutes later? Note: noticing this might depend on how many Coronas you’ve already had.  I’ve noticed, but I thought it had to do with the beer warming in the sun.  Turns out I was wrong, the sun hates beer.  It is an indisputable fact of science.  Okay, I made that up, but the sun can turn a beer “skunky” in a matter of minutes.  Scientists have noted that UV light interacts with certain hop byproducts found in beer.  When UV light hits these chemicals they breakdown into the very same chemical that humans revile in the scent of actual skunks.  Who knew?  Turns out these scientists did.

Apparently humans are super sensitive to this chemical and can detect less than a milligram in a swimming pool.  This is why you might find yourself enjoying your beer a little less if you’ve been out in the sun.  I’m writing about this because I found myself turning my nose up at a glass of delicious beer this past weekend.  I was really concerned there was something wrong with me until I recalled reading about the sun’s malicious intent in a recent issue of Beer Advocate.  I figured I’d best blog about this and spread the word.  This Summer, if you plan on drinking your favorite beer out of a clear glass or drinking Corona, Sleemans, Dead Frog, Heineken, or Stella Artois out of the bottle, shield your drinking vessel from the sun to preserve the taste.

Have you seen those Corona commercials where two people are sitting on a fabulous beach with their bottles of Corona?  They are advertising skunky beer and I find that funny.  If only you could taste ads, more people might be drinking quality BC microbrew, no lime required.

Cheers,

Chris

Tags: Beer Advocate, corona, dead frog, Heineken, science, Skunky Beer, sleemans, stella artois, uv light