Do you feel like drinking one beer sometimes is like watching the underdog in the NCAA basketball tournament?  Or maybe you feel like some of Mike Tyson's (pre-ear incident) opponents.  One drink and you are finished.  Let me start by telling you all that there are many more people who are much more qualified than am I talk about anything medical.  I AM NOT A DOCTOR, and this is not a medical website.  If you feel like you want to add something about some substrata of the endocrine system and its relation to drinking, then go ahead.  I'm only offering some basic thoughts and some very basic science on the topic.  With that out of the way, let's move on. First of all, you have to consider if you had a good night of sleep.  If you didn't sleep well, your body has not had enough REM sleep, which effects brain function.  During sleep you also produce a number of chemicals that are important to function and bodily interaction.  Sleep is also the time when our bodies fight off many residual toxins and other problematic factors.  With lack of sleep, our bodies are not as toxin free as they could be.  When ...

It is almost quotidian that wine can be cellared.  "Bring out the bottle of '58 Merlot."  Or whatever wine lovers may say.  Wine has long been cellared by the wealthy, but even the average (and occasional) wine drinker has a bottle or two sitting around the house.  But once again, wine's ugly cousin beer has not gotten its due attention.  So, I'm intentionally writing in the hopes of alleviating this dastardly plot to oppress beer.   Let me tell you that cellaring good beer is much cheaper than cellaring good wine.  Wine's reputation precedes it, so wine prices are more expensive.  Much of the difference in prices can be attributed to historical and gastronomical snobbery.  Climate also has a role to play, but this is a pretty advantageous situation for beer drinkers because we know that beer is actually better and more complex than wine, so we are content to be snobby about it in our own way.  Plus, we end up having to spend far less for beer than the wine aficionado. Our current culture of more bang for your buck can really play into our hands.  I'm not going to play the game of "Why should I spend $10-15 for ...

Dogfish Head's 12o Minute IPA is practically a rite of passage among beer geeks.  Q.) How is it then that until recently I was a 120 Minute virgin?  A.) Ohio's silly alcohol laws. So since I couldn't find this beer in my neck of the woods, while I found myself in Michigan the other day I scoured the small towns I drove through till I discovered a beer and wine shop that might have a different selection.  Lo and Behold, there on the shelf was one remaining bottle of the holy grail of hops. No wonder this beast is so renowned.  It boasts a fierce ABV of 20%.  I had to chuckle.  This is 1% lower than the alcohol laws placed on hard liquor in Ohio.  Forget the audacity of the alcohol content...it has an IBU of 120.  The bitterest of most Imperial IPAs rarely top 100.  With this in mind, I knew that this was one malty beer. Dogfish Head's describes this beer as: Too extreme to be called beer? Brewed to a colossal 45-degree plato, boiled for a full 2 hours while being continuously hopped with high-alpha American hops, then dry-hopped daily in the fermenter for a month & aged for another ...

Here is another article that connects with this week's Drink with us Friday.  Have you purchase the Pomme Lambic that we are drinking?  If you did, you might have noticed how thick the glass of the bottle is.  Maybe you've purchased various beers throughout the weeks, months, or years and noticed some of those other bottles were thick as well. Why is it that some beers come in those thicker bottles?  Do the companies just like thick glass?  Or is there something else?  Go back in your mind and think about what types of beer you were drinking and consider what was peculiar about those wonderful liquids.  Were any of them English or Belgian Ales?  Did the bottles say "bottle conditioned"?  It's likely that many of them did. Certain beers have additional yeast, sugars, or fruits added right before they are bottled.  Given that there are still fermentable sugars and residual yeasts in any given beer, they can still be fermented to some degree.  In an open vessel (i.e., not capped), carbon dioxide is allowed to escape, and fermentation continues.  In a closed (capped bottle/vessel), carbon dioxide and pressure have nowhere else to go.  For most beers the normal capped bottle is enough to contain the pressure associated with post bottle fermentation (and ...

The last beer review on this site unearthed an interesting subject.  Skunked beer. This term, so loosely thrown around by pseudo beer connoisseurs everywhere deserves some attention.  Let me set the scene for you... You are at a gathering at a friend's house.  For the most part, the bud light is flowing.  In walks captain cliche with a pair of Sketchers, an iPhone, and a highly sophisticated case of Heineken he just purchased at Walmart.  As he esoterically asks for a bottle-opener, another, even more sophisticated attendee sipping on his Killian's says, "whoa...keep that skunky beer away from me!"  Another guy with a sweet man-purse says, "Yeah, those Dutch guys need to invest in some brown bottles!" All three of these guys are idiots. It never occurred to guy one that Heineken isn't as cool as the commercials make it out to be.  (Although I am impressed with Heineken's ingenuity--the time spent on their pressurized mini-kegs was genius marketing). It never occurred to guy #2 he should have kept his mouth shut.  I don't believe that Heineken (or other so called skunky beers; i.e. Stella Artois, Grolsch, St. Pauli Girl...) are actually skunked beer.  Beer is a science.  The skunky smell and unique flavor of ...

I got skunked on this beer, guys and dolls.  It's been quite a while since I tried this beer, so I was looking forward to getting a chance to reassess it.  But something pernicious happened--more about that in a moment. Upon pouring the beer, I saw a light copper body and a stable head.  It was very bubbly in the glass, which made it look like a shimmering glass of liquid delight.  So far so good. Then I stuck my nose to the glass, and the trouble began.  Somehow or some way, the beer had gained a skunky aroma.  It wasn't anything more than a Heineken or Cervesa might be, but it wasn't what the beer was supposed to smell like.  This happened one of two ways.  First, it could happen through the processing of the beer.  The production of MBT (3-methyl-2-butende-1-thiol) can happen when light infiltrates the beer in the processes of brewing, packaging, or a few other ways.  The second way that this compound comes about is in the bottle.  Basically, light degrades the bitterness that comes from hops (in the form of iso-a-acids).  More than likely, this happened when light came through the bottle over time. It's sad when this happens to a beer, but the beer was not ...

We write about beer a ton on this site.  You probably taste a good amount of beer if you visit our site.  I'm sure you love beer.  But have you ever brewed beer?  We normally don't talk about brewing beer on this site because it is not our aim to be about home brewing.  Still, I want to talk about brewing for just a moment.  Having brewed about 60 gallons, I can't keep silent forever. Brewing beer is easier than you might think.  Of course, there is a ton of consternation when you are watching over your first batch as though it were a newborn whose future was uncertain.  And you will do this.  But getting your equipment and brewing your first batch is a fairly economical pursuit.  You can make beer brewing as simple or as challeging as you want to.  Do you know someone who already brews?  He or she can be a great source of help and comfort when you are brewing your first batch. One of the best and most classic books about brewing that could be extremely helpful, as far as information and beginning (and even intermediate/advanced) knowledge has to be Charlie Papazian's The Complete Joy of Home Brewing.  This book has sold well over a ...

Has anyone ever wondered what an I.P.A. (India Pale Ale) is?  I'm going to talk about Pale Ales first because an India Pale Ale is an amped up version of the former.  I've actually already given some good information on Pale Ales when we had Samuel Smith's Pale Ale (here is a link to that article and review).  Even though I've covered some of the bases before, let me just briefly define a Pale Ale. A Pale Ale is not pale at all.  The utilization of lighter grains as compared to those used in English Porters and Stouts helped to give this beer its name.  Some of this had to do with technological advance.  I've written some stuff on grains already, so I'm not going to cover it much here (I'm providing multiple links in the articles to cover some other questions you might have).  In addition to being lighter than other Ales of the time, the beer was also more hopped than a Porter or Stout might typically be.  Rolling Rock is not actually a good example of a Pale Ale (check out the Samuel Smith's that we have reviewed on here for a more classic example of this beer type). Well, Pale Ales were great for the homefront.  But what about people ...

Ok, it's not just in Guinness, as we experienced this past Friday as we drank Wexford Irish Cream Ale. I remember the first time I bought Guinness Draught in the can.  My first thought was, "Who screwed up?"  But then I examined the can and realized that the little ball in my empty can must be a result of the most brilliant minds of science (beer science) for the purpose of simulating Guinness off the tap.  I was right.  But not knowing how something works bugs me, and I am guessing bugs a lot of other beer drinkers.  So here's whats in your beers: Typically beer is carbonated with CO2.  In the can this CO2 is in the beer itself, and in the can.  That's why when you pop the top of a canned beer it goes, "pshhhht."  That is the preassurized CO2 that rests on the surface of the beer escaping the can.  When the CO2 escapes, it agitates the beer, as does the action of pouring, causing some of the CO2 mixed in the liquid to escape.  You see this in the form of the head that floats on top of your beer.  (Don't worry, even though I know the ...