As we close in on the upcoming holiday, I thought it only fitting to provide you guys with the real truth on alcohol… No matter what your friends may tell you about liquor versus beer, I’d rather you know the cold hard facts before you pick up your choice of adult beverage at the store this weekend.

Alcohol consists of simple sugars, much like a coke or candy – they provide quick energy, but have no real beneficial nutrients. Alcohol is also metabolized differently than other foods and beverages. Normally, your body gets its energy from the calories in carbohydrates, fats and proteins, which are slowly digested and absorbed. However, this digestive process changes when alcohol is present. When you drink alcohol, it gets immediate attention (because it is viewed by the body as a toxin). When the body is focused on processing the alcohol, it is not able to properly break down foods containing carbohydrates and fat. Therefore, these calories are converted into body fat and are carried away for permanent storage on your body. This is NOT good for our fitness goals no matter which way you spin it…

Now, I completely understand even as your trainer that you’d like to splurge occasionally. This brings me to part 2. Deciding which alcohol to drink…

There are thousands of drink combinations to choose from so I want you to keep it simple. Remember that these drinks are plain and simple EMPTY calories. Nutritionally speaking that basically means that the simple sugars are full of calories but they are empty because your body gets little to no nutritional benefits from vitamins, minerals, proteins, etc… On top of that fact, alcohol blocks what little nutrients are floating around in your gastrointestinal system when it is present. For example,  a 4 oz. glass of red wine contains only 95 calories and a 12 oz. glass of beer 110 calories, a mixed drink like a margarita contains around 550 calories. A few mixed drinks could blow nearly your entire calorie budget if you’re on a 1,200-calorie diet. People who routinely drink too much alcohol often develop nutritional deficiencies because alcohol blocks the absorption of vitamins such as folic acid.

What are more important, calories or carbs? You might have thought that drinking liquor is more diet-friendly because it has no carbohydrates, while both wine and beer do contain carbs. But you need to watch calories, and liquor only has a few calories less than beer or wine. Plus, it is often mixed with other drinks, adding even more empty calories. Hard liquor contains around 100 calories per shot, so adding a mixer increases calories even more. If you are going to mix liquor with anything, opt for a club soda, instead of fruit juice or regular soda. Sweeter drinks, whether liquor or wine, tend to have more sugar, and therefore more calories. In that respect, dry wines usually have fewer calories than sweet wines so keep that in mind also.

Lastly I want to post a chart of drink calories that I found on one of my favorite diet tracking websites, Sparkpeople.com. Most of you guys are already using this awesome free website, but if you are not I highly recommend it! See below, and remember:

Everything is ok in MODERATION!

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l drink cold beer when I feel the heartiness in my body as it will help to cool me off  and I do enjoy beer from all part of the world.

I could still recall  many years ago, when my Italian friend brought me to the Oktoberfest,   the world’s largest fair and one of the best festivals in Germany, I was so shocked to eye-witness the behaviors of the German after many l liter glass of beer.  Every year, over 6 million visitors from all over the world come to Munich to drink beer,  eat sausage … etc

” Ugly women make us DRINK beer.”  because the Oktoberfest waitresses are mostly large or extra-large in sizes. Unlike Singapore , only pretty and attractive young beer waitresses help to pour your glasses.

10 Surprising Health Benefits of Beer. 
By Lisa Collier Cool
Jan 09, 2012

Day in Health 
by Lisa Collier Cool 
Beer drinkers rejoice: Your favorite brew may be healthier than you think.For years, wine drinkers have indulged without guilt, reveling in the news that red wine can help protect against heart disease. Recent research shows that beer can also be good for what ails you, from reducing risk for broken bones to helping warding off diabetes and mental decline. It can even increase longevity, a large study suggests.

ABV: .50%

Style: Low Alcohol Beer

Trivia: According to wikipedia.com, “Low-alcohol beer (also called non-alcoholic or NA beer, small beer, small ale, or near-beer) is beer with very low or no alcohol content. Most low-alcohol beers are lagers, but there are some low-alcohol ales. In the United States, beverages containing less than 0.5% alcohol by volume (ABV) were legally called non-alcoholic, according to the now-defunct Volstead Act. Because of its very low alcohol content, non-alcoholic beer may be legally sold to minors in many American states.”

Random: The things that I do for this blog.

This poured with a barely there white head that dissipated instantly and left no lacing on the glass. The body was a clear, straw yellow with moderate visible carbonation. It pretty much looked like a macro to me. The nose was absolutely awful. I got some skunk mixed with some grain. It actually smelled worse than a macro. The taste was equally awful. It started with a disgusting artificial sweetness mixed with pronounced skunky flavor. This was probably one of the worst beers I’ve ever reviewed. The body was a medium thickness with heavy carbonation. The finish was long as hell with grass and the same disgusting sweetness. This was a definite drainpour. Even my sister said, “Oh god. Just drain pour it!” I will never have this again. Ugh.

*Tsssssssssk-POP* That’s the sound of my non-alcoholic beer drinking cherry

That’s right, y’all. I’m sayin’ NON-alcoholic beer is COOL. *waits*

And, durrrrr, course it doesn’t have SQUAT on real beer. But let’s face it chaps and chapettes – real beer can be a lil’ too COOL sometimes. So cool that:

1. I have no money

2. I should have been taller after adolescence

3. I once made out with an Iranian drug baron

Booze and me go WAY back, we do. I’ve got some ace drunken stories and at least two hospitalizations under my belt.
So how did I come to this?! Well, this idiot girlfriend of mine who in fact edits this blog, bought a SIX-pack of BECKS Blue by mistake over the weekend and had the cheek to leave it in my fridge in disgust.

Come the beginning of the week, I was dealing with that Monday Morning Booze Itch. I opened the fridge to find a manky old spring onion, coffee granules all over the place and the portentous BECKS Blue.

So I went for it! And let me telllllllll you …

1. There ain’t a whole lotta difference between BECKS Booze and BECKS Blue. They both taste RANK! (that’s right, an exclamation mark after upper case.)

2. Surprisingly, I got that first sip rush! The one where a whole night of possibilities FLASHES before your eyes in an instant

3. I also felt just that little bit better about myself *sniff*

Now hear me: I’m gonna keep boozing real booze. So much in fact that I’ll probably end up pickling myself.
BUT we’re all tryin’ to cut down right? And there’s an occasional place for non-alcoholic beer, like there’s a place for semi-skimmed milk, low-fat Philly and light mayo.

Don’t diss it before you try it, yeah?

What do you think? Am I nuts?! Let us know @everytingiscool @tomekmoss

History

The conceptualization of non-alcohol brews took place during prohibition but also had roots in the First World War. A climate of scarcity and uncertainty fostered a culture where restraint became the paragon of virtue and under this culture the idea of temperance proliferated. President Wilson had proposed limiting the alcohol content in malt beverages to 2.75% in 1917 in an effort to appease avid prohibitionists but in 1919 congress approved the Volstead Act which limited the alcohol content of any beverage to less than 0.5%. These beverages became known as tonics and many breweries began brewing these extremely low alcohol content beverages in order to keep from going out of business. Due to the fact that removing the alcohol from the beer requires just one additional step many breweries found this as an easy transition, and in 1933 when prohibition was repealed removing this single step again was easily done.

Near Beer

Originally, near beer was a term for malt beverages containing little or no alcohol mass-marketed during Prohibition in the United States. By 1921 production of near beer had reached over 300 million US gallons a year. Near beer could not legally be labeled as beer and was officially classified as a cereal beverage; however, the public almost universally called it near beer. Today, the term has been revived to refer to modern non-alcoholic beer.

Food critic and writer Waverley Root described the common American near beer as “such a wishy-washy, thin, ill-tasting, discouraging sort of slop that it might have been dreamed up by a Puritan Machiavelli with the intent of disgusting drinkers with genuine beer forever. At the same time I would have serious doubts about the quality, and taste, of regular full-bodied ales and lagers being produced at this time in North America. For instance, a popular illegal practice was to add alcohol to near beer. The resulting beverage was known as spiked beer or needle beer, so called because a needle was used to inject alcohol through the cork of the bottle or keg. The questionable brewing methods and resultant brews developed during the prohibition era must have had a dramatic impact on the culture of beer that would develop over the next several decades.

Small Beer

Small beer is a beer that contains very little alcohol. Sometimes unfiltered and porridge-like, it was a favoured drink in medieval Europe and colonial North America. It was sometimes had with breakfast since in those times of poor sanitation, water-transmitted diseases were a significant cause of death and alcohol is toxic to most water-borne pathogens. Small beer was also produced in households for consumption by children and servants. Some workers engaged in heavy physical labour drank more than ten pints of small beer during a work day to maintain their hydration. This was usually provided free as part of their working conditions. As sanitation conditions improved the consumption of small beer was replaced with coffee and tea and even gin, which became the fashionable tipple of choice.

Small beer can also refer to a beer made from the “second runnings” of a very strong beer mash. These beers can be as strong as mild ale depending on the strength of the original mash. This was done as an economy measure in household brewing in England up to the 18th century and is still done by some home brewers and microbrewers. Few commercial breweries make small beer today with the exception of Anchor Brewing Company, which produces a small beer made from the “second runnings” of Old Foghorn Barley wine Style Ale.

How it’s Made

Between the maturation and carbonation stages of the brewing process is when a brew can be converted to non-alcoholic. Low-alcohol beer starts out as traditional alcoholic beer. The un-carbonated beer is brought up to the boiling point of alcohol in order to evaporate the alcohol. This is possible because alcohol has a lower boiling point than water making it easier to boil off. Another method of removing the alcohol is to decrease the pressure so the alcohol boils at room temperature. This is the preferred method because the addition of heat this late in the brewing process can greatly affect the flavor of the brew. Most modern breweries utilize vacuum evaporation to preserve flavor and speed up the boiling process. In essence, the beer is placed under a light vacuum to facilitate the alcohol molecules going into gaseous phase. If a sufficient vacuum is applied, it may not even be necessary to cook the beer. Another alternative process called reverse osmosis does not require heating. Once the alcohol is removed proceed with the normal finishing process where the beer is carbonated and bottled.

How does it Taste

The last time I had non-alcoholic beer was in high school when my most thoughtful teacher brought us some near beer to sample in our ancient civilizations class – I can’t say it left a memorable impression but it has been awhile. To be fair I thought I would highlight some of the most reviewed non-alcoholic beers on Rate Beer while I crack open my Tokyo Stout from BrewDog, which weighs in at a respectable 18.2%.

Rate Beer records ratings as low as Bavaria Non-Alcoholic – 1 and Coors Non-Alcoholic – 1.13 through to Driver NA – 5 and Texas Select Non-Alcoholic – 6.

When Chekhov saw the long winter, he saw a winter bleak and dark and bereft of hope. Yet we know that winter is just another step in the cycle of life. But standing here among the people of Punxsutawney and basking in the warmth of their hearths and hearts, I couldn’t imagine a better fate than a long and lustrous winter.

77 Fremont Select is a new beer from Fremont Brewing and marketed as a “Spring Session IPA”. Technically not available until February 1st, I was able to get a hold of one a few days beforehand. The 77 is a low alcohol (4% ABV), aggressively dry hopped, session beer. Fremont makes beautiful labels and they back up their aesthetic with some pretty good beers. The label on the 77 is true to form, and stands in tribute to long ago Seattle breweries Horluck and Sick’s Century (predecessors to Rainier Brewing) and their old brews 66 Select and Ranier. The Fremont Brewery resides in the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle just blocks from the former location of the original Red Hook Brewery. The old Red Hook Brewery is now the home of the Theo Chocolate factory. I tried to throw in my homage by drinking out of a Red Hook glass. Those are all facts.

“I was in the Virgin Islands once. I met a girl. We ate lobster, drank piña coladas. At sunset, we made love like sea otters. That was a pretty good day. Why couldn’t I get THAT day over, and over, and over…”

Hailing from a very different area of Seattle, but a very similar beer, is Two Beers Trailhead India-style Session Ale (ISA). Trailhead ISA is a bit more potent than 77, but still a very low %4.8 ABV. Both beers are hoppy, light in body, and very drinkable. These beers are meant to have a low alcohol content, be complex, and have a flavor that is not cloyingly sweet like Pabst Blue Ribbon and other such piss beers. Essentially, the point of this style is to have a full flavored craft beer you can drink all day at the BBQ and not get hammered. In fact, I brought a six-pack of the Trailhead ISA to my last fantasy football draft for that explicit reason. With as much drinking and shit talking that goes on, you need to be on your toes or you will get taken advantage of by your “friends”.

This is a relatively new style of beer (a low alcohol, heavily hopped, pale ale), and the first time I came across it was this past summer when Two Beers released Trailhead. However, believe it or not, I came up with this idea a few years ago all by myself. I was drinking with some buddies when I mentioned that I wanted to brew an easy drinking, low alcohol, hoppy, session ale. With tongue firmly in cheek I dubbed this style “Imperial Session Ale”. Calling a low alcohol, light bodied beer, “Imperial” was enough to make everyone laugh…well, I laughed. I never did brew that batch of over-hopped, under-malted, pale ale; and in a way I’m glad. This style of beer is remarkably unbalanced, and I came up with the idea mostly as a joke. These beers are all hops without a malt backbone to support it. So much unbalanced hop character leaves your mouth tasting like puke after a while. Nonetheless, these are brews perfect for the hope of a coming Spring, BBQ’s, going outside, and pretending like you are drinking to excess when you really are not. We all need a little of that disillusionment in the middle of a Pacific Northwest Winter.

-j.

peopleofwalmart.com

My mum swears she saw ass crack in Walmart today as she was leaving with the stroller, the kids and the groceries. Right before that she’d witnessed giant, pendulous bosoms lolling out of a dirty negligee over in the frozen-foods aisle, a week before darkest winter.

I believe my mother because she’s too humorless to invent an elderly man in a death-metal leather jacket yanking up his ill-fitting jeans to return to proper privacy four inches of rectal spectacle. She said this parting shot from Walmart had kind of made her forget about the half-naked woman buying ice cream.

peopleofwalmart.com

I love fashion diversity, but even more, I love knowing that the People of Walmart are a real phenomenon, not something staged by Walmart haters or, more deviously, by Walmart itself. No, these people actually flock to Walmart every day wearing feathers and leather and tats and animal prints—without coaching or prompting—spilling out of their (perhaps carefully chosen) duds. What a marvelous, organic culture Walmart has spawned.

My mum predicted I would say it called for a toast and unfortunately kiboshed a bottle of wine, lording her opposable thumbs over me. Which leaves me to review a very unworthy beer available at grocery stores everywhere, even in Canada and probably at Walmart.

Calling O’DOUL’S a beer is charity to say the least. O’DOUL’S is an alcohol-free abomination, a <0.5% pretender. Faintly metallic and over-sweet, this wanna-be brew pours light amber-yellow, then rests uneventfully in the glass, wafting chemical aromas and mocking you with its lack of alcohol.

You guys know I find something to like about pretty much everything, provided it has alcohol, so it’s really not fair to beat up O’DOUL’S too much. If you’re pregnant or driving or drying out, maybe it’s a good solution. But it’s hard to tolerate something that taunts you with beer-like qualities but simply isn’t a proper beer. There are a million other fizzy beverages I’d have before I’d crack another O’DOUL’S.

So on the “crack” note, and for consistency’s sake, here’s my recommendation: Use it for enemas.

Pictured l-r: Cathy Price; Lucy Bostock, Vital PR; Kimberley Owen, Vital; Liz Slee, Vital; Dr Alex Kenyon, Leeds Metropolitan University; Joanna Dring, Carlsberg UK; Lisa Harlow; Michelle Perrett; Jo Kreckler, Greene King; Ros Shiel; Annabel Smith, Cask Marque

A group of female beer fans have vowed to switch from wine to beer during January as a way of cutting back on alcohol intake and shifting the extra pounds from Christmas.

In their bid to show women everywhere that beer is not as calorific as wine, members of the Dea Latis women and beer group plan to swap their glasses of wine for a glass of beer. They aim to dispel the widely-held views that beer is calorific, gassy and gives drinkers a ‘beer belly’.

Dea Latis member Annabel Smith said, “For many women, beer’s supposedly high calorie content is the main reason why they don’t drink it. In fact, beer is lower in alcohol content and therefore in calories, than wine – so for anyone who wants to reduce their alcohol content during January, but can’t face complete abstinence, beer’s a great option.”

A 175ml glass of white wine at 12% abv contains 131 calories whereas a half pint of standard beer at 3.8% abv contains only 85 calories. Beer has a lower alcohol by volume – typically between 4-5% ABV – compared to wine, at between 12-14% ABV.

Will you be taking part? Let us know!

Choosing beers: Dea Latis’s tips

1.  Keep an eye on the abv – the higher it is, the more calories it will have
2. Beers on the traditional handpulls tend to be less fizzy
3. Don’t be afraid to ask for a taster glass as many pubs will oblige
4. Try drinking beer from different glasses – in fact, it’s great in a wine glass
5. If you’re eating as well, remember that darker beers tend to go better with strong flavours (pies and beef) and lighter beers with more delicate flavours (fish and chicken). For spicy foods and curries, lagers have the carbon dioxide ‘bite’ to cut through the strong flavours.

I realize I have not seen that many ads for light beer in Norway, which stands to reason that an enterprising Norwegian or International entrepreneur can enter the light beer market and advertise away.  It could shake things up here.  (If interested in the law for alcohol advertising check out Norwegian info here.)

Image via Wikipedia

When your trying to watch your calorie intake its a little stressful thinking about what you can drink at social events or nights out with friends. Well there is no reason to not go and enjoy yourself just remember that moderation and making smart choices is the key.

Try to alternate alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks throughout the night to help reduce the amount of calories consumed, in addition to helping you stay hydrated. Try a zero calorie beverage like sparkling water and lime , your head will thank you in the morning.

When looking at the cocktail menu try avoiding fruity drinks with mixers, instead  opt for a light beer or wine that contains way fewer calories.  A 5 oz glass of red or white wine contains about 120 calories and a 12 oz light beer has 95-136 calories, opposed to a  8 oz long island iced tea that contains  780 calories.

If you are in the mood for a cocktail avoid mixers altogether and try flavored liquors like infused vodkas. Also try diet sodas or tonics to substitute sugary mixers.

Drinks that have the fewest calories:

Bloody Mary (5 oz) : 118 calories

Rum and Diet Coke (8 oz): 100

Cosmopolitan (4 oz): 200 calories

Mojito (8 oz): 214 calories

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Plainfield Illinois might not be at the top of your vacation list. But if you are in the area it’s worth a detour to Limestone Brewing Company. You can bring your family and friends and they don’t have to be beer connoisseurs. Limestone has a wide variety of their own beers, guest craft beers on draft and an impressive selection of domestic craft bottles. Something for everyone!

Beer styles you’ll find in Beer Mate the iPhone App include:

Never drink alone again! 

Beer mate allows you to search from over 40,000 of the world’s beers.

Find the beer you’re drinking, take a photo and share it with your friends.

Next time you drink a new beer, log it with beer mate.

Beer Mate – Free iPhone Beer app. 40,000 beers! Download now for free -> View in App Store

Beer styles you’ll find in Beer Mate the iPhone App include:

Amber Ale, Amber Bock, Abbey Dubbel, Abbey Tripel, Abbey Quadrupel, Altbier, American Black Ale, American Pale Ale, American Barleywine, American Wheat Beer, Baltic Porter, Belgian Weisse, Belgian Strong Ale, Bitter, Blonde Ale, Bierre de Garde, Bock, Czech Pilsner, California Steam Beer, Brown Ale, Coffee Stout, Fruit Beer, Cider, Dry Stout, Cream Ale, Dunkel Weizen, English Strong Ale, English Barleywine, Faro Beer, Flanders Red Ale, Fruit Stout, Imperial IPA, IPA Beer, Hefeweizen, Imperial Porter, Krystal Weizen, Kellerbier, Mead, Milk Stout Beer, Old Ale, Light Lager, Lager, Rauchbier, Schwarzbier, Rye Beer, Doppelbock, Dunkel / Dark Lager, Eisbock, English Pale Ale, Fruit Lambic, Flanders Brown Ale, Extra Sout, Extra Special Bitter, Gueuze, Dortmunder, Imperial Pilsner, Irish Ale, Imperial Stout, Low Alcohol Beer, Mild Ale, Kolsch Beer, Oatmeal Stout Beer, Oktoberfest, Oyster Stout, Saison Beer, Scottish Ale, Strong Ale, Strong Lager, Lambic, Vienna Lager, Weizenbock, Wheatwine, Wild Ale, Witbier…

The politically correct No Justice Pale Ale

Now just to be clear: notoriety alone does not get you a BoTW title (and all the distinction that comes with it).  You gotta earn your stripes around here.  Here at beergeeek.ca , we’re willing to guzzle beer for hours to determine a winner.  And we have.  So read on for our take on the newly-named beer.

The ale pours out the color of light tea, capped by a persistent “clingy” head that leaves good lacing.  The aroma is fairly light,  showing hints of toast and some citrus (chiefly grapefruit).  The taste is pretty solid for a 3% beer, showing good complexity; bread, toast, bitter coffee, as well as some peppery and vegetal notes.  Light bodied, creamy and well carbonated.  The finish is moderately long and  features more citrus and pepper flavors.  This is easily the best low alcohol beer I have ever tasted- nice solid malt backbone, great hop balance.  Low in alcohol?  Yes.  Low in flavor?  Not on your nelly!  This stuff is fantastic.  Another job well done by the brewing team at Cannery.

One last thought:  I actually managed to procure of bottle of this when it was still called “No Jail Pale Ale”.  Don’t ask how, for I am sworn to secrecy.  But get it I did.  With the door bolted and the curtains drawn I sat myself down and poured a glass.  And maybe it was the knowledge that I was drinking a forbidden beer, but I think it may have tasted even better.

Well, that’s what one company is hoping for, anyway. Erdinger Alkoholfrei, a non-alcoholic brew from Germany, is being advertised as a “sports and fitness drink.”

Nutritional information aside, maybe we should be a little realistic here, brew gods. When I think hydration after a long session in the gym, I think water; I think sports drinks. When I think of celebrating — now that’s when I think of beer.

First things first: Although the beer is called “alcohol-free,” it still contains 0.5 percent alcohol. Honestly, who doesn’t want to follow up a good workout with teensy bit of alcohol right? Wrong. Plain and simple, drinking a beer after working out is totally gross. You’ve just tried super hard to put a positive physical fitness foot forward, and I can’t help but think that this beer — or any beer really — is a step back. Can the beer help hydrate you after your sweat session? Yes. But so can a cool glass of healthful water or a delicious sports drink.

And while Erdinger Alkoholfrei is the No. 1 non-alcoholic beer in Germany, I doubt that means it will be successful over here in the United States. Think for a moment: When was the last time you actually picked out a solid non-alcoholic beer for sheer enjoyment? Non-alcoholic beers remind me of my underage years, and even back then they had little-to-no appeal. I have no shame in my opinion that beer without the alcohol … well, it’s just not as good.

Also, a look at the facts shows that non-alcoholic beer sales have been declining for more than a decade. Combine the availability of other sports drink options with a general lack of interest in non-alcoholic beer, and it seems to me like this is a trend worth passing on.

Would I drink one? For kicks, sure I’d try it. But other than that, I’ll stick to my strawberry Powerade Zero, with 0 percent alcohol content.

Now again, being the man that I am, I am no stranger to bad beer. Natty is…well fuck, it’s Natty. But where Natty tastes like watered down light beer, PBR tastes the piss that comes out after you destroy a 30-rack of Natty. It’s just plain horrible. Find a new goddamn beer hipsters.

Fun fact about PBR though, in China it is sold for $44 a bottle under the name Pabst Blue Ribbon 1844, and seen as the epitome of classy and worldly beer. I mean, fuck, look at this bottle.

But don’t get it twisted, it’s the same shit (yes bitches I drank some Chinese PBR).

“Natty” count for this post: 4