Foreign Students: Different Views on Lower Drinking Age

For many American college students, the 21 year old drinking age feels restraining and is an excuse to break the law.

According to a recent discussion by the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, international students at the University of Minnesota think lowering the drinking age would be a mistake. A student from Sweden talked about how alcohol “is just used to chill and not get crazy.” But most of the students from European countries agreed that the real problem isn’t just the drinking age, it is the driving age instead.

Although there is a recent trend of American high school students waiting to get their driver’s license, many are still able to drive at 16.

This, combined with a culture of binge drinking, students said, would lead to a large increase in car accidents and potentially fatalities.

But with strong drunk-driving lobbies still keeping Congress from considering lowering the limit, this is and will for the near future remain a moot point.

Craft beer in a can? You betcha!

Craft breweries are starting to can their beverages because of certain benefits.

Canned beer has always been a staple of the red-blooded American, but now beer aficionados are clamoring to can their craft brews.

Except when they pour the beer into a glass, it won’t look like a jaundiced former frat boy.

Now small local breweries are moving from bottles to cans for their beverages, like Oskar Blues Brewing of Lyon, Colo. Since there is a demand to can from the cottage beer industry, canning companies are springing up to provide the service.

Canada’s Cask Brewing Services offers both automated and manual canning systems that are able to can 30 12 oz. cans per minute. With almost 100 customers around the world, this trend seems to be catching on.

But the real question is: why are craft breweries trying to get their product into the same medium that houses Natty Ice?

The answer is simple: beer is not as stable as people think. UV light spoils beer and exposure to air oxidizes it, two things that cans prevent. Also, aluminum is lightweight and permitted in more places than glass bottles are.

But regardless of how craft beer is packaged, the best way to enjoy will always be from a glass.

Beer College? I’m Transferring!

New class at FIU is all about Craft brewing.

Starting new classes, I am usually greeted with papers, handouts, and, if I’m really lucky, maybe an essay or two. In one class at Florida International University, students are greeted with a glass of beer.

Professor Barry Gump recently started a brewing class at FIU. “I want my students to understand what goes into craft brewing and craft beer,” he says.

Though many schools offer wine appreciation classes, beer appreciation is under represented. Professor Gump says he expects students taking the course to be serious about and willing to appreciate the art that is beer.

Too often beer gets associated with nothing more than binge drinking. I can’t tell you how many times I have come home from break to my mother’s prying questions: “you look a little chubby – too much beer?” What she should know, however, is that while I certainly do not abstain from the former, I am a strong believer in drinking a good beer slowly and carefully, purely for enjoyment, a philosophy echoed by many other College Drinkers I’m sure.

That being said, I’m glad someone has finally decided to pass on the education, I just hope it makes it out here.

http://teamsugar.com/1554001

Dogfish Head to Recreate Chocolate Alcohol from 1100 B.C.

Since 1100 B.C. the first chocoholics might have been getting a tipsy buzz.

A recent chemical analysis of 3,000-year-old pottery shards in northern Honduras turned up traces of theobromine - which means “food of the gods” - and is a chemical that is found in cacao. This is the oldest evidence of cacao manipulation.

The analyzed ves­sel had a narrow spout, and the researchers speculate that the locals were imbibing a winelike drink made by fermenting the pulp that surrounds the seeds of the cacao plant.

Now, Dogfish Head Craft Brewery in Delaware is producing a drink based on the original recipe. “We tweaked the recipe, adding hops for the modern palate,” says Sam Calagione, Dogfish Head founder and president, “but I still think of it as a liquid time capsule.”

Chocolate and beer a good combo? We’ll have to try the brew first. Hopefully it’s better than the chocolate stout we tried earlier.

Women More Likely to Have Serious Drinking Problems

In what looks to be another way to differentiate the sexes, women are more likely to be seriously affected by problem drinking than men.

A new study by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism confirms this even though fewer women across the country consume alcohol than men. The study shows female alcoholics have death rates that are 50-100 percent higher than their male counterparts. These deaths vary from causes such as suicide, accidents, stroke, heart failure and cirrhosis of the liver.

Despite this serious drawback for the fairer sex, almost 40,000 women each year drink enough to have babies born with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder. FASD can cause shorter children, lower IQ’s, mental retardation and organ defects. Additionally, it is almost 100 times more expensive to raise a child with FASD than one without.

Even so, FASD is completely preventable and pregnant women can go to the National Organization of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome website for information on drinking at www.nofas.org.

Beer Sales Down - The Obvious Solution: Drink More Beer!

An Opinion Piece from Sarah:

Imagine a world with no pubs.  A world where, sure there is still alcohol, but no beer.  Wine, gin, vodka, cider—plenty of that.  But no beer.  None.  That is the world we are in danger of living in.

Alright, maybe that is a bit of an exaggeration. We are not in danger of losing all of our beer, or all of our pubs for that matter. In fact, they aren’t even our pubs, but isn’t a loss of any beer at all, for anyone, just as great?

It seems that Great Britain is currently experiencing a decrease in demand for beer significant enough to threaten their local pubs. Mimicking a movement of the 18th century in which beer was largely replaced by gin, modern day brews are beginning to be replaced by wine, and that wine is being drunk at home.

Already, last year, 1,409 British pubs closed (almost seven times more than closed in 2006) and beer sales have declined to less than thirty million pints a day. This is the lowest sales have been since the 1930s. If sales continue in this fashion, there won’t be any hope left.

So what can we do to help? How can we prevent this horrible plague from taking a leap over the pond?

It’s simple: keep drinking.

Go out, grab a brew, and close the bar down yourself. As long as the world demands it, there will be beer. As long as there is beer, the world will be happy. And as long as the world is happy, I will be too.

Read more!

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