Beer Equals Health

1. Beer reduces stress
Alcohol in general has been shown to
reduce stress. This may be the best
reason beer is good for your health.

2. Beer is good for the heart
A recent study found that those who
drank at least 1.5 per day had a 20-50 %
less chance of having heart failure.

3. Beer improves blood circulation
Beer increases your "good" cholesterol,
or HDL (high-density lipoprotein)
cholesterol. Its basically a kind of blood
fat, that reduces blood's clotting.

4. Beer is chock full o' fiber
The fiber comes from the cell walls of
the malted barley. A liter of beer can
have as much as 60% of your daily
recommended fiber. The extra fiber will  
lower the risk of heart disease.

5. Beer as a multi-vitamin
Beer is a significant source of
magnesium, selenium, potassium,
phosphorus, biotin, folate, vitamin B6
and vitamin B12.

8. Beer is good for your liver
Alcohol expands the small blood vessels
in the liver. This speeds up metabolism
which cleans pit liver toxins .
Yeast - Unsung Hero

Marketers long have viewed water, malt, and hops as some of beer's strongest selling points.
But beer's fourth ingredient - yeast- often gets overlooked Yet it's this otherwise unglamorous
fungus that gives ales and lagers their personality as well as their kick.

The home-brewer in his garage and the head brewer down at the beer plant follow the same
basic formula: they mash water and malt into a pre-beer mixture called wort and then add
yeast, which goes to work devouring sugars and turning them into alcohol, while emitting CO2
for carbonation and adding other flavors and aromas.

Yet for most of beer's 10,000-year history, yeast went about its business anonymously. People
didn't even know there was such a thing until the invention of the microscope.  In 1836,
Cagniard de Latour showed that beer yeasts were indeed living organisms, and not chemical
substances as was believed before.   In 1860 Louis Pasteur proved that fermentation is caused
by living organisms of a yeast cell. Pasteur did not invent pasteurization specifically for milk
or other food items, he did it to kill yeast so it would halt further fermentation.

That allowed breweries and, later, laboratories to begin tailoring strains of yeast to produce
specific tastes and various alcohol levels and to maintain consistency between batches of
beer. Almost none of the brewer's yeast used today occurs naturally in the wild.

Yeasts convert the sugars in the wort into alcohol.  It breaks down the glucose sugars into
carbon dioxide, water, and pyruvic acid. Pyruvic acid later becomes alcohol.

Yeast that adds little in the way of flavors are usually described as having a "clean taste".
Yeast produce three metabolic by-products that affect beer taste: phenols - spicy or clove like
taste or medicinal taste; esters - a fruity taste; Diacetyls - a butterscotch or "woody" taste.

Small changes in the yeast make huge differences in the way the beer tastes. For example, an
experiment in which a group of home-brewers made 12 batches of beer, identical except for
the yeast, showed a stunning result: 12very different beers.
Feature News Archive
Feature News  from  beernexus.com
Women Beat Men at Beer

SABMiller has concluded that females often are more
sensitive about the levels of flavor in beer," says Barry
Axcell, SABMiller's chief brewer. Women trained as tasters
outshine their male counterparts, he says.

If practice makes perfect, men should have the clear edge in
beer tasting, since they account for 72.8% of the world's
beer sales, but SABMiller, which makes Pilsner Urquell,
Peroni and Grolsch in addition to Miller and Coors brands,
says its empirical evidence shows that females are the
superior sex when it comes to detecting such undesirable
chemicals as 3-methyl-2-butene-1-thiol,
which makes beer "skunky."

Finding the very best tasters is crucial to the beer industry.
Tasting panels ensure that the beer coming out of the tanks
each day conforms with the specific characteristics
for each and every brand. Tasters also help brewers decide
how long their beers will stay fresh on store shelves, and
what new products to introduce.  Today, 30% of
SABMiller's 1,000 advanced-level tasters are female. The
number of women tasters has roughly quadrupled in 10 years.

Only about one of every five people—male or female—who
try out for tasting at breweries ascend to the level of
corporate panelist, says Bill Simpson of Cara Technology
Ltd. in the U.K., who consults companies on training and
evaluating beer tasters. People with natural ability must go
through at least several months of training and be able to
recognize numerous flavors to qualify as an expert panelist,
he adds.  Still, scientists say women may have a
physiological edge. Research shows they have a better sense
of smell, a critical part of identifying flavors in beer,
according to the Monell Chemical Senses Center,
a research institute in Philadelphia.
Edited by Jim Attacap