Healthy beer? You bet!

A Kranz (wreath) of Kölsch beer. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Generally speaking, beer and health aren’t necessarily equated with one another in most people’s minds; even though there’s lots of recent scientific and medical research that show beer drinking (responsibly) is good for you. Most beer lovers don’t pause to read the nutrition label before cracking the top on a fresh brew. However, there are some beers out there that are better for you than others. Which brews make the top of the list in terms of “healthiness” and why should you care? Let’s take a closer look at your options.

What Makes a Healthy Beer?

Before we delve into which beers are not bad for you and which ones are actually good for your body, it would be a good idea to go over just what makes one beer “healthier” than another. It basically boils down to two things really – calories and alcohol content. Choosing a beer with lower calories is a no brainer for those watching their waistlines of course, but choosing a lower alcohol brew flies in the face of some emerging craft brew trends, specifically the trend of stronger and stronger “novelty” beers.

Then there is the question of special ingredients included in the brew. A wide range of different ingredients can be added to the basic four that make up the average brew, many of which can offer some distinct health advantages. Let’s cover a few of those before we move on:

Wheat: Wheat beers have been shown to provide significant benefits, particularly for runners and other endurance athletes. The benefit here is that wheat seems to offer relief from inflammation in muscle tissues and joints, and can also help to combat problems with the respiratory system. Of course, for those with gluten intolerance problems, wheat beers are off the table.

Fruit: Fruit has been used to flavor beer since time immemorial. Today, a wide range of fruit types can be found in beer, from oranges to strawberries, lemons to raspberries and even more exotic options. However, craft beer brewed with fresh fruit (or high-quality fruit extract) can offer some health benefits, particularly when that fruit is high in vitamin C. For instance, raspberries are an excellent source of vitamin C, which helps to boost the immune system.

Another important fruit here is pomegranate. Called a “superfood,” pomegranate offers some very impressive health benefits, from boosting your immune system to helping with blood pressure problems and more.

Green Tea: Fusing beer with other types of beverages has become more popular recently in the craft brew world. Some brewers are going the route of combining their brews with tea (particularly green tea). This offers a world of health benefits due to the high antioxidant content in green tea. Antioxidants can help fight a wide range of issues, from cancer to the aging process.

Ginger: Ginger has been used as a cure-all for thousands of years. The Chinese, Romans, Greeks and numerous other ancient cultures extolled the virtues of this root. You’ll find ginger included in quite a few new beers on the market. While the FDA might be silent on the health benefits of ginger, it’s hard to argue with a tradition that dates back thousands of years.

Hemp: No, you won’t find beer laced with THC on the market (at least not openly, at any rate). Hemp seeds are used to add flavor to different brews. You’ll also find that they offer some important heart health benefits, too. Studies have shown that hemp seeds can also help to lower high blood pressure in those suffering from hypertension.

Spruce: Spruce is a species of evergreen tree and most people don’t really equate spruce needles with food or drink. However, spruce needles can impart some interesting flavors, but they also offer help for those with joint pain, poor blood circulation in the body and can even help lower stress (or that might just be the alcohol).

Oysters: Eating oysters while drinking a cold beer is nothing new. However, you’ll now find the oysters added directly to the brew. While that might sound like a rather odd combination, it does have its benefits. Most importantly, at least as far as health is concerned, oysters are high in protein and a variety of essential minerals.

Now, that’s a pretty long list of healthy additives, even though some of them might sound a little farfetched. The truth of the matter is that you’ll find craft beers available from breweries around the world that include these healthy ingredients and many others too.

The Healthiest Beers on Offer

So, what are the healthiest beers that you’ll find on offer? Interestingly, Sam Adams Light comes in pretty high on the list (at the top of the list, according to some). The beer doesn’t have any special ingredients, but it is very low in calories, has a modest alcohol content and doesn’t stint on flavor, body or mouth feel.

Surprisingly, Guinness is also among the healthiest beers out there. Again, there is no special ingredient that helps push it ahead of other beers. However, it is very low in calories, and the alcohol content is well below the 5.0 ABV average cited by authorities (the CDC, for example) as the typical alcohol content for beer.

If you’d like to break out of the box and go for some healthier beers that you won’t find sitting on the shelves of most grocery stores (appealing to the hunter in you), then you might consider some of these brews:

• He’Brew Rejewvenator ’10 (Schmaltz Brewing Co.)
• Gumballhead (Three Floyds)
• Good Juju (Left Hand)
• Black Hemp Black Ale (O’Fallon)
• Major Tom’s Pomegranate Wheat (Fort Collins Brewery)

Of course, there are numerous other options out there and chances are good that you’ll find a craft brewery or two in your local area serving up healthful, refreshing brews with unique ingredients. Keep an eye out for fresh fruit and all-natural ingredients, but also bear in mind the calorie count and ABV rating for any beer you choose if you’re concerned about the health benefits (or adverse effects).

Poto Cervesia, Dustin Canestorp

 

New Albion Ale to hit store shelves next month after 30 year hibernation

Thirty-five years ago there was little choice in the beer aisle of your local liquor store other than brews from the major national brands. But, if you were fortunate enough to live in Northern California in the late 1970s, you may have heard of a tiny brewery known as New Albion Brewing Company. Started by Jack McAuliffe in 1976, New Albion was doing something only home brewers were doing – making great-tasting ales instead of watered-down, mass-produced lagers.

The story begins long before the opening of New Albion Brewing Company, though. McAuliffe was born in Caracas, Venezuela to an FBI agent stationed at the American embassy during World War II. As is common in families such as his, he moved to new cities regularly. But, after a stint in the United States Navy, McAuliffe got an engineering degree and, while helping a friend build his home, settled in Sonoma, Calif.

It was during his career in the Navy that McAuliffe discovered his love for well-crafted beer. After training at Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay, he was transferred to the U.S.S. Simon Lake. As part of its duty cycle, the ship went to Scotland in the late 1960s to service the submarines in Squadron 14. There McAuliffe became fascinated by the diversity of beer available and the processes by which it was produced.

Upon his return to the states, McAuliffe began to learn the skills needed to brew beer by producing small batches of home brew in his garage in Sonoma. After he completed the building of his friend’s home, he turned to designing a small commercial brewer. He began rummaging through scrap yards seeking anything he might use to build brewing equipment. Old dairy equipment was particularly useful, but most of his equipment McAuliffe built by hand. During this time, he lived in a warehouse loft above the brewery he was assembling.

In October on 1976, McAuliffe incorporated the New Albion Brewing Company and began producing English-style ale, porter, and stout. The name is a nod to the English explorer Sir Francis Drake who claimed the San Francisco Bay area for England in the 1500s and named it Nova Albion. But, as McAuliffe discovered, his was not the first brewery named New Albion in the area. In the 1800s, an Englishman started a brewery in Hunter’s Point area of San Francisco at the site of a spring. That brewery faded into the annals of history, but McAuliffe wanted to honor it and pushed forward with the name.

But, ultimately New Albion proved to be too much ahead of its time to survive. In 1982 the brewery was forced to close due to a lack of financing and expansion space. After only a little more than five years, one of the pioneers of the craft brewing industry closed up shop.

An impression had been made by the small brewery and its tenacious leader. During its short-lived existence, New Albion drew visitors such as Ken Grossman who later went on to found Sierra Nevada Brewing Company. Another visitor was Michael Lewis, professor of brewing at the University of California Davis. At that time, Lewis educated students for careers at the large brewers of the day. But, as the craft movement gained momentum, UC –Davis has turned into a training ground for today’s craft beer gurus.

In fact, it was the discovery of the strain of yeast formerly used by New Albion in the UC-Davis storage facilities that inspired Boston Brewing Company founder and owner Jim Koch to resurrect one of New Albion’s landmark brews – New Albion Ale. Introduced at this year’s Great American Beer Festival in Denver, Colo. by Koch, the beer sports a representation of Sir Francis Drake’s ship, the Golden Hinde, just as McAuliffe’s original bottle did. But, other than GABF, the brew was not available to the public. Next month that exclusivity comes to an end when Samuel Adams New Albion Ale is released for distribution to the nation.

At the brunch where Koch introduced the new batch of New Albion Ale, he praised McAuliffe as a pioneer and inspiration. In his typical fashion, the aging McAuliffe remained soft-spoken and humble. He does not consider himself a major figure in the history of the now booming craft beer market, nor does he dwell on the fall of his brewery. During his talk at the brunch he thanked Koch and his company for the recognition and urged everyone to continue in his footsteps to continually innovate and keep the craft beer movement’s forward momentum going.

According to Boston Beer’s Jim Koch, in a press release, New Albion Ale is brewed from the original pale ale recipe, with Koch and McAuliffe both taking part in the brewing:

“New Albion Ale is a deep, golden beer brewed with American Cascade hops and a 2-row malt blend.  The Cascade hops, sourced from the Pacific Northwest, create a moderate hop bitterness and lingering citrus and floral notes, balanced by the upfront cereal character and sweet finish from the malt.”

Look for New Albion Ale from Samuel Adams on your beer monger and grocery store shelves next month, January 2013.

Keep up to date on all the beer happenings and news going on in town at the ALL NEW www.JaxBeerGuy.com.

 

Big beer vs. craft beer, a David and Goliath story

The Brewers Association, a non-profit organization that acts as an advocate for small brewers and brewing enthusiasts, fired shots across the bow of the mega beer producers of the nation yesterday, December 12. Charlie Papazian, president of the organization along with Bob Pease, the groups COO, and Dan Kopman who serves as a member of the Brewers Association Government Affairs Committee and is CEO of Schlafly Beer in St. Louis, authored an opinion piece that ran in yesterday’s St. Louis Post-Dispatch. While on the same day, the Brewers Association website published a similar piece.

The articles call out the likes of SABMiller, A-B InBev, and Heineken for jumping on board the craft beer band wagon and producing brews like Shock Top and Blue Moon. The op-ed says, “…they don’t label these faux-craft beers as products of A-B InBev and MillerCoors”

In the article on the Brewer Association’s website, it is said, “The large, multinational brewers appear to be deliberately attempting to blur the lines between their crafty, craft-like beers and true craft beers from today’s small and independent brewers.”

Papazian has long been known as an advocate for small, craft beer producers. In 1978 he founded the American Homebrewers Association as an education and advocacy group for home beer-making enthusiasts. His group later merged with the Brewers Association and he became president. The group is well-known for its very visible festivals such as the Great American Beer Festival and Savour as well as its lobbying activities on behalf of small brewers.

In an article on the beer news website Beer Pulse, Tom Cardella, president and CEO of Tenth and Blake Beer Company, which markets brands like Blue Moon, Leinenkugel’s and Crispin Cider, responded:

“Anyone who visits Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Company in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin will understand the blood, sweat and tears that went into building that brewery, and they’ve continued brewing amazing beers for 145 years. And anyone who spends time chatting with Blue Moon Brewing Company founder and brew master Keith Villa will understand the passion and creativity that has gone into developing his Artfully Crafted beers for 17 years. To question the quality of these beers due to their size or success is doing a disservice to the entrepreneurs who created them, and to beer drinkers who love them. Most beer drinkers don’t get hung up on industry definitions, which often change. They just enjoy drinking great beer. Whether people call them craft or some other title is fine with us. We’ll just keep brewing great beer.”

Even Fortune magazine has taken notice of the actions of the big brewers. In an article that ran on their website November 15, the magazine says, “What’s noteworthy about these forays into the craft segment is the way these brands are purposely distanced from their Big Beer parents. You won’t find the Coors name on a bottle of Blue Moon. Rather, you see the name Blue Moon Brewing Company. The same goes for a bottle of Anheuser-Busch‘s Shock Top.”

To many, the actions of the large beer producers are signs that they are worried about the future of their brands. Indeed, over the past few years brands seminal brands like Budweiser and Coors have seen significant drops in their sales and market share. Research released by the Brewers Association shows that the overall beer industry was down 1.3 percent by volume and domestic non-craft was down 5 million barrels in 2011.

At the same time as the large American lagers have been seeing declines, the craft industry is experiencing unprecedented growth. Craft beer grew by 13% in 2011 and by an additional 12% in the first half of 2012.

A craft brewer, as defined by the Brewers Association, is a brewery that produces less than 6 million barrels of beer per year and is less than 25% owned by a national or multi-national adult beverage company. Meaning that brands such as Sierra Nevada, which produced approximately 724,000 barrels of brew in 2011, and Samuel Adams maker Boston Beer Company, which produced approximately 1.9 million barrels are considered craft breweries. By comparison, Anheuser-Busch produced a staggering 340 million barrels of beer last year.

The battle of David and Goliath between the big brands and craft breweries was made even more apparent in 2011 when a bill passed in Texas allowing small breweries to sell beer directly to consumers who toured their facilities. An article in the Houston Chronicle tells of A-B executive Mark Bordas appearing before the Texas senate committee that the bill discriminates against his company because it is tailored to breweries producing fewer than 75,000 barrels per year. Because of this, it appears that AB InBev is very concerned about the competition even the smallest of brewers introduces in the market.

Add to this that the major producers have been busily snapping up smaller breweries, and it is very apparent that craft beer is a force that big business wants to control. Just last year, AB InBev purchased popular Midwest producer Goose Island and has been rolling the brand out nationally. Other brands that have been folded into the big boys include Henry Weinhard, as well as large stakes in Red Hook, Kona, and Widmer Brothers.

In an interview with Bloomberg Businessweek Kopman said that all brewers should label their products so consumers aren’t mislead about a beer’s origin. “We definitely need to discuss this as an industry,” he said. “We need to have an agreed-upon standard for transparency where you are a multinational or an independent.”

And that is the true contention between the craft beer industry and the large producers. The mass producers seem to be trying to masquerade as craft brewers while the true craft brewers struggle to scratch out an existence among the heavily marketed and financed big boys. The Brewers Association ended their article by simply asking that beer-drinkers educate themselves on the beer they are drinking.

Keep up to date on all the beer happenings and news going on in town at the ALL NEW www.JaxBeerGuy.com.

Related articles

• Craft or crafty? Consumers deserve to know the truth (stltoday.com)
• When Is a Craft Beer Not a Craft Beer? (businessweek.com)
• Craft vs. Crafty: big and small breweries square off (denverpost.com)
• Brewers Association Calls Out Counterfeit Craft Beers (beerandwhiskeybros.com)
• Don’t let big brewers win beer wars (cnn.com)

 

New Albion Ale lives again thanks to Sam Adams

Heroes come in many forms; some are of the super variety and fly around in brightly colored tights, while others quietly sit back and humbly accept their place in history. Jack McAuliffe is one of those quiet heroes.

In 1976 McAuliffe founded what is widely acknowledged as the first microbrewery in the modern era of brewing in the United States. His New Albion Brewing Company is now defunct, but his legacy, influence, and beer lives on. That he is remembered is thanks to another great pioneer in the American brewing industry Jim Koch.

On Friday, October 12, in Denver Colo., during the Great American Beer Festival, Koch and his Boston Beer Company immortalized McAuliffe at a brunch and ceremony in his honor. In his opening statements, Koch talked about the pioneering spirit displayed by McAuliffe; how McAuliffe overcame towering odds to take his brewery from the garage to Sonoma where it was christened New Albion after the name Sir Francis Drake first called the San Francisco Bay area.

Even though the New Albion Brewery eventually fell victim to a lack of expansion space and funding and eventually died an untimely death, McAuliffe left a lasting imprint on the microbrewing movement that picked up steam in the early 1980s and continues today. His brewery proved that a microbrewing facility could be built and operated and that the beer made there was of higher quality than the macro-lagers that were flooding the market.

In his typical fashion, the aging McAuliffe remained soft-spoken and humble to the praise lavished on him by Koch. During his talk at the brunch he thanked Koch and his company for the recognition and urged everyone to continue in his footsteps to continually innovate and keep the craft beer movement’s forward momentum going.

The brunch ended with the announcement that Boston Beer Company had reproduced New Albion’s brew from yeast strains kept and cultivated by the University of California at Davis of the McAuliffe’s strain. Attendees were encouraged to raise a glass of the resurrected brew to toast McAuliffe’s achievements and get a taste of the beer that started it all.

McAuliffe’s brew, New Albion Ale, will be available from Samuel Adams beginning in January 2013.

Related articles

• Denver Rare Beer Tasting IV Beer List Announced (lyke2drink.blogspot.com)

 

Exciting New Products Coming from Sam Adams

An exciting new collaboration was announced Monday, June 18 by Berkshire Mountain Distillers, Inc. (BMD) and Samuel Adams. In a press release the two beverage companies revealed their intention to use two Samuel Adams brews, distill them and release them as triple distilled whiskies. The two brews to get the whisky treatment will be Samuel Adams’ flagship Boston Lager and the newer c. Once distilled the whiskies will be wood barrel aged until ready sometime in 2015.

The brewer and distiller expect two very different whiskies to emerge from the lengthy and labor-intensive process of distilling. According to the press release, “The distilled Samuel Adams Boston Lager, noted for its upfront malt and earthy hop flavors, will then age for two years in vintage wooden bourbon barrels, generating a smooth whiskey with sweet fruity ester notes and a very slight bitterness.  The distilled Samuel Adams Cinder Bock, a fiery rauchbier/bock combination, will age for two years in wooden, oak barrels, some previously used for extreme beer, Samuel Adams Utopias^®, producing a very rich, bold whiskey.”

Once the whisky is removed from the barrels, they will make their way to the Samuel Adams brewery where they will be used for a future, barrel-aged brew.

And, as if that is not enough beer from the grand-daddy of craft beer breweries, District Manager for the Boston Beer Company, Blake Skebe shared a few other upcoming treats.

Look for a new, refreshing summer brew dubbed Porch Rocker to quench your summer thirst. This German-style Radler is a lively mixture of Helles-style beer and German-style lemonade. The drink widely attributed to have been first concocted by the Munich gastronomer Franz Xaver Kugler in 1922.

Another new offering from Sam Adams is the IPA Hopology 12-pack that contains two of each IPA. Included in the convenient pack are: Latitude 48 IPA (an India pale ale), Third Voyage (a double IPA), Dark Depths (a Baltic IPA), Tasman Red (a red IPA), Whitewater IPA (a hybrid of an IPA and a witbier), and a brand-new beer called Grumpy Monk, a Belgian IPA.

Both Porch Rocker and the IPA Hopology 12-pack are available now in stores around the First Coast.

A little further down the road, Sam Adams has a few things for you to look forward to like New World Tripel, 13th Hour Stout, and Stony Brook Red – all sampled at the Samuel Adams tasting event at Total Wine last month – will be available in August. And last but not least, look for a couple of additions to the Angry Orchard Cider series of brews: Iceman and Strawman. Details are scarce on these right now, but watch for more details in the future.

With all of this going on at Sam Adams one might wonder how they have time to do anything else. But, be assured, there will be a lot more to come. The brewer intends to release as many as 85 new products this year and does not intend to slow down.