So, they found a beer cave in Missouri. I guess the notion of men hiding out in caves to drink beer and avoid life goes back farther than I’d thought.
Then again, if we’ve got scientists recreating medieval ale from the walls, maybe scientists can learn something from how beer was made in the 1800’s, too.
Tag Archives: science
Chips & Ale
Post title just to be cheeky to the Brits.
But: neat story about using new technologies to reduce CO2 emissions!
I know we’ve been drinking a lot these days…
…but what surprises and disturbs me is how, relatively speaking, we’re not drinking much more than we tend to in a typical year.
Research done at the University of Victoria suggests that the average person in BC has had between five and ten more drinks a month in 2020 than the 2012-2019 average. Drinking spiked in March (unsurprisingly), dipped in April, and has gone up consistently until July (the last month for which the researchers have data). But again–not as much as I was expecting. 
What is shocking to me, though? Those numbers represent “estimates of per capita monthly standard drinks of total alcohol consumption” for everybody in the province aged 15 and older. To put it in other words: if a standard drink is ~a 12 oz. beer at 5% alcohol, that means that in July 2020, it’s estimated that every single person in BC aged 15 or older drank the equivalent of fifty beers in the month of July. Which is, again, just slightly higher than the average of per capita monthly standard drinks of total alcohol consumption since 2012.
Fifty drinks is approximately two beers a night. Or two glasses of wine. Or two shots. Which is not bad.
But then you remember that the drinking age in BC is 19. And, of course, not everyone drinks fifty drinks a month; I’m probably at a third of that this month.
So spare a thought for those whose drinking keeps the average per capita that high in a regular year.
The Old is New
Halo Blight
I love these science stories: here’s one on how researchers at Michigan State University are trying to fight a new fungus that has been impacting Michigan’s hop crops.
CO2 Absorption
This is a pretty wild story about a brewery using algae to help reduce it’s CO2 footprint. Any cool story right now is one I will take.
Hmmm
There are brewers in Colorado who are, to put it understandably but not quite correctly, using ‘hop oil’ (terpenes) to replace the use of traditional hops in beer.
It’s a fascinating look at the potential level of flavor control that these new technology might bring to beer.
The Connection
I found this article on the scientific relationship between hops and marijuana to be pretty cool!
There Is Only So Much
Look, I’m not suggesting that people go overboard drinking during the pandemic. But c’mon, WHO, do you really have to do us like that?
5,000 Years Is A Long Time For A Beer
I’m always amazed by these stories, and fascinated by what science can learn from the process and yeast of such a long ago era.
