For those who just can't wait until St. Patrick's Day to celebrate the joy and joy-ness that is alcohol, Repeal Day fell earlier this week. Celebrating the passing of the 21st Amendment, which overrode the 18th outlawing the distribution and production of alcoholic beverages, it also stands as a lovely little way for the particularly patriotic to recognize America's freedoms. Most appropriately, with a cocktail or two in hand.
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Responsible alcohol intake may help bolster memory:
When enjoyed in low or moderate amounts, University of Auckland researchers noted that alcohol can actually improve one's memory and cognitive abilities. Low or moderate being the operative words here – depending on weight, gender, genetics and overall health, this means no more than one to three beers daily.
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Red wine might help treat cancer:
Great news for oenophiles! Red wine contains reservatrol, an antioxidant Rochester University scientists discovered helps kills cancer cells when combined with irradiation. Although it can't be considered a definitive cure-all, this might very well make wine an important ally in prevention and treatment alike.
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Responsible red wine drinking might improve overall heart health:
Along with reservatrol, red wine also contains flavanoids, antioxidants which encourage healthier hearts. When combined with a regimen of exercise and nutritious diet, they increase HDL cholesterol (the good kind), reduce inflammation and thin the blood to prevent dangerous clots.
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Low to moderate drinkers live longer lives:
More than heavy drinkers to abusers, obviously, but they also fare better than their teetotaler peers! Not only do they enjoy a lessened risk of heart disease and cancer, dementia, Alzheimer's (thanks to the improved memory!), strokes, enlarged prostates and arthritis – among other conditions – occur at a lower rate as well. In fact, researchers at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism discovered that low to moderate drinkers had the lowest death rate of all causes than anyone else on the consumption spectrum.
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Despite its high calorie content, alcohol doesn't result in significant weight gain:
It seems bizarre and obviously counter to what one would assume, but this is a thing. Researchers can't exactly pinpoint the exact reason why the phenomenon of high-carb beverages resulting in minimal (if any) weight gain exists. Some theories think alcohol's increase of metabolism plays a role, while some think it discourages consumers from noshing on sugars. Although this doesn't explain away their compulsion towards beautifully greasy tacos once the bars close…
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Intentionally fermented beverages date back to at least the Neolithic Era:
Assuming brewing, fermenting and distilling aren't even older than researchers already know, intentionally created alcohol has been pleasuring and plaguing mankind since around 10,000 BCE. Stone Age mugs likely housed honey and/or berry-based beverages, which most believe originated as "happy little accidents."
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The Ancient Chinese were the first to ferment wine:
Hardly surprising, considering how they invented a myriad of other useful products still seeing action today, like paper, printing, fireworks, noodles and the like. University of Pennsylvania's Dr. Patrick McGovern and crew noted residue evidence of a wine brewed from honey, rice, and hawthorn fruit and/or grapes sticking to pottery dating back to 7000 to 6000 BCE. If his conjectures are correct, this means the earliest (currently) known, regularly consumed wine hails from Jiahu in the Henan Province.
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Nobody's exactly sure how toasting started:
Some say the ancient Greeks (or were they Romans?) dunked actual toast into their wine. Others think the tradition started as a way to test beverages for poison, making sure to clink glasses in a manner spilling drops into one another's cups. Just share any of the theories on Repeal Day. They're all pretty much equally viable these days.
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Ancient Sumerians drank beer from straws:
Long before the straws known and loved today – about 5,000 to 7,000 years ago, apparently. Using natural products, the ancient innovators enjoyed beers without accidentally ingesting the solids left over after brewing.
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In ancient Greece, only men could participate in ritual wine drinking honoring Dionysus:
Females, by contrast, held the exclusive privilege of maenadism. Neither ritual servicing the god of wine himself existed as the orgiastic, ecstatic rampages as depicted in the mass media. That would actually be the Romans and their Bacchanalia, which eventually grew so frenetic the government had to heavily restrict worship and laid waste to a goodly chunk of shrinage.
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The word "alcohol" has medieval Latin and Arabic roots:
Interestingly enough, it didn't start out describing intoxicating liquids, but rather cosmetics (Arabic), particularly those containing antimony (Latin). Alcohol (and al-kuhul) first appeared around the 1540s with this definition, eventually broadening to include any pure substance in the 1670s. The first known time "alcohol" as understood in today's English was 1753, referring to wine.
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Weihenstephan Abbey is the world's oldest brewery in continuous operation:
Nestled in the formerly eponymous Bavarian village (now known as Freising), the Weihenstephan Abbey houses Benedictine monks (not all Christians abstain!) keeping their beer brewing tradition alive longer than any other brewery in the world. These days, it touts its actual founding year as 1040, though references to receiving hops as tribute start in 768, and focuses mainly on producing lagers and wheat beers.
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The tradition of smashing a bottle of champagne during a ship christening ceremony began in the late nineteenth century:
Christenings themselves actually date back to ancient times, but the first recorded instances of champagne's use in the proceedings happened on November 18, 1890. Then-Secretary of the Navy Benjamin P. Tracy's granddaughter shattered a bottle of bubbly against the first American steel battleship, Maine.
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The world's oldest known alcohol was consumed in 2010:
And it only took 200 years! South of Aaland in the Baltic Sea, divers stumbled across a shipwreck with 168 champagne bottles and an unknown amount of beer. They handed it over to a sommelier. Then they totally drank it. Apparently the booze, which kept nice and cool at the bottom of the ocean, tasted just as fresh as it would have back in the 1830s when it was originally whipped up.
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Henri IV Dudognon Heritage is, for now, the most expensive bottle of booze on the planet:
A bottle of this cognac, manufactured in France since 1776, will only set buyers back about $2 million. #OccupyLiquorCabinet, anyone?
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American homebrewing likely started around 1587:
Obviously, if not before. 1587 merely marks the first known homebrewed beer in the United States. Whipped up in the Virginia colonies, it was likely made with corn rather than the hops American beer is mostly known for today.
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Even at a time when homebrewing could land producers in prison, A Treatise on Lager Beers sold over a hundred thousand copies:
Despite stern cover warnings about the illegal nature of homebrewing, Fred Eckhert's 1970 manifesto praised the practice, offering up instructions, recipes, and welcome relief from the same old swill. About 110,000 copies of this self-published, now classic, read sold and required seven printings to meet demand.
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The Maltose Falcons hold the distinction of being the United States' oldest homebrew club:
Among others, including California's Homebrew Club of the Year winner in 2010! Since 1974, these passionate Los Angeles-based homebrewers have banded together to spread a love of craft beer and DIY sensibilities, inspiring hundreds (if not thousands) of local groups nationwide.
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Homebrewing is not legal in every state:
It is, however, perfectly legal on a federal level – but only fermented, never distilled, beverages. Be sure to check the latest information before pursuing homebrewing as a hobby or home-based business. Even the states allowing it still regulate how much and how strong one can make.
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In 1978, Jimmy Carter legalized homebrewing at the national level:
Until that point, lovingly crafting beer and wine at home was still illegal, thanks to lingering legislation from the sour old Prohibition days.
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May 7 marks National Homebrew Day:
Yes, Congress officially recognizes a National Homebrew Day as of 1988. Fans celebrate by guzzling down some of their favorite beers or trying something new, while many creators themselves participate in the American Homebrew Associations yearly Big Brew event.
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Homebrewing is most popular in Texas and California:
Definitive statistics on just how widespread homebrewing really is don't exist, but popular site USABeerTrends offers up the best insight so far. Thirty-six percent of its participating readers hailed from Texas, followed at 21% out of California. Whipping up craft brews at home also pique many creative connoisseurs in Florida, Colorado, Washington, Ohio, Wisconsin, Virginia, Oregon, Alaska, Indiana, Maryland, Missouri, and Pennsylvania.
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No one age group is more likely to homebrew than others:
The very same USABeerTrends survey noted that only the under-21 and over-50 crowd seemed to shy away from homebrewing. Every other demographic more or less enjoy it in equal measure, though 30% between 41 through 50 craft their own beers as opposed to 35% for both 21 through 30 and 31 through 40.
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Most home brewers create between five and nine batches, at least in 2009:
Thirty-nine percent, as compared to 13% for 1 to 4, 26% for 10 to 14 and 22% devotedly hammering out about 15 batches!
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The American Homebrewers Association currently boasts over 27,000 members:
And they partner up with over 1,300 breweries beneath The Brewers Association (founded 1941!) umbrella. Since 1982, thousands of members and beer aficionados have flocked to Boulder, Colorado to enjoy the Great American Beer Festival the organizations holds as a celebration of these hearty libations.
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President Wilson actually vetoed the Volstead Act:
An alternate name for the National Prohibition Act, Woodrow Wilson rejected the Volstead Act for technical rather than ethical reasons, only to be overridden by both the House of Representatives and the Senate the very same day.
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FDR's Cullen-Harrison Act legalized the sale of beer and beer alone:
Wine and spirits drinkers were left luckless when Franklin Roosevelt passed the Cullen-Harrison act in 1933, addressing Depression demand for something soothing to quell the…well…depression. This amendment to the Volstead Act legalized beer with an alcohol content of 3.2% or below.
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The 21st Amendment repealed the 18th:
Shortly after FDR passed the Cullen-Harrison Act, the federal government decided to repeal Prohibition altogether, meeting Americans' demands and intending to curb illegal profiteering. The 21st Amendment overrode the 18th, stoking the ire of the temperance organizations responsible for its initial passing.
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