Beer Ya'll

Recently I was treated to a viewing of the new film Beer Ya’ll by Curt and Will Arledge. The film’s motto is “Beer. Rock & Roll. North Carolina” (trust me, this describes it very effectively) and details the July 2008 trip seven friends made across North Carolina to tour 27 microbreweries and brewpubs, ranging from the mountains to the coast in a seat-less cargo van. “Beer Y’all follows their nine days of hanging out with brewers, partying at rock shows, and drinking many, many beers as they celebrate friendship, music, and a Southern microbrewing explosion,” their website states. But fortunately for those interested in craft-brewing, there is quite a bit more “meat on the bone” with regard to the way this film portrays the cultural aspects of the fine art of brewing beer, and in addition to learning a lot, those who view this film stand to gain a bit of worldly perspective that has been growing in the mountains and foothills of NC for the last few decades.

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You may be an alcoholic if you talk to your beer... but what happens if it talks back? Creepy...

FOR YEARS, studies have claimed that the black cream of the Greenwood, Guinness stout, can actually be beneficial to one’s health. Researchers have found that antioxidant compounds in Guinness, similar to those found in certain fruits and vegetables, are responsible for health benefits that include strengthening the heart because of the way they slow down the deposit of harmful cholesterol on the artery walls.

Along these lines, you may be familiar with some of the artwork from the 1920s Guinness ad campaigns, in which colorful (sometimes rather odd) themes were used based on findings from market research. Perhaps most famous of all these was how people often told Guinness employees that they “felt good” after downing a pint (come on, who wouldn’t), thus birthing the popular slogan “Guinness is Good for You”. Later, Guinness was told to stop using the slogan, and since that time Diageo, the company that now manufactures Guinness, still will make no official health claims for the drink.

However, back in 2003 BBC News reported that a study performed around the time found a Guinness pint per day “may work as well as an aspirin to prevent heart clots that raise the risk of heart attacks.” Apparently, drinking lager beers does not yield all the same benefits, according to experts from the University of Wisconsin. The Wisconsin team tested the health-related benefits of stouts against lagers administering the brews to dogs who had narrowed arteries similar to those in heart disease (lucky dogs… no pun intended. This could hardly constitute poor treatment of animals in lab tests, eh?).

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If you live in New York, there will likely be an unprecedented challenge awaiting the thirsty barfly this Saint Patrick’s Day, aimed at setting a new world record in size and length of famed pub crawls.

My Goodness, My Guinness!

St. Patty’s “Luck of the Irish” Pub Crawl invites folks in the NYC metro to join them for three days of “wearing green and drinking cheap beer”, and though Guinness will be involved, it’s not the dark drink you might have hoped for. Being billed as “The World’s Largest Pub Crawl”, promoters are urging people to join them in breaking the current world record, details of which have been verified according to (you guessed it) The Guinness Book of World Records.

Claims to the present title have been made up until now by The Rich and Bennett Annual St. Patricks Day Pub Crawl based out of Charlotte, NC, which also claims to host the largest Pub Crawl in the World. Last year, the annual event hosted 3,581 “crawlers” on Saturday March 15th, 2008. Now, according to the website saintpattys.com, the new record-breaking event will take attendees on a trek spanning “over 5 Miles, 3 Days and 100 bars”.

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