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A STUDY of men and women age 70 to 79 found that those who downed one to seven alcoholic drinks a week had a significantly lower risk of heart problems or death than those who did not imbibe, researchers said today. Why the apparent protective effect exists is not clear, the report from the US Institute on Ageing and the University of Florida said, but it does not appear to be related to speculation that alcohol consumption has an anti-inflammatory effect. The study involved 2487 men and women, without heart disease and between the ages of 70 and 79, who...

'THERE STANDS the Glass," the 1953 country classic, echoed in my mind the other night as I contemplated the glass of beer in front of me. It was Pabst Blue Ribbon , and it's our Beer of the Week. The old Webb Pierce song, contemplates the oblivion and destruction that lies ahead when the narrator takes the first sip of the day: "There stands the glass/ Fill it up to the brim/'Til my troubles grow dim/It's my first one today." This is standard American lager, a kind of soulless beast, driven by profits. But it's acquiring a hip, new legend...

PATRONS at a bar in Sydney have foiled masked robbers by throwing stools at them. Three men wearing hooded jackets and with their faces disguised, entered the hotel in Abercrombie Street, Chippendale, just after 9pm (AEST) yesterday, police said. One of them was armed with a large knife and threatened a female worker, demanding cash while his companions guarded the bar. But a patron confronted the man and a struggle ensued, during which other drinkers began throwing bar stools at the men. All three offenders fled empty-handed and were last seen running down Eveleigh Street. A crime scene was established...

Rep. Patrick Kennedy (news, bio, voting record) crashed his car near the Capitol early Thursday, and a police official said he appeared intoxicated. Kennedy said he had taken sleep medication and a prescription anti-nausea drug that can cause drowsiness. Kennedy, D-R.I., addressed the issue after a spate of news reports. His initial statement said: "I consumed no alcohol prior to the incident."'Later, however, he issued a longer statement saying the attending physician for Congress had prescribed Phenergan on Tuesday to treat Kennedy's gastroenteritis.Kennedy said he returned to his Capitol Hill home on Wednesday evening after a final series of votes...

OLYMPIA, Wash. -- What's it take to spend a full day tasting some of the world's best specialty brews? For Chuck Skypeck, early morning exercise and a big breakfast, followed by an equally hearty lunch. That regimen was a must for Skypeck at this week's World Beer Cup, because unlike their colleagues in the world of fine wine, the judges weren't wasting any of the samples on a spittoon. "We're beer drinkers. We don't spit," said Skypeck, co-founder of Memphis, Tenn.-based Boscos brewpubs, with a chuckle. "I think especially with beer, you're not going to experience the full flavors, the...

THE French are arrogant, it is said, and when it comes from the mouth of a Frenchman, things get interesting. Even more so when the Frenchman, a wine producer from south-western France, delivers a red wine called Arrogant Frog to the Australian market. Jean-Claude Mas, a fourth-generation wine producer from the Languedoc region, admits the label, which arrived in Australia last year, is designed to be provocative. But it is also designed to help him penetrate an Australian industry battling a historic wine glut. But things are not as bad here as they are in France, which is what prompted...

PORTLAND, Maine - Like most small breweries, Gritty McDuff‘s went through a lull as sales of craft beer leveled off in the late 1990s. Now Gritty‘s and the craft beer industry as a whole are enjoying a resurgence, with sales growing at their fastest pace in a decade. At Gritty McDuff‘s, production last year rose nearly 30 percent to more than 250,000 gallons. The 1990s were a boom time for the industry, with sales rising fast and even doubling in 1994. But growth slowed by the end of the decade, and hundreds of microbreweries and brewpubs went out of business....

A QUEENSLAND city has swilled its way into the record books after staging the world's biggest pub crawl. Maryborough, better known for its heritage buildings and industrial background, has given itself a whole new image after Guinness World Records officially verified the city's quirky claim last Friday. About 2000 of Maryborough's 26,000 population crawled their way around 16 pubs last June in a first attempt to break the record. More than 19,000 drinks were downed after drinkers were required to sink at least one drink at each pub – alcoholic or not – to qualify. Official "crawl cards" were stamped...

A COURT has lifted another lifestyle taboo in India by allowing women to serve liquor in bars. The Delhi High Court yesterday ruled that section 30 of the Punjab Excise Act 1914, that prevented women from working in bars, was outdated. "It is undeniable that women have excelled in the hospitality industry not only in this country but worldwide and the feminine touch indeed lends grace and elegance to the industry," said the judgement given by divisional bench justices Mukul Mugdal and H.R. Malhotra. Counsel Arun Jaitley, representing the Hotel Association of India, pleaded that the ban was unconstitutional as...

FORGET aspirins, hairs of dogs and hot baths, the only sure way of avoiding a hangover is not to drink in the first place, according to a new study. Researchers led by Max Pittler of the Peninsular Medical School at Exeter University, surfed the Internet and combed medical databases to study a range of hangover cures from the traditional to the novel. Their research roamed from the humble aspirin to fructose, artichokes and even prickly pears but found no silver bullet. However, they did hold out some hope for the potential of borage, a bright blue herb with star-shaped flowers...

AUSTRALIANS are drinking less full strength beer but more wine and ready-made spirits, according to figures released today. The Australian Bureau of Statistics said full strength beer consumption fell to 80.1 litres a person in 2004 from 85.9 litres a year in 2003. But mid-strength beer consumption increased slightly, to 15.5 litres a person from 13.8 litres previously while low strength beer consumption fell to 14.3 litres a person from 14.9 litres. The amount of beer available for consumption fell to 1.76 billion litres, down from 1.81 billion litres. However, it appears Australians are increasingly turning to wine, consumption of...

MILWAUKEE (AP) - Millions of baseball fans have chugged Milwaukee's finest suds while grilling burgers and brats before Brewers games over the last quarter century - and it turns out every one of them was imbibing illegally. A city ordinance passed in 1980 - and which city officials are about to override - says it's unlawful for anyone to drink alcoholic beverages in public parking lots or public structures. That would include the parking lots around Miller Park, which was built on the site of the old County Stadium instead of downtown in part because the team wanted to maintain...

(05-18) 18:18 PDT CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -- Archaeologists digging in a 5,000-year-old site in southern Egypt have unearthed 200 rough ceramic beer and wine jars and a second mud-brick mortuary enclosure of King Hur-Aha the founder of the First Dynasty, Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities said Wednesday. A joint American excavation mission from Yale University, Institute of Fine Arts, the Pennsylvania University Museum and New York Universities found the treasure Wednesday at Shunet El-Zebib, north of Abydos in the Upper Egyptian city of Sohag.

KNOCKING back a regular pint of beer or a glass of wine is costing an average family $80 a week, new research shows. Over a year, a family of four spends about $4135 on alcohol, guzzling on average 44 slabs of beer, 14 bottles of spirits and 77 bottles of wine. The research, by drug rehabilitation centre Odyssey House Victoria, shows a family consisting of two parents and two teenagers would on average consume 37 litres of pure alcohol in a year. The family's alcohol consumption would equate to 883 stubbies of medium and full strength beer, 77 bottles of...

Foster's Group Ltd will be selling its own brand of Turkish delight after a signing a deal for Foster's Lager to be brewed, marketed and distributed in Turkey. Foster's said distribution of the lager, through Turkey's Efes Beverage Group, gets underway in March. Foster's said while beer consumption per capita is relatively low by European standards, at around 11 litres per annum, Turkey has the second largest and one of the fastest growing populations in Europe. The brewer said the international premium beer segment in Turkey is expected to double over the next three years. Foster's Brewing International managing director...