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“Far too often, what passes for history is nothing more than rehashed, undocumented folklore and myth, and this is especially true with ‘cocktail history.’ Not so with this fine book, Mint Juleps with Teddy Roosevelt. It is well-researched and documented, while also immensely enjoyable to read.” —Philip Greene, vice president, co-founder, and legal counsel of the Museum of the American Cocktail and author of To Have and Have Another: A Hemingway Cocktail Companion “This charming and erudite book is full of surprises. I never dreamed that the presidents were such boozers! Pour yourself a toddy and ponder a vexing question:...

200 years ago today, one of history's most bizarre disasters befell London when a 15-foot wave of beer flooded an entire neighborhood and left eight people dead.The Horse Shoe Brewery on Tottenham Court Road in London boasted a massive 22-foot-tall vat that held some 160,000 gallons of dark porter. On October 17, 1814, one of the metal hoops meant to secure it snapped, and the wooden vat succumbed to the immense pressure of all that fermenting brew. The gushing beer smashed open the brewery's other vats, resulting in a raging sea of beer that burst forth from the building.Over one...

I was watching the ballgame today, complaining to my wife about the lame commercials, and this one came to mind. It's still the best.

GRAPEVINE, Texas— A member of the Stroh beer family plummeted to his death early Wednesday when a rope of sheets he had fashioned to climb down from a 10th-story hotel balcony failed to hold, police said.Charles Suddards Stroh, 43, of Addison died about 3:30 a.m. at Harris Methodist Fort Worth Hospital, the Tarrant County Medical Examiner's Office reported.Police said Stroh had been staying at the Embassy Suites Outdoor World in Grapevine since early July, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported in its online edition Wednesday. Bill Bretches, general manager for the hotel, declined to comment.Stroh was a member of the family...

A Russian beverage company said on Thursday that it was acquiring the Pabst Brewing Company, which makes the Pabst Blue Ribbon beer popular with barflies and hipsters alike and other brands like Colt 45 and Old Milwaukee. [snip] The buyer is Oasis Beverages, a Russian brewer and beverages distributor. Backing Oasis is TSG Consumer Partners, an American private equity firm focused on consumer goods, which will take a minority stake. “Pabst Blue Ribbon is the quintessential American brand – it represents individualism, egalitarianism and freedom of expression – all the things that make this country great,” Eugene Kashper, the chairman...

<p>"Archaeologists in Israel have discovered a massive compound dating back to the Byzantine era, which was used for “industrial-scale” production of wine and olive oil.</p> <p>The site at Ramat Bet Shemesh about 19 miles west of Jerusalem contains an oil press, wine press and colorful mosaics, according to the Israel Antiquities Authority.</p>

A 200-year-old stoneware seltzer bottle that was recently recovered from a shipwreck at the bottom of the Baltic Sea contains alcohol, according to the results of a preliminary analysis. Researchers discovered the well-preserved and sealed bottle in June, while exploring the so-called F53.31 shipwreck in Gdańsk Bay, close to the Polish coast. Preliminary laboratory tests have now shown the bottle contains a 14-percent alcohol distillate, which may be vodka or a type of gin called jenever, most likely diluted with water. The chemical composition of the alcohol corresponds to that of the original brand of "Selters" water that is engraved...

Egypt's minister of antiquities says Japanese archeologists have unearthed the tomb of an ancient beer brewer in the city of Luxor that is more than 3,000 years old. Mohammed Ibrahim says Friday the tomb dates back to the Ramesside period and belongs to the chief "maker of beer for gods of the dead" who was also the head of a warehouse. He added that the walls of the tomb's chambers contain "fabulous designs and colors, reflecting details of daily life ... along with their religious rituals." The head of the Japanese team, Jiro Kondo, says the tomb was discovered during...

The beer will be called Bone Dusters Paleo Ale (Hardy har har [Okay, actually, "paleo ale" is pretty good]). The yeast come from the surface of one of the oldest marine mammal fossils ever discovered in the western hemisphere. The idea for the beer came from Jason Osborne, who co-directs a nonprofit dedicated to advancing paleontology and geology. A paleo beer, Osborne thought, would be a great hook to interest non-scientists in fossils. I think many non-scientists are quite interested in fossils already, but I cannot argue against a paleo beer. Will whale-fossil beer really taste that different from other...

We've known for a while now that moderate wine-drinking can confer some health benefits. Now a new study reveals moderate beer consumption can also reduce the risk of heart disease by 31%. So what's behind this unexpected health benefit? Researchers at Italy's Fondazione di Ricerca e Cura combined several different studies conducted in the last few years that allowed them to explore the possible link between beer drinking and cardiovascular disease, with a data set of over 200,000 people. They found that regular, moderate beer drinking carries almost exactly the same health benefit that has previously been demonstrated for wine...

If 10 guys gather in a garage on a Sunday afternoon, it’s a good bet that beer will be involved. What made the gathering March 9 at Mark Sheftick’s home in west Springfield unusual is they weren’t there just to drink beer. The guys were there to make it. Like the car enthusiast who just can’t help but tinker under the hood, these home-brewers have figured out what goes into a good beer, and now they’re concocting their own. They’re equal parts chemist, chef and regular ol’ beer lover. Homemade alcoholic beverages make many people think of moonshining. But those...

Local Beer Only at Oktoberfest, Unless It's Belgian, of Course By MARK LANDLER MUNICH (MUNCHEN), Sept. 19 — The Oktoberfest starts here this weekend, and even before noon today, the vaulted main hall of the Hofbräuhaus was teeming with tourists in boisterous training. But in Bavaria's breweries, bitterness is spoiling the season. Some of Germany's leading beers have been sold into foreign hands, and to defenders of national pride, something of Germany's birthright has been sold with them. Earlier this week, one of Germany's oldest breweries, Gabriel Sedlmayr, announced it would sell its famous beers, which include Löwenbräu, to Interbrew,...

Obama's & His Dark Sayings; The Wrath of God On America http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rrp6wUkTGjY

<p>Beer brewers are objecting to a proposed federal rule that would make it harder for breweries to sell leftover grains as animal feed instead of throwing them away.</p> <p>The Food and Drug Administration rule change would mean brewers would have to meet the same standards as livestock and pet-food manufacturers, imposing new sanitary handling procedures, record keeping and other food safety processes on brewers.</p>

As barbecue season approaches, researchers have discovered an unlikely ingredient that could improve the safety of your meat - letting it swill in beer. They say that letting meat marindade in pilsner can help reduce the formation of potentially harmful cancer-causing substances in grilled meats. They say pilsner and black beer are most effective, halving the amount of Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which have been linked to colorectal cancer.

The red wine reduced the risks of insanity, the beer increases these risks Tuesday November 12, 2002 - 16h39 GMT WASHINGTON, Nov. 12 (AFP) - To regularly drink red wine reduced of more than half the risks of insanity while the beer has the opposite effect, doubling the probabilities of being touched in particular by the disease of Alzheimer, according to a study carried out in Denmark and published Tuesday in the United States. "These results are interesting because they could mean that certain substances of the wine reduce the supervening of the insanity", the author of the study...

From the more reserved wine drinker to the A-type beer swiller, the kind of alcohol someone quaffs often indicates a certain personality type, a new study by researchers in Winnipeg concludes. The scientists at the University of Manitoba's Alcohol and Tobacco Research Unit found relatively distinct psychological traits when they surveyed hundreds of beer, wine and liquor afficionados. Beer drinkers tended to be more extroverted and ego-driven, the wine drinkers less so, and spirits drinkers fell somewhere in between the two, the study found. The findings may shed some light on conflicting evidence about the health benefits of certain types...

TORONTO (CP) - There's good news for beer drinkers: turns out the stuff is good for you - in moderation, according to a new study.The study, done at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ont., indicates that the polyphenols in beer - substances derived from barley - boost antioxidant activity in the blood. "Antioxidant activity ... helps prevent the oxidation of blood plasma by toxic free radicals that trigger many aging diseases, such as cancer, diabetes, heart disease and cataracts," according to a news release on the study. And you thought beer just tasted good. Biochemist John Trevithick, one...

REALLY? THE FACTS When ancient Greeks wanted to reassure guests that their wine had not been spiked with poison, they toasted to good health. While that may be less of a worry today, there remain hazards from indulging in too much alcohol - including, of course, hangovers. But one thing people who drink socially probably don't need to worry about is sacrificing brain cells in the process. The research indicates that adults who drink in moderation are not in danger of losing brain cells. The notion that alcohol snuffs out brain cells has been around for years. Many studies have...

Brewers are hoping to appeal to women drinkers by offering beer in third-of-a-pint glasses. But first they tackle the belief that beer is more fattening than wine. Is it true?Stroll through the doors of a traditional British hostelry and the scene that presents itself would no doubt jar with the slogan for a new campaign by pub operators: Beautiful Beer. The sight of burly, whiskery men propping up the bar with a pint in one hand and a gravity-affirming paunch may conjure many descriptions, but "beautiful" is probably not one of them. Yet, with its campaign, the British Beer and...