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(NEXSTAR) – You can get it by the glass, the can, the growler or the keg. But for some reason, you can’t guzzle it from a plastic two-liter. Beer — at least in the United States — is rarely sold in plastic bottles. The most common mediums are glass bottles and aluminum cans, with the exception of the occasional “drinkable ornament” around the holidays. (We’re looking at you, Miller Lite.) Plastic bottles, meanwhile, are rarely ever seen in the beer aisle, despite being widely embraced by the juice and soft-drink industries. Why is that? Well, as it turns out, beer...

Researchers have discovered a 5,000-year-old tavern hidden 19 inches underground in southern Iraq, according to a Jan. 23 press release from the University of Pennsylvania (Penn). Archaeologists from the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Pisa conducted the excavation beginning in 2019, Smithsonian Magazine reported. The team used advanced technology, including drone imagery and magnetometry, to identify the site’s layout. The site, located in the ancient city of Lagash, offers clues about the lives of everyday people who lived in southern Mesopotamia around 2700 B.C.E. Inside the open-air eating space, archaeologists found benches, an oven, a clay refrigerator called...

How did people live and die during the harshest months of the year? How did they stay warm? What did they eat? How did they keep themselves entertained in an age before modern day luxuries like electric blankets, double glazing, and Netflix? The onset of the Little Ice Age, between 1300 until about 1870 meant that the long, dark winters of the Late Middle Ages were colder and more dangerous. With starvation and death from illness always threatening to strike, winter was a frightening time. Welcome to Medieval Madness.Surviving Winter in the Middle Ages... | MedievalMadness | 178K subscribers |...

Stone age man invented beer before making bread, says expert Archaeologists have found that man first discovered alcohol in 9000 BC, more than 5,000 years earlier than previously thought. According to The Sun they reckon pottery was invented because man needed a mug to hold his beer. Until now researchers have assumed the first human settlements, which appeared in the Middle East, were built around farming and growing corn for food. But archaeologist Merryn Dinely, of Manchester University, told the paper that corn was turned into malt, the main ingredient for making beer. Dr Dinely found that almost all ancient...

NATIONAL AMERICAN BEER DAY National American Beer Day raises a glass to the rich American beermaking history and those who savor the continued traditions. Pour your favorite pint with millions who enjoy the storied brews across the nation. #AmericanBeerDay U.S. Brewing History Brewing beer in America begins long before Europeans arrived since Native Americans brewed beer from a variety of ingredients. They used corn, birch sap, and water to ferment their beverage. Then when the first colonists arrived in Virginia, they began combining their brewing traditions with the supplies at hand – that included corn, too. Since then, brewing and...

The historic pub is great for a pint, and a story or two. No trip to Britain is complete without a pint or meal at a pub. Luckily, if you're purely going for the cultural experience and aren't fussed about quality, it's not a difficult thing to tick off the travel itinerary. Pubs are a dime a dozen in the U.K, regardless of whether you're in a major city, or a quaint village. But not all pubs are created equal, and some are worth making a special journey for. Edinburgh's oldest licensed public house dating back to 1360, the Sheep...

Today's tall cylindrical fermentation tanks that have replaced the shorter vats of breweries in the past have tended to negatively impact the taste of the resulting beer – but now scientists have stepped in to improve the taste of our booze. These tall tanks can produce more beer for less money – they're easier to fill, empty and clean – but their widespread adoption also means excess pressure from the carbon dioxide produced during fermentation, and that affects flavor. The researchers began by identifying strains of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast that were particularly CO2-resistant, focusing on the production of isoamyl...

Beer has stood the test of time as one of the world's favorite social lubricants.However, much of the history of the drink, and the corresponding histories of the cultures it has been associated with, are often ignored.To resolve that gap, a University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee professor and a Wauwatosa home brewer have spent the last three years combining forces to restore old recipes and spark interest in the underlying history of Milwaukee’s favorite drink.A Wauwatosa home brewer and University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee professor are working to revive ancient beer recipes as a way to encourage people to embrace the history of the...

What does champagne left on the bottom of the ocean for 170 years taste like? Leather and wet dog, apparently.Those were the initial findings by a team of scientists and lucky tasters after analyzing a sample from one of the 168 bottles of champagne recovered from a shipwrecked vessel on the Baltic seafloor. Divers had found the sunken trade ship off the Aland Islands of Finland in 2010, and the treasure trove has chemists and connoisseurs curious.After allowing what is thought to be the oldest champagne ever tasted to breathe, however, the researchers were surprised to find an entirely different...

It was last used when whisky was measured in hogsheads and production of the water of life was moving from an often-illicit farmyard enterprise to a thriving national business.Now the secrets of whisky production from 200 years ago are being uncovered by archaeologists probing the remains of a distillery which ceased production in 1824.Fire pits which would once have heated copper stills, tasting glasses, bottles and the timber-lined vats which held gallons of the amber nectar have all been unearthed at the National Trust dig on the old site of the Glenlivet distillery.During the past two weeks the archaeology team...

They suggest that global alcohol consumption recommendations should be based on age and location, with the strictest guidelines for men aged 15-39, who are at the greatest risk of harmful alcohol consumption worldwide. “Our message is simple: young people should not drink, but older people may benefit from drinking small amounts,” said the senior author, Dr Emmanuela Gakidou, professor of health metrics sciences at the University of Washington’s School of Medicine. “While it may not be realistic to think young adults will abstain from drinking, we do think it’s important to communicate the latest evidence so that everyone can make...

Locally sourced grapes and imported tar pitches may have been the norms for winemakers along the coast of Italy during the Roman period, according to jars recovered from the ocean near the harbor of San Felice Circeo. Three different wine jars, or amphorae, were recovered and analyzed, giving researchers a useful insight into the practices for producing wine in this particular region in 1–2 century BCE, part of the late Greco-Italic period. What makes the research particularly notable is that it combines some of the latest chemical analysis techniques with other approaches used in archaeobotany to discover more about these...

A hoard of contraband alcohol recovered from a shipwreck 100 years after it sank on its way to tsarist Russia is going on sale for nearly £8,000 a bottle. Hundreds of bottles were salvaged by a specialist Swedish team in the Sea of Aland, near the Baltic Sea, in 2019. The crew found 600 bottles of De Haartman & Co cognac and 300 bottles of Benedictine liqueur within the remains of the Kyros, which was sunk by a German submarine in May 1917. It is believed the shipment left Bordeaux in December 1916, but was delayed until the spring due...

The first form of artificial refrigeration was invented by William Cullen, a Scottish scientist. Cullen showed how the rapid heating of liquid to a gas can result in cooling. This is the principle behind refrigeration that still remains today. Cullen never turned his theory into practice, but many were inspired to try to realize his idea.

It is speculated that China has a history of alcoholic beverage production dating back more than 5,000 years. The speculation is based on written records and even legends.However, an archaeological discovery in Xinghuacun town of Shanxi's Fenyang city has offered material evidence for the long history and extended it to 6,000 years.One of the remarkable findings at the site, which is located in the premises of today's white liquor producer Xinghuacun Fenjiu Group, was a waving spindle-shaped bottle with a distinctive feature of Yangshao Culture, an ancient civilization in the middle reaches of the Yellow River between 5,000 and 7,000...

An ancient trading ship carrying wine that lay undiscovered at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea for more than 2,000 years has been damaged and looted since being discovered by archaeologists, French authorities said Wednesday.The ship, named Fort Royal 1, is thought to have sunk off the coast of Cannes on the French Riviera during the second century BC.Divers tasked with the first official explorations of the wreck, which was discovered in 2017, found that some of the clay containers used to transport wine at the time had been removed by divers who had broken into the vessel."Well-conserved wrecks from...

Wine enriched with vanilla may have been popular among royals and high society in Jerusalem more than 2,500 years ago, suggest researchers in a new study.Researchers examining remnants of jars dating back to the kingdom of Judah found evidence that royal elites in Jerusalem may have been drinking wine ‘flavoured with vanilla’.It’s already known that wine has a long history in the region, and some studies suggest wines contained added spices or herbs.Yet researchers said they were surprised to find traces of vanillin in some of the ancient storage jars, which were excavated from debris caused by the Babylonian destruction...

The remains of a Roman malting oven and charred spelt grains were found during digging in Bedfordshire, as part of the proposed work on the A428 between the Black Cat roundabout and Caxton Gibbet.Experts have analysed the grains and said they suggested people who lived there were involved in making beer...During the dig, the team from the Museum of London Archaeology (Mola) and the Cambridge Archaeological Unit discovered the remains of a farmstead that they believed was in use from the Middle Iron Age to the late Roman period.The Iron Age in Britain ran from about 800BC until the period...

Research into the way humans came to enjoy alcohol in the manner that we do is an interesting area of evolutionary science, with some suggesting its roots can be traced back millions of years. One school of thought is that apes and monkeys were lured toward fermenting fruit due to its high nutritional value, and new analysis of urine samples of these so-called "drunken monkeys" offers first-of-a-kind evidence that they actually metabolize the ethanol within it. The discovery stems from the long-running work of biologist Robert Dudley, who has been pondering the relationship between humans and alcohol for more than...

A large study of more than 36,000 high-quality MRI brain scans has found that drinking four units of alcohol a day – two beers, or two glasses of wine – causes structural damage and brain volume loss equivalent to 10 years of aging. The science on alcohol consumption can be confusing and overwhelming. A quick scroll through our coverage over the years will tell you it directly causes cancer, but also reduces inflammation and helps to flush toxins out of the brain. It stunts growth in developing brains by nearly 50 percent, it permanently damages your DNA and is confidently...