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Beer Trends: Women Drinking Beer

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Many men consider the world of beer to be a masculine realm, and these many men are increasingly more mistaken.  With the variety and taste sensations offered by the golden age of microbrew, many women are becoming more acquainted with the pleasures of drinking beer.  In addition to the trend of women increasingly drinking beer, some medical studies have shown that, for women, drinking moderately can help fight high blood pressure and cholesterol.

Woman Drinking Beer

Although the beer market is still mostly a male demographic, beer analysts are realizing that up to 30 percent of the market is actually made up of female beer drinkers.  As of 2005, London based research firm Datamonitor has reported that low carb and light beers are driving greater beer consumption in U.S. women.  Some beer companies have even launched specific lines of beer to appeal to women, such as Heineken’s new malt cider Charli, and Poland’s Karmi.  Beer advertisers are noticing this trend as well.  A 30 percent market share cannot be ignored, and the public has already seen a shift in the content of beer ads.

Women are also drinking a lot of micro brewed beer.  According to a National Restaurant Association survey, about half of women are ordering microbrews when eating out.  Microbrewers must be even more aware of this trend in beer than industrial brewers.
 
For some women, it has been clinically proven that moderate drinking can have health benefits.  Two studies published by the Archives of Internal Medicine and the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition support this claim in different ways.  The first study found that younger women who drink an average of two to three alcoholic beverages weekly have a lower risk of having high blood pressure than those who do not drink.  This study used 70,000 women aged between 25 and 42 years old.  The study tracked the women’s health from 1989 until 2002, and found that women had a 14 percent less chance of having high blood pressure problems. 

The second study, the one published by the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, focused on older women, 51 of them, who were aged above 60 years old.  The women’s diets were all strictly controlled. This study found that alcohol could lower cholesterol, but only if only one or two drinks were taken in a day.  The women were given strict dietary plans, including either a zero, one, or two-drink quota per day.  The health benefits showed up for the single drink group, but dropped off for the two-drink group.

With studies like these enhancing the trends already present in the category of women drinking beer, we can see that it is only more likely that this trend will continue.

But one Canadian study showed some slightly dismaying aspect for women drinking beer: "My study suggests that sober women who drink alcohol are less able to perceive facial symmetry when sober," said Dr Kirsten Oinonen, Dr. at Lakehead University in Canada,

"When sober, these women are worse at judging facial symmetry, and therefore may find less attractive men more attractive. Given that symmetry is associated with attractiveness of faces, my study does suggest the possibility that alcohol intoxication may decrease facial symmetry perception, and make people look more attractive."

 

It seems that scientists in Canada have found the technical term for the curious phenomenon commonly known as "beer goggles".

9 Beer And Cheese Pairings

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Beer and Cheese Pairing

Cheese has traditionally been paired with wine, fruits, nuts or things like marinated olives, but recently with rise of Craft Beer in America we have been noticing more and more brew pubs and bars offering beer and cheese pairings. These beer and cheese pairings include high end cheeses and craft beers that can compliment each other in a new way. Anything from Goat to Gouda cheese and Wit to Wheat beers, it’s all fair game in the new playing field of beer and cheese pairing.

The following are 9 beer and cheese pairings that will excite your palate and bring forward flavors in the beer and cheese you probably have never tasted before.

Beer and Cheese Pairings

Vella Dry Jack
The Vella Cheese Company of California created this cheese by taking Monteray Jack and aging it another 7-10 months, until it hardened. The result is a firm, pale yellow cheese with a sweet nutty flavor.

Pairs well with: Stout, porter, dopplebock, strong ale, brown ale, Oktoberfest

Manchego, 3 mo.
This Spanish sheep’s milk cheese has a milder flavor and softer texture than older versions. A good blend of salty and nutty flavors, sweet hints, and buttery taste.

Pairs well with: Blonde ale, witbier, wheat beer

Danish Blue Cheese
A sharp and spicy, full-flavored blue with a dry texture and dark blue-green veining.

Pairs well with: Stout (especially imperial), porter, IPA, barleywine, strong or old ale

White Cheddar, 3 yr.
Made from raw milk and aged for 3 years, white cheddar has a sharp, robust, tangy flavor.

Pairs well with: IPA, stout, pale ale, amber ale

Smoked Gouda
Similiar to Edam except that it contains more milkfat, this cheese is sweet and smoky on the tongue. The edible brown rind is an indication that it is smoked.

Pairs well with: Amber ale, rye ale, brown ale, Oktoberfest, IPA, Vienna lager, porter

Traditional Hoop Cheddar
A mild yellow cheddar (best are from Wisconsin)made in the traditional way by hand-packing fresh cheddar curds into wheels and aging in red wax.

Pairs well with: Pale ale, any Belgian ale, strong ale, ESB, pilsner, dopplebock

French Brie
A soft cow’s milk cheese with a distinctive rich, creamy flavor.

Pairs well with: wheat beer, tripel, kolsh, witbier/white ale, blonde ale, pilsner

Cotswold
This is a full-flavored, creamy, whole milk cheese, similiar to cheddar, to which chopped onions and chives have been added. It is golden yellow to orange in color.

Pairs well with: Rye ale, kolsh, blonde ale, IPA, stout, amber ale, pale ale

Laura Chenel Chèvre
A classic American goat cheese with a clean fresh taste, more dry than tangy, and a bit crumbly.

Pairs well with: Kolsh, witbier, wheat beer, brown ale, ESB

Green Beer – Beer Traditions

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Green Beer. What comes to mind? Young beer? Beer with food coloring in it? Beer that gets you stoned? Eco friendly beer? Beer naturally colored with spirulina? What’s spirulina? There’s a lot of things it might mean. Here we will discuss the tradition of Green beer that has to do only with color.

Green Beer

This is a recent tradition associated most often with St. Patty’s day, although not in Ireland. From all accounts, Green Beer seems to be a tradition only in North America, where “Irish pride” tends to encompass a kind of enthusiasm verging on the overzealous. Especially in a college town called Oxford, Ohio, where college students take to the streets early for their “Green Beer Day”.

From Canada on down to Chicago, Boston, and points beyond, the St. Patty’s Day green beer fad has been seen, tasted, pissed out, and blacked out upon. Yes, I did say pissed out. Where do you expect all that green to go after you drink it? Well, it isn’t going to dye your hair. The first mention I could find of green beer in print has to do with Miami University’s Green Beer Day circa March 1952. According to the student newspaper Miami Student, March 14, 1952. "the day was celebrated by Oxford restaurants selling "traditional dark green beer" on March 17". Strangely enough, Miami University is not in Florida. It is located in Oxford, Ohio. Quite a confusing conglomeration of names, if you ask me.

Green Beer Day
Green Beer Day is a school tradition that leads into the University’s Spring Break. The Thursday before Spring break, students of all sorts with alcoholic tendencies start a pre-dawn pub crawl around 5:30 AM. This is the earliest pubs are allowed to serve beer legally in Ohio. Invariably, the local grocer must be completely dry of green food coloring by then, because pitcher after pitcher is served to the thirsty college crowds. Now, of course, Thursday BEFORE Spring break is a school day. This lead me to wonder – do the students go to class drunk? You could bet your bottom dollar on it. Rumor is that, one year, some teachers became fed up with the drunkenness in the classroom and therefore scheduled exams on Green Beer Day. Happily, the drunken solidarity of the students re-enforced the tradition even more, and the idea of giving exams on Green Beer Day was dropped.

The Green Beer Day tradition is not reserved only for the pubs, apparently. Restaurants in uptown are rumored to serve “green eggs and ham, green bagels with green cream cheese, and offer [strange] food specials throughout the day”, according to GreenBeerDay.com.

While I personally enjoy the chaos and hilarity of drunken antics, the Green Beer Day of Oxford, Ohio does have its detractors. It has, in fact, been called the “AMERICA’S DUMBEST COLLEGE TRADITION”, as the Zenformation Professional called it. Citing instances of sexual molestation and public vomiting, he points out the blatant and crude hedonism of the event. There are good and bad aspects to any huge celebration where people are getting completely wasted, of course. Vomit is usually one of them, as anyone who has been to a huge St. Patty’s day block party can attest.

To be fair to the other pursuants of the green beer tradition, I should like to point out that the Miami University tradition is uniquely alcoholic in nature. The event does not fall upon St. Patty’s Day, but is kind of a jumpstart for those festivities. Yet it lacks the nostalgia and cultural flair that is usually displayed on March 16th. It is somewhat difficult to feel anything but drunk when one has been drinking since 5:30 AM, I suppose. But green beer is a beer tradition that manifests in more places than just Oxford, Ohio.

Green Beer Recipe
Most recipes for green beer involve simply doctoring each pint with 5-6 drops of green food dye. For a bigger batch, say, a pitcher of beer, one would use between 20-24 drops, or about a tablespoon worth. If you are hosting a party, and seek to color the beer in a 6 gallon Cornelius keg, I would recommend 10 Tablespoons worth of dye.

But the brewers of Dogfish Head Brewery, of Delaware, have some different ideas regarding how to turn your beer green: a health food algae called spirulina. In 2005, Dogfish Head sold a draft only release – their “Verdi Verdi Good”, a green beer that was made without food coloring, but with the green spirulina algae as an all natural ingredient in the brew. The basis of the beer was a pale lager beer in the Dortmunder style, which is a somewhat bitter lager reminiscent of a pilsner. According to the Dogfish Head website, their inspiration actually came from an unusual place:

“The idea for the Dogfish Head version actually was born of beers already being produced in Southeast Asia, namely Myanmar (formerly Burma) and Thailand. The main type of beer made in that area of the world is akin to the Dortmunder/Export type lagers of Germany. Both Myanmar and Thailand have breweries producing a beer which is their regular production lager with spirulina added. Hence, Verdi Verdi Good was born.”

Although popular in some parts of the U.S. and Canada, and, apparently Myanmar, you won’t be finding green beer in Ireland, or any of the British Isles. Most beer fans in Europe find the notion of putting dye into their ale abominable – and I can’t say I blame them for that. What most people don’t realize is that most brands of food coloring, even though non-toxic, are still petroleum products. I try to avoid unnecessary coloring in all foods, including beer. One of the biggest problems facing the green beer phenomenon is that the most Irish of drinks, Guinness, cannot be made to look green. Only very lightly colored ales can be given the treatment. Any amount of darkness in the ale, and the green makes it look like pond scum – not very appetizing for most humans. I say take a hint from the Irish and enjoy your beer the way it was intended. But if you really want the experience of pissing green, there is no better way to enjoy it than by quaffing down a couple of green beers.