National Post

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Pint-sized history

Shakespeare’s Pub sorts through tall tales and famous names to soak up English culture’s single most defining institution natpo.st/1a23jJc

npostlife:

What’s the taste of spring beer? In Canada this year, it’s maple syrup Whether in a porter, a Belgian ale or a smoked beechwood malt beer, maple syrup is finding its way out of the sugar shack and into the mash tun this spring. Jason Rehel examines the trend in the latest instalment of The Beer Frontier.
[Photo credit: Jason Rehel]

How beer fuelled the feasting culture that led to civilization
Acknowledging the subject could be seen as “a more mirthful rather than serious area of scholarly research,” a team of Canadian archeologists has published a major study that argues beer-making was a crucial development in human civilization, fuelling the feasting culture that encouraged the rise of agriculture in the ancient world.

While the researchers say they haven’t found a “smoking brew pot” providing absolute proof that a thirst for beer drove the Natufian people to become farmers, they “conclude that feasting and brewing very likely provided a key link between increasing ‘complexity’ and the adoption of cereal cultivation.” (DMITRY KOSTYUKOV/AFP/Getty Images)

npostlife:

Could a compound found in beer hops be the key to new cancer and diabetes treatments?
A new U.S. study that’s isolated the chemical structure of the bittering compound humulone in beer says that the molecule could be a key component of new cancer, diabetes and weight-loss drugs.
[Photo credit: Matthias Schrader/AP file photo]

npostlife:

Another reason why beer’s good for you
Sapporo Breweries has been working with researchers to isolate a compound in hops that may help fend off cold-like symptoms. That’s right; your pint may be medicinal.
[Photo by Johannes Simon/Getty Images]

Cheers to Canadian political scandals!
With the release this week of ‘Shawinigan Handshake,’ Steve Murray imagines which other Canadian scandals could have received the alcoholic treatment.

Brewery bottles Jean Chrétien’s Shawinigan Handshake
The infamous chokehold Jean Chrétien put on a protester 16 years ago — dubbed the Shawinigan Handshake — has been immortalized on a beer bottle.

nationalpostsports:

Thirsty?
Driver Thomas Flohrschuetz of team Germany 1 drinks from a huge glass of beer after winning the four-men bobsleigh World Cup competition in the western German town of Winterberg, December 18, 2011. Photo: Wolfgang Rattay/Reuters

Bottoms up could mean bigger bottoms
All right, party people, it’s time for a shoot-the-messenger moment: It’s “that time of year” again — you know, the barbecue, the bathing suits, and, of course, the beer (or gin, or wine spritzer, you pick your poison), and it’s time to make everyone feel guilty about their alcohol consumption. At eight months pregnant, this is easy for me; my teetotaller lifestyle, after all, is nutritionally pristine.So, while you reach for a mug of lager, let’s take a closer look at the pleasure — and pain — of alcohol consumption. (Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg)

Election activity: ‘Coalition’ drinking game the new buzz
If Canadians are hanging on politicians’ every word this election, there’s a good chance it’s because alcohol is involved.

The “coalition” drinking game was sparked on Twitter shortly after a Brampton, Ont., speech in which Stephen Harper dropped the political c-bomb a full 21 times in 10 minutes. From that point forward, every time the Conservative leader used the contentious term, the rules dictated that a shot must be swigged.

Both a social-media meme and an actual practice, the game has since come to include the rhetoric of every party leader, with the addition of such talking points as “families” (Drink!), “Ottawa is broken” (Drink!), and “sandwich generation” (Drink!).