to ¼-inch thick7
Beer Chasers
There was in the United States, in the beer age, no more delightful a city than Milwaukee, in which to spend a day, a year or a life.1
Milwaukee area chefs are a creative bunch, especially when considering cooking with a brewed or distilled beverage. Use of any product of local origin is another plus. The chefs love to list such selections on their menus, often presenting seasonal dishes made with beer or liquors from any of the city’s producers.
One of the most interesting developments is Brian Frakes’s deep-fried beer, a presentation launched in October 2010 at the Miller Time Pub in the Hilton Milwaukee Center. Frakes, the hotel’s executive chef, developed his pretzel-ravioli pocket with a beer filling after learning of the possibilities of deep-frying beer. The technique originated with Mark Zable, a Belgian waffle concessionaire at the Texas State Fair.
According to the Texas Alcoholic Commission, fairgoers had to be twenty-one to sample it. Subsequently, the Miller Time Pub suggested that diners “please chew responsibly.”
Frakes came up with his own recipe, which is served with a beer chaser, three dipping sauces, horseradish ale cream, nine-grain mustard and Wisconsin-made cheddar cheese.
For his basic ingredient, the chef selected the spicy, reddish-colored Staghorn Octoberbest beer for his recipe, brewed in the Swiss community of New Glarus, Wisconsin. However, any similar beer produced by a Milwaukee-based brewery should be an able substitute.
Frakes first froze the beer with gelatin to create what he calls “beer jewels,” which are pressed into the dough. Frying takes about twenty seconds and returns the beer to its liquid state. Finishing the presentation, Frakes adds a sprinkle of rosemary fire salt.2
MILWAUKEE’S BEST BEER AND SPIRITS RECIPES
Carbonnade à la Flammande (Beef and Onions Braised in Beer)
Tom Peschong, executive chef, Riversite Restaurant
Tom Peschong, the executive chef at the Riversite Restaurant in Mequon since 1990, grew up in a cooking family, with six sisters, three brothers, mom Gertrude and dad Bob—all great cooks. Peschong received his formal culinary training in the Twin Cities and later helped launch Le Restaurant in Thiensville, where the late Journal-Sentinel restaurant critic Dennis Ghetto awarded him a coveted “Four Hats.” He also worked at the old Fleur de Lis, as well as Jean Paul’s and Brynwood Country Club. Peschong lives with his wife, Sheila, also a foodie, and seven-year-old son, Simon, in Cedarburg, Wisconsin.3
SERVES: SIX
4 tablespoons butter
2 pounds sweet onions (about four) thinly sliced
¼ pound Neuske’s bacon (thickly sliced, then sliced into thick strips)
2–2½ pounds beef stewing meat (trimmed and sliced ¼-inch thick)
Salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 bottle Sprecher Black Bavarian beer
2 cups beef or veal stock 1 bay leaf
1 sprig fresh thyme (or 1 teaspoon dried thyme)
3 tablespoons flat leaf parsley (minced)
DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat over to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Heat butter in a large skillet over medium head and add onions. Cook slowly until lightly caramelized, stirring often. When ready, transfer to a side plate and hold until later.
3. Render bacon until crisp. Remove and set aside, leaving behind as much fat as possible.
4. Season beef with salt and pepper and cook as many pieces as possible at a time. Cook until all meat is nicely browned and then set aside, making sure that fat and oil remain behind.
5. Return skillet to flame and add flour and brown sugar, stirring until roux (sauce) is medium brown. Add Black Bavarian beer, stock and any accumulated juice from meat. Heat until lightly thickened and then add meat, onions, bay leaf and thyme.
6. Bake covered until meat is tender, about two hours. Let rest until any unwanted fat rises to the surface; skim and discard. Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper as needed (to taste). Then finish with crispy bacon and parsley.
7. Serve with buttered noodles or red potatoes and chilled beer or a hearty red wine.
Truite de Riviere Farci Choux
(Roasted Rainbow Trout Stuffed with Sauerkraut)
Adam Siegel, executive chef, Bartolotta Restaurant Group
Milwaukeean Adam Siegel was named the 2008 Best Chef in the Midwest by the nationally acclaimed New York–based James Beard Foundation. The organization is named for cookbook author, teacher and champion of American cuisine James Beard, who died in 1985. Siegel was selected from among other area finalists after a rigorous culling process.
The award recognized Siegel for his culinary expertise in preparing French bistro cuisine at the Lake Park Bistro; he was cited for bringing a contemporary flair to the French preparation style of cooking. Siegel has more than one spatula in hand; he is also executive chef of Bacchus—A Bartolotta Restaurant.
Early in his career, Siegel studied under several other Beard winners in Chicago; San Francisco; Washington, D. C.; Italy; and France. A native of the Chicago area, Siegel graduated from the culinary school at Kendall College in Chicago.4
SERVES: FOUR
4 ounces butter, unsalted
8 ounces sauerkraut, drained, rinsed and dried
1 each bay leaf
1 each garlic clove, sliced
3 each juniper berries
Salt and white pepper to taste
2 ounces Sprecher Special Amber
1 ounce white wine
3 ounces chicken stock
24 slices smoked bacon, to ¼-inch thick
4 each rainbow trout, head off/pin bone out
1 ounce corn oil
8 ounces Shiitake mushrooms, stems removed and julienned
1 pound Yukon gold potatoes, b or c size, boiled and quartered
8 sprigs thyme
DIRECTIONS
1. Place a sauté pan on medium heat and add about one ounce of butter. Add the sauerkraut, bay leaf, garlic, and juniper berries to the pan and season with salt and white pepper. Sauté and cook for a couple of minutes or until the kraut is hot.
2. Add the beer and wine and continue to cook until the liquid is reduced by half, then add the chicken stock. Cook until the chicken stock is reduced by half; remove from the heat; strain, reserving the liquid; and cool down the kraut. Remove all of the juniper berries and bay leaf from the sauerkraut.
3. On a piece of parchment or wax paper, lay out bacon slices lengthwise in groups of five, overlapping the slices by about of an inch.
4. Take the trout and lay skin side down on a cutting board; trim any excess bones and fins, leaving the tail intact. Season with salt and pepper. Spread equal amounts of the sauerkraut in the center of each trout. Fold the trout closed so that the sauerkraut is in the belly of the trout.
5. Place each trout on a group of bacon slices. Roll the trout in the bacon so that it is completely covered and wrapped.
6. Place a nonstick sauté pan over medium heat and add the corn oil. Season the trout with salt and place in the pan with the seam side down. Sauté until the bacon renders and turns light brown; flip over and cook the other side. After the fish is brown on both sides, place the trout in a 350 degree Fahrenheit oven for about three to five minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to rest.
7. In the same pan with the bacon fat, add the mushrooms, potatoes and thyme. Sauté until golden brown, seasoning with salt. Place the trout on a plate with the vegetables, returning the pan to the heat. Add the reserved cooking liquid from the sauerkraut, finishing with the remaining butter. Pour the sauce around the trout and the vegetables.
Black and Tan French Toast
Thi Cao, former executive chef, Café Calatrava, Milwaukee Art Museum
Chef Thi Cao, executive chef at the Milwaukee Art Museum’s trendy Café Calatrava, showcases his love of French, Asian, Spanish and Mediterranean cuisine. His vision for Café Calatrava was one where the food reflects the beauty of Milwaukee’s signature building. He said his goal was to create a menu with a “wow”factor, while at the same time being affordable and approachable. He definitely succeeded.
Preferring to be called by his first name, pronounced “T,” rather than “Chef,” Cao was born in Vietnam and moved to Madison as an infant. His mother, Bichyen Tran, inspired his love of cooking. Cao raves about her pho, the century-old-plus national Vietnamese soup, hinting that her secret ingredients include saffron, star anise and orange.
Cao’s interest in the food arts was also peaked by watching the cooking segments on Reading Rainbow at age nine. But his professional cooking career came much later. After receiving a business degree from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and working as a software quality engineer, he decided to follow his passion and enrolled in Pasadena’s Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Los Angeles at the ripe old age of twenty-nine.
Since then, he has worked all over the world, his most recent job being a three-year stint as executive chef at Milwaukee’s multiple award–winning Osteria del Mundo. His mentors include Michelin-magician chef Marc Fosh from the Palma de Mallorca in Spain and Chef George at the Cordon Bleu, who taught him the art of serenity in the kitchen. Cao takes pride in the calm, Zen-like atmosphere of his kitchen. He is also interested in greening up the workplace by composting and working with Milwaukee’s urban fish and vegetable farmers’ Sweet Water Organics.
Cao’s menu was a foodie’s delight. He used locally produced ingredients as often as possible, developing exquisite and often exotic combinations. His Steak and Potatoes was a signature item, pulling together a tenderloin, potato butter, roasted red pepper, artichoke and chocolate fig sauce. The Prosciutto Crab Melt had copious amounts of jumbo lump crab, and the Mustard Seed Chicken Sliders had pickled mustard seeds, free-range chicken and avocado mayo. Even the sometimes-lowly hot dog was elevated to a “haute” dog, made with never-tethered Strauss veal.5
SERVES: FOUR TO EIGHT
7 eggs
¾cup condensed milk
1 ½ cups milk
3 cups Sprecher Black Bavarian beer
½ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ tablespoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon nutmeg
1 loaf Texas toast, brioche or challah bread
2 tablespoons butter
DIRECTIONS
1. Beat the eggs and condensed milk to cream.
2. Slowly add the milk and beer while whisking constantly.
3. Add spices and mix thoroughly.
4. Heat a griddle on medium high.
5. Cut the bread in pieces about two fingers thick. Soak in the batter for 30 seconds on one side and then flip and let soak another 30 seconds.
6. Melt butter on the griddle and transfer the soaked bread to the hot griddle. Cook two to three minutes or until golden brown. Cook on the other side until golden brown.
Summer Senegalese, with Beer and Corn Pakoras
Sanford (Sandy) D’Amato, executive chef, Sanford Restaurant
Sanford D’Amato, owner of Sanford Restaurant in Milwaukee, graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in 1974 and stayed on for a one-year fellowship in the Escoffier Room. He then worked in various New York City restaurants throughout the 1970s. In 1980, he returned home to Milwaukee’s John Byron’s Restaurant, where he received national attention. In 1985, Food and Wine magazine named D’Amato one of the top twenty-five “Hot New Chefs.” In a 1998 Bon Appetit feature article, he was touted as “one of the finest seafood chefs in the country.” In 1988, he was selected as one of twelve national finalists in the American Culinary Gold Cup, Bocuse D’or.
In 1992, D’Amato was one of twelve chefs in the nation to be personally chosen by Julia Child to cook for her eightieth birthday celebration in her hometown of Boston. In 1994, Sanford Restaurant was awarded the Fine Dining Hall of Fame award by Nation’s Restaurant News and received the DiRONA (Distinguished Restaurants of North America) Award. It has also consistently received the AAA-Four Diamond Award and the Four-Star Award from Mobil Travel Guide. After being nominated for six consecutive years by the James Beard Foundation, Sanford won the Perrier Jouet Best Chef Midwest Award in April 1996.
He makes regular broadcast appearances and writes a food column for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel food section.6
2 tablespoons grapeseed oil
2 teaspoons whole fennel seed
1 teaspoon whole kala jeera (black cumin seeds)
1 onion (10 ounces), peeled and cut in ½-inch pieces
2 stalks celery (4 ounces), washed and cut in ¼-inch pieces
1 carrot (5 ounces), peeled and cut in ¼-inch pieces
1 leek (4 ounces), cleaned and cut in ¼-inch pieces
6–7 large cloves garlic (1 ½ ounces), peeled and sliced thin
1 piece ginger root (3 ounces), washed, skin scraped off and sliced ¼-inch thick
2 Serrano peppers (¾ ounces), washed, stems removed and cut in ¼-inch pieces
2 bay leaves
2 teaspoons kosher salt
½ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
2 tablespoons curry powder
6 cups low-sodium chicken stock
1 ripe mango (13–14 ounces) peeled, flesh cut off pit and diced large
2 tablespoons lime juice
Kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste
1 cup good-quality plain yogurt
DIRECTIONS
1. Place a soup pot over medium heat. Add oil and when hot, add fennel seed and kala jeera.
2. Swirl and stir until fragrant, about one minute. Turn heat to medium low. Add next ten ingredients (after the kala jeera).
3. Stir, cover and let sweat without taking on any color, about 20 minutes, stirring regularly.
4. Add curry powder and stir one minute.
5. Add stock, bring up to a low simmer and simmer for 15 minutes covered.
6. Add mango, bring back up to a simmer, then carefully puree soup in small batches in a blender. Strain through a medium strainer.
7. Add lime juice and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper, then chill. To serve, place 2 tablespoons yogurt in center of each of 8 bowls.
8. Divide soup around yogurt and top with just-made crispy warm Beer and Corn Pakoras. Serve.
Beer and Corn Pakoras
SERVES: EIGHT
1 tablespoon whole butter
1 ear fresh corn, shucked and kernels removed (need ¾ to 1 cup)
Kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste
½ cup, plus 2 tablespoons chickpea (gram) flour
¼ tablespoon baking powder
¾ teaspoon kosher salt
¼ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
1 teaspoon ground fennel
teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
Microplaned zest of 2 limes ½
½ teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons fine chiffonade of fresh mint leaves
3 tablespoons fine chopped chives
2½ cups oil for frying (peanut, corn, canola, etc.)
½ cup Lakefront Riverwest Stein beer
DIRECTIONS
1. Place an 8-inch nonstick sauté pan over high heat. Add butter and when dark brown but not burnt, add corn. Season lightly with salt and pepper, toss for 45 seconds and place on a plate to let cool.
3. Place oil in a 9- to 10-inch-diameter sauce pot and place over medium-high heat. Heat to 360 degrees Fahrenheit. Meanwhile, set up bowls as described previously.
2. In a mixing bowl, place flour, baking powder, ¾ teaspoon of salt, ¼ teaspoon of pepper, fennel, cayenne, lime zest, sugar, mint and chives.
4. Add beer to dry ingredients in bowl and whisk until smooth to form Pakora batter.
5. Mix in room temperature corn and, when oil is ready, carefully spoon in about 1 scant tablespoon portions of Beer and Corn Pakora batter in oil (not on top of one another so they don’t stick together).
6. Let fry 2½ minutes per side until golden and crisp. Remove with slotted spoon, shake off excess oil and drain on absorbent paper. Keep warm.
7. Fry eight more. Place two warm Beer and Corn Pakoras in center of each bowl on top of yogurt and serve.
Sprecher Black Ninja Burger
Dan Kyle, 2010 First Place, Grilling With Beer Contest,
Wisconsin State Fair
Sprecher Brewing Company, the Wisconsin Beef Council (WBC) and Keg-a-Que annually join forces in the Wisconsin State Fair’s Grilling with Beer competition. Second and third place winners each receive one case of Sprecher beverages, two Sprecher tour passes, a twenty-five-dollar certificate for beef from the WBC, a portable Keg-a-Que and other prizes.
The Grand Prize winner receives six cases of Sprecher beverages, two Sprecher Tour passes, a $200 certificate for beef from the Wisconsin Beef Council and a portable Keg-a-Que.7
BURGERS
½ cup teriyaki marinade
¼ cup Sprecher Black Bavarian Beer
2 pounds ground chuck
3 cloves garlic, chopped
cup chopped Sushi ginger
Chinese 5-Powder Spice (to season outside of burgers)
3 tablespoons butter
Ciabatta rolls
ASIAN BBQ BROCCOLI SLAW
3 cups broccoli slaw
3 tablespoons sesame oil
cup Sprecher Black Bavarian Beer
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
3 tablespoons sugar
4 tablespoons hoisin sauce
1 tablespoons soy sauce
DIRECTIONS
1. Add ½ cup teriyaki marinade and ¼ cup Sprecher Black Bavarian Beer to two pounds ground chuck. Chop two cloves of garlic and add to beef. Combine ingredients.
2. Make a thin patty, then add chopped ginger on top. Make a second thin patty and lay over top of the rest of the patty, making it into one patty. Season the outside of the burger patty with Chinese 5-Powder Spice. Grill to desired doneness.
3. In a small metal bowl, add one clove of garlic chopped and three tablespoons of butter. Melt butter and spread on sliced Ciabatta rolls.
4. Grill rolls for three to five minutes or until the rolls are toasted.
5. In a bowl combine broccoli slaw, sesame oil, Sprecher beer, rice wine vinegar, sugar, hoisin sauce and soy sauce. Mix well.
6. Place burger on Ciabatta roll and add Asian BBQ Broccoli Slaw over the top.
7. Enjoy the Sprecher Black Ninja Burger with more Sprecher Black Bavarian.
Author’s Pear/Apple/Raspberry Liqueur
1 pound pears
2 Macintosh apples
1 cup red raspberries
3 cups Rehorst Vodka (Great Lakes Distillery)
1 cup sugar syrup
2 pinches nutmeg or cinnamon
2 pinches coriander seed
2 cloves
DIRECTIONS
1. To make sugar syrup, combine two cups of water with two cups of sugar. Stir until dissolved and boil for at least four minutes. Remove from heat and let cool.
2. Rinse fruit and cut pears and apples into slices, leaving on the skins. Place all the fruit in a large jar.
3. Pour in Rehorst Vodka and sugar syrup to cover fruit.
4. Add spices and remaining vodka and sugar syrup to fill jar. Seal tightly.
5. Shake jar once daily for three days to ensure even distribution of spices. Then set aside in a dark place for three months.
6. After three months, strain liquid to remove fruit, which can be saved for spreading atop a bowl of French vanilla ice cream. Let jar of liqueur stand and mellow in a cool, dark place for at least another three to six months before drinking. It gets smoother the longer it sits.
Marvelous Martini Suggestions from Great Lakes Distillery:
ABSINTHE MARTINI
2 ounces Rehorst Premium Milwaukee Vodka or Gin
½ ounce dry vermouth
¼ ounce Amerique 1912 Absinthe Verte
FRESH HERB MARTINI
3 ounces Rehorst gin
¼ ounce dry vermouth
3 sprigs fresh rosemary
1 sprig fresh thyme
PUMPKIN SPICE MARTINI
2 ounces Great Lakes Pumpkin Spirit
1 ounce heavy cream
½ ounce hazelnut liqueur
½ ounce Wisconsin maple syrup
BREWERY WORKERS UNIONS
During the spring of 1886, the Milwaukee brewery workers and maltsters formed the Local 7953 chapter of the Gambrinus Assembly of the Knights of Labor. The new union asked the nine major Milwaukee breweries for an eight-hour workday, better pay and to allow the union in all the breweries. Rebuffed, most non-office brewery workers, except at the Falk Brewery, went on strike, joining workers at many other Milwaukee companies. On May 3, more than one thousand brewery workers marched to Falk to talk the workers there into joining them, and they did. By May 5, Republican governor Jeremiah Rusk sent the state militia to keep order in the city. In a confrontation at the North Chicago Rolling Mills in Bay View, the militia fired into a crowd of strikers, killing six persons. Eventually, they decided to concede on slight increases in pay, including an advance of $120 per year for each worker.8
Celebrating its 125th anniversary in 2011, Local Nine of the United Brewery Workmen was organized, as an affiliate of the American Federation of Labor after several years of labor strife that include a major multi-city strike in 1888. The local included almost every trade worker in the brewery world. Exempted were women who worked in the bottling house, spending up to ten hours a day applying labels to bottles at a starting wage of five cents an hour. In 1902, an attempt was also made to organize the women, but it stalled until Mary Harris Jones, a labor leader better known as “Mother Jones,” arrived in Milwaukee to rally support for a union. In 1910, Local Nine began admitting women, getting them a minimum wage of six dollars a week. The men, on the other hand, were getting nine dollars.9
SPIRITS PUBLICATION
Suds, Wine & Spirits, Milwaukee’s own quarterly newspaper featuring beer and beverage, is published by Jeff (Whispering Jeff) Platt, whose closing mantra is “Until We Party Again.” For information, contact the publication at Box 1251, Milwaukee, WI 53201, www.sudswineandspirits.com.
The A. Gettelman Brewery rathskeller was refurbished in time for the 1937 gathering of the Master Brewers of America, which came to Milwaukee for its annual convention. Here, the brewery’s Five O’Clock Club offers a toast with handmade copper boots of beer that Fritz Gettelman (far right) commissioned for the occasion. The guests included Dick and Fred Dunck, Louis Bajus, Joe Sausen and Julius Stimmler, who was Gettelman’s brewmaster at the time. The three Dunck brothers (Pierre or “Pete,” not pictured) rented offices from Gettelman for their cooperage firm. The Five O’Clock Club gifted Fritz Gettelman with Rex, his favorite springer spaniel. The caves that made up the rathskeller were first used by the Schweickhart Brewery for beer storage and cooling. Photo courtesy of Nancy Moore Gettelman.
BEER WITH BENEFITS
Surprise! Savoring a beer might be just what’s needed as part of one’s health regime. But the caveat emphasizes that this is a task undertaken only in moderation.
Beer in general, and in moderation, is beneficial for heart and cognitive function, both attributed to the beverage’s alcohol content, said registered dietitian Joan Pleuss, a nutrition consultant to TOPS, the weight-loss support group. In addition, beer helps increase bone density because of its silicon content, she added.
Pleuss, also the bionutrition director for the Translational Research Unit at the Medical College of Wisconsin, indicated that ingredients such as wheat, yeast, malted barley and hops contribute to the B vitamin content of beer. Varieties of beer might offer different benefits, such as India Pale Ales, with their additional malt and hops, contributing to more silicon in the body and darker beers containing more antioxidants than lagers.
Pleuss added that a study done in the Netherlands shows that beer supposedly can decrease fibrinogen, a protein that contributes to blood clotting. It also decreased C-reactive protein, helping lower the risk of inflammation that leads to heart disease.
Keeping in mind the importance of not overdoing too much of a good thing, a glass or two of beer a day might be considered as much a part of a health regime as red wine. Pleuss, of course, emphasizes that women shouldn’t exceed twelve ounces of beer per day and men twenty-four ounces.
There are several benefits to light or “low-cal” beer, Pleuss explains, especially since they do not have as many calories. “This variety of beer doesn’t have the same risks for cancer, either,” she explains, adding that it’s the alcohol in beer that increases the risk for some types of cancer.
A number of organic beers have arrived in the marketplace, a factor to consider, especially knowing that some ingredients in mainline beers, such as hops, are often treated with pesticides. “By 2013, organic beer will need to use organic hops where they now can use a combination of organic and non-organic,” Pleuss continues.
“I would suggest that the first priority in buying organic would be putting the extra money toward organic produce,” she laughs.
Another new product, bottle-conditioned beer, has brewer’s yeast added before the bottle is closed, supposedly augmenting the health benefits in yeast, such as B-complex vitamins, protein, chromium and other good “stuff.” But the health value would depend on how much extra brewer’s yeast is in the beer and how much is in the sediment on the bottom that would not be ingested, says Pleuss, whose favorite style of beer is a pilsner. She enjoys the occasional Miller MGD 64, with only sixty-four calories and 2.4 carbs. Pleuss prefers “the colder, the better.”
While some researchers have said that beer can improve cholesterol metabolism and is a source of antioxidants, Pleuss still warns that beer or any alcohol actually increases the risk of cancer, especially of the breast, liver, rectum, throat, mouth and esophagus. As a last word regarding beer as part of one’s health plan: “Don’t start drinking if you currently don’t drink,” she advised.
Dr. Robert Gleeson, director of the Froedtert Hospital & the Medical College of Wisconsin Executive Health Program, agreed with much of what Pleuss says and emphasized, “I highly doubt that the addition of fruit to beer has any added health benefit.” He goes on, “Sorry, but I cannot find what I accept as good science anything that separates the health benefits of beer from other alcohols.”
When Gleeson needs such backgrounding and resources in his work, he often cites Dr. David J. Hanson, of the State University of New York at Potsdam, who has researched the subject of alcohol and drinking for more than forty years.
“Moderate drinkers tend to have better health and live longer than those who are either abstainers or heavy drinkers,” said Hanson, citing studies done by Harvard, the University of London, the Cancer Research Center, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and other research in Italy, Canada, Spain, Australia, the United Kingdom, Denmark and China.
Hanson, more of a wine than beer drinker himself, along with enjoying an occasional gin and tonic, indicates that in addition to having fewer heart attacks and strokes, moderate consumers of beer, wine and distilled spirits are generally less likely to suffer strokes, diabetes, arthritis, enlarged prostates, dementia and several major cancers.
As Hanson explains, a standard drink is a twelve-ounce bottle or can of regular beer, a five-ounce glass of wine one and a half ounces of 80-proof distilled spirits (either straight or in a mixed drink). “The alcohol content of a standard drink of beer, dinner wine or distilled spirits is equivalent. To a breathalyzer, they are all the same,” he said.
The health benefits associated with drinking in moderation are also similar for beer, wine and spirits. The primary factor associated with health and longevity appears to be the alcohol itself,” Hanson said, echoing both Pleuss and Gleeson.
“The pattern of consumption makes the most difference. It’s much better to consume a little on a daily basis, rather than infrequently, for maximum health benefits.” In other words, saving up for a week’s worth of alcohol for the weekend is “unhealthful, even dangerous and clearly to be avoided,” Hanson concluded.
Looking over his long years of study on the subject, Hanson recalled a conference debating ten studies on which kind of alcohol might be better healthwise. Three cited wine, three cited beer, three cited distilled spirits and one was inconclusive. And then the conferees adjourned to the bar.
Among the positive aspects of alcohol, Hanson points out that it reduces coronary artery spasm in response to stress, increases coronary blood flow, reduces blood pressure and reduces blood insulin levels and increases estrogen levels.
Like other science and medical professionals, he urges moderation, rarely having more than one to three drinks per day. “Unfortunately, there really can be too much of a good thing,” Hanson warned.10