SPIRITED AWAY
ALL ABOUT ALCOHOL
Alcohol is derived from the Arabic al kohl, meaning “the essence.”
Alcohol beverages have been produced for at least 12,000 years. The consumption of alcohol was so widespread throughout history that it has been called “a universal language.”
To determine the percentage of alcohol in a bottle of liquor, divide the proof by two.
The strongest that any alcohol beverage can be is 190 proof (or 95 percent alcohol). At a higher proof, the beverage draws moisture from the air and self-dilutes.
The alcohol in drinks of either low alcohol content (below 15 percent) or high alcohol content (over 30 percent) tend to be absorbed into the body more slowly.
It’s impossible to create a beverage of more than 18 percent alcohol by fermentation alone.
Methyphobia is fear of alcohol.
Most vegetable and virtually all fruit juices contain alcohol.
Temperance activists, who strongly opposed the consumption of alcohol, typically consumed patent medicines that, just like whiskey, generally contained 40 percent alcohol.
Some studies suggest that drinking alcohol in moderation reduces the risk of heart disease by an average of about 40 percent.
Research evidence from around the world generally shows that countries with higher alcohol consumption have fewer drinking problems than those countries where consumption is relatively low.
Studying the experimentally induced intoxicated behavior of ants in 1888, naturalist John Lubbock noticed that insects that had too much to drink were picked up by nest mates and carried home. Conversely, drunken stranger ants were summarily tossed in a ditch.
Contrary to a common misconception, alcohol does not destroy brain cells. In fact, the moderate consumption of alcohol is often associated with improved cognitive functioning. One can limit the effect of alcohol by eating and by not consuming more than one drink per hour. High-protein foods such as cheese and peanuts help slow the absorption of alcohol into the body.
All 13 minerals necessary for human life can be found in alcohol beverages.
Alcohol consumption decreases during the time of the full moon.
Drinking alcohol lowers rather than raises the body’s temperature.
There is a cloud of alcohol in outer space with enough alcohol to make 4 trillion trillion drinks. It’s free for the taking—but it’s 10,000 light-years away from Earth.
Regardless of sex, age, or weight, it takes one hour for .015 percent of blood alcohol content to leave the body. It takes 10 hours for a person with a blood alcohol content of 0.15 percent to become completely sober. Giving a drunk person coffee will merely produce a wide-awake drunk.
Every person produces alcohol normally in the body 24 hours each and every day from birth until death.
A Chinese imperial edict of about 1116 BC asserted that the use of alcohol in moderation was required by heaven.
To the pre-Christian Anglo-Saxons, heaven was not a place to play harps, but a place to visit with other departed souls and enjoy alcohol beverages.
The word “symposium” originally referred to a gathering of men in ancient Greece for an evening of conversation and drinking.
According to the Gospels, Jesus drank alcohol (Matthew 15:11; Luke 7:33-35) and approved of its moderate consumption (Matthew 15:11 ). Saint Paul considered alcohol to be a creation of God and inherently good (1 Timothy 4:4). The early Church declared that alcohol was an inherently good gift of God to be used and enjoyed. While individuals might choose not to drink, to despise alcohol was heresy.
During the Middle Ages it was mainly the monasteries that maintained the knowledge and skills necessary to produce good-quality alcohol beverages.
Distillation was developed during the Middle Ages, and the resulting alcohol was called aqua vitae or “water of life.”
The adulteration of alcohol beverages was punishable by death in medieval Scotland.
Drinking liqueurs was required at all treaty signings during the Middle Ages.
An 18-year study by the National Institute on Aging found that men age 50 and older who consumed a drink a day during middle age scored significantly better on cognitive tests later in life than nondrinkers did.
Each molecule of alcohol is less than a billionth of a meter long and consists of a few atoms of oxygen, carbon, and hydrogen.
The alcohol content of the typical bottle of beer, glass of wine, and mixed drink are equivalent.
One glass of milk can give a person a .02 blood alcohol concentration on a Breathalyzer test, enough in some states for persons under the legal drinking age to lose their driver’s license or be fined.
Fermentation within the body is essential for human life to exist. Fermentation is involved in the production of many foods, including bread (bread “rises” as it ferments), sauerkraut, coffee, black tea, cheese, yogurt, buttermilk, pickles, cottage cheese, chocolate, vanilla, ginger, ketchup, mustard, soy sauce, and many more.
BEERFEST
There are 27 different styles of beer, and 49 substyles.
Germany produces more than 5,000 varieties of beer and has about 1,300 breweries.
Beck’s is not only Germany’s top export beer, it also accounts for 85 percent of all German beer exports to the United States.
There are 19 different versions of Guinness.
The bubbles in Guinness beer sink to the bottom rather than float to the top as in other beers.
In Welsh, the word for beer is cwrw, pronounced “koo-roo.”
According to a journal entry from 1636, farm workers in the colony of Quebec not only received an allowance of flour, lard, oil, vinegar, and codfish, but were also given “a chopine of cider a day or a quart of beer.”
For beer commercials, liquid detergent is added to the beer to make it foam more.
Bottle caps, or “crowns,” were invented in Baltimore in 1892 by William Painter. Painter proved his invention’s worth when he convinced a local brewer to ship a few hundred cases of beer to South America and back, and they returned without a leak.
Unlike wines, most beers should be stored upright to minimize oxidation and metal or plastic contamination from the cap. High-alcohol ales, however, which continue to ferment in their corked bottles, should be stored on their sides.
The familiar Bass symbol, a red triangle, was registered in 1876 and is the world’s oldest trademark.
Pennsylvania has had more breweries in its history than any other state. In 1910 alone, 119 of the state’s towns had at least one licensed beer maker.
Beer-advertising matchbook covers have become sought-after collectibles on Internet auction sites. A 1916 matchbook promoting Brehm’s Brewery in Baltimore sold for $43, while a 1930s cover promoting Eastside Beer from Los Angeles went for $36.
Beer and video games have a long association. Tap-per, originally a 1983 arcade game and now a computer one, tests players’ skills by challenging them to coordinate the movements of beers, a bartender, empty mugs, and patrons.
Nine people were killed and two houses destroyed on October 17, 1814, when a brewery tank containing 3,500 barrels of beer ruptured and created a giant wave.
According to a diary entry from a passenger on the Mayflower, the pilgrims made their landing at Plymouth Rock rather than continuing to their destination in Virginia due to a lack of beer.
The first canned beer was created on January 24, 1935. It was called Kruger Cream Ale and was sold by the Kruger Brewing Company of Richmond, Virginia.
The world’s oldest known recipe is for beer.
In the United States, a barrel contains 31 gallons of beer.
Americans spend approximately $25 billion each year on beer.
In 1788, ale was proclaimed “the proper drink for Americans” at a parade in New York City.
George Washington had his own brewery on the grounds of Mount Vernon.
After consuming a bucket or two of vibrant brew they called aul, or ale, the Vikings would head fearlessly into battle, often without armor or even shirts. In fact, “berserk” means “bare shirt” in Norse, and eventually took on the meaning of their wild battles.
Twelve ounces of a typical American pale lager actually has fewer calories than the same serving of 2 percent milk or apple juice.
Vassar College was established and funded by a brewer.
Beer is believed to have been a staple before bread. In ancient Egypt, “bread and beer” was a common greeting. Early Egyptian writings urged mothers to send their children to school with plenty of bread and beer for their lunch.
Every year, Bavarians and their guests drink 1.2 million gallons of beer during Oktoberfest. The first Oktoberfest was in 1810 and celebrated the marriage of King Ludwig I of Bavaria. Despite the month implied by its name, the 16-day Oktoberfest actually begins in mid-September and ends on the first Sunday in October.
Early recipes for beer included such ingredients as poppy seeds, mushrooms, aromatics, honey, sugar, bay leaves, butter, and breadcrumbs.
British men are twice as likely to know the price of beer as their partner’s bra size. A poll by Prima magazine found that 77 percent of males knew how much their beer cost, but only 38 percent knew the correct size of their partner’s bra.
A labeorphilist is a collector of beer bottles.
One brand of Chinese beer reportedly includes in its recipe “ground-up dog parts.”
In Bangladesh, $5 will buy a beer . . . or a first-class train ticket for a cross-country trip.
BREW BELIEFSIf a young Tiriki man offers beer to a woman and she spits some of it into his mouth, they are engaged to be married.
Among the Bagonda people of Uganda, the widows of a recently deceased king have the distinctive honor of drinking the beer in which his entrails have been cleaned.
The Chagga people of Tanzania believe that a liar will be poisoned if he or she consumes beer mixed with the blood of a recently sacrificed goat.
Beer is mixed with saliva and blood for a drink that is shared when two men of the Chagga tribe become blood brothers.
Some people in Malaysia wash their babies in beer to protect them from diseases.
In ancient Babylon, women brewers also assumed the role of temple priestesses. The Goddess Siris was the patron of beer.
BOTTOMS UP
Distilled spirits (whiskey, brandy, rum, tequila, gin, etc.) contain no carbohydrates, no fats of any kind, and no cholesterol.
“White lightning” is a name for illegally distilled spirits. All spirits are clear or “white” until aged in charred oak barrels.
It is estimated that the United States government takes in 14 times more in taxes on distilled spirits than producers of the products earn making them. That does not include what states and localities additionally take in taxes on the same products.
“Whiskey” is the international aviation word used to represent the letter W. Whiskey and whisky both refer to alcohol distilled from grain. Whiskey is the usual American spelling, especially for beverages distilled in the United States and Ireland. Whisky is the spelling for Canadian and Scotch distilled beverages.
Scotch whisky’s distinctive smoky flavor comes from drying malted barley over peat fires.
Rye was the first distinctly American whiskey. It is distilled from a combination of corn, barley malt, and at least 51 percent rye.
The highest price ever paid for distilled spirits at auction was $79,552 for a 50-year-old bottle of Glenfiddich whisky in 1992.
Bourbon is the official spirit of the United States, by act of Congress. Bourbon takes its name from Bourbon County in Kentucky, where it was first produced in 1789 by a Baptist minister, although Bourbon County no longer produces bourbon.
Gin is spirit alcohol flavored from juniper berries. First made by the Dutch, it was called junever, the Dutch word for juniper. The French called it genievre, which the English changed to geneva and then modified to gin.
Gin is a mild diuretic, which helps the body get rid of excessive fluid. Thus it can reduce problems such as menstrual bloating. In the nineteenth century, people believed that gin could cure stomach problems. Gin and tonic is still thought to help relieve cramps.
Sloe gin is not gin at all but a liqueur made with sloe berries (blackthorn bush berries).
Vodka (“little water”) is the Russian name for grain spirits without flavor added.
The most popular gift in Eastern Europe is a bottle of vodka.
Vodka has been the largest-selling distilled spirit in the United States for over 25 years, and one of every four alcohol drinks consumed in the world is vodka or vodka-based.
“Brandy” is from the Dutch brandewijn, meaning burned (or distilled) wine.
In the seventeenth century, thermometers were filled with brandy instead of mercury.
In the nineteenth century, rum was considered excellent for cleaning hair and keeping it healthy. Brandy was believed to strengthen hair roots.
Rum was issued daily to every sailor in the British navy from 1651 until 1970.
L’Esprit de Courvoisier, a cognac made from brandies distilled between 1802 and 1931, sells for around $150 a shot.
The letters VVSOP on a cognac bottle stand for Very Very Superior Old Pale.
The words “cordial” and “liqueur” are synonymous and refer to liquors made of sweetened spirits flavored with fruits, flowers, roots, or other organic materials.
The Asian cordial koumiss is made of fermented cow’s milk.
Kinpaku-iri sake contains flakes of real gold. While this adds a touch of extravagance, it doesn’t affect the flavor at all.
Shochu, a beverage distilled from barley, was the favorite beverage of the world’s longest-living man, Shigechiyo Izumi of Japan, who reportedly lived for 120 years and 237 days.
Colonial New Englanders often put barrels of hard cider outdoors in cold weather, then removed the ice to increase the alcohol content of the remaining beverage.
Mead is a beverage made of a fermented honey and water mixture.
Tequila is made from the root of the blue agave cactus.
There is no worm in tequila. It’s in mezcal, a spirit beverage distilled from a different plant. And it’s not actually a worm, but a moth caterpillar (Hipopta agavis). When the worm is included, the drink is known as con gusano, or “with worm.”
COCKTALES
Writer H. L. Mencken determined that 17,864,392,788 different cocktails could be made from the ingredients in a well-stocked bar.
Although the origins of the martini are obscure, it likely actually began as a sweet drink.
Adding a miniature onion to a martini turns it into a Gibson.
A tequini is a martini made with tequila instead of dry gin.
In a martini competition in Chicago, the winner was a martini made with an anchovy-stuffed olive that was served in a glass that had been rinsed with Cointreau liqueur.
A mixed drink containing a carbonated beverage is absorbed into the body more quickly than straight shots are.
A popular drink during the Middle Ages to soothe those who were sick and heal them was called a caudle. It was an alcohol drink containing eggs, bread, sugar, and spices.
The Manhattan cocktail (whiskey and sweet vermouth) was invented by Winston Churchill’s mother.
Mai Tai means “out of this world” in Tahitian.
“Cocktails for Hitler” weren’t drinks at all. During World War II, distillers shifted all production to industrial alcohol for the war effort. Hence, they were making “cocktails for Hitler.”
The mint julep was once a very popular everyday drink, the Coca-Cola of its time.
WINE AND DINE
The wine district of the Napa Valley has replaced Dis neyland as California’s number one tourist destination, with 5.5 million visitors per year.
The California grape and wine industries were largely started by Count Agoston Haraszthy de Moksa, who planted Tokay, Zinfandel, and Shiraz varieties from his native Hungary in Buena Vista in 1857.
The largest cork tree in the world is in Portugal. It averages over one ton of raw cork per harvest, enough to cork 100,000 bottles.
The soil of one famous vineyard in France is considered so precious that vineyard workers are required to scrape it from their shoes before they leave for home each night.
In Utah, it is illegal to swallow wine served at tastings.
“Fat Bastard Chardonnay” is a French wine label.
British wine is different from English wine. British wine is made from imported grapes; English wine is not.
The vintage date on a bottle of wine indicates the year the grapes were picked, not the year of bottling.
Foot-treading of grapes is still used in producing a small quantity of the best port wines.
Vintage port can take 40 years to reach maturity.
A trokenbeerenauslese is a type of German wine made from vine-dried grapes that are so rare, it can take a skilled picker a day to gather enough for just one bottle.
Christopher Columbus introduced sherry to the New World.
During the winter months, the Romans of the Mosel wine region would drink their wine hot, like a tea.
No government health warning is permitted on wine imported into any country in the European Union.
One of every five glasses of wine consumed in the world is sake.
“Muscatel” means “wine with flies in it” in Italian.
Poor soil tends to produce better wines.
White wine is usually produced from red grapes.
Most wines do not improve with age.
As late as the mid-seventeenth century, French winemakers did not use corks. Instead, they used oil-soaked rags stuffed into the necks of bottles.
Wine has about the same number of calories as an equal amount of grape juice.
White wine gets darker as it ages while red wine gets lighter.
The corkscrew was invented in 1860.
Most European grapevines are planted on American grape rootstock.
French chemist Louis Pasteur, best known for creating the pasteurization process and the first rabies vaccine, owned a vineyard in the Jura wine region that is still producing wine today.
The indentation at the bottom of some wine bottles is called a kick or a punt. The purpose of the indentation is not for the wine waiter to put his fingers, but to strengthen the structure of the bottle.
During World War II, a group of alpine soldiers who were stranded in mountain snows survived for an entire month on one cask of sherry.
It takes an average number of 600 grapes to make a bottle of wine.
An award-winning adaptation of Little Red Riding Hood was withdrawn from a recommended reading list by the school board in Culver City, California, simply because the heroine had included a bottle of wine in the basket she brought to her grandmother.
Vermouth is a white appetizer wine flavored with up to 40 to 50 different berries, herbs, roots, seeds, and flowers, and takes about a year to make.
The Romans drank a wine containing seawater, pitch, rosin, and turpentine.
The Lombardy wine region of Franciacorta produces a style of sparkling wine that is more bubbly than frizzante but has less carbon dioxide than most sparkling wines.
The entire production of kosher wine, including cultivation of the grapes, must be performed by Sabbath-observant Jews, and it remains kosher only if opened and poured by an orthodox Jew.
A BIT OF THE BUBBLYThe shallow champagne glass originated with Marie Antoinette. It was first formed from wax molds made of her breasts.
Champagne is bottled in eight sizes: bottle, magnum (2 bottles), jeroboam (4 bottles), rehoboam (6 bottles), Methuselah (8 bottles), Salamanca (12 bottles), Balthazar (16 bottles), and Nebuchadnezzar (20 bottles).
A raisin dropped in a glass of fresh champagne will bounce up and down continually from the bottom of the glass to the top.
The longest recorded champagne cork flight was 177 feet and 9 inches, 4 feet from level ground, at Woodbury Vineyards in New York State.
There are an estimated 49 million bubbles in a bottle of champagne. Bubbles were seen by early winemakers as a highly undesirable defect to be prevented.
The pressure in a bottle of champagne is about 90 pounds per square inch. That’s about three times the pressure in car tires.
A NATIONAL PASTIME
The United States has the highest minimum drinking age in the entire world.
The Mayflower ordinarily transported alcohol between Spain and England.
More than half of the hospitals in the largest 65 metropolitan areas in the United States have reported that they offer an alcohol beverage service to their patients.
Of Texas’s 254 counties, 79 are still completely dry seven decades after the repeal of Prohibition. Many of the remaining counties are “moist,” or partially dry. The county in Texas with the highest DWI arrests among young drivers is dry.
In 1926, Montana became the first state to repeal its enforcement of Prohibition.
Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected president in 1932 on a pledge to end national Prohibition.
Rhode Island never ratified the Eighteenth Amendment establishing Prohibition.
There are 83 dry towns and villages in Alaska.
The longest bar in the world is 684 feet long and is located at the New Bulldog in Rock Island, Illinois.
The space in the New York City building that once housed the National Temperance Society is now a bar.
The founder of MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) resigned after it became increasingly anti-alcohol rather than simply anti-drunk driving.
The Marines’ first recruiting station was in a bar.
First Lady Martha Washington enjoyed daily toddies.
Tom Arnold, Sandra Bullock, Chevy Chase, Bill Cosby, Kris Kristofferson, and Bruce Willis are all former bartenders.
President Lincoln, when informed that General Grant drank whiskey while leading his troops, reportedly replied, “Find out the name of the brand so I can give it to my other generals.” He also once stated, “It has long been recognized that the problems with alcohol relate not to the use of a bad thing, but to the abuse of a good thing.”
The bill for a celebration party for the 55 drafters of the U.S. Constitution was for 54 bottles of Madeira, 60 bottles of claret, 8 bottles of whiskey, 22 bottles of port, 8 bottles of hard cider, 12 beers, and 7 bowls of alcohol punch large enough that “ducks could swim in them.”
The national anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner,” was written to the tune of a British drinking song.
Liquor stores in the United States are called “package stores” and sell “package goods” because of laws requiring that alcohol containers be concealed in public by being placed in paper bags or “packages.” The word “liquor” is prohibited on storefronts in some states.
The term “brand name” originated among American distillers, who branded their names and emblems on their kegs before shipment.
The region of the United States that consumes the least alcohol (commonly known as the “Bible belt”) is also known by many doctors as Stroke Alley.
In West Virginia, bars can advertise alcohol beverage prices, but not brand names.
President Thomas Jefferson was the nation’s first wine expert.
In Utah it’s illegal to advertise drink prices and alcohol brands, to show a “drinking scene,” to promote happy hour, to advertise free food, or for restaurants to furnish alcohol beverage lists unless a customer specifically requests one.
A Florida man who was arrested for drunk driving was found innocent of the charge when he proved before a jury that the alcohol officers had smelled on his breath was from the mixture of rubbing alcohol and gasoline that he had just used in his performance as a professional fire-breather.
Men in the United States who drink alcohol receive about 7 percent higher wages than do abstainers, according to data from the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse. Women who drink receive about 3.5 percent higher wages than do abstainers.
William Sokolin paid $519,750 for a bottle of 1787 vintage wine that supposedly had been owned by President Thomas Jefferson, then later accidentally knocked it over, breaking it and spilling the precious contents on the floor.
Of all the countries who had armies stationed in Bosnia, only the United States forbade its soldiers from consuming alcohol.
In Pennsylvania, the tax on wine and spirits is called the Johnstown Flood tax because it was imposed in 1936 to raise funds to help the city recover from a devastating flood. The city was quickly rebuilt, but the tax continues, costing state taxpayers over $160 million each year.
Johnny Appleseed probably distributed apple seeds across the American frontier so that people could make fermented apple juice (hard cider) rather than eat apples.
SPIRITS IN SOCIETY
The top 10 alcohol-consuming countries are Portugal, Luxembourg, France, Hungary, Spain, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.
In Europe and North America, lower-status people tend to prefer beer whereas upper-status people tend to prefer wine and distilled spirits. In Latin America and Africa, lower-class people tend to drink home-brew, middle-class people bottled beer, and upper-class people distilled spirits.
Drinking chocolate mixed with beverage alcohol was fashionable at European social events in the seventeenth century.
Alcohol is considered the only proper payment for teachers among the Lepcha people of Tibet.
The Uape Indians of the Upper Amazon in Brazil mix the ashes of their cremated dead with casiri, the local alcohol beverage. The deceased’s family then drink the beverage with great reverence and fond memories.
The Aztecs of Mexico used a “rabbit scale” to describe degrees of intoxication. It ranged from very mild intoxication (a few rabbits) to heavy drunkenness (400 rabbits).
Vikings used the skulls of their enemies as drinking vessels.
Chicha, an alcohol beverage that has been made for thousands of years in Central and South America, begins with people chewing grain and spitting into a vat. An enzyme in the saliva changes starch in the grain to sugar, which then ferments.
McDonald’s restaurants in some European countries serve alcohol because otherwise parents would be less willing to take their children to them.
In 2003, thousands of waxwing birds in Sweden became intoxicated by gorging on fermenting rowan-berries. About 50 lost their lives by flying into nearby windows.
There is one bar in Paris that serves only bottled and canned water.
In English pubs, ale is ordered by pints and quarts. In old England when customers got unruly, the bartender would yell at them to mind their own pints and quarts and settle down. This is where we get the phrase “Mind your Ps and Qs.”
Many years ago in England, pub-goers had a whistle baked into the rim or handle of their ceramic cups. When they needed a refill, they used the whistle to get some service, which inspired the phrase “Wet your whistle.”
In Queensland, Australia, it is still constitutional law that all pubs must have a railing outside for patrons to tie up their horses.
Adolf Hitler was one of the world’s best-known teeto talers, while his counterpart Sir Winston Churchill was one of the world’s best-known heavy drinkers.
In Bavaria, beer isn’t considered an alcoholic drink, but rather a staple food.
The word “toast,” meaning a wish of good health, started in ancient Rome, where a piece of toasted bread was dropped into wine.
Do you like isyammitilka or ksikonewiw? Those are the words for alcohol beverages among the Alabama and the Maliseet-Passamaquoddy tribes of American Indians.
In Malaysia, drunk drivers are jailed and so are their spouses.
In some countries the penalty for driving while intoxicated can be death.
In Uruguay, intoxication is a legal excuse for having an accident while driving.
Among the Abipone people of Paraguay, individuals who abstain from alcohol are thought to be “cowardly, degenerate, and stupid.”
Outfitting his ship to sail around the world in 1519, Magellan spent more on sherry than on weapons.
Frederick the Great of Prussia tried to ban the consumption of coffee and demanded that the populace drink alcohol instead.
The Soviet Bolsheviks imposed national prohibition following the Russian revolution.
During the reign of William III, a garden fountain was once used as a giant punch bowl. The punch recipe included 560 gallons of brandy, 1,200 pounds of sugar, 25,000 lemons, 20 gallons of lime juice, and 5 pounds of nutmeg. The bartender rowed around in a small boat, filling up guests’ punch cups.
I Love Lucy star Desi Arnaz’s grandfather was one of the founders of the largest rum distillery in the world.