All this talk about beverages is making me thirsty....

We started this class talking about gin street and beer, and now coffee houses....too many beverages!

One thing I wanted to share is some insight into why beer was preferred over gin and seen as a nutritious beverage. My boyfriend and I are homebrewers, and becuase of this I know a lot about this tasty beverage and agree with the 18th century view of it as a wholesome drink.

First of all, the beer we generally think of as beer is not the same beer that they were drinking in England in the 18th Century. American beer is a watered-down, tainted version of beer, often using cheap ingredients that do not provide much more than a hangover. "Real" beer consists of about 99% water and made with whole grains and yeast that provide a lot of nutrients.

Because beer is 99% water and 1% flavor, it is actually a very hydrating. There was an article in a brew magazine last year that was all about beer as a hydrating and nutritious beverage (if I can find the magazine I will put in the citation....) The yeast in beer provides all of the B vitamins and is very good for you. The grain in beer provides small amounts of protein and other vitamins and minerals as well. Hops also have properties that are good for the body and promote health, helping break down unwanted organisms. Because of the caloric content of beer, it also has enough calories to give the body energy necessary to function, and it is easy to break down becuase it is in a simple sugar form. Since most people at this time usually drank ales or stouts which are very high in nutritious content, the beer they were drinking was literally good for them. For instance, a person could reasonably live off a beer like Guiness (a stout for those of you who may not know) becuase it is made with wholesome grains and has a lot of yeast.

This is just a brief overview of the very true health benefits of drinking beer. To us it sounds crazy that they sought this sort of beverage in good health, but they knew what they were doing. Next time you drink a brew, drink it in good health!