Read the full story at Rocky Mountain News


Sep. 28, 2003
Cheers! Beer Has No Link With Belly

London-- This must come as good news to beer guzzlers: there is no link between beer drinking and a beer belly, new research shows.

There's more: women who drink beer tend to weigh less, not more! Research conducted at the University College London reveals that drinking beer does not give you a beer belly.

The research team led by Martin Bobak wanted to settle the question of whether beer led to an increase in weight. There were some studies that supported it while others did not.

Read the full story at Economic Times


Beer Patrol on the Job at Munich Oktoberfest

Drinkers at this year's Munich Oktoberfest are getting better value for money than ever, say inspectors enforcing strict German standards at the world's biggest beer festival.

Up to four two-man inspection teams patrol the 31-hectare Oktoberfest site to conduct snap tests to ensure that so-called "Mass" glasses contain a full litre. The surface of the beer must be no more than 15 millimetres below the litre mark on the glass, otherwise inspectors hand out a formal warning.

Read the full story at ABC News Online


Sep. 24, 2003
Pizza Ordering 'Smart Sofa' Aimed at Couch Potatoes

By Jeordan Legon, CNN-- Serious couch potatoes may soon have sofas that order take-out, turn lights off automatically and tune the TV to their favorite programs, without them ever having to lift a finger.

The "smart sofa" being developed by scientists at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, contains programmable microchip sensors on each leg that determine who's sitting down based on the person's weight.

So far, the sofa can only deliver a personalized greeting to the person who plops down on it, but researcher Mads Haahr says students in his distributed-systems group envision a day when it will do a lot more: switch on household appliances, set the temperature in a room based on an individual's comfort level or even prompt the stereo to play the style of music that whomever is sitting prefers.

Read the full story at CNN.com


Sep. 21, 2003
Oktoberfest Full of Fun and Gemutlichkeit

5.9 Million people visited the Oktoberfest in Munich in 2002 and consumed more than 5.7 Million liters of beer. This year's installment of the world's largest beer festival will take place from September 20th to October 5th - with more fun and gemutlichkeit than ever before (we don't know what gemutlichkeit means... we copy-pasted it from a German site--sounds good though!).

For those of you that don't know the history, we'd be happy to sum it up in one sentence. In 1810 some bier loving German royalty decided to get married (Crown Prince Ludwig and Princess Theresia of Bavaria if you really must know) and it was their very successful 16 day celebration starting in late September and continuing on through October that later became the annual event known as Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany.

Beer drinking Americans tend to celebrate Oktoberfest only when prompted by marketing & advertising by big-label bottlers... and we tend to prefer the "c" spelling variation since we call the tenth month October (except for radio stations who insist on calling it Rocktober).

Brian's Belly Commentary: Now that you know the deal, here are a few Okt... Oct... er, tenth month beers you can get in the United States.

Read the full story at The Bar at Brian's Belly


Sep. 17, 2003
Erotic Beer Ads To Be Regulated, Buxom Models Search For New Careers

SAO PAULO, Brazil (Reuters) - The days of the buxom bikini babes in Brazilian beer ads may be numbered.

A spokesman for Brazil's independent advertising industry regulator Conar said on Tuesday new guidelines which require that ads for alcoholic drinks should "avoid the use of eroticism" will come into force within three months.

Adverts for alcoholic drinks should also only feature people, "who are and seem older than 25 years of age," a move which could prove to be a blow to young models whose careers are frequently launched by an appearance in a bikini to launch one of the nation's brews.

Brian's Belly Commentary: Holy underwear! We'd better move fast... now's the time to pick up Brazilian spokemodel cheap!

Read the full story at Reuters


Sep. 13, 2003
Aussie Women Developing Beer Guts

Women are developing beer guts faster than men but Australian researchers are not sure if the sharp increase in abdominal fat is related to alcohol consumption.

Figures issued yesterday by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare reveal the number of obese people in Australia has blown out to 3.3 million and the number of overweight people has increased to 5.6 million.

Read the full story at The Advertiser


Cheap Beer is Best For A Binge

By Cheryl Wetzstein-- A Harvard University study has confirmed a fact of college life: The availability of cheap beer and other alcoholic beverages near college campuses raises the likelihood of binge drinking.

"The drinking lifestyle is a well-advertised and low-budget form of entertainment on college campuses," said Henry Wechsler, a researcher at the Harvard School of Public Health, which released the study yesterday. "Our study confirms that the lower the prices and the more extensive the specials, the more heavy the drinking," he said.

Read the full story at The Washington Times


Beer Drinking Ghost Spotted in Convenience Store, Scooby Doo and the Gang to Investigate

A Ghostbuster wants permission to investigate claims a beer-swigging poltergeist is stalking a West supermarket, it was revealed yesterday. Staff at the Co-op store in Penzance have been spooked by a mischief-making spirit with a penchant for lager.

Staff say they saw a four-pack of beer fly across an empty aisle.

Read the full story at This is Bath. Found via Fark


Sep. 11, 2003
Food 'Pyramid' Changed to 'Pear Shaped' to More Accurately Reflect Americans

Washington (Reuters)-- The U.S. government on Wednesday moved forward with its plan to refashion its well-known Food Guide Pyramid to help pear-shaped Americans eat less and exercise more.

With two-thirds of Americans either overweight or obese, consumers have largely ignored the government's dietary guidelines and eat too many sweets and fats rather than fruits and vegetables.

"We've got to do something to get a behavioral change," said Eric Hentges, director of U.S. Agriculture Department's Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion. The USDA and the Health and Human Services are responsible for federal nutrition policy.

Brian's Belly Commentary: We hope this time there is a 'barley & hops' group (right above the 'fried Twinkiee' group).

Read the full story at CNN.com


Sep. 10, 2003
Beer Coated CD's Offer Hip Remixes of Your Favorite Songs

ABC News Online-- A Melbourne DJ and scientist has come up with a new way to update CD collections - dip them in beer and let them dry before playing them.

The discovery, known as an "optical biocomputer", is the brainchild of Cameron Jones. Mr Jones is a mathematician with a record of published research and the owner of a nightclub and bar in Melbourne, the journal New Scientist reports.

"I often change CDs when my hands are wet with beer," he said. "One night I must have changed the CDs, touched the data surface, then left them for use on another night."

The following week, he put on a CD by Nine Inch Nails and found that it would not play properly because fungus had grown on it. The fungus had not ruined the disc - the original audio was still there - but it would sometimes change in pitch and there were small staccato noises in the background.

Read the full story at ABC News Online


Freshly Squeezed Budweiser Tastes Best

St. Louis-- When you're plugging a brand that has logged more than a few miles on the marketing circuit, saying something new can be tricky business.

Just ask Anheuser-Busch Cos. about its 127-year-old stalwart, Budweiser. Over the last decade alone, the St. Louis-based brewery has given us scheming lizards, fighting robots, moms with big butts and plenty of stupid men.

But beginning this year and stretching into next, Anheuser-Busch will throw much of its marketing might behind this premise: Budweiser is the freshest beer in the country and therefore tastes the best.

That's a pretty lofty pitch, one that any beermaker would make. But unlike its competitors, Anheuser-Busch can back up its "Think Fresh, Drink Fresh" campaign. The company's 12 breweries and 700 wholesalers make, deliver and replenish beer faster than anyone in the business.

Read the full story at Bradenton.com


Sep. 06, 2003
Sam Adams Utopias Extreme Beer: Only $100 Bucks A Bottle

By J. Freedom du Lac-- Jim Koch is a sixth-generation brewmaster and founder of the Boston Beer Co., the New England brewery best known for Samuel Adams Boston Lager.

Lately, though, Koch has been most excited about another product: Samuel Adams Utopias, a collectible, limited-edition "extreme beer" that comes in at 25 percent alcohol by volume -- more than five times the figure for Sam Adams Boston Lager.

According to the company, Utopias is the strongest beer ever sold, anywhere.

Still, 25 is not the most notable number associated with Utopias. Instead, it's 100 -- the suggested retail price (in U.S. dollars) for the novelty beverage, of which a mere 8,500 24-ounce bottles were produced.

Read the full story at The Sacramento Bee


Low Carb Suds For Canada

By Raja Mudhar-- Beer lovers tired of taking it in the gut have a new option at their local Beer Store. And while the new brew might not be any healthier than other brand on the shelves, it promises fewer calories and drastically reduced carbohydrates.

"These days, that's exactly what people want — they want to have their cake and eat it too," John Sleeman, chairman and CEO of Sleeman Breweries, said yesterday as he introduced Sleeman Clear.

The company is hoping to cash in on the runaway success of low-carbohydrate diets, of which the best known is the Atkins diet, which stresses high protein and few carbohydrates.

Sleeman Clear, with 4 per cent alcohol, comes in at 90 calories, and only 2.5 grams of carbohydrates.

Brian's Belly Commentary: The great taste of Mich Ultra with the opacity of Zima!

Read the full story at TheStar.com


Sep. 01, 2003
September is National Chicken Month!

Brian's Belly-- According to PoultryAndEggNews.com (an actual website), September is National Chicken Month. National Chicken Month, or "ChickMo" as we call it here at headquarters, was invented by the National Chicken Council and the U.S. Poultry & Egg Association (the other USPEA). They claim that Americans currently consume about 81 pounds of chicken per person, per year. Apparently, this is not enough for them, so they've gone and kicked it up a notch by giving chickens a month to celebrate their bountiful breasts and Buffalo wings. Come on people... you can do 90 pounds each this year. Just keep those adorable Chick-fil-A cows in mind... you know, the ones that urge you to "Eat Mor Chikin."

What came first... the chicken or the scrambled eggs? If you're still excited about the ChickMo news, then you'd better sit down for this. September is also American Breakfast Month! That's right, here in America we have nothing better to do than claim days, weeks and months for national celebration. And you don't even have to fill out a form! Buy your Hallmark cards in advance for National Pancake Day, which is September 26... and just like Dave Barry, we SWEAR we are not making any of this up.

September is a great time to be an American. But just wait until October... when it's National Brian's Belly Month.

Read the full story at Brian's Belly