Beer-articles 571

“`html

JD Vance is making headlines for a variety of unanticipated reasons this week — accused of both making love to a literal couch and searching online for sex-specific dolphin content. And the hits keep coming.

Amidst rumblings that Donald Trump is perhaps regretting choosing Vance as his running mate — now that Biden has made way for a stronger match with whomever the presumptive Democratic nominee, Kamala Harris, taps to join at her side in any upcoming debates — Vance’s background is being heavily researched, and much of it is being served up as easy “not this guy” fodder.

The latest in a string of derogatory Vance content is a resurfaced clip from a 2023 event, in which Trump’s #2 is shown referring to Jacob Chansley, AKA the Jan. 6  “QAnon Shaman,” as a “fun guy” who got a bad rap for his participation in the Capitol riot.

“This guy who was sentenced to four years in prison for literally walking around in the Capitol . . . We were taught it was a crazy guy with, like, the bullhorns, you know what I’m talking about? He looked like he’d be a fun guy to have a beer with, right? The Q shaman, that’s what they called this guy,” Vance says in the clip, which can be seen below.

“`

Chansley pleaded guilty to obstructing Congress during the insurrection and was ultimately sentenced to 41 months in prison. He was granted early release from federal prison in March 2023 and transferred to a halfway house in Arizona to serve until his release on May 25, 2023.

JD Vance weighs in on famous Jan 6 participant “The QAnon Shaman” in a 2023 speech:

“He looked like he’d be a fun guy to have a beer with,” should’ve gotten a lighter prison sentence. pic.twitter.com/fT8s183Vxx

— Will Sommer (@willsommer) July 26, 2024

July 25, 2024Chris Crowell

Beer is the vibe of summer 2024, confirmed. New Morning Consult research conducted on behalf of the Beer Institute shows that two-thirds of Americans (66%) opted for beer in the past three months, exceeding wine (54%), liquor (50%) and cocktails (43%).

“Summer in America wouldn’t be complete without a cold, crisp beer in hand, whether you’re enjoying the beach, firing up the grill, or cheering on your favorite team,” said Brian Crawford, president and CEO of the Beer Institute. “Beer is more than just a beverage—it’s woven into the fabric of our culture and brings Americans together. With 40% of beer sales happening between Memorial Day and Labor Day, we know beer is bringing family and friends together throughout the summer to enjoy beer responsibly.”

The poll was conducted online, June 11-12, 2024, among a sample of 2,087 adults aged 21 or older.

But what kind of beer? Here are some other insights from the Beer Institute polling on how Americans are enjoying beer this summer:

FYI: These beer drinkers also see the beer industry as a driving force in the American economy. Respondents report that the beer industry benefits the U.S. job market (79%), is supportive of American farmers and agriculture (65%) and is committed to responsible drinking initiatives (63%).

And, they are correct. The U.S. beer industry contributes more than $409 billion to our economy – equivalent to 1.6% of GDP. The beer industry pays more than $132 billion in wages and $63.8 billion in taxes. Nearly 2.4 million American jobs rely on a strong beer industry, including 92,159 brewer and beer importer jobs, 77,847 manufacturing jobs, 137,420 distribution jobs, 52,220 agricultural jobs and 979,805 retail jobs.

So, wherever and whenever you’re tipping back that crisp lager, you’re supporting America. Good job, everyone! USA! USA!

Benj Edwards

– Jul 24, 2024 10:12 pm UTC

In June, Runway debuted a new text-to-video synthesis model called Gen-3 Alpha. It converts written descriptions called “prompts” into HD video clips without sound. We’ve since had a chance to use it and wanted to share our results. Our tests show that careful prompting isn’t as important as matching concepts likely found in the training data, and that achieving amusing results likely requires many generations and selective cherry-picking.

An enduring theme of all generative AI models we’ve seen since 2022 is that they can be excellent at mixing concepts found in training data but are typically very poor at generalizing (applying learned “knowledge” to new situations the model has not explicitly been trained on). That means they can excel at stylistic and thematic novelty but struggle at fundamental structural novelty that goes beyond the training data.

What does all that mean? In the case of Runway Gen-3, lack of generalization means you might ask for a sailing ship in a swirling cup of coffee, and provided that Gen-3’s training data includes video examples of sailing ships and swirling coffee, that’s an “easy” novel combination for the model to make fairly convincingly. But if you ask for a cat drinking a can of beer (in a beer commercial), it will generally fail because there aren’t likely many videos of photorealistic cats drinking human beverages in the training data. Instead, the model will pull from what it has learned about videos of cats and videos of beer commercials and combine them. The result is a cat with human hands pounding back a brewsky.

During the Gen-3 Alpha testing phase, we signed up for Runway’s Standard plan, which provides 625 credits for $15 a month, plus some bonus free trial credits. Each generation costs 10 credits per one second of video, and we created 10-second videos for 100 credits a piece. So the quantity of generations we could make were limited.

We first tried a few standards from our image synthesis tests in the past, like cats drinking beer, barbarians with CRT TV sets, and queens of the universe. We also dipped into Ars Technica lore with the “moonshark,” our mascot. You’ll see all those results and more below.

We had so few credits that we couldn’t afford to rerun them and cherry-pick, so what you see for each prompt is exactly the single generation we received from Runway.

“A highly-intelligent person reading “Ars Technica” on their computer when the screen explodes”

“commercial for a new flaming cheeseburger from McDonald’s”

“The moonshark jumping out of a computer screen and attacking a person”

“A cat in a car drinking a can of beer, beer commercial”

Will Smith eating spaghetti triggered a filter, so we tried a black man eating spaghetti. (Watch until the end.)

“Robotic humanoid animals with vaudeville costumes roam the streets collecting protection money in tokens”

“A basketball player in a haunted passenger train car with a basketball court, and he is playing against a team of ghosts”

“A herd of one million cats running on a hillside, aerial view”

“Video game footage of a dynamic 1990s third-person 3D platform game starring an anthropomorphic shark boy”

A little less than a week after WWE legend Hulk Hogan tore his shirt off in honor of former President Donald Trump and earned a rousing chant of “U-S-A” at the Republican National Convention, he’s bringing his “Real American Beer” to Michigan.

Hogan, whose real name is Terry Bollea, launched the American-style light lager earlier this month and plans to appear in metro Detroit this week as part of the beer’s rollout.

“If the Great Lakes State is anything like what we experienced last week in Missouri, Michigan better get ready brother,” Hogan said in a news release announcing the plan.

Hogan is expected to make an appearance at all 11 events scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday, said Kameron Baetge, a public relations representative for Real American Beer.

The Wednesday stops, as released by the beer team, are at:

The Thursday stops are at:

The beer is 4.2% ABV and is described as having a light body and crisp, clean finish while using 100% North American ingredients.

The best pilsners of 2024 came in a variety of sub-categories.

The best pilsners in various sub-categories were announced by The U.S. Open Beer Championship in early July. The Ohio-based beer festival is one of the most prestigious in the world and along with the World Beer Cup and The Great American Beer Festival, is one of the big three beer festivals in the U.S.

This year judges tasted more than 9,000 beers across 170 styles submitted from breweries across the U.S. and globe. Though the competition gets the majority of its submissions from the U.S., it has also seen beers submitted from countries in Asia, Europe, Africa and elsewhere.

The competition was founded by brewer Dow Scoggins in 2009 and Scoggins recently told me the festival has always prided itself in the diversity of the categories it judges. You can see that when it comes to pilsners. The festival has five pilsner categories and a sixth category that can go either to a lager or pilsner (pilsners are a type of lager so although all pilsners are lagers, not all lagers are pilsners).

This year many major beer festivals have seen an uptick in pilsner submissions reflecting growing interest in the category from consumers. Many brewers I speak to have long preferred the subtle yet complex pilsner category to the more in-your-face IPA category which had come to dominate beer sales. In part because of this, these days pilsners are starting to take some market share from IPAs, though they are not yet as popular.

The pilsners below were all gold medal winners at this year’s U.S. Open Beer Championship, meaning they were deemed the best of the best by the festival’s panel of judges.

This popular Denver brewery with several locations is no stranger to success with several previous medals from prestigious beer competitions to its name. These include a 2024 bronze medal from the World Beer Cup for a beer called Smooth Exportations, a German-Style Oktoberfest. Here it took home the top prize in this competitive light and crisp lager category.

This brewery Czechs all the marks (get it?) for lovers of Czech/Bohemian pilsners with Czech Republic ingredients including the quintessential pilsner Saaz hop. Per the brewery, this beer has “a slight honey-like sweetness and toasted cracker flavor from the lightly kilned malt and a wonderfully spicy, herbal, and floral hop aroma.”

Only a true pill wouldn’t like this pils from Riverlands Brewing Co. that is made with German pilsner yeast and a mix of American Sterling hops and German Saphir hops. The brewery’s tasting notes say this beer features “a beautiful blend of floral, spice, lemongrass, and citrus hop flavors,” and “a pleasant bitterness.”

This gets the gold medal from me for best name on this list, which is all the more impressive because the brewery that released it, Taproom Beer Co., doesn’t exactly earn creativity points for its name. Getting back to this beer, it’s made with a new experimental hop called HRC-003 from the Hop Research Council and per the brewery “boasts [a] bouquet of tropical, stonefruit, and berry qualities.”

The latest award-winning brew from this critically acclaimed brewhouse and movie theater is named for the nickname given to the main character in the iconic Rocky franchise. Not only is this beer and many others from the San Antonio beer award-winning, I’m betting it pairs well with popcorn.

One Community. Many Voices. Create a free account to share your thoughts.

Our community is about connecting people through open and thoughtful conversations. We want our readers to share their views and exchange ideas and facts in a safe space.

In order to do so, please follow the posting rules in our site’s Terms of Service. We’ve summarized some of those key rules below. Simply put, keep it civil.

Your post will be rejected if we notice that it seems to contain:

User accounts will be blocked if we notice or believe that users are engaged in:

So, how can you be a power user?

Thanks for reading our community guidelines. Please read the full list of posting rules found in our site’s Terms of Service.

The best pilsners of 2024 came in a variety of sub-categories.

The world’s best pilsners in various sub-categories were announced by The U.S. Open Beer Championship in early July. The Ohio-based beer festival is one of the most prestigious in the world, and along with the World Beer Cup and The Great American Beer Festival, it is one of the big three beer festivals in the U.S.

The competition was founded by brewer Dow Scoggins in 2009. Scoggins recently mentioned that the festival has always prided itself on the diversity of the categories it judges. This is evident in the pilsner categories. The festival has five pilsner categories and a sixth category that can go either to a lager or pilsner (pilsners are a type of lager so although all pilsners are lagers, not all lagers are pilsners).

This year, many major beer festivals have seen an uptick in pilsner submissions, reflecting growing interest in the category from consumers. Many brewers I have spoken to have long preferred the subtle yet complex pilsner category over the more in-your-face IPA category, which had come to dominate beer sales. Due to this preference, pilsners are starting to take some market share from IPAs, though they are not yet as popular.

The pilsners below were all gold medal winners at this year’s U.S. Open Beer Championship, meaning they were deemed the best of the best by the festival’s panel of judges.

This popular Denver brewery with several locations is no stranger to success, with several previous medals from prestigious beer competitions to its name. These include a 2024 bronze medal from the World Beer Cup for a beer called Smooth Exportations, a German-Style Oktoberfest. Here, it took home the top prize in this competitive light and crisp lager category.

This brewery Czechs all the marks (get it?) for lovers of Czech/Bohemian pilsners, with Czech Republic ingredients including the quintessential pilsner Saaz hop. Per the brewery, this beer has “a slight honey-like sweetness and toasted cracker flavor from the lightly kilned malt and a wonderfully spicy, herbal, and floral hop aroma.”

Only a true pill wouldn’t like this pils from Riverlands Brewing Co. that is made with German pilsner yeast and a mix of American Sterling hops and German Saphir hops. The brewery’s tasting notes say this beer features “a beautiful blend of floral, spice, lemongrass, and citrus hop flavors,” and “a pleasant bitterness.”

This gets the gold medal from me for best name on this list, which is all the more impressive because the brewery that released it, Taproom Beer Co., doesn’t exactly earn creativity points for its name. Getting back to this beer, it’s made with a new experimental hop called HRC-003 from the Hop Research Council and per the brewery “boasts [a] bouquet of tropical, stonefruit, and berry qualities.”

The latest award-winning brew from this critically acclaimed brewhouse and movie theater is named for the nickname given to the main character in the iconic Rocky franchise. Not only is this beer and many others from the San Antonio beer award-winning, I’m betting it pairs well with popcorn.

One Community. Many Voices. Create a free account to share your thoughts.

Our community is about connecting people through open and thoughtful conversations. We want our readers to share their views and exchange ideas and facts in a safe space.

In order to do so, please follow the posting rules in our site’s Terms of Service. We’ve summarized some of those key rules below. Simply put, keep it civil.

Your post will be rejected if we notice that it seems to contain:

User accounts will be blocked if we notice or believe that users are engaged in:

So, how can you be a power user?

Thanks for reading our community guidelines. Please read the full list of posting rules found in our site’s Terms of Service.

Luke Combs knows how to have a good time.

On Friday, July 19, the singer, known for his 2023 cover of “Fast Car,” invited Glen Powell and the “Twisters” stars onstage with him at MetLife Stadium to chug beer.

After the cast, including Daisy Edgar-Jones and Anthony Ramos, walked on stage, they were handed Miller Lite beer. On the count of three, they lifted their cans up for a group shotgun.

Once Powell and Combs were done, they threw the beer cans toward the country music star’s roaring audience.

Edgar-Jones seemed to struggle chugging the alcohol, so Powell offered an assist, downing the rest of her drink.

Powell shared a clip of the moment on his Instagram story and above it, added tornado and beer emoji.

Edgar-Jones added on her own story, “So this happened.”

Combs, the singer of “Beer Never Broke My Heart,” is known for his drink shotgunning skills. In May 2023, Ed Sheeran posted a video of Combs teaching the “Thinking Out Loud” singer how to shotgun, with step-by-step instructions on how to open the can and flip it up for the perfect chug.

Combs’ song “Ain’t No Love In Oklahoma” is featured on the soundtrack for “Twisters,” in addition to tunes from Jelly Roll, Miranda Lambert and more.

In the song, Combs sings, “I can’t breathe and I catch my breath/ But I keep chasing that same old devil/ Down the same old dead-end highway.”

In “Twisters,” Powell plays a rodeo star-turned-tornado chaser, who thrives on danger. In the film, he teams up with Kate (Edgar-Jones) and Javi (Ramos) to survive a sinister storm season in Oklahoma.

A few days before the film was released on July 19, Powell stopped by TODAY to talk about the movie, and he said he couldn’t wait for fans to see the film.

“I really love this one. I mean, maybe it’s because I feel really comfortable in a cowboy hat,” he said with a laugh during the July 17 interview. “Growing up in Texas — all my friends want to see this one, so it’s great.”

This article was originally published on TODAY.com

A recent trip to Capitol Reef National Park, a red-rock wonderland 215 miles south of Salt Lake City, amply demonstrated that much of Utah is bone dry. Still, brewers bristle when ignorant outsiders refer to Utah as a “dry” state.

“We are definitely underestimated,” said Jacquie King, head brewer at Ogden Brewing. “The Utah craft beer scene is alive and thriving.”

Nonetheless, King and her colleagues operate under some of the nation’s most restrictive alcohol laws.

In theory, the state’s 40-plus breweries can produce whatever they want, but boozier beers — anything boasting alcohol by volume in excess of 5 percent — are only found in bottles and cans. On tap, nothing can exceed that limit.

(Czech Your Head, the 6 percent pilsner reviewed here, was a canned beer which I ordered at a restaurant; it was served in a glass.)

Utah’s alcohol laws are as twisty as Capitol Reef’s Waterpocket Fold, a 100-mile-long geological formation visible from space. One example: wine, spirits, and higher-octane beers are sold in state-run stores, and are banned from supermarkets.

“It’s kind of a thorn in everybody’s side,” King said.

Yet these limits have encouraged a fair amount of cheeky humor — witness Wasatch Brewery’s Polygamy Porter with its tag line “Why just have one?” — and award-winning experimentation.

At this year’s World Beer Cup, an annual competition sometimes dubbed “the Olympics of beer,” Templin Family Brewing of Salt Lake City captured two gold medals, one for Guava Coconut, a field beer, and another for Squirrel, its entry in the “juicy or hazy strong pale ale” category.

Another Utah stalwart, St. George-based Silver Reef Brewing, took a World Beer Cup gold with its smoke beer, Mas Fuego, and a bronze with Smokin’ Barrel, in the “wood- and barrel-aged beer” category.

Moreover, Utah breweries may reap some benefit from the current trend toward lower-alcohol beverages. “Five percent and under,” King said, “is really a sweet spot.”

Sunday: Beer Fest, the Del Mar racetrack’s annual blend of ales and tails, is set for 1 to 5 p.m. in the track’s Seaside Cabana. Del Mar Thoroughbred Club, 2260 Jimmy Durante Blvd., Del Mar. dmtc.com/calendar/detail/beer

Aug. 2-4: I mentioned this in my last column, but it’s worth repeating: My Yard Live will host a three-day fest for its fifth anniversary. Expect food, beer, corn hole and live music — dueling pianos, Aug. 2; Band Over Board’s yacht rock, Aug. 3; and Cash’d Out, the Johnny Cash tribute band, Aug. 4. My Yard Live, 288 Rancheros Drive, San Marcos. Reservations, free but required: myyardlive.com/reservations.

Aug. 10: HessFest XIV, celebrating Mike Hess Brewing’s 14th anniversary, will feature live music — I’m especially pumped to hear The Walrus, a Beatles tribute band from New Orleans — food, beer — I’m especially pumped to try MHB’s cold IPA, Chill Factor — craft root beer, hop water and free bottled water. All proceeds will benefit Oncology and Kids (OAK), a San Diego nonprofit that serves children with cancer. Imperial Beach Pier Plaza, 940 Seacoast Drive, Imperial Beach. Tickets, $30-$80, can be purchased at mikehessbrewing.com.

Given the overwhelming number of choices, where do you direct out-of-towners eager to explore San Diego’s craft beer scene?

Gary Stoller, Forbes magazine’s beer correspondent, recently asked me that question with one key caveat: look beyond breweries that already enjoy a national following (Stone, say, or Ballast Point). My answers can be found online: rb.gy/bihes2.

Your choices may differ — heck, mine might differ by the time this appears in print. But if you want to engage in this great San Diego beer debate, send your picks to peterrowesd@gmail.com.

Beer: Look Up!
From: Level Crossing Brewing, Salt Lake City
ABV (Alcohol By Volume): 5 percent
Style: Amber Ale
Drink or dump: Drink. Not too light and not too dark, this Goldilocks of an ale showcases sweet caramel malts. Also just right: the piney and herbal hop character which lift the beer off the palate in the finish.

EVO
From: Wasatch Brewery, Salt Lake City
ABV: 5 percent
Style: Amber Ale
Drink or dump: Drink. Exceptionally quaffable brew, its toasted malts supplying notes of toffee and roasted walnuts. Willamette and Super Galina hops add a refreshingly bitter snap.

Czech Your HeadFrom: Proper Brewing, Salt Lake CityABV: 6 percentStyle: PilsnerDrink or dump: Dump. Proper’s website insists this beer leans into a bracing hop bitterness, but I found it surprisingly – and disappointingly – sweet.

Beer and ice cream is a fun pairing you can do at home with friends and adult family members.

Summer is the perfect time for a cone of vanilla, chocolate, strawberry or any of your favorite flavors. But what if you paired those with…beer? Yes, beer pairs well with almost all foods, including ice cream—and putting them together is a fun summer activity you can do at home.

Here is an illustrated guide to pairing ice cream and beer, drawn by the author!

Almost any fruit ice cream pairs well with the flavors of a German wheat ale known as hefeweizen/weissbier.

Hefeweizen (also known as a “weissbier”) is a German style of wheat ale that has lots of clove and banana flavors in it thanks to organic byproducts created by the yeast. It’s also a very highly carbonated style, which cleans your palate after each bite. The strawberry will meld well with the banana to create a smoothie-type sensation in your mouth. Hefeweizens are a lovely summer beer style and one to be on the lookout for when it gets hot.

Beers To Seek Out: Paulaner Hefe-Weizen, Urban Chestnut Schnickelfritz Hefeweizen

Drinking a citrusy hazy IPA with vanilla ice cream creates a classic summer flavor: the creamsicle.

Two flavors that create one sensational combination are classic vanilla and the popular hazy IPA. Eating these two together tastes like a creamsicle, one of the best summer flavors around. Hazy IPAs are made with hops that mimic citrus and tropical flavors, making them a great pairing with vanilla.

Beers to seek out: Tree House Julius, Sierra Nevada Hazy Little Thing, New Belgium Juice Force

Stouts are known for having coffee flavor/aroma already so pairing this style of beer with coffee ice cream just makes sense.

American stouts are deep, roasty beers with delectable flavors of coffee and dark chocolate, and what better way to complement these flavors than with coffee ice cream? This combination will add a creaminess to your stout and also cut the bitterness as well. Don’t think dark beers can be drunk during the heat of summer? Well, dark beers are wonderful all year round!

Beers to Seek Out: Bell’s Expedition Stout, Deschutes Obsidian Stout

Scotch ales are known for toffee and caramel flavors so pairing them with any ice cream will infuse each bite with a caramel swirl.

When I was a kid, cookie dough was one of my favorite flavors. Now that I’m an adult, I get the fun of pairing beer with one of these childhood treats. If you are looking to essentially add caramel syrup to your ice cream, the Scotch ale (also called a “wee heavy”) is that but in beer form. The richness of the beer and the chewy cookie dough and vanilla ice cream base complement each other really well. It’s decadent for sure.

Beers to seek out: Oskar Blues Old Chub, Traquair House Ale

Chocolate ice cream can work with a range of beer styles but the bitter, high alcohol lager Baltic porter is a delicious choice.

Classic chocolate deserves a unique beer. Baltic porter is a style that is popular in countries like Poland and has flavors of licorice and bittersweet chocolate. It’s a lager (most porters are ales—here’s the difference between an ale and a lager if you’re curious) so there’s a smoothness and a crispness as well. The alcohol in these beers can be very high, but the heat from the alcohol will complement the sweetness of the chocolate.

Beers to seek out: Zywiec, Black Boss Porter

If you are going to do this pairing at home, I recommend starting lightest and moving to darkest in terms of flavors and beers (this article is in the order you should try these pairings). Take a bite of ice cream and then a sip of beer. What are you tasting? How do the flavors work well together to create a new sensation? I like to write down my tasting notes and compare them with my friends’, as everyone’s palate is different. The best part of beer and food pairing is experimentation. Have a pint of rocky road in the fridge? What beer would go well with it? Just try it out and see! If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t; no harm, no foul.

Give it a try this summer and remember to drink responsibly and share beers with the people who care about you and make you happy. Cheers!

One Community. Many Voices. Create a free account to share your thoughts.

Our community is about connecting people through open and thoughtful conversations. We want our readers to share their views and exchange ideas and facts in a safe space.

In order to do so, please follow the posting rules in our site’s Terms of Service. We’ve summarized some of those key rules below. Simply put, keep it civil.

Your post will be rejected if we notice that it seems to contain:

User accounts will be blocked if we notice or believe that users are engaged in:

So, how can you be a power user?

Thanks for reading our community guidelines. Please read the full list of posting rules found in our site’s Terms of Service.

We’re lucky to live in an age when government regulations mean we don’t have to worry (at least not continuously) that our food and drink are going to randomly contain poison. In 2023, the FDA issued guidelines for arsenic in apple juice, and that same year, the organization took significant steps to reduce lead exposure in baby food. But there was a point in time — for a long time — in which all sorts of things were added to foods and beverages that were far from ideal.

One of the best examples is black henbane, which occurred in beer during the Medieval Era in Europe. If black henbane sounds familiar to you, it’s because it’s a relatively common invasive weed also known as hogbane, stinking nightshade, fetid nightshade, and poison tobacco. As you might guess from all these less-than-pleasant names, black henbane is a member of the nightshade family and, in large enough quantities, extremely toxic. Despite this, prohibiting its use in alcoholic beverages was a long road, culminating in the toxic herb finally being given the boot only after centuries of work.

Read more: 10 Of The Healthiest Beers You Can Drink

You might be wondering why in the world brewers would frequently put a substance into their product that could kill their customers. The answer is that until you tip over into the “kill” zone with black henbane, it has very different effects. Smaller-than-lethal doses of black henbane cause hallucinations, increase intoxication and serve as an aphrodisiac. Under controlled circumstances, pharmaceutical companies still use it in small doses in applications such as sedatives, diuretics, and pain relievers.

“`html

It makes sense then that brewers in Germany would include it in their product. It was particularly associated with bock beers, which generally have higher alcohol content — higher alcohol means more inebriation, black henbane or not. Additionally, black henbane has the side effect of dry mouth, which means you immediately want to drink another beer. Much like how Coke used to contain cocaine (and Coca-Cola still has a legal cocaine factory in New Jersey), black henbane was used because it made people drinking feel good and allowed you to sell them more beer. That is, unless they were poisoned by it — and in many cases, people were.

Poisoning customers was particularly an issue since drinking beer was extremely common in the Middle Ages. In the Medieval Era, people often drank beer instead of water, as it was considered more nutritious. The idea they drank it because water was unsafe is a persistent myth, but it certainly was a source of calories and carbohydrates. That makes it a problem when a major source of nutrients repeatedly poisons people.

Nevertheless, eventually enough was enough. In 1516, Duke Wilhelm IV of Bavaria issued the Reinheitsgebot, or German Purity Laws, which limited the legal ingredients in beer to hops, malt, water, and barley (wheat was banned from brewing by the same decree, but that was so more bread could be produced). However, getting rid of it in other European nations took longer.

Today, you might see all sorts of ingredients in beer, from fruits to herbs to chocolate. What you won’t see is black henbane — something for which Medieval Europeans would likely be grateful.

“`

Read the original article on The Daily Meal.