wine V beer/stout

oconn

Hi does anyone know what the calorie count etc is like for a bottle of wine , pint of stout, lager, cider etc. or which makes you fatter etc...I read that beer has estrogen or somthing like that that makes you swell ( leading to beer belly)
New year and all that health lark.
drank red wine all new yrs eve and felt fresh as a daisy.

guildofevil

I read that beer has estrogen or somthing like that that makes you swell ( leading to beer belly)

That's an urban legend. There is no oestrogen in beer.
There is a low level of oestrogen in some hop varieties, but the high temperatures involved in the brewing process denatures it.

There is also no fat in beer, but alcohol itself is a good source of energy (i.e. Calories) although it cannot be converted directly to fat. The kebab you consume on the way home can be converted to fat though and, as your body is using the alcohol and carbohydrates you got from the beer/wine/spirit/alcopop you consumed earlier for energy, all of the fat from your snack is put into storage.

http://www.realbeer.com/edu/health/index.php has a number of articles relating to various kinds of alcohol and calories, including a large, of Americanocentric list of beers and calorie content.

tSubh Dearg

The alcohol with the lowest calorie count are spirits such as gin and vodka (which are always recommended in diet books paired with slimline tonic).

After those I believe wine is the next lightest calorie wine with white being better than red afair.

Finally beer, cider and stout have the highest calorie content.

A quick google for alcohol calorie counts will probably find your several pages that you can compare results on.

rubadub

Many online guides have sort of false calorie counts so beware of that, i.e. they say a "glass of wine" without saying sweet/dry, the ml or the %.

Tesco are good at displaying calorific values on their booze, they even sell "low calorie" belgian beers.

As said there is no fat in alcohol, execept liquers like baileys or other cream ones, where it comes from cream.

Mainly the calories come from the sugar and alcohol. Dry wines are fermented out almost completely, pilsner beers would tend to be very dry too, i.e. all the sugars are turned into alcohol. The other thing to watch is the % in drinks, you could get a 20% sugary liquer that only has 3/4 the calories of a 40% vodka, but if you drink to get to a certain "tipsyness" then you will need to drink twice as much of the liquer. Same goes for beer, the true pilsners tend to be strong in alcohol since all sugar is converted to alcohol. So a good 6% pilsner might have less than double the calories of a 3% "lite beer". Indeed miller branded their 4.2% beer as a "pilsner" since the market is so bad for "lite beers" here, due to the poncey image "lite" gives to some :rolleyes:


As mentioned the lowest calories are spirits, unsweetened spirits. Also studies have shown that mixing with low calorie artificially sweetened drinks gets you drunk quicker and so you need less.

I am not condoning getting roaring drunk, this forum is not about that, but some do like to get to a certain level of intoxication, tipsy or talkative, and the lowest calorie way to do this was medically proven to be spirits with artificially sweetened mixers. It is the sweetener that does it BTW not the lack of sugar.

Also drinking on an empty stomach will lead to faster alcohol absorption, you must be careful with that, another point is that to drink on an empty stomach, it must be, well empty! further reducing calorie intake.

Studies have shown that calorific values of alcohol are overexagerrated for human consumption. I have no doubt this is true. In the documentary on monty python one of them was drinking 2 pub bottles of gin a day, that is over 2 litres, 100ml is 220kcal so that is 4400kcal per day on booze alone. Even assuming he was eating nothing that is and excess of about 2000kcal per day which amounts to a 4lb per week gain in weight! and the bloke was skinny!

I know plenty of skinny lads who drink enormous amounts. I used drink a fair bit in college and the maths do not add up, when I gave up my weight was about the same, eating the same amount of food.

In the studies they gave 2 groups fixed diets, one with an additional excess from starchy/sugary drinks, the other from alcoholic drinks. The alcohol group put on far less weight.

Calorific values are calculated by burning the substance and measuring the energy released, this is a simple scientific method but does not always relate directly to energy output from humans. Petrol and alcohol are both efficient and used in cars as fuel, it doesnt meant drinking 2000kcal of petrol will make you as fat as 2000kcal of cake!

oconn

I felt way better after 1.5 bottles of wine.....as I would have drank probably 10 bottles (330ml ones ) throughout the night....Im thinking of heading over to France to get wine for my wedding next year ....has anyone experience in this ?

guildofevil

How you feel the next morning will depend on a lot of factors. The wine you drank was probably one of the ones that doesn't have any crap in it, but don't expect that to be true of all wines. The next one you try might leave you with a splitting headache.

The same goes for beer, BTW. Many of the bigger selling beers have antioxidant's, stabilizers, foaming agents and other crap in them, which may or may not contribute to your hangover. Others use rice as part of the grist, which, when mashed and fermented, results in compounds which cause some people headaches.

What I'm trying to say is that you may have just as much luck avoiding bad hangovers drinking craft beer as wine.

Why not try some of the offerings from the Carlow Brewing Company? O'Haras Celtic Stout is a lovely stout, Curim Gold Celtic Wheat Beer is an accessible beer which many lager drinkers find enjoyable, while Molings Traditional Red Ale is an excellent example of the Irish Red style of beer.

oconn

I drink the carlow brews a lot at home they did a 3 for 8 in tescos during the year so i stocked up a few. stout and red are nice not so gone on the wheat .
At parties where all the beer is thrown into the fridge I think its a shame to buy nice beer and have everyne taking one to taste kindly leaving cans of bud for me left....I havent dished out much of my own homebrews yet as they are a bit weakish ( kit and kilo type ).
I have a slab of coopers pale ale to get me thru the new year and hopefully after that i will only be drinking hb or red wine.

guildofevil

I started out with kit and kilo myself. Now I have four all grain beers on tap and more in bottles, in my house.

When you say they are weakish, do you mean flavour or alcohol wise? Because there are things you can do about both of those problems.

oconn

more on taste... havnt tested for alc % no hydrometer or whatever...so far i have only used the kit and dextrose. I have some munton kit enhancer but havnt used it . the last one i made was a 1.7kg kit for 23l made to 10 L its in the bottle at moment. I tried one last week and it wass much better than it was 2 weeks before. it started life as a pils but looks like an ale...if it keeps going it will be nice in a few weeks.....I have limited space for now as I am in process of building ( which will contain a brew room or as herself calls it a utility room ). Id like to do coopers either dark ale or pale ale next I have the kits at home...

pjq

guildofevil

Many of the bigger selling beers have antioxidant's, stabilizers, foaming agents and other crap in them, which may or may not contribute to your hangover.

have you seen any "name and shame" articles that set out the contents ? I know that Guiness in DE complies with the reinheitsgebot , does that mean that a pint here is chemical free ?

oconn,
my personal experience is that I often get a headache after French reds ( even when I don't finish the bottle) , and to my amazement and delight I seldom have problems with Spanish or S American wines ( even when I deserve to suffer for my lack of restraint) . Maybe its the tempranillo grape.

pjq

oblivious

pjq wrote:

guildofevil
have you seen any "name and shame" articles that set out the contents ? I know that Guiness in DE complies with the reinheitsgebot , does that mean that a pint here is chemical free ?

oconn,
my personal experience is that I often get a headache after French reds ( even when I don't finish the bottle) , and to my amazement and delight I seldom have problems with Spanish or S American wines ( even when I deserve to suffer for my lack of restraint) . Maybe its the tempranillo grape.

pjq

Guinness can’t be in the reinheitsgebot as it contains flaked barely and roasted barley both of which are un-malted and not allowed by the rules, nether are wits, Belgian and many English types of ale!

Just for some info the reinheitsgebot was originally a little bit of a con, although it dose set strict standards for brewers. It was originally set up by the Bavarian nobility as they had the monopoly on malted barley i.e. you have to but their produce if you want to brew and they have a lot of money, although this is not the case these days!

rediguana

All I ever drink is VODKA+TAP WATER or DRY WINE (usually red). I'm still the same lissom shape I was when I was 25 (I'm 26 now).

Generally, if you can detect sweetness in your drink, you're consuming extra calories along with your alcohol ones.

Doesn't Beer have lots of yeast in it which may lead to bloatedness and water retention over time?

As always, moderation is the key.

oblivious

Bloatedness can also be due to the dextrains left in the beer after fermentation. There is a produce in the US called beano which contains an enzyme (Alpha Galactosidase) that helps your body to break down complex carbohydrates

A bottle conditioned beer has more health benefits that and pint of fizzy yellow stuff.

pjq

Guinness and das Gebot , theexplanation ;
http://www.ivo.se/guinness/faq.html

In the old day , just Guinness and Bud (cz) got past the beer polizi http://www.finkenkrug.de/trinken.swf

and whats more Kilkenny ( Smithwicks) is brewed according to Reinheitsbebot in St Francis' Brewry ,
http://www.guinness.de/main/main.php?reframeTarget=/main/kilkenny.php
note: as Guinness are a responsible MNC you have to tap in your date of birth to read how Diagio's product was first brewed by the Franciskans in 1400s

Now I've prooved my point on Guinness and the Gebot , and probably called the whole Gebot into question !

pjq

rubadub

oblivious wrote:

It was originally set up by the Bavarian nobility as they had the monopoly on malted barley i.e.

I also heard it was set up to stop adulteration with herbs other than hops. Medieval witches herbs like henbane, mandrake, mushrooms and nightshade- added to beers to give an extra "kick". Never knew about the unmalted barley.

rubadub

rediguana wrote:

Doesn't Beer have lots of yeast in it

Bottle conditioned beer has some yeast in it, i.e. beer with sediment in the bottom of the bottle, or some of the cloudy beers on tap like erdinger. Yeast is a solid substance, looks like wholemeal flour when dried. if it was in normal beer you would be able to see it clearly, there would only be trace amounts in clear beer, far more in bread and many other food items you may not expect to find it in.

guildofevil

I brew a lot of beer and do not filter or pasteurise it, so it has a lot of live yeast in it. I don't find it causes bloatedness at all.

Beer yeast can even give your digestive system a little help along. If you consume a lot of very yeast cloudy beer, it can get things moving; if you know what I mean.

People have been consuming yeast in bread and beer for millennia. It's natural and good for our bodies.

Adeptus Titanicus

guildofevil wrote:

Beer yeast can even give your digestive system a little help along. If you consume a lot of very yeast cloudy beer, it can get things moving; if you know what I mean.

To put that into perspective, I remember introducing a friend to the joys of German Weizen a few years ago. He loved it and drank it all night. Next day I got a text message saying "You bastard! I'm going through jax roll like a whore!".

He still drinks it though

Ambrewco

I prodcue two BCBs,one blonde one dark, and the yeast is quite strong in the blonde giving great body. It definately helps digestion, no doubt. Indeed we are looking at the health angle of this as a possible marketing tool.

oblivious

Are you brewing in Ireland and if so where?

noby

Árainn Mhór, I presume.

Are your beers widely available? I'd love to give them a try.

Adeptus Titanicus

noby wrote:

Árainn Mhór, I presume.

Are your beers widely available? I'd love to give them a try.

I saw them in Redmonds in Ranelagh. I was surprised to see "Brewed in the EU for Árainn Mhór Brewing Company" on the label. I read elsewhere (was it on boards?) that they are brewed in Belgium, so not really an Irish craft beer then? Pity, but I'm sure they taste nice all the same

guildofevil

Well the Belgians certainly know their beer.

blorg

Adeptus Titanicus wrote:

I saw them in Redmonds in Ranelagh. I was surprised to see "Brewed in the EU for Árainn Mhór Brewing Company" on the label. I read elsewhere (was it on boards?) that they are brewed in Belgium, so not really an Irish craft beer then? Pity, but I'm sure they taste nice all the same

That is a bit of a serious misrepresentation if it is true, perhaps Ambrewco could comment? I'm very fond of Belgian beers myself but that is not exactly what you might expect to be getting if you are supposedly buying an Irish microbrew.

Adeptus Titanicus

Now I'm getting paranoid. Yesterday when I looked at http://www.ambrewco.com/ambc_002.htm you could read on that sample label the text saying "Brewed in the EU" etc in the top right of the label, but now it's gone! I'll have to go buy one now to see was I imagining it, or has someone been busy with photoshop . Maybe the first batches were in Belgium till they got production up and running on the Island?

<edit>
Here was the post I saw originally saying they were made in Belgium: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055010984
I later read the label in Redmonds, and then on the web where it mentioned the EU.

blorg

It's still there, top right: "Brewed in the EU for Arainn Mhor Brewing Company"

Adeptus Titanicus

That's bizarre. I don't see it. I wonder is your image cached on your machine from an earlier visit. You could try pressing CTRL-F5 to do a refresh (maybe save what you see first ).

Attached is what I see for the Rua. The Ban is the same in terms of label content.

noby

blorg wrote:

That is a bit of a serious misrepresentation if it is true, perhaps Ambrewco could comment? I'm very fond of Belgian beers myself but that is not exactly what you might expect to be getting if you are supposedly buying an Irish microbrew.

Hang on a second now. I don't think you're getting a Belgian beer, in that sense. They're presumably renting out brewing time in another brewery. That's pretty common practice. Of course, we would love for there to be a brewery on the island, and perhaps there soon will be, but it's still an Irish microbrew in my eyes. Didn't someone say the Galway Hooker is brewed by Biddy Earleys? Is that not the same thing (on a slightly different geographical scale)?

I'd still like Ambrewco to post a little more detail on their beers and brewing (and possible future plans) too, but not so that we can all jump down his throat. Too many microbreweries go under as it is. To me it's a sensible way to start out.

Adeptus Titanicus

Agreed. I got the impression that they basically were getting the expertise abroad as they are a start up and are waiting to get funds in to go into production locally. Nothing to be ashamed of there. I think some people may be bothered by the discrepancy between what is described in the "About us" section on the website and the fact that they not yet actually brewed on Árainn Mhór. The only thing that would bother me is if they were trying to hide the fact when there's nothing wrong with doing it that way.

All in all, the only real test is to actually drink it, and if you like it, support an indiginous company that is trying to get its legs under it (and quite possibly get ours from under us )

oblivious

I have no problem it they want to get their name and most importantly get the public exposed to their product the while they are setup the brewery. But I would have a problem if the long term objective is to out source to another brewery and package it under their brand. A number of Craft brewers in the states have come under a lot of heat for this practice.

guildofevil

I have yet to taste these beers, so I will not comment on their quality.

However. As to renting out brewery time, yes, it is a common practice. Does than meant that it's right? Do we even know that is what is going on here?

There is a world of difference between a company which brews on a pilot scale to get the recipe down, then scales it up to commercial scale and hires brewery time, using their own brewmaster and a company which comes up with a brand and gets a brewery to do the rest. Which is this?

Does that make the brewed under licence beers the same as the original?

What makes a beer an Irish beer?

Does having it brewed in Ireland make it Irish?

Does it having it formulated in Ireland make it Irish?

Does having it formulated by and Irish brewer make it Irish?

Does having it brewed for an Irish company make it Irish?

I think that an Irish beer should be brewed in Ireland by an Irish company. I'm old-fashioned that way.

As to setting up a brewery on the Island; that, I think, is probably a fairy story. Breweries use a lot of water and as far as I'm aware, Árainn Mhór has to ship drinking water from the mainland as it stands.

Adeptus Titanicus

That's a good point about the water. Having lived on the Arann Islands (the ones in Galway Bay) for the summer months three years in a row I can vouch for the fact that sourcing water during the summer on a small island can be a big problem. Also, if they are indeed being brewed in Belgium with the goal of moving production to Arainn Mhor, surely it'd be a different beer due to differing water profiles etc?

I'm in two minds. On one hand I'd like to support a startup brewery, but not if the "Irishness" is just a marketing ploy.