Are you drinking enough beer?
The autumn sun shows its last copper-colored rays and the first symptoms of a cold can already be felt in the distance. Soon it will be cold and dark. Yet suddenly welcome help comes from an unexpected source: beer. Beer is tasty, beer is healthy, beer brings joy, and it is served in amber, gold and blonde. A natural product that you can brew yourself and that can be surprisingly nutritious!
Where this golden barley nectar is celebrated most exuberantly, of course, is the Oktoberfest in Munich. It is the world’s largest beer festival and folk festival, visited every year by more than seven million people from all corners of the world. Traditionally, the festival begins at 12:00 noon on the first Saturday after September 15 and normally ends on the first Sunday of October.
A healthy drink
The fixed raw materials of beer are barley, water, hops and yeast. Beer is a pure and natural product without preservatives, salt or fat. It also contains many vitamins and minerals, including magnesium, silicon and potassium. The main ingredient—barley—provides relatively large amounts of vitamin B and soluble fiber (prebiotics) in the golden nectar. Yeast also supplies many B vitamins and folic acid. The natural synergy of folic acid and the various B vitamins lowers blood homocysteine levels. Heart, vascular and brain diseases are associated with excessively high homocysteine levels.
Hop, hop, hop
In the so-called hop cone—the fruit of the hop plant—there is a yellow lupulin powder. This powder contains the hop bitter acids. They give beer its slightly bitter taste, contribute to foam stability and have antibacterial properties. They are also known for their calming effect. In the past, hop flowers were used to fill pillows to ensure a good, high-quality sleep.
Humulones and lupulones
The hop bitter acids consist of humulones, or alpha hop acids, and lupulones, or beta hop acids.
The humulones are not bitter on their own, but they are the main precursors of the bitter substances. Quantitatively, they make up the largest share—up to 70%—of hop bitter compounds.
The lupulones, or beta hop acids, are structurally very similar to the humulones. The beta hop acids themselves are not bitter either, but they do have a strong antibiotic effect. This is one of the reasons why English brewers during the colonial period extra-hopped their now very popular IPA (India Pale Ale). They discovered that beer with extra hops kept better during long sea voyages. What was behind this was still unknown to them at the time.
Back to the Oktoberfest
Beer is a good source of antioxidants. It contains minerals, vitamins and even amino acids (arginine, for example). So nothing should stop us from enjoying a healthy portion of barley nectar...... And that is exactly where the problem lies: the portions. For most Oktoberfest revelers, excessive amounts of beer are consumed. And the drawback of beer is, of course, that it contains alcohol. Unfortunately, alcohol is known to have harmful effects on the body. And not just on our body. Even a single glass can have a negative effect on the bacteria in our body. Its byproduct, acetaldehyde, is the real troublemaker.
The good news is: you can recover. Provided you have not gone too far, of course. Start paying a bit more attention to your eating habits again and put those “healthy” beers aside for a while in favor of a glass of water. After all, Oktoberfest only comes once a year!
One final downside of drinking a little too much beer and in too-large portions: last year, people lost more than 4,500 items during Oktoberfest in Munich. From wedding rings, passports, phones and glasses to a table tennis racket (can you imagine where that would be needed?) and a dog. The latter was, of course, reclaimed with all the love and sobriety imaginable. All in all, only 20% of lost property is returned to its owner.
Enjoy, but drink in moderation! Cheers!
Oktoberfest statistics
- Beer: approx. 6,900,000 liters
- Alcohol-free beer: 169,200 liters
- Wine: 94,795 liters
- Sekt: 42,526 liters
- Coffee and tea: 299,938 liters
- Water and lemonade: 1,130,701 liters
- Chicken: 549,899
- White sausages: 140,225 pairs
- Pork knuckles: 75,456 pieces
