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Why Calorie Content for Alcohol is Pointless

7/3/2018

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Why Calorie Content for Alcohol is Pointless
We are constantly asked about the calorie content for our various products, which on the face of it appears to be a very reasonable question.

Lots of products have the nutrition information on them, including a handful of alcoholic beverages. It seems like useful information, right?

Ignoring for a moment the fact that the law requiring nutrition information for alcoholic beverages applies exclusively to craft mead and cider and excludes literally 99.96% of the beverage market (wine, beer, liquor, and drinks served at restaurants), we're still left with the question: "What’s the big deal?"

The big deal is that calorie content for alcoholic beverages is an utterly meaningless number.


Before we get into the science of the problem, let’s discuss how nutrition information is organized.

​Alcohol is, in fact, a macronutrient. Traditional nutrition information has no section for this, so they tend to throw it under carbohydrates which is A) Incorrect and B) Misleading.

Vodka Nutrition Facts
In other cases, the nutrition information is organized in such a way that it shows 0% for every category, but still somehow has 64 calories. This is what Google yields if you search for the nutrition information on a shot of liquor.

The scientific concerns, however, fall into two categories. The simple one is that we often use bomb calorimeters to measure the calorie content of food. Ethanol is an explosive compound which is why we can put it in our gas tanks. Unfortunately, humans don’t burn food to get energy from it.

Imagine the calorie count of, say, a piece of douglas fir in a bomb calorimeter. It would be massively higher than a commensurate volume of hamburger. And yet, no matter how many cords of wood you manage to eat, a single hamburger will yield more usable calories for a human. Which brings us to the complicated part.

The catabolism of ethanol is extremely complex and occurs in three steps. For reasons ranging from genetics to speed of consumption to drinking habit to random fluctuations throughout the day, humans will complete anywhere from one to three of these steps which yields a calorie intake which can vary by a factor of six.

Flaming Cocktails
The wikipedia article has more details than we’ll share here, but as simply as possible: When we consume alcohol, it becomes Acetaldehyde. If the catabolism continues, this becomes Acetic Acid. If this Acetic Acid is fully metabolised in step three, there’s a huge release of energy.

A full catabolism of ethanol yields 1,325 kJ/mol. If, however, you’re either the sort of person where (or consuming alcohol in a such a fashion that) you excrete it as urine as soon as it becomes Acetic Acid, you derive a mere 215 kJ/mol. That is, as mentioned above, one sixth the calories from the exact same drink.

If Mary can consume six pints of mead and get the same number of calories that Bob does when he drinks just one, why in the name of the gods would the information be included at all? At best it’s pointless, at worst dangerously misleading.

Let’s state this again: Mary could have a glass of wine every day of the month while her husband Bob could limit himself to a glass on Sundays and there is a chance that they would be getting the same caloric load from the alcohol in their diet.

We don’t expect the FDA to read this article or the Wikipedia page or do anything at all about this, mind you. It’s really that - as far as we can tell - nobody has ever bothered to write an article on this issue, and we think the real information should be available somewhere on the internet.

Oh, and if you’re looking for tricks to reduce your calorie intake from alcohol, here’s something the government PSAs really don’t want you to know: You can either drink less or, when you drink, consume it as fast as possible. Your body will see the alcohol for the toxin it is and try to get it out as fast as possible. We obviously don’t advocate this, we just thought our Meadiacs should know the facts.

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Thursday Fun Fact 1-26: Mulsum

1/26/2017

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Thursday Fun Fact 1-26 - Groennfell Meadery - While Bunratty doesn’t make mead (which is why they have to write “meade” on their bottles), they do technically make mulsum, and it would be pretty cool if they labeled it as such.
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Is Mead a Panacea?

7/27/2015

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Living Antibiotics
There has been a good bit of hoopla recently about a new wonder drink called Elixir. The long and the short of it is that it’s a mead made through a (controlled) wild fermentation which has demonstrated extraordinary antibiotic properties. 

Elixir is being hailed by the denizens of the internet as a drink to cure all ills, prevent disease, and save the world. But is it true?

First, let’s see what the researchers have to say in their own words:

Living antibiotics is a natural innovation developed by Swedish researchers Alejandra Vásquez and Tobias Olofsson. Ten years ago they discovered the world´s largest concentration of collaborating beneficial lactic acid bacteria in honeybees. Further research showed that these bacteria work as living factories of antibiotics, producing not just one weapon as conventional antibiotics but hundreds of different weapons in order to fight infections. Living antibiotics revolutionize the concept of antibiotics; from the static compound, which generates resistance; to the active, which generates protection. 
So, first we have bit of clarification from all of the articles and videos, the mead itself is not the wonder drug, but rather the wound treatment potential of the honey. The mead is being used to fund and promote the idea (as well as to generate some Reuters worthy content).

Next, the researchers are raising money on Indiegogo, which is not how scientific projects are usually funded. That said, the world is rapidly changing and we think crowd funding science may be the next big thing. Although it removes some accountability, it can also combat certain forms of “science for hire.” Our opinion is that good science should be judged on the quality of the research and not its funding.

Speaking of the research, let’s look into that. Is there really solid, peer-reviewed evidence to support the bold claims that the lactic acid in honey is much, much better than antibiotics? Yes, it appears. 

Like good scientists (who want to sell a product), the researchers have conveniently compiled all of their research into one place. You should check it out! Many of the articles are even Open Access, which is pretty rare.

So, dear Meadiacs, here’s what we’ve got:
  • Is wound treatment an oft overlooked medical issue? Yes.
  • Are existing treatments insufficient and potentially harmful? Yes.
  • Is topical honey treatment an amazing potential treatment? It seems like it.
  • Is mead awesome? Yes.
  • Is mead going to save the world? Probably not.

Go read the science and decide for yourself!
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Save Water: Brew Mead

6/22/2015

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Water
Water seems to be on everyone’s minds these days. Out here in Vermont, we’ve only had two days without rain in the last three weeks while the historic droughts in the West are a constant topic of conversation.

It’s difficult to get a water footprint of mead (believe us, we’ve tried) because there are so many varieties of honey and so many factors that go into each variety. For example, do you count the water used to water almond trees as part of the production of almond honey? What do you do with wildflower, clover, or goldenrod honey; plants which no one intentionally waters at all?

Today, however, we’re going to talk about what brewers can do to minimize water usage and why mead makes a tempting choice for the water-miser.

The biggest water savings inherent in mead:
  1. For every gallon of beer in the fermenter you can lose up to a gallon in the grain bed and quarter-gallon in the boil. For every gallon of mead (assuming 9% abv) you only use three-quarters of a gallon of water. For a 5 gallon batch that’s a savings of 7.5 gallons of water.
  2. Since mead is rarely boiled, there is no chilling water. Professional brewers often capture this hot water and use it for another batch, but this is rarely the case for homebrewers. This can represent a 20 gallon loss or more per batch based on some of our old homebrew notes. (We were using an immersion chiller.)
  3. Mead tends to have substantially less trub (waste on the bottom of the fermenter), so you can pick up an extra half-gallon in a five gallon batch which makes it into packaging.
  4. Growing grain uses an enormous amount of water, as does growing grapes. More info about the water footprint of beer here.

All in all, just by choosing to homebrew mead versus beer, you can save nearly thirty gallons of water. 


Now, obviously there are ways to use less water in brewing beer, but in many cases they will negatively impact that final product. Trying to cool wort in a fridge can lead to DMS, trying to get every last bit of water out of the grain bed can lead to tannin extraction, etc. This isn’t meant to start a fight; we love beer, we just wanted to help you drink well if you’re on water restrictions.

Here are some ways that you can make your meadmaking even more water conscious:
  1. Don’t boil your mead! The water loss during boiling isn’t as substantial, but the water cost (or energy cost) to cool it back down is.
  2. Use a honey that comes from a crop or plant that doesn’t require irrigation. The effect of wild plants on rain water absorption and aquifer recharging is complicated, but steering clear of nectar sources that are watered with potable water can have a huge impact.
  3. Only make as much cleanser and sanitizer as needed. It’s not uncommon to find buckets and carboys filled to the brim with cleanser. Giving your fermentation gear a good, long soak can be a great way to make sure that it’s really clean, but a soft, brewery-only rag and some elbow grease can also do a great job. Sanitizer is even easier, you can often mix up just one spray-bottle of sanitizer and give everything a spritz, just make sure you get the surface completely wet. This simple trick can save 10 gallons of water or more for a 5 gallon batch.
  4. Since most homebrewers use recycled bottles and kegs, it doesn’t really make much of a difference to think about the life-cycle of the packaging. One could argue that it’s more water-conscious to drink right out of the bottle than to dispense into a glass from a keg since you’ll have to wash the glass later. This is stupid. Obviously the solution is to drink right out of a keg.
  5. Drink less. No, just kidding. Drinking mead gives life meaning. What would be the point of conserving all of that water to be in a world not worth living in?

There you go! If you have any other great water saving tips, let us know; we’d love to add them to this list!

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Forward to the New Year!

9/27/2014

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So, this is cool: Ricky the Meadmaker was featured in an article in the Daily Forward about the history of mead and Rosh Hashanah. You can read just his bit here, or click on the link below the excerpt to read the whole article!
Mead once held some significance for American Jews. Ricky Klein, who founded Groennfell Meadery in Colchester, Vermont, in 2013, came across a surprising link while researching the drink’s cultural importance. In The Complete American-Jewish Cookbook, a mid-20th-century book written by Anne London and Bertha Kahn Bishov, he found a homemade honey wine recipe that included the following headnote: “The amber liquid used to be a tradition during Passover. In the past two decades it has gradually disappeared so that the present generation is almost completely unaware of its existence.”

As someone who regularly brews special, small-batch meads for his family’s holiday celebrations — including a vanilla-infused apple cyser for Rosh Hashanah, and a grape and honey mead for Passover that he jokingly named The Manly-Schewitz — Klein was intrigued by the discovery.

Despite a fair amount of follow-up research, he’s been unable to pinpoint exactly why homemade honey wine came to hold a prominent spot at the Passover table in early 20th-century America, or why it had so thoroughly faded by the 1950s when London and Kahn Bishov were writing their book. “The only real proof we have of it is this cookbook,” he said. And yet he wholeheartedly supports the notion of bringing back the practice.


Read more: http://forward.com/articles/206215/mead-the-next-generation/#ixzz3ESJdqMvi
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We Beat NPR!

9/15/2014

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Honey Flavor and Aroma Wheel developed by the Honey and Pollination Center at UC Davis - available for purchase at Groennfell Meadery
Well, only sort of. And only about one thing...

BUT, it turns out, we're trendsetters: Two days after the Honey Flavor and Aroma Wheel became available here at Groennfell, NPR wrote an article about it!

The newest item for sale in our online store is the Honey Flavor and Aroma Wheel developed by the Honey and Pollination Center at UC Davis. This product categorizes the myriad different flavors and aromas that can be found in honey. Turns out, honey isn't just sweet! 

With directions for the best way to taste honey and example honey profiles on the back, this is an excellent tool that will enhance your mead tasting experience.  Plus, when you buy the honey wheel, 100% of the proceeds go to support honeybee research!

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American Mead Maker Summer '14

8/6/2014

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The latest issue of American Mead Maker, the Journal of the American Mead Makers Association, is out! This issue has a lot of fantastic articles in it. Don't miss our in-depth article about yeast on page 42!
If your device cannot load java, you can read the journal here.
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Thursday Fun Fact 7-10: Skunky

7/10/2014

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Thursday Fun Fact 7-10 - Groennfell Meadery - 'Did you know: Skunky beer happens when light hits a chemical (Isomerized Alpha Acids) which comes from hops. Since (most) mead doesn't have any hops in it, it can never get skunky!'
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Ask the Meadmaker Ep. 9 - Meta Questions

5/17/2014

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In which Ricky the Meadmaker demonstrates how (not) to answer the most common questions about Groennfell mead. Also starring: Pat Cope, Scott McFarland, & Kelly Klein.
Further Reading:
What is mead?
Isn't mead sweet?
How old is mead?
Is mead beer or wine?
Picking a yeast strain
Yeast in mead
Meaning of Groennfell
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Thursday Fun Fact 5-15: Low-Cal.

5/15/2014

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Thursday Fun Fact 5-15 - Groennfell Meadery - 'Not that we're overly health-conscious, but a bottle of Mannaz has 35% fewer calories than a normal craft beer and 90% fewer carbs. We are NOT advocating mead as a dieting aid, however.'
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