Making beer is an intricate process of surprising complexity. It involves elements of chemistry, biology, engineering, hydrology, calculus, and a whole other slew of disciplines that you’d have trouble sitting thru in any college classroom. Thankfully we have brewers—modern day alchemists—who sift through the tedium to produce something as simplistically magical as an ice cold brewski. If you happen to glance at the technical specifications accompanying most beers, you will sometimes notice all sorts of measurements that might not make any sense to the layperson (non-beergeek). Most people are familiar with the ABV—alcohol by volume, is a very straight-forward reading of what percentage of the libation is pure alcohol. Most spirits sit at or around 40% ABV, wines hover near 12%, and your standard beer is probably just below 5%. That part is easy to understand. But you might also notice a number that has a ‘degree’ sign next to [...]

Booze is a wonderful thing. Insanely wonderful, actually. It’s no exaggeration to state that it ranks right up near the top of humankind’s greatest achievements. As William Faulkner once so-famously opined: “Civilization begins with distillation.” Drinking alcohol effects us in many ways, mentally and physically, and whole fields of scientific research have awakened to studying those effects. What follows is a basic science primer for the recreational drinker.

by Sangita Devaskar A woman was creating a 4-foot, arched cylinder bubble around her body while sipping champagne. In the opposite corner, a man with a caipirinha didn’t dare to blink his eyes while fixated on a model of how sand dunes are created. Two friends with “The Root of all Evil” (St. George’s Absinthe Verte and Root Beer) laughed uncontrollably as they sat in dome-like structures exemplifying how sound waves bounce back and forth.