ChiTown Beer

It may not be as fun (i.e. disgusting) as it sounds, but having two units of alcohol every day can help prevent gallstones, reports the UK’s Daily Mail.

Imbibing the units (which The Mail defines as a pint of beer, medium-sized glass of wine or double shot of whiskey) can help reduce your risk of gallstones by 33 percent. The University of East Anglia study followed the dietary habits of almost 26,000 people for 10 years.

That’s not all. The Mayo Clinic says alcohol can also help reduce the risks of heart attack and stroke.

The key is, of course, moderation, but the next time someone questions why you’re popping open a cold one at 1 in the afternoon, tell them you’re just toasting you health.

High school pranks are getting weaker.

Seniors from New Trier High School in Winnetka found a way to slip a picture of a student drinking a Pabst Blue Ribbon into their yearbook, according to UPI.com.

The Beer of Hipsters… and high schoolers?

While this is probably tasteless, and a bit ridiculous, the real story are the high school administrators who have decided this is a terrible thing to do to a yearbook.

“It’s clearly defiant and subversive and intentional,” says spokeswoman Laura Blair.

Principal Linda Yonke did not consider the prank harmless.

“It sort of casts a pall over the whole yearbook,” Yonke said.

Really? One picture ruins your yearbook? I’m not worried so much that kids are drinking underage as the fact that a PBR can can be called “defiant and subversive.”

Good pranks should always, in my opinion, be slightly dangerous. Like this one from the UK. Driving cars into your high school? Awesome.

Unlike Wisconsin, Missouri, Michigan and Ohio, Illinois has not one craft brewery in the top 50 in the nation by sales volume, reports the Medill News Service, identified as breweries that produce less than 2 million barrels per year. (Goose Island doesn’t count as a “craft brew” under the articles standards.)

Apparently, the issue is one of distribution and regulation. Smaller brewers in Illinois have a hard time paying the large fees for an alcohol license and space on distributors trucks.

The article explains:

“Let’s say you want to be a small little brewery, it’s hard to get in with the big name distributors,” said Travis Biggs, a beer specialist and salesman at Sam’s Wine and Spirits in Downers Grove. Biggs said the smaller craft breweries can’t produce the bulk amounts required to sign on with larger distributors.

In addition, taxes and union regulations make it difficult to raise the capital needed to open a brewery.

Illinois, especially Chicago, should do more to support it’s brewing industry. With Milwaukee and St. Louis are obviously the giants of the Midwest production brewing, there’s no reason a Midwest beer Renaissance can’t take root here. And with craft beer sales growing and interest booming, now is a perfect time to launch new breweries here in Chicago.

Gov. Quinn may be going to bat for beer lovers throughout Illinois.

In an interview on WGN, he said, ““I’m not sure I’m for the alcohol tax. I’m going to take a look at that.” That’s an interesting position, but a welcome one, from a guy who’s proposing to raise the income tax by 50% to pay for the $12,000,000,000 state budget deficit.

The Trib’s political blog, Clout Street, went on to elaborate that “[p]reviously, Quinn said he would consider higher taxes on wine and spirits but was lukewarm to an increase in the levy on beer, which is pegged at 2.6 cents per six pack.”

I still think a tax on sodas would be a much more productive solution to the government’s problem. I’m waiting to see where this goes, because without the beer tax, it may be harder to raise taxes on other liquors, so everyone wins.

Talk about kicking us when we’re down.

In the midst of the economic crisis, the Illiniois legislature is proposing a 2.6 cents per six-pack tax increase on beer sales, The Sun-Times reports.

The state wants to boost revenue to pay for a “multibillion dollar construction program.” 

Why doesn’t the state try to raise money by taxing soda? This idea is being floated in the U.S. Senate now, and it seems a bit more fair than increasing what is already an 18.5 cents state tax per gallon on beer. Chicago residents have it even rougher, as the beer tax per gallon is $0.16, and $0.06 in Cook county. 

There may be some sort of protest against a soda tax though: