More Americans Brew at Home

(NEWSER) - The ever-adventurous US microbrewing community has embraced a new flavor, the Los Angeles Times reports, and it’s sour. Brewers are taking a page from the Belgian playbook and turning out tart lambics and gueuzes aged in oak barrels. “Sour beers are our connection to the ancient history of beer,” one aficionado says. “Someone was drinking a similar beverage dating back to the 6th millennium BC.” More»

Senate moves to OK booze-by-mail 103 years later

(NEWSER) - The Senate has an idea to help save the Postal Service: Let people mail alcohol. After all, FedEx and UPS carry the stuff all the time. But a law from 1909—established 10 years before Prohibition came into effect—bars the Postal Service from shipping "all spirituous, vinous, malted, fermented, or other intoxicating liquors of any kind." Dumping the law, as new Senate-passed legislation would do, could be particularly helpful to the USPS in these days of online shopping, Time reports. More»

Study shows it makes you better at bar games, anyway

(NEWSER) - You know how you get when you've got a couple pints in you: You stumble a bit, talk too loudly, and completely rock at brainteasers. A new study suggests that downing a little beer actually improves some cognitive functions. Researchers at the University of Illinois in Chicago got a group of 40 men to compete in a bar game in which they were given three words, and asked to come up with a fourth that fit the pattern, the New York Daily News reports. More»

Legislation could cost heavy drinkers hundreds per year

(NEWSER) - Britain's heaviest drinkers could soon find themselves paying an extra $200 a year for booze. Despite resistance from his health secretary—and despite his own limited-government philosophy—David Cameron is today announcing a plan to set a minimum price of 40p, or about 63 cents, per unit of alcohol, the Guardian reports. The prime minister also plans to bar supermarkets from some bulk deals on drinks. The Guardian found that would raise the price of 20 cans of Stella Artois (the equivalent of 44 units of booze) at one store from $16 to $28. More»

Chicago-area stores to offer booze, entertainment

(NEWSER) - There's still no chance of getting an Irish coffee in Starbucks, but beer and wine will soon be available in up to seven of the coffee chain's Chicago-area outlets. Following a model first introduced in Seattle and Portland, Starbucks aims to boost traffic in the evenings by offering beer and wine, as well as plate snacks like bread with olive oil and live music and poetry readings in some stores, the Chicago Tribune reports. The boozy new locations are set to open by the end of next year. More»