Beer or Wine?

For most of my adult life I have considered myself a beer drinking man–namely, Bud Light (as you may have guessed from my recent critique of the new Bud Light Platinum). Recently, however, I have found myself growing a liking to wine. To say that beer and wine have a lot in common would be like saying Webster Dictionary and Urban Dictionary are one and the same. Let’s make a quick comparison of the two beverages:

Alcohol Content: On average, beer has an alcohol content of 4-6% by volume; whereas, wine usually ranges from 10.7-12.4%. The light beers are usually the beverages around 4% alcohol and the darker beers come in at 5-6%. In wine, it’s a little bit more complex. White wine, as a general rule, has a lower alcohol content than red wine. The alcohol content is also dependent on how dry the wine is (dry means bitter). I personally drink wine for the taste and its contribution to a meal. Thus, I prefer the sweeter, but soberer wines to the drier, difficult to ingest wines. There is one more twist to the alcohol content of wine: ice wine. It is frozen halfway through distilment, not only causing a sweeter than normal taste, but also elevating the alcohol content, which ranks at about 12.4%. If you really want to get crazy, there’s a special red wine, known as Port Wine. At 20%, its alcohol content is comparable to that of liquor.

Flavor: For those of you who have never had beer, you’re not really missing out on a whole lot when it comes to flavor. It’s an acquired taste; and how well it goes down depends on its overall intensity. Darker beers tend to pack more of a punch, and have a bitterer aftertaste. Beer is never really sweet; it goes from weak flavor (light beer) to strong flavor (dark beer). German beers are closest to what would be considered a sweet beer (German beer is pretty awesome). Wine, on the other hand, can be either very sweet and delicious, or extremely dry and often, in my opinion, foul tasting. Chardonnay is a dry, red wine. If you think beer is an acquired taste, have a bottle of cheap chardonnay. White wine, as a general rule, is sweeter than red wine. There are exceptions to this rule, just as there were exceptions to the alcohol content rule. Missouri red wine, for example, is usually very sweet because of the concord grapes used to make it.

Social Junctions: Wine is most famous for its place in upper-class society and romantic dinners. Beer, on the other hand, is most infamous for binge-drinking youth and out of control parties. Though beer’s image may be tainted, there is nothing wrong with drinking a couple brewskies during a football game–wine just wouldn’t feel right.

Health Hazards: Alcohol is a poison, which cannot be metabolized by the body. In order for your body to get rid of it, the liver breaks it down. Not only can it damage and destroy the liver if you excessively drink alcohol, but it can also damage other cells in the body–including brain cells. This is one of the reasons (among several) why binge drinking is strongly discouraged.

Health Benefits: Recent studies suggest drinking one to two 12oz glasses a day of either wine or beer–alcohol namely–can lower your risk of heart disease. Alcohol (in moderation) increases the amount of HDL (good cholesterol) in your blood stream, and also seems to benefit the lining of blood vessels, making them less likely to form clots. No clots means no stroke. I recall the last time I had my cholesterol checked my HDL was low. Little did I know I wasn’t drinking enough beer/wine.