inside the liquor lab

1966: From a paper by a forensic scientist at the Welsh National School of Medicine in Cardiff: "A 52-year-old nightwatchman was required to climb a short ladder and inspect thermometers which were suspended in a vat of beer. Some months earlier he had been rebuked for allowing his electric torch to fall into the beer. One morning his clothes, except for his socks, were found in a pile. On the surface of the beer there was a layer of carbon dioxide foam about 15 inches deep. The vat was drained and the man's body found wedged against some heating coils; he had drowned. It was deduced that he had allowed his torch or spectacles to fall into the beer and undressed and dove in to retrieve it. It is likely that his death was in part due to surfacing into the layer of foam." (Medicine, Science and the Law)

1968: A doctor in St. Louis reported a case of "beer drinker's finger," in which a woman had placed the pop-top rings from several cans of beer over her left ring finger and could not remove them. "Questioning the patient about the nature of the metallic rings on her finger showed her memory to be somewhat clouded." (Journal of the American Medical Association)

1970: Researchers in Texas injected 64 mice with Smirnoff vodka or Schenley's Golden Light bourbon (eight year old). Nine of the mice managed to stay awake. (Quarterly Journal of Studies on Alcohol)

1975: Scientists reported that of 57 people in Tehran who drank a batch of hooch, 17 died and two became blind. (Forensic Science)

-- Big gap. People were smoking dope. --

1987: Researchers asked 13 men and women to spend three nights in a sleep lab. On one night they drank orange juice, on another night they drank scotch and on the third night they drank vodka. They found that the subjects didn't sleep as well after they drank alcohol. (Archives of Internal Medicine)

1993: Researchers at a Bronx hospital reported that beer makes you more drunk during or after a meal while whisky makes you more drunk when you haven't eaten. (Alcoholism, Clinical and Experimental Research)

1994: Scientists found a Canadian man who, in blind taste tests, not only correctly identified 50 of 51 samples as whiskey or brandy but also knew the brand of every whiskey. (British Medical Journal)

1995: A study of 12,145 people found that those people who drank wine tended to be skinnier and those who drank beer tended to be fatter. (American Journal of Epidemiology)

1998: University of California researchers recruited 12 volunteers to evaluate the thirst-quenching characteristics of 18 beers. The scientists concluded that "a principal component analysis of the mean ratings indicated that variability among beers was mostly along a thirst-quenching dimension." (Appetite)

1998: Three researchers from Stanford gave breath tests to 747 baseball fans during the fifth inning and determined that most of the 41 percent who were already drunk were age 35 or younger. (Annals of Emergency Medicine)

1998: A business professor at the University of San Diego calculated that increasing the tax on beer lowers the demand for marijuana. (Journal of Health Economics)

2002: Thirteen researchers from the University of Utah tested the carbon isotope ratios of 160 beers. They found that inexpensive beer generally contains more C(4) carbon than expensive beer. (Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry)

2002: Danish scientists discovered that the energy intake from goulash is higher when eaten with wine and beer than with soda. (International Journal of Obesity and Related Metabological Disorders)

2002: In a study of 4272 professors and students at five Spanish universities, researchers found no correlation between drinking beer and spirits and catching a cold. However, they found that those who drank wine, particularly red wine, had fewer colds. (American Journal of Epidemiology)

2003: "A 31-year-old man was admitted to the emergency room with severe abdominal pain. Persistent exploration of the patient's history disclosed a visit to the Munich Octoberfest the night before, during which he had ingested a condom filled with beer." No further explanation is offered. (American Journal of Gastroenterology)