Yes! Wine is not the only alcoholic beverage that offers some health benefits. In addition to reducing the risk of cardio-vascular disease (a quality of all alcoholic beverages, in moderation), BEER contains vitamins, flavonoids, and antioxidants.

Here’s the catch: you must pour out that mass market “Big Beer” (i.e. Coors, Miller, Budwiser, etc) and pick up a craft brew! While I will spare you my full rant on the superiority of craft beer, know this: craft beers have far greater health benefits. Moreover, craft beers that are darker, unpasteurized, and unfiltered, are better yet.

Why? The simple answer is that Big Beers are produced for mass market consumption by companies primarily (exclusively?) focused on making money. What this means in practice is that they use cheap “adjuncts” like corn and rice to provide the sugar necessary for fermentation (and cut back on barley, wheat, rye, etc…). As a result, the beer produced is lighter in color and lighter in flavour (i.e. watery).

You might be wondering what makes a beer a ‘craft beer.’ Brewmaster Greg Noonan says “Craft beer should mean natural beer brewed in a non-automated brewery of less than 50-barrel brew length, using traditional methods and premium, whole, natural ingredients, and no flavor-lessening adjuncts or extracts, additives or preservatives.”

Even more healthful, of course, are organic craft beers. Aside from the increasingly popular Wolavers, there are currently few offerings that satisfy the requirements to be certified organic. Are organic beers ‘ahead of the curve’? I think so. We’ll see more of them in the coming years as organic beer brewing ingredients are more widely available (the main ingredient that remains difficult to acquire organically is hops). For now, many breweries like Dogfish Head, are organic when the ingredients are available.

Additional Info:
http://www.breworganic.com/index.htm

http://www.bestnaturalfoods.com/newsletter/organic_beer.html