Chapter 6
[1] In 1604 King James I of England authorized the start of a new translation of the Bible into English. It took seven years to complete and became the standard version for English-speaking Protestants.
[2] The New International Version is a translation of the Bible made by more than 100 scholars and based on the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts. The idea originated in 1965 from a transdenominational group of international scholars meeting at Palos Heights, Illinois.
[3] Authentic Trappist beer is produced by six Trappist monasteries in Belgium and one in the Netherlands (the biggest).
[4] In the Jewish Purim festival, a meal called Se'udat Purim features the drinking of substantial quantities of wine. The Talmud (a collection of ancient Rabbinic writings) says that one should drink on Purim until one can no longer distinguish between the phrases, arur Haman (“Cursed is Haman”) and baruch Mordecai (“Blessed is Mordecai”).
[5] The Koran, which represents the words of Allah as delivered through Muhammad, is not chronological. Thus it appears that the approach to alcohol changed. Arabs had long since enjoyed their palm liquor. Early decrees from Muhammad said that no Muslim could attend prayers in a drunken condition and, as prayers were five times daily, this was certainly a force for temperance. However, the straw that broke the camel’s back (actually the lamb bone that broke a man’s head) was when a drunken youth hurled such a weapon at one Hazrat Saad Ibn Abi Waqqus as he recited inciteful poetry. Subsequently Muhammad was furnished by Allah with the words from Quran 5:90. And so alcohol was outlawed.
[7] One of my favorite baseball players was Jeff Kent. He was a marvelous hitter of a ball, and I thrilled to watch him batting alongside Barry Bonds in the order for the San Francisco Giants. Bonds was even more of a lethal weapon when he had Kent distracting the opposing pitchers. But there was a very real reason why I could identify with Kent, for he was a guy whose raison d’être was centered outside the sport, sure, he was technically superb, but he professed to not being particularly interested in the game. He could take it or leave it other than as a means to pay the mortgage. For him it was far more exciting to ride fast motorbikes and talk to folk about them at his shop in Texas. Baseball is to Jeff Kent what beer is to me. There will be some reading this book who will be appalled to read that, but they shouldn’t be. Beer is a vehicle for me; it is not an obsession. It is not beer that motivates me. Beer and brewing have been good to me: They have given me a decent standard of living, have taken me around the world several times, introduced me to some wonderful people. And I like to drink beer. But I am no “stamp collector” or “train spotter” when it comes to beer. You won’t see me in the liquor store, salivating as I pore over all the beers on display, desperate to try one that I have never tried before. By the same token, you won't find me eagerly searching out yet another brewery to visit and clamber through. Not long ago I was invited to say a few words at a home-brewer’s event in San Diego. The invitation implored me to come, for I was truly a “god-like entity” in the world of brewing. Flattering, indeed, and of course I turned up. But the prospect of tasting beer after beer after beer was not one that I relished, and indeed I eschewed the opportunity to judge. Often students pitch up at my office, eagerly clutching a beer. “I would like you to try this.” “And why should I?” I reply. “Because I brewed it.” “Which is precisely why I don't want to drink it!” Okay, it sounds mean, and of course I have a gentle smile on my face and I usually relent. But, truly, it is more chore and duty than anything else. Beer is not the be-all and end-all for me. Professionally, it is my medium—just as a sculptor will work with clay, an artist with paints. I work with beer as I do the thing that fills me with joy: teach. In truth, it would not matter what I was teaching. My joy is in the performing, the transfer of information, the exciting of others. I guess the equivalent for Jeff Kent was launching a ball out of Dodger Stadium, feeling the satisfaction of those he caters to as he trots round the bases. And then he goes home. And so I, too, come home, both physically and metaphorically. And very few people know what that home truly is for me. He is the guy alone in his favorite corner in the house. The music of Dean Evenson or Dechen Shak-Dagsay is gently drifting through the air, so too the waft of patchouli or sandalwood. He may be in a yoga pose, or sitting cross-legged on his burgundy zabuton in deep meditation, or he may be reading Osho, or Chodron, or the Dalai Lama, or many more. There may be a glass of whiskey or Southern Comfort to hand. He is the guy who eschews closing dinners at conferences to find a quiet restaurant, for a beer, some good food, and his book. It may be a Poirot. It may be a soccer biography. It may be Thich Nhat Hahn. It almost certainly won't be about beer. He is a man much more at peace and comfort in his solitude than among other people. His wife knows full well that he will rapidly exit a shop if it is thronged with people—the feelings of claustrophobia driving him to where he can be alone in his thoughts. Prancing about in front of 368 students in class at UC Davis is an act, a performance. Quiet moments alone with himself, or with the very few who are close to him, is when he can shed the falseness of others' expectations and find his quiet joy. I often quip when I am in company, “I'm shy—I don't like to talk to people.” Everybody falls apart. “Yeah, right!” I just smile, for I know I am being deadly serious. The reality is that I am quite content with solitude. Sometimes I think I should have been a monk.
1. Suffering exists.
2. Suffering arises from attachment to desires.
3. Suffering ceases when attachment to desire ceases.
4. Freedom from suffering is possible by practicing the Eightfold Path.
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The Eightfold Path: |
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1. |
Right View |
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2. |
Right Intention |
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3. |
Right Speech |
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4. |
Right Action |
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5. |
Right Livelihood |
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6. |
Right Effort |
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7. |
Right Mindfulness |
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8. |
Right Concentration |
[9] Right Livelihood. Right livelihood means that one should earn one's living in a righteous way and that wealth should be gained legally and peacefully. The Buddha mentions four specific activities that harm other beings and that one should avoid for this reason: 1. Dealing in weapons; 2. Dealing in living beings (including raising animals for slaughter, as well as slave trade and prostitution); 3. Working in meat production and butchery; and 4. Selling intoxicants and poisons, such as alcohol and drugs. Furthermore, any other occupation that would violate the principles of right speech and right action should be avoided (http://www.thebigview.com/buddhism/eightfoldpath.html).
[10] A fascinating account from a westerner living in Tibet before the Chinese invasion can be found in Heinrich Harrer's Seven Years in Tibet (Tarcher, 1996). It is quite clear how barley is a staple of the Tibetan existence— including in its fermented form.
[13] As this book is being completed, the author has launched a freshman seminar at UC Davis on Mindfulness and Alcohol, in which a small group of students are debating and dwelling upon issues such as advertising, religion, societal impacts, and more on the perception of alcohol and its role, for better or worse.
[14] It is Dr. Jonathan Powell of the MRC Collaborative Center for Human Nutrition Research in Cambridge (http://www.mrc-hnr.cam.ac.uk/research/Research-Sections/biomineral-research.html) who has drawn particular attention to the relevance of silicon to bodily well-being, including bone health. Our work in Davis on silicon in beer can be found in Casey, T. R. and Bamforth, C. W. (2010) “Silicon in Beer and Brewing.” Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, 90, 784-788.
[16] Bitters. Strongly alcoholic drinks containing plant extracts affording bitterness; for example, angostura.
[17] As Divine highlights (Divine, R. A., Breen, T. H., Fred-erickson G. M., and Williams R. H. [1987] America Past and Present, 2nd Edition, Scott Foresman and Co., Glenview, IL), the temperance movement grew in response to very real societal problems, due not least to the fact that homemade and (later) commercial whiskey was cheaper than milk and even beer. While families were imbibing whiskey at the dining table, the consumption of spirits was three times higher per head than it is today.
[19] The Volstead Act was named for Andrew Volstead (1860-1947), who was a Republican representative from Minnesota and who, as chair of the House Judiciary Committee, oversaw the passage of the bill that introduced national Prohibition. The bill had been conceived and drafted by Wayne Wheeler (1869-1927), an attorney and zealot within the Anti-Saloon League. Justin Steuart, once publicity chief to the latter, wrote in his Wayne Wheeler, Dry Boss: An Uncensored Biography of Wayne B. Wheeler (New York: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1928): “Wayne B. Wheeler controlled six congresses, dictated to two presidents of the United States, directed legislation in most of the States of the Union, picked the candidates for the more important elective state and federal offices, held the balance of power in both Republican and Democratic parties, distributed more patronage than any dozen other men, supervised a federal bureau from outside without official authority, and was recognized by friend and foe alike as the most masterful and powerful single individual in the United States.”
The Volstead Act read (in part):
Title 1. To provide for the enforcement of war prohibition.
The term “War Prohibition Act” used in this Act shall mean the provisions of any Act or Acts prohibiting the sale and manufacture of intoxicating liquors until the conclusion of the present war and thereafter until the termination of demobilization, the date of which shall be determined and proclaimed by the President of the United States. The words “beer, wine, or other intoxicating malt or vinous liquors” in the War Prohibition Act shall be hereafter construed to mean any such beverages which contain one-half of 1 per centum or more of alcohol by volume:…
Title 2. Prohibition of intoxicating beverages.
Sec. 3. No person shall on or after the date when the eighteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States goes into effect, manufacture, sell, barter, transport, import, export, deliver, furnish or possess any intoxicating liquor except as authorized in this Act, and all the provisions of this Act shall be liberally construed to the end that the use of intoxicating liquor as a beverage may be prevented. Liquor for non-beverage purposes and wine for sacramental purposes may be manufactured, purchased, sold, bartered, transported, imported, exported, delivered, furnished, and possessed, but only as herein provided, and the commissioner may, upon application, issue permits therefore.
Sec. 6. No one shall manufacture, sell, purchase, transport, or prescribe any liquor without first obtaining a permit from the commissioner so to do, except that a person may, without a permit, purchase and use liquor for medicinal purposes when prescribed by a physician as herein provided, and except that any person who in the opinion of the commissioner is conducting a bona fide hospital or sanitarium engaged in the treatment of persons suffering from alcoholism, may, under such rules, regulations, and conditions as the commissioner shall prescribe, purchase and use, in accordance with the methods in use in such institution liquor, to be administered to the patients of such institution under the direction of a duly qualified physician employed by such institution.
Sec. 7. No one but a physician holding a permit to prescribe liquor shall issue any prescription for liquor. And no physician shall prescribe liquor unless after careful physical examination of the person for whose use such prescription is sought, or if such examination is found impracticable, then upon the best information obtainable, he in good faith believes that the use of such liquor as a medicine by such person is necessary and will afford relief to him from some known ailment…
Sec. 18. It shall be unlawful to advertise, manufacture, sell, or possess for sale any utensil, contrivance, machine, preparation, compound, tablet, substance, formula direction, recipe advertised, designed, or intended for use in the unlawful manufacture of intoxicating liquor…
Sec. 21. Any room, house, building, boat, vehicle, structure, or place where intoxicating liquor is manufactured, sold, kept, or bartered in violation of this title, and all intoxicating liquor and property kept and used in maintaining the same, is hereby declared to be a common nuisance, and any person who maintains such a common nuisance shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction thereof shall be fined not more than $1,000 or be imprisoned for not more than one year, or both..
Sec. 25. It shall be unlawful to have or possess any liquor or property designed for the manufacture of liquor intended for use in violating this title or which has been so used, and no property rights shall exist in any such liquor or property…No search warrant shall issue to search any private dwelling occupied as such unless it is being used for the unlawful sale of intoxicating liquor, or unless it is in part used for some business purposes such as a store, shop, saloon, restaurant, hotel, or boarding house..
Sec. 29. Any person who manufactures or sells liquor in violation of this title shall for a first offense be fined not more than $1,000, or imprisoned not exceeding six months, and for a second or subsequent offense shall be fined not less than $200 nor more than $2,000 and be imprisoned not less than one month nor more than five years. Any person violating the provisions of any permit, or who makes any false record, report, or affidavit required by this title, or violates any of the provisions of this title, for which offense a special penalty is not prescribed, shall be fined for a first offense not more than $500; for a second offense not less than $100 nor more than $1,000, or be imprisoned not more than ninety days; for any subsequent offense he shall be fined not less than $500 and be imprisoned not less than three months nor more than two years..
[20] So-called “3-2” beer. It is, of course, 4 percent ABV. Because 1mL of ethanol weighs 0.70g, ABV is higher than alcohol by weight (ABW).
[21] Among F. D. Roosevelt's other quotations are
I sometimes think that the saving grace of America lies in the fact that the overwhelming majority of Americans are possessed of two great qualities—a sense of humor and a sense of proportion.
We must remember that any oppression, any injustice, any hatred, is a wedge designed to attack our civilization.
[22] Anti-alcohol organizations in the US:
Mothers Against Drunk Driving (www.madd.org) Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (www.rwjf.org)
Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (www.casacolumbia.org)
Marin Institute (www.marininstitute.org)
Center for Science in the Public Interest (www.cspinet.org)
Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth (http://camy.org)
Office of Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse (www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/physician-resources/publichealth/promoting-healthy-lifestyles/alcohol-other-drug-abuse.shtml)
Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (http://prevention.samhsa.gov)
American Council on Alcohol Problems (http://www.calcap.org/Home.asp)
[23] Joseph Anthony Califano, Jr., was among other things a special assistant to President Lyndon B. Johnson, serving as the senior domestic policy aide.
[24] They refer here to an article in the New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/16/health/16alco.html?_r=3) which says, for example:
For some scientists, the question will not go away. No study, these critics say, has ever proved a causal relationship between moderate drinking and lower risk of death—only that the two often go together It may be that moderate drinking is just something healthy people tend to do, not something that makes people healthy.
Even if it were true that there is no causal link between alcohol consumption and health (and the journalist has hardly presented a balanced case—see Chapter 8, “Looks Good, Tastes Good, and.”), then at the very least the inference is that moderate consumption of alcohol does not detract from a healthy existence. The article makes plenty of play on the source of funding for the studies that claim benefits from drinking. It is an obvious pitfall—the risk of being perceived as being self-serving. However, could one not equally argue that the millions devoted to attacking the alcohol industry, underpinning somewhat jaundiced and unbalanced rhetoric, are equally disingenuous?
[25] And I contend that beer is very much a “foodstuff’— see, for example, Bamforth, C. W. (2004) Beer: Health and Nutrition, Blackwell, Oxford.
[26] C. K. Robertson edited a fascinating book called Religion and Alcohol (Peter Lang, New York, 2004) in which, among other things, there is a reasoned critique of the extreme religious stance that wherever wine is referred to in the Bible, it is actually nonalcoholic grape juice. The book starts with reference to the Inklings, a group of authors including J. R. R. Tolkien (Lord of The Rings) and C. S. Lewis (Chronicles of Narnia), who would socialize over beer in an Oxford pub. Tolkien once said of Lewis “(he) put away three pints in a very short session we had this morning and said he was 'going short for Lent.'” Ignatius, the third Bishop of Antioch wrote: “Do not altogether abstain from wine and flesh, for these things are not to be viewed with abhorrence, since the Scripture says, You shall eat the good things of the earth.. .wine makes glad the heart of man, and oil exhilarates, and bread strengthens him. But all are to be used with moderation, as being the gifts of God. For who shall eat or who shall drink without Him? For if anything be beautiful, it is His; and if anything be good, it is His.” I take the liberty of interpreting the word wine more liberally to mean alcoholic beverages.