I love having a nice beer while hanging out with family waiting for the bird to cook. A glass of wine goes so well with dinner when it’s ready too. You also can’t forget about toasting in the New Year. Alcohol and this time of the year just seem to go together. Everyone seems to be offering you another beer or glass of wine or egg nog or peppermint schnops or Irish coffee or glass of scotch (I’m getting thirsty).

I want to remind you though that your relationship with Jesus is more important than your next drink. With the spirits flowing so easily this time of year it’s east to abuse it (especially if your drunk uncle is egging you on). Your sin can easily be compounded by the fact that you are around friends and family. Not only to do you sin by getting drunk, but you ruin your witness.

Therefore, remember to stop and think before you take Uncle Bubba up on that next round of drinks. It’s not a sin to enjoy a nice cold one, but it is a sin to get drunk…plus no one wants to see your Santa Claus underwear again this year.

As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. – 1 Timothy 6:17

Paul drops this simple phrase at the end of this verse like a bomb on my feeble mind. Everything that God provides me with is for me to enjoy.  I’m not suppose to trust in what God provides or to place my hopes on them but on God.  But it is clear in this verse that God desires for us to enjoy His creation.

One of the earliest and first heresies that entered the church was the concept that everything physical is evil. They believed that Jesus couldn’t have been both man and God. He was either a spirit or just a man.  Therefore a truely holy person would never enjoy anything of this earth. They would deny themselves and wouldn’t enjoy what God has clearly provided for us.

I see this still today.  Whether said with words or actions, the mainstream Christian point of view is that it is wrong to enjoy creation.  Someone is truely holy when they deny themselves of everything earthly and focus only on prayer and reading their Bible.  But I would say that this is just a continuation of that early heresy.

I see scripture saying quite the opposite though.  When God is done with creating, He says it’s very good.  He tells His creation to eat of every tree (except on…but even it was considered good to the eye and edible).  He rejoices in them taking pleasure in His creation.

One of the best ways that I see that I can glorify God with my beer drinking is by simply enjoying the beer that I’m drinking. I do so in a way that I don’t put any trust, hope, or faith in beer. But I enjoy my beer knowing that it came from my creator.  I enjoy my beer knowing that God is the Brew Master.

I end each Beer Tip of the Week with the verse, “whether you eat or drink, do it all to the glory of God.”  But what does that mean…how do we drink to the glory of God? How can someone be a God glorifying beer drinker.  I hope that I have given you some insight into this arena here already, but I hope to be more focused on this topic over the next few weeks in a series on the God glorifying beer drinker (I honestly have no idea how many posts I’ll do on this).

Here is my major concept that I live by (most of the time). There are things in this world that can be used to either do evil or do good.  Photography, sex, sleeping, running, watching tv, graphics design, surfing the net, eating and drinking are all neutral in and of themselves.  Therefore they can be used to either glorify God or drag His name through the mud.  Therefore I want to try to use everything in my life to glorify God.  I want everything that is neutral in my life to be used to point myself and others to Jesus.

But the major question is how do we do this?  How do I drink beer to the glory of God?  I have some major thoughts on this, but before I start posting on this I want to pose this question to you….do you glorify God with your drinking?  Have you even thought about how to glorify God with your passion for beer?  Do you think it is even possible?

As I’ve stated on this blog before, it isn’t a sin for a person to drink beer.  But it doesn’t take very much time in the bible to figure out that getting intoxicated is a sin.  The abuse and overuse of alcohol does constitute as a disconnection between us and Jesus.  So this poses the question, “How many beers can I drink before I get drunk?” (the wording my be a little off on this question but the main thought is…how many beers = drunk)

If you didn’t know, I work for UPS doing sales.  I sale the services that UPS provide, mainly shipping.  One of the most common questions I get from customers is, “How much does it cost to ship with UPS?”  Every time I get asked this question, it takes a lot of self-control to not start laughing hysterically in their face.  There are so many variables that go into determining the cost to ship a package (weight, distance, level of service, size of package, additional charges, ect.). The answer isn’t cut and dry.  The same goes for how many beers it takes for a person to get drunk.

I worked my way through college as a waiter at a steak and sea food joint (one of three jobs).  In order to work there, I had to get licensed to serve alcohol in the state of New Mexico.  The majority of the class was spent learning how to tell if someone was intoxicated.  Just like the cost for shipping, the variables that go into telling if someone is drunk are numerous:

• How many drinks?
• How much time was between each drink?
• What is the persons height?
• How much do they weigh?
• Did they eat anything?
• Are they male or female?

We could go into the intricacies of how these variables work together to determine whether or not you are intoxicated.  But here are some simple things to keep in mind.

1. Your liver can process one drink of alcohol per hour (one single shot, one glass of wine, one glass of beer).  Therefore, the faster you drink the more likely you are to get drunk.  Space out your drinks and you will be less likely to get drunk.
2. The bigger you are…the more area the alcohol has to cover.  Therefore, the larger you are…the more you can drink before you get drunk.
3. If you have food in your stomach, it slows down how fast the alcohol gets into your system.  Therefore if you eat before you drink, you can drink more.

Those are some general rules. But the main rule is to just know your own body.  I’ve known 6’5″ guys that get smashed with one drink, and I know 5’7″ women who could drink Ted Kennedy under the table.  Each person needs to know and set their own limit.  For instance I generally don’t drink more than two beers in an hour.  I know that if i get over that amount that I’m starting to push it.  I feel light headed and loose a little bit of physical control.  So I just keep to two drinks an hour.

So how many beers can you drink before you get drunk?  That’s a good question and one that you need to figure out for yourself.

If you eat enough Mexican food, you’ll start to realize that everything is the same four ingredients just used in different amounts and order. Beer is pretty much the same way. You might have someone who will get a little creative and add some fruit, but the basic ingredients for beer is barley, water, hops, and yeast. They might use different quantities of these ingredients or prepare the ingredients in a different. But the ingredients will pretty much always be barley, water, hops, and yeast.

The reason for this can probably be traced back to the Reinheitsgebot. Hang out in the world of beer and it won’t be long before you hear the word Reinheitsgebot. Reinheitsgebot, otherwise know as the German Beer Purity Law, is the oldest food quality regulation in the world. The law defined what ingredients were allowed to go into beer.

The law that was put in place in 1516 stated that the only ingredients that could be in a beer were barley, water, and hops (yeast was later added in the 1800′s when Louis Pasteur discovered the role of microorganisms in the process). The law was actually put into place to help hinder competition between breweries and bakeries for wheat and rye thus driving up the price. It also made sure that hops was used as the preservative for beer and not substandard ingredients like soot.

Now not everyone abides to the German Purity law. You will hear about wheat beer, fruit beer, and other beers that replace barley with the respectable ingredient mentioned in their title. They still fall under the category of beer. They just don’t follow the standard ingredients hence the addition of the added ingredient to the title of beer.

So if you’ve ever wondered what is in you beer, now you know and knowings half the battle.

G.I. Joe!

photo by: Penningtron

I got an email from Brad Ruggles (of BradRuggles.com go check him out) asking the following questions:

On a side-note, have you thought about reviewing any micro-breweries around the country or having readers submit reviews? I came across a neat one in Nashville when I was there a couple of weeks ago that I might hit again on the way back. I would also like to know if there are any others around the country I could hit on my travels. Do you know of a blog/web site that has these kind of reviews?

At the moment I don’t know of any good sites for this (if you have any leave them in the comments below). Originally, I had thought about doing reviews of local pubs, bars, and micro-breweries. But there isn’t much of a demand for knowing about where to get your drink on in Albuquerque.

So here is the challenge. Send me the reviews of your favorite place to get a drink. Here is the info that I will need:

• Name
• Address
• Web Site (if they have one)
• What beers do they carry (brewed on location, local only, domestic, imports, everything under the sun)
• If they brew their own beer, give us the best beers to try
• Whats good to eat
• What makes it your favorite place to go
• At least one picture of the place (preferably with you in it)
• Any other good information about the place (history, best/worst times to go, owners names, inside info, ect.)

When you get your review all together nice and neat like, you can email it to “reviews [at] thebeerean.com” (of course you need to format the address the proper way changing [at] to @ and taking out the spaces). I will then put your review on the site (ok some might not make it due to unforeseen reasons, but pretty much all of them will make it out). Depending on how many I get and how often, I’ll probably try to space them out a little bit.

There are some plugins out there for WordPress that will let you plot your posts on a map. I’ll do the leg work on finding the right one, and then I’ll post your reviews with them also having a place on the map. Then we can easily find a good place to get a beer no matter where we are (well unless someone hasn’t done a review for that area).