beer

We have been drinking beer on the beach all our lives to cool off. Science warns of great danger to our body

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On any summer afternoon, the beaches and terraces are filled with people seeking refuge from the high temperatures, and the instinct of the vast majority is to order a cold beer. This classic drink in Spain gives a false sensation of immediate coolness and temporary relief, but here the question we must ask ourselves is: is it really useful to drink it to alleviate the sensation of heat? A myth. Given this classic scene, science suggests that it is a bad idea to have a beer to quench thirst, since alcohol causes exactly the opposite by triggering a response that dehydrates us. And this is explained by a fundamental hormone called vasopressin or antidiuretic hormone. As its name indicates, its function is to retain water in the kidneys when the body needs it because it is dehydrated, and alcohol suppresses it almost immediately. And it is something proven, since studies show that ethanol blocks the release of vasopressinpointing out that after ingesting alcohol, an acute drop in this hormone is observed in the bloodstream. This causes the kidneys to stop reabsorbing fluids and begin to expel water at a rapid rate to promote the production of urine and, therefore, the loss of fluids. an experiment key here demonstrated that the subjects studied lost up to 0.9 kg of water weight in just two hours. That is, for every beer you drink to “hydrate” your body expels more liquid than it consumes. And this is a context of heat and high sweating; It is a one-way ticket to a state of dehydration if you do not also drink water. The broken thermostat. The second big problem with drinking alcohol in the sun is thermal. Alcohol is a powerful vasodilator and this means that it widens the blood vessels, bringing more blood to the surface of the skin, which produces that typical facial flushing and sudden feeling of heat when we drink. And although at first the breeze on the skin may make us feel cooler, we are actually compromising our ability to regulate internal temperature. A model published in International Journal of Legal Medicine demonstrated that drinking alcohol before facing a high temperature environment drastically worsens the body’s response. Alcohol literally “hacks” the brain nuclei responsible for thermoregulation, activating abnormal responses of the body to heat. Water is the best. Drinking a cold beer has logically become socially rooted in our society, but when you are thirsty and have been sweating for a long time, it is best to hydrate with water first. And this also confirms that there is no alcohol that is “safe” from a medical point of view. Non-alcoholic beer can be an option since, since it is composed mainly of water and lacks alcohol, it does not have an effect on our antidiuretic hormone. Images | Nicolas Postiglioni In Xataka | Generation Z is reinventing the way they drink alcohol, but there is something that remains untouched: the stigma of teetotalling

The people from Cruzcampo had to come to explain to us how to drink beer

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There are few things more closely linked to summer than the gesture of taking a frosted glass out of the freezer and filling it with beer. And honestly, it’s fascinating. Not only because no one is quite clear why this movement has become so popular, but because for years sommeliers and brewmasters have said that it is not a good idea. The last one was Francisco Javier Soriano, one of the people behind the beer that grows the most in Spaindeclaring “totally enemy of the frozen glass because it breaks the cold temperature of the beer”. A lot of memes, a lot of jokes, but it happened: the people from Cruzcampo had to come and explain how to drink beer. Wait, wait… breaking the temperature of the beer? Here are at least three ideas complicating the physics of the matter. The first is obvious: the frozen glass supercools the beer. A priori, each formulation of this drink is optimized for a specific temperature and putting it in -18 degree glasses is something that no brewery takes into account. In a world like ours, where the temperature consistency of drinks in summer leaves much to be desired, the trend for frozen glasses is understandable. But it has costs: in the end, the TRPM5 taste receptor needs heat to activate. If the drink is very cold, we don’t feel it. The second idea goes hand in hand with the latter: the aroma also disappears. The colder the beer is, the fewer bubbles it lets out and that means there are less “organoleptic effluvia” traveling to our nose and rounding out the experience. The third was the one added by another brewmaster, Xabier Cubillo, when he said that “It is very refreshing, but the aromas are no longer noticeable and the foam falls off sooner”. “Let people enjoy things.” That’s clear: let everyone drink their beer however they like. Our intention, in addition to pointing out that “the more we know about alcohol, the more dangerous it seems”is simply inviting us to reflect on why we are drinking beer. Given that beer does not hydrate and is not healthyit is reasonable to think that we drink beer because we like it. That is, because we want to enjoy the flavor, aroma and texture of the product. And if so, we must keep in mind that “extremely cold” kills everything interesting that the drink may have. Now, if what we want is an extremely cold drink for the summer, there is not much more to add. Spain is, today, the second largest beer producer in the European Union. That was about 41.29 million hectoliters in 2024 and, when it comes to consumption, we drink 52.8 liters per person per year. And the market, little by little, begins to follow in the footsteps of wine trying to hide the risks of alcohol with culture. But if we want to follow that path, it wouldn’t hurt to be consistent. And, in that sense, frozen cane in summer is not a mistake. That’s why it doesn’t matter what sommeliers, brewers or journalists say. Frozen beer is a choice: one that prioritizes cold over flavor. And it is not a bad decision, as long as we do not fool ourselves and are aware of what we are doing and what we are losing. Image | CCALM 2016 Zombie Party In Xataka | Spain can tell itself as many times as it wants that it hates Cruzcampo. The figures say a very different thing

non-alcoholic beer capable of getting drunk

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Friday. Eight in the afternoon. You are on a terrace in the center with your friends and you want to have a drink a couple of rods (maybe a couple of cupping) to take advantage of the sun of a retreating summer, but the mere idea of the Hangover of the next morning and having alcohol ruin a good part of your weekend puts you back, so you end up ordering a ‘without’ beer. Another one. But… What if there was an IPA or a ‘without’ liquor capable of giving you a touch of euphoria and disinhibition, all without a single drop of alcohol, hangovers or the risk of ending up developing an addiction? That is the curious promise that a British laboratory has launched. What has happened? That at a delicate moment for the alcohol industry, marked by the demand drop in key markets, a generational change clear in the consumption of drinks and a growing interest For ‘without’ beers or wines, there are those who already want to go several steps further and reach the ‘holy grail’ of the drink. Which? Neither more nor less than squaring the circle: liquors and beers that are alcohol-free but capable of intoxicating. Or at least to give those who consume them that point of disinhibition and euphoria that is sought in the bottles. Who is behind? The key name in that race is David Nutta neuroscientist with extensive research experience who has spent decades exploring how drugs, addiction and anxiety affect the brain. Nutt recognize that the drink offers certain advantages on a social level, but hopes that people can enjoy their drinks in a safer and healthier way, avoiding risks such as addiction, cirrhosis or aggressive behavior. Convinced that it can be achieved, years ago he co-founded GABA Labsa firm that starts from an ambitious promise: “Give social drinkers what they want from alcohol without the alcohol.” The team is working to bring a patented molecule called Alcarellean odorless, tasteless, colorless compound that acts as “an ingredient designed to promote socialization and relaxation.” Its purpose, clarify from Bloomberg, is to amplify the effects of gamma-aminobutyric acid, a neurotransmitter that transmits chemical messages to nerve cells to tell the brain to relax. The company has also proposed another ambitious goal: that your creation surpasses traditional alcohol without being addictive. Not only that. In the interviews that Nutt usually talks about effects similar to those of spirits without the hangover the next day. And how are they doing? In your website GABA Labs specifies that its goal is for Alcarelle and derived products to be available in the US starting in 2028, although in an interview granted a few months ago to Bloomberg Nutt confessed that he hopes the compound will be commercially available before the end of 2027. Last January Independent influenced on the same schedule: the idea is that Alcarelle completes its FDA tests this year and can be exploited in 2027. Since it was founded almost a decade ago, GABA Lab has been searching for molecules capable of acting on GABA receptors of the brain to achieve the desired results (and avoid the unwanted ones), which has led them to develop dozens of different options. “It’s about testing and refining,” the scientist acknowledges. Right now the laboratory has three ‘finalist’ molecules and hopes to soon opt for the most promising to advance its research and development. Your work is already generating a huge expectation. Statista chart. Have they released anything yet? Yes. To check the results of GABA you won’t have to wait that long. In 2021, the company launched a drink in small quantities in the United Kingdom and some time later in the United States. Your name: I felt. The brew does not include still the molecule that GABA is pursuing, but it is made with natural ingredients that aim to offer a preview of Nutt’s plans. Its creators they present it as an alternative for customers “tired of choosing between alcohol or non-alcoholic who are looking for a functional beverage that enhances their social connection.” A different ‘without’ beer? That’s the latest promise from the Nutt team. In 2025 the EFE agency echoed of the launch of a ‘without’ beer capable of generating in those who drink it a disinhibition similar to that of the traditional drink. Your business name: Gabyr. “It provides the same effects that people look for in a drink, relaxation, sociability, but with a much lower impact than alcohol,” claims the co-founder of the laboratory from Hemel Hempsetad, on the outskirts of London, which is where the drink is manufactured, according to the agency. The team is also already working on a whiskey and a wine. Why is it important? For several reasons. First, because of what it promises. Although at the moment it is basically about that (promises and declarations of intent), in your interviews Nutt insists that his goal is ambitious: he is pursuing a range of ‘without’ drinks that offer what many social drinkers look for in their drinks: disinhibition and a touch of euphoria. Everything, he insists, with an alternative not addictive neither hangovers. It is drunk and in theory the effects arrive after 20 minutes. That of course leaves some interesting questions raised in different areas. How to deal with it at a regulatory level? How would it influence driving? And how could authorities monitor its use? with breathalyzers? Does it have side effects? In an interview with BloombergKenneth Sher, a professor at the University of Missouri, admits that it is difficult for him to imagine a substitute for alcohol “based exclusively on GABA.” Another academic, Jim Cook, is also wary of possible side effects, such as drowsiness or memory loss. Is there more? Yes. Behind Nutt’s proposal there is more than just scientific interest. The lucrative alcohol industry has experienced important changes over the last decades, and although the trend it’s not the same (not even equally intense) in all markets, there are certain patterns … Read more

The most drunk beer brands in each autonomous community of Spain, gathered on this map

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Beer does not pass through his best moment in Spain, but that does not mean that ours continues to be a country of reeds in which per capita consumption exceeds on average 50 liters. Yeah we go down to detail and we analyze what brand those rods or bottles are, however, things change from one community to another. In Galicia and the Balearic Islands Estrella Galicia reigns, in Andalusia Cruz Campo does it, in Catalonia Estrella Damm and in the Valencian Community and Cantabria Amstel. There is, however, one logo that dominates a good part of the map: Mahou. What has happened? That we have a new ‘photo’ of the beer sector in Spain. It does not show us data per capita consumptionevolution of demand or billing of the sector, but it does give us a clue about another equally interesting topic: the struggle between brands at a territorial level. He latest report ‘Brand Footprint’, prepared by Worldpanel by Numerator and published by Mahou San Miguel itself, reveals two interesting facts about the Spanish map. The first is that it remains highly segmented at a territorial level, with brands consolidated by region. The second is that, despite this diverse scenario, there is one brand that clearly leads: Mahou. Worldpanel by Numerator report. What exactly does it show? The Worldpanel by Numerator (formerly Kantar) report basically shows which brand is “the most chosen” in each autonomous community. To find out, the technicians carried out a survey with a “representative” sample of 12,500 homes spread throughout Spain, including the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands. The result, which you can see in the map that heads this post, is that Mahou leads in Asturias, Navarra, Castilla y León, Castilla-La Mancha, Community of Madrid and Extremadura. And the rest of the country? It is dominated by brands that have become strong at a territorial level. Estrella Galicia stands out, for example, in Galicia and the Balearic Islands, Amstel in Cantabria and the Valencian Community, San Miguel in the Basque Country, Estrella de Levante in the Region of Murcia, Cruzcampo in Andalusia, Estrella Damm in Catalonia, Ambar in Aragon and Cerveza Tropical in the Canary Islands. The question remains as to what is happening in La Rioja. There the sample did not allow the authors of the report to reach a clear conclusion. It is not a bad balance for Mahou, who wanted to emphasize that the Worldpanel study proves that the brand has strengthened its presence “throughout the national territory” and maintains leadership in half a dozen regions. If compared with the 2025 study The firm loses the leadership of Cantabria in favor of Amstel and takes over Navarra, a territory that San Miguel controlled last year. The Madrid company also boasts of the weight of its brand in the shopping basket, establishing itself as one of the most popular in its branch. But… And Galicia star? The Worldpanel by Numerator map may catch your attention if you remember another on the same topic published in September and produced by Data Centric. It showed a ‘photograph’ quite differentwith Mahou based mainly in the Community of Madrid and Castilla-La Mancha and Estrella Galicia monopolizing Galicia, Asturias, Castilla y León, Extremadura, Cantabria, the Basque Country, Navarra, La Rioja, the Valencian Community, the Balearic Islands and Melilla. What is the reason for this difference? To focus. Because? Although both reports are based on a quantitatively similar sample (DataCentric conducts 14,053 digital surveys), they do not seek exactly the same thing. The Worldpanel study points to “the most chosen beer” by Spaniards. DataCentric “favorite brands”. In his report he states in fact that the Hijos de Rivera brand receives “42% of the votes” compared to 14% for Mahou and leaves behind a reflection: despite how well positioned both Estrella Galicia and Alhambra are in their ranking, this status of “favorite brands” does not then translate to sales. “Both have significantly lower positions.” If we look at billing, for example, the business ranking of theEconomist shows that Mahou is in the lead, followed by Damm, Heineken and in fourth position Hijos de Rivera, the parent company of Estrella Galicia or 1906. In general, both the DataCentric and Worldpanel reports should be taken for what they are: studies with their strengths and weaknesses that help to better understand a sector that faces a challenging landscape. Although Spain is one of the EU countries that consume more beerthe industry deals with a youth that is changing their consumption habits and approach to alcohol and a market in which they are gaining more and more strength ‘without’ drinks. Via | DAP Image | Mahou-San Miguel In Xataka | Young people are stopping drinking beer like crazy. That’s why Mahou wants to sell you water as cosmetics

Young people are stopping drinking beer like crazy. That’s why Mahou wants to sell you water as cosmetics

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On May 28, social networks in Spain woke up flooded with pink, lychee and promises of beauty. That day YUZZ saw the lightthe new business adventure of the influencer María Pombo in alliance with the brewing giant Mahou San Miguel. Under the motto Here You Glowis presented not as a simple drink, but as a revolutionary concept of fun skincare: a soft drink that “takes care of you on the inside so that you shine on the outside”, formulated with hyaluronic acid and vitamin C. The deployment was massive: the strategy started with mystery videos, a WhatsApp channel that was fuming with thousands of followers looking for clues and culminated in an experience pop-up in the heart of Madrid. However, beyond the indisputable success of the call, the launch uncovers a striking contradiction: that of an industry traditionally linked to nightlife and beer trying to bottle the idyllic universe of health, cosmetics and well-being. Why does a brewery sell beauty? Beer is beer you might be thinking. However, the alcoholic beverages sector is going through a moment of profound transformation in the face of the decline in consumption among new generations. This is where they make the leap towards functional soft drinks, since it responds to an unstoppable global trend. In fact, the wellness market It already moves 480,000 million dollars in the United States, with annual growth of up to 10%. Europe follows in the same wake, and Mahou is looking for its piece of the pie. But to connect with Generation Z and millennials It is not enough to launch a product; a narrative is needed. This is where María Pombo comes in. The industry is witnessing an evolution of influencer marketing, it is no longer about paying a well-known face to hold a can, but rather a “shared business model” based on co-creation. Pombo has been involved from day one, sharing the development process organically with her more than four million followers. This drastically reduces the consumer’s natural resistance to conventional advertising. The label under the magnifying glass. While marketing works perfectly, the scientific community has raised eyebrows when analyzing the list of ingredients. Can you really drink cosmetics? According to Dr. Emiliano Grillo, specialist in Dermatology, is blunt in the magazine Cuore: “There is no way for you to eat the skincare“. The expert warns that, for oral hyaluronic acid to have a real impact, it would require much higher doses than those anticipated in this type of recreational formats. But the biggest problem with YUZZ is not what it promises, but what it hides: sugar. Although the brand prides itself on being a low-calorie drink without sweeteners, nutritionist Paola Sánchez explains in the same medium that each can contains about 10 grams of sugar, the equivalent of two cubes, from the concentrated apple juice that serves as a base. The pharmacist Mencía Hermosa goes one step further and points out the paradox of the product: the consumption of sugars is directly involved in the glycation process, a mechanism that damages collagen and “contributes to skin aging.” That is, the soft drink could be torpedoing the effect it promises to generate. For her part, the pharmacist and disseminator Lena de Pons dissects the formulation in Infobaedenouncing that “the narrative sells more than the evidence.” De Pons clarifies that YUZZ is governed by food regulations, not cosmetics. Legally, they can only claim that it helps collagen because it covers 15% of the Nutritional Reference Value (NRV) of vitamin C, a tiny amount. “A fruit salad has more antioxidants,” says the expert ironically, also regretting that the word “science” is used in the campaign without providing independent studies that support the bioavailability of its formula in the body. The undeniable triumph of narrative. At the end of the day, the reality of YUZZ depends on the lens through which you look. If we evaluate it under the rigor of dermatology, trying to replace a cream with a soft drink is nonsense. As a timely and recreational alternative to a mixed drink with alcohol or a traditional soft drink loaded with artificial additives, it is an option that the experts themselves consider acceptable. But in the corporate field, the move is masterful. How to conclude Article 14in a saturated market where attention is the rarest commodity, getting an entire country to debate about your brand is the greatest success. Mahou and María Pombo have made the initial impact. Now they face the real challenge: to demonstrate that this cross between a brewery and skincare It has enough commercial history to survive on the shelves once the noise of social networks has died down. Image | instagram Xataka | It’s cheaper and less anxiety-inducing: ‘solo-maxxing’ is Generation Z’s answer to the stifling dating industry

You thought you ended up liking beer out of habit. Science has seen many ways to acquire this taste

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There are many people who cannot stand certain foods, such as the hated broccoli or cauliflower, which for some is inedible and they do not even understand how someone could like that. This also happens when you first take a sip of coffee or a drink of beer whose strong flavor can put anyone off. However, a few years later, that same bitter drink is part of the daily routine or even a pleasure, as is the case with beer. How is it possible? This is the question we can ask ourselves about these sudden changes in taste, and the truth is that it is quite documented under the term “acquired taste“. These two words explain not only why our preferences change, but also how our brain is capable of rewriting its own danger alerts to transform rejection into a reward. Survive. To understand why we learn to love certain flavors, we first have to understand why we hate them in the first place. Much of the blame lies with food neophobia, which is nothing more than the fear or refusal to try new foods, since although in childhood we usually label it as “being picky”, from an evolutionary point of view it is a sophisticated defense mechanism. If we look back to prehistory, children put anything they found in their mouths; like a new berry or a bitter plant, they were very likely to end up poisoned. That is why any bitter taste for our brain is a sign of toxicity and, therefore, we must reject it. Although this is not the case, as is the case with many foods. It’s genetic. The interesting thing is that this rejection is programmed from the factory and has a very strong genetic component. This has been seen in studies done on twins who demonstrated that childhood food neophobia is highly heritable, estimating that heritability by up to 72% during early stages. This genetic predisposition is often associated with a lower acceptance of diverse flavors and textures, and a more restrictive diet in childhood. But genetics only deals the cards with which we will later play in a great environment, since 28% of the probabilities leave a margin for environmental factors. Hacking the brain. The question here is that if biology has programmed us to spit out coffee because it is bitter… Why are many people hooked on it? The answer lies in the brain mechanisms of flavor learning and memory, since our brain constantly evaluates the post-ingestion consequences of what we eat. This is what explains, for example, that if we vomit a lot after eating a tortilla, we begin to put it aside later because we associate it with illness. But if we drink something bitter and, instead of getting sick or dying, we get a boost of energy like with caffeine or a social disinhibition like with alcohol, the brain updates its database and points out that the risk was worth it and that we achieved something positive. Repeated exposure. In order to introduce new foods into a diet that is being developed, as occurs in children, science suggests that Consistency destroys this disgust that generates. However, visual exposure alone is not enough to break this ‘phobia’, rather repeated oral contact is necessary for the nervous system to adapt and accept the food. To facilitate this process, humans have thought of techniques such as, for example, sweeten foodand that is why the fact of adding sugar to coffee or drinking it with milk arises. This acts as a neuropsychological bridge to signal to the brain that these are safe calories. The social model It is one of the most important tools to intervene in our tastes. Here studies in infants suggest that seeing parents enjoy an unfamiliar food significantly increases acceptance in babies. And the reasoning is quite simple, since if the adult eats it and does not suffer damage, the food is considered safe to continue eating. And as you grow up, a large part of the flavors acquired in adolescence, such as beer or traditional dishes, are adopted because they are strongly linked to contexts of socialization and group acceptance, since if a friend takes it and nothing happens to him, it is because everything is fine. Images | Louis Hansel In Xataka | Not all processed foods pose a risk to our health. Some tricks can help us choose the best

Having a beer in the sun was the problem. The residual hops from manufacturing it are the solution

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When you slather on sunscreen, most conventional sun-blocking ingredients are synthetic. He problem is where the chemical UV filters that make sunscreens effective They are endocrine disruptors.can penetrate the skin and are toxic to coral reefs. So the industry has been looking for years for sustainable alternatives that provide that protection while minimizing the environmental impact. A research team from the University of São Paulo has found a natural alternative that also usually ends up in the trash: the remains of hops discarded after brewing beer. The discovery. It turns out that the hops used in beer production, a waste generated on a large scale, can serve to significantly improve sun protection. Through a process of maceration and percolation in ethanol, the bioactive compounds are extracted from discarded hops and incorporated into sunscreen formulations. When they mixed 10% of this extract with the usual UV filters, the resulting sunscreen multiplied its protection factor by more than three: it went from 53 to 178 in laboratory tests. Interestingly, those used hops performed better than unused hops, although the authors admit that the exact mechanism by which this occurs is still unclear. Why is it important. Approximately 85% of the bioactive compounds in hops remain intact in the material discarded after dry hopping (dry hopping), which turns this waste into a functional raw material that today is mostly thrown away or used as feed. Revaluing it as a cosmetic ingredient reduces the environmental impact of the brewing industry, opens a path towards more sustainable and potentially cheaper sunscreens, and fits directly with the principles of the circular economy. Context. Hops contain a family of compounds with proven properties on the skin: reduce inflammation, neutralize free radicals and even stop enzymes that degrade collagen. Especially relevant is xanthohumol, a polyphenol with antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and metalloproteinase inhibitor properties in dermal fibroblasts. The key is how the hops are processed: when added cold after fermentation, without boiling, the xanthohumol is not thermally degraded and remains intact in the residue, which partly explains why reused material is more active than fresh hops. How they do it. The team left From the remains of hops from a craft brewery, he immersed them in ethyl alcohol to extract their compounds, dried the result and incorporated it at 10% into a standard sunscreen that already contained two conventional UV filters. They then measured how much ultraviolet radiation that cream blocked using international reference equipment, the same ones used by health authorities to certify sunscreens. Yes, but. As the research team itself recognizes, all the results are exclusively in vitro, since they used plates and not human skin. Likewise, there are no clinical trials that study whether the cream is stable over time or whether it can cause irritation. Furthermore, it is not clear why it works so well. As says the coordinator André Rolim Baby himself In the note from the FAPESP Agency, stability studies, standardization of assets and clinical evaluation of safety and efficacy will be necessary before any commercial application. On the other hand, the variability in the composition of reused hops (depending on the variety, the dry-hopping process or its origin) complicates standardization: for a filter to be approved by authorities such as the European Commission (EC Regulation 1223/2009) or the FDA in the United States, it is necessary that there be chemical consistency from batch to batch. In Xataka | We humans like beer. The big question is whether we like it enough to have invented agriculture In Xataka | Spain can tell itself as many times as it wants that it hates Cruzcampo. The figures say a very different thing Cover | Onela Ymeri and Urban Gyllström

Fed up with paying almost 8 euros for a Guinness, someone thought of setting up an index to find cheap beer

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How delicious is that little beer that you drink right after leaving work or after a paddle tennis game and how angry it is when you find out that they have raised the price. Matt Cortland He paid €7.80 for a pint of Guinness in Dublin in March 2026 and didn’t like it one bit (the price, not the beer). So instead of criticizing the waiter or posting a review on Google complaining like some people do, he adopted another strategy that was slightly more laborious but much more effective (judging by its results): a very complete price index where he would know where to drink the best and at what price. Because revenge, like beer, is served cold. The project. Is called Guinndex and is independent of the very famous Irish beer brand. You go to the website, enter a pub, a city, a county or a postcode in the box and it returns pubs and the cost of a pint, as well as useful information such as its location or its score. Or you zoom in on the map to see with a traffic light map which taverns look cheaper than others. A good way to save if you travel to Ireland and fancy a pint of Guinness. In fact, it has very diverse rankings ranging from how long it takes to earn a pint (depending on salary) to pubs named after animals or the best pub names (praise be the “Hairy Lemon”). Today it has almost 6,500 registered pubs in the 32 counties of the country and almost 1,300 prices verified and rising thanks to anonymous contributions from users. The price index for Dublin. Guinndex Why is it important. Because the Irish Central Statistics Office stopped tracking the price of a pint since 2011, leaving a data gap of more than a decade in a country where Guinness is much more than a beer. And although Guinness is almost a religion in Ireland, it is the same everywhere: no one knows for sure if they are overcharging you compared to the standard price or how much extra. The Guinndex fills that gap with real, verified data, not estimates. Furthermore, it does so publicly and for free, so that it allows obtaining an objective reference so that consumers have information and can put pressure on prices. It’s the market, friend. On the other hand, and leaving aside the anecdote of finding where to drink cheaper, what it shows is relevant: that the cost of carrying out a complex idea has plummeted and streamlined so much that a single dev is capable of setting up a project of this magnitude in just 48 hours when before it took weeks of work, a certain budget and a team. Context. Matt Cortland likes AI, data and Guinness, as he himself admits on the project website. He is an American engineer based in London with strong ties to Ireland: his partner is irishlived and trained there with the George Mitchell scholarship and course the Creative Digital Media master’s degree from TU Dublin. He is not just a tourist they are trying to scam. The project came at a critical time: Diageo, the company that owns Guinness, had applied several price rises in a row and some pubs had taken the opportunity to inflate margins. If you’re not careful, you can pay up to €11 for a pint, although the average price in Dublin is €6.94 and €6.06 nationwide. How has he done it. With an AI agent named Rachel who looked human, understood Irish humor, and had a Northern Irish accent (after several tests, she concluded that this worked best), as its author tells. The task was simple and quick: call, ask the price of a pint of Guinness, say thank you and hang up. Few people discovered that it was a chatbot and there were all kinds of responses, even waiters who offered to buy him a round. During the St. Patrick’s weekend he called 3,000 pubs, answered more than 2,000 calls and more than a thousand pubs provided a price: he already had the Guinndex base. The technical stack was jack, knight and king: the Google Maps API, ElevenLabs for the voice and agent logic, Twilio for making the phone calls, and Claude for extracting Guinness prices from the transcripts. Cortland explains What cost him the most was time, since he only invested about 200 euros. The consequences. The most immediate impact is behavioral: Cortland account that the owner of a pub lowered the price of his Guinness by 0.40 euros and then updated the information in the Guinndex himself. When there is price transparency and it is available to everyone, it is capable of changing behaviors. However, the biggest consequence is the technological moment in which we live: three APIs, 200 euros and a weekend are enough to build a project from scratch, with real utility and that is already changing prices. The bottleneck is no longer money or infrastructure: it is knowing what problem is worth solving. In Xataka | Spain can tell itself as many times as it wants that it hates Cruzcampo. The figures say a very different thing In Xataka | We humans like beer. The big question is whether we like it enough to have invented agriculture Cover | Guinndex and Christopher Zapf

For centuries Germany has boasted the oldest abbey beer in the world. The alcohol crisis has forced it to be sold

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Germany is the birthplace of Oktoberfest, the lagerthe saint Hildegard of Bingen and hundreds and hundreds of artisanal wineries dedicated to beer. The refreshing amber liquid is not at its best there, however. As the young lose interest for the drink and consumption falls per national beer capita, Germany finds itself with news like the one that has shaken the sector at the beginning of 2026: the oldest monastic brewery in the world, a 976-year-old icon, just sold suffocated by the economic context. It seems like a simple sale, but it says a lot about the industry. What has happened? That Germany is preparing for one of those business transactions that, due to their enormous symbolic value, transcend the pages of the salmon press to tell us about the cultural and social changes of a country. The Bavarian brewer Schneider Weisse has just reached an agreement to acquire the Bischofshof and Weltenburger brands, linked to Bischofshof GmbH & Co. Said like this, it could seem like a simple commercial procedure, material for the German BORME, but the agreement implies that Schneider Weisse takes charge of the brewery of the Weltenburg Abbey and that is something out of the ordinary. The reason? The brewing history of the monastery dates back to 1050, which is why it is considered the abbey brewery. oldestalthough if we talk about beer in general there is another previous one in Weihenstephan (Freising), brewed since 1040. What have they agreed? The truth is that not too many details have emerged. For example, the companies have not wanted to disclose how much the operation will cost. What yes have slipped is that the agreement will become effective in January 2027 and that Scheneider Weisse will continue to operate the Weltenburg Abbey Brewery. Not only that. He will also take over the logistics part of the Bischofshof, which includes 21 employees. Part of the business, located in Regensburg, will close at the end of this year and the idea is that in the medium term the production of the different brands will be concentrated in the headquarters that Schneider Weisse already has in Kelheim and the Weltenburg Abbey. Are they important companies? At least they are companies with a reputation. Although Weltenburg Abbey beer stands out on the world stage for its long history, which can date back to 1050, in reality the three names involved in the agreement have a long tradition. The Bischofshof brewery was founded mid 17th century in Regensburg and has been in charge of the production of Weltenburg since 1973. As for the house Schneider Weissebased in Kelheim, was also launched more than a century and a half ago, in 1872. “Our goal is to create a portfolio of traditional brands. We combine our brewing tradition of more than 150 years with the almost 380 years of history of the Bischofshof brand and the brewing tradition of the oldest monastic brewery in the world, dating back to 1050,” celebrates Georg SchneiderCEO of Schneider Weisse. “This creates a range of beers steeped in history and tradition, a unique offering from a single global supplier.” Why is it important? Weltenburg is relevant enough for any operation that affects him to generate interest, but if this operation has raised expectations (even beyond Germany) is because of its context. The companies acknowledge that the maneuver attempts to adapt to “the continued weakness” of the German beer market. “The reality is that, on our own and despite all our efforts and the measures adopted in recent months, it was no longer economically viable to continue operating the brands,” recognizes Till Hedrichthe general director of the firm Bischofshof and Weltenburger. “The evolution of the market has marked us too much.” Hedrich has also defended that the operation with Schneider, a firm based in Kelheim (Bavaria) is the most advantageous for the secular Abadian winery. “The looming threat of a total closure or dismantling by an investor with no connection to the region or its history can be avoided with the ‘Bavarian solution’ being implemented with Schneider Weisse.” Has the market changed that much? It seems so. From the collective itself is spoken of a “drastic drop in sales” of German breweries in the country. The BR24 program remember that in the last ten years alone, the German beer industry has lost almost 14 million hectoliters, almost 14% of its sales. And although the complete picture is somewhat more complex (the latest data from the Bavarian sector they are not bad), the overall trend is far from ideal for the industry in its own home. If at the beginning of the 80s the per capita consumption In the country it was around 145.9 liters of beer, right now it is below 90. Is there more data? Yes. Two years ago the Berlin journalist Nicholas Potter I slipped an interesting one in Guardian. “The decline can be seen at the Oktoberfest itself. In 2019, 6.3 million visitors drank 7.3 million liters. Last year attendance was about 7.2 million people, a record number, but they consumed only 6.5 million liters.” As a backdrop, the fall in consumption, the increase of the production of non-alcoholic beer and the loss of interest of members of generation Z for beer or wine. In April the Deursche Welle channel contributed another brushstroke that completes the picture. It is not only that the consumption of German beer has fallen in the country itself, it is that sales abroad have not evolved as the industry would like. According to Destatis data, 1,450 million liters of German beer were exported in 2024, significantly below the 1,540 in 2014. Images | Bernt Rostad (Flickr) 1 and 2 and Frank Mago (Flickr) In Xataka | If the alcohol sector thought it had a problem with Gen Z, it is because it did not see its stock: 22,000 million in bottles that no one wants

We humans like beer. The big question is whether we like it enough to have invented agriculture

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The big question is not whether it was the chicken or the egg first, but rather what our ancestors began to make first: bread or beer? Does about 12,000 years We humans promote one of the most important chapters in our history in the Middle East, the Neolithic Revolution. From being nomads who lived by hunting and gathering, we became sedentary creatures who cultivated the fields. The change was so momentous that anthropologists have long wondered what caused it. It would be reasonable to think that the search for something as simple as bread, but there are those who believe that the answer is another: beer. What if the great catalyst that led us to plow and harvest the fields was not the search for bread but our ancestral hobby to raise your elbow? Cereals, what do I want you for? Scientists have spent the last few decades unraveling the mysteries from our most remote past, but there is one (fundamental) one that they have not yet agreed on: What the hell led humanity to change hunting and gathering for a sedentary life based on agriculture and livestock? What was the catalyst for the Neolithic Revolution, one of the most momentous periods of all time? Since since humans have been human, they need to eat, the answer seems simple: if those men and women settled to plant wheat and barley, it had to be to make bread, right? That is, they began to spend hours and hours tending their fields to obtain grain with which to nourish themselves. In the 50s however a question began to creep into the anthropological debate: What if what really interested them in grain was not bread or porridge but beer? But… And why is that? The debate is not new. It has been on the table for some time and is heated from time to time with new discoveries, such as the one announced in 2018 by a group of Stanford researchers who found “the oldest record of alcohol”, clues that tell us about the manufacture of beer ago 13,000 years. The last one to raise the discussion was Michael Marshall, a scientific journalist and columnist for New Scientist. In December he published a wide chronicle in which he reviews the latest findings on the subject and (most importantly) exposes how much it is costing anthropologists to reach a conclusion. The benefits of beer. To understand the discussion, we must first clarify a key point: neither the bread nor the beer of the Stone Age were like the bread and beer that we know today. The latter in fact has little or nothing to do with the refreshing amber liquid that they serve us in bars. It was more like a puree, a “sweet, slightly fermented porridge,” clarify Professor Jiajing Wang, from Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. “They germinated the grains, cooked them and then used wild yeast.” The result was a nutritious, caloric, protein-rich concoction that could even be safer than drinking water from rivers and wells. After all, it was the result of fermentation. Added to that was its alcohol content, a “social lubricant” that we still use in the 21st century to relax and socialize. Archaeologist Brin Hayden highlights, for example, its use in events that helped structure communities. There is research which suggest that (at least some communities) used it in rituals and for veneration of the deceased. Much more than suspicions. If the debate has been on the table since the 1950s, it is basically because it has been nourished by archaeological findings. Researchers have found traces that tell us about beer brewing at least 5,000 years ago in southern egypt and northern china or how he does 10,000 years Shangshan culture They brewed rice beer. One of the most important revelations in recent years, however, was the one achieved in a cave in Israel in 2018 by a team led by Professor Li Liu, from Stanford University. There they found evidence of beer brewing before the first cereals cultivated in the Middle East. The finding is related to the Natufiansa town dedicated to gathering and hunting, although they also tended to stay for long periods in the same place. “The oldest”. After analyzing residues located in 13,000-year-old mortars located in a cave in Raqefet, a Natufian cemetery near Haifa, Liu and his colleagues discovered remains of beer. Quite a milestone, like she herself stands out: “It is the oldest record of alcohol made by man.” “This discovery indicates that alcohol production was not necessarily a result of agricultural surplus production, but was developed for ritual and spiritual purposes, at least to some extent, before agriculture.” Issue settled? At all. To understand the complexity of the subject, it helps to review the discovery announced in 2018. At least at that time, the oldest known remains of bread, extracted from a Natufian site located east of Jordan, had between 11,600 and 14,600 years old. The traces of beer discovered by Liu’s team move in a similar range: a priori, they could be dated between 11,700 and 13,700 years ago. One of the keys to the problem, explains Marshall in your articleis that basically the making of bread and beer leaves very similar traces, basically starch residues. “We still don’t have conclusive evidence to answer that question,” Liu recognizes on the question of whether we turned to beer or bread first. The reality is more complex: because we don’t know, we don’t even know if some of those foods were the great catalyst that led our ancestors to change their lifestyle. “I wouldn’t be surprised if both were the motivations.” At the end of the day, the ‘beer first, bread first’ debate does not seek definitive conclusions so much as vindicating the weight of both foods. Both beer and bread, bread and beer, played a decisive role in diets and rituals. Images | Gary Todd (Flickr), Enhin Akyurt (Unsplash) and Gerrie van der Walt (Unsplash) In Xataka | The Wari … Read more

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