Word: alcoholics
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...billion-gallon (56 billion liter) beer market, but it's growing fast. In the five years to 2008, sales in Europe climbed 50%, and are now worth $2.5 billion a year. And it's not just Europeans who are guzzling nonalcoholic beer - defined as containing less than 0.05% alcohol, roughly the same level as fruit juice. Over the same period, sales doubled in the Middle East and Africa, and are up in Japan and elsewhere in Asia...
Boozeless beer isn't a new idea. During Prohibition in the 1920s and '30s, American breweries pumped out "near beers": malt beverages with little or no alcohol. And in the 1980s and '90s, brewers including Guinness and Anheuser-Busch attempted to revitalize stagnant beer sectors in Europe, Australia and the U.S. with low-strength lagers. But their products often flopped because of one big problem. "They frankly didn't taste like beer," says Anand Gandesha, head of marketing at Britain's Cobra Beer...
Improved production methods are now helping win back drinkers. Traditionally, brewers made nonalcoholic beer by evaporating or filtering out alcohol from the real thing. Jeff Evans, author of the Good Bottled Beer Guide, says this process often resulted in beers with a distinct "industrial accent." Today, producers like Cobra - sales of its nonalcoholic brand Cobra Zero rose 21% in the U.K. in the year to March - lightly ferment their beer mix, creating only a tiny amount of alcohol. "Beers brewed this way tend to be sweeter and a little fuller-bodied," says Evans, "because nothing has been stripped...
These better-tasting beers have found a receptive audience among Europe's middle-aged drinkers, thanks in part to government health campaigns. "People today are more informed about health risks," says Julio Cuesta, spokesman for Heineken Spain, which owns the country's best-selling alcohol-free beers, Buckler and Kaliber. Those trying to tame their beer guts also like that many nonalcoholic beers contain half the calories of their intoxicating cousins...
...four years of repressive rule under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad have been jarring, following, as they did, eight years of social reforms under Mohammed Khatami. The Basij militia turned into the country's religious police, patrolling the streets at night to catch those returning from private house parties, where drugs, alcohol, dancing and Western music - forbidden under Islamic law - could be found. Such harassment, including jail time and hefty fines, has become a part of daily life. The Basij also stepped up enforcement of the ban against dating, the restrictions on public dress (berating women for letting their hijab reveal...