By Emily Bryson York

May 11, 2012

The Illinois Liquor Control Commission came one step closer to a decision as to whether Anheuser-Busch may continue to hold a stake in City Beverage, its largest local distributor.

According to 12 "findings" made by the commission Wednesday and released in writing Friday, the group said or reiterated, among other things: that it determined in 2010 that the company may not own an Illinois distributor, the company owned all or parts of state distributorships until 2009 through the reissuance of licenses, that the company has received conflicting information from the ILCC over the years, and that commission does have authority to sanction the company and issue or revoke a license in this matter.

These findings could be used to decide whether Anheuser-Busch may keep, or be forced to sell, its stake in City Beverage. The decision may come as soon as this summer, an ILCC spokeswoman said.

"Anheuser-Busch maintains its 30 percent interest in City Beverage," Gary Rutledge, the firm's North American general counsel, said in a statement. "Our ownership has helped bring competition to the beer market in Chicago and has supported expanded choices in beer."

The Associated Beer Distributors of Illinois, a lobbying group for distributors, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Since the end of Prohibition, the alcohol industry has been divided into three groups: manufacturers who make products, distributors who collect taxes and deliver products to stores and retailers who sell it. State governments and distributors argue the so-called "three-tier system" guards against unsafe products and sales to minors. Some manufacturers argue that the system is inefficient and antiquated.

The world's largest beer company, owned by Leuven, Belgium-based Anheuser-BuschInBev, has been working to purchase distributorships, or sell directly to retailers, in a number of areas throughout the country. Illinois became a battleground in 2010 when City Beverage went up for sale.

When Anheuser-Busch sought to buy the distributorship outright, the liquor commission forbade the sale. BDT Capital, an investment firm founded owned by Byron Trott, bought the company instead.

A lawsuit and a battle in the state legislature followed, based on the assertion that Anheuser-Busch should be allowed to self-distribute in Illinois because small craft brewers are often allowed to do so. Last summer the General Assembly responded with limits for self-distribution in Illinois.

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Source: Respublica

May 3rd

Wirtz Beverage Illinois, a leading distributor of fine wine and spirits, opened the doors of a 605,000 square foot, multi-use training and distribution center. The state-of-the-art facility includes corporate offices, conference centers, training facilities and 500,000 square feet of warehouse space.

"The new facility serves as more than warehouse and office space," said Julian Burzynski, Senior Vice President, Wirtz Beverage Illinois. "It's taking everything we do and bringing it together under one roof. Very few distributors in the country have been able to put the best of everything - sales, marketing, operations, logistics, technology and training - together in this way. Plus, it's close to the airport and close to the city. Collectively, we think it's a real point of differentiation and advantage for Wirtz Beverage and its partners."

The facility's new warehouse has the capacity to hold 2.5 million cases of wine and spirits and includes a 25,000 square foot temperature-controlled wine storage facility, the largest in the country. The advanced conveyor system sorts and moves up to 10,000 cases per hour to 39 shipping and receiving bays. The building will serve as the central headquarters for nearly 1,000 Wirtz Beverage Illinois employees and 1,500 premier beverage products.

Two stories of corporate offices, a full gym with locker rooms for employees and a company-cafeteria, emphasizing healthy fare, also complement the facility. The Alchemy Room, designed by chefs, sommeliers and mixologists, features a commercial kitchen and demonstration bar with high-definition video screens for training, education and beverage development. The facility was developed by Wirtz Realty Corporation, a subsidiary of Wirtz Corporation, in thirteen months. A public plaza, pedestrian path and commercial outlots join the facility on 66 acres of land formally known as Sportsman's Park Race Track.

"From a development standpoint, this was a significant project," said Anthony Iatarola, Senior Vice President, Wirtz Realty Corporation, project developer. "We were fortunate to have the cooperation and support of everyone from the Town of Cicero, Cook County and the State of Illinois. Because of that, we were able to complete it on budget and ahead of schedule. "

To celebrate the grand opening, Wirtz Beverage Illinois and Wirtz Realty co-hosted an evening reception for approximately 400 guests, ranging from supplier partners from around the world, local dignitaries and sports and media executives, to government officials and Chicago Blackhawk Ambassadors.

The festivities included tours of the 605,000 square foot facility as well as cooking and cocktail demonstrations in The Alchemy Room. A special time capsule ceremony was also in honor of the company's past, present and future.

Among the items placed into the capsule to be opened in 2045, marking the 100th year Anniversary of the Wirtz family's entrance to the beverage business, were:

· Family and historic photos from 1945-current day

· Commemorative items from wine and spirits suppliers, including one-of-a-kind etched bottles

· A Chicago Blackhawk Hockey Team jersey signed by the 2011-2012 team

· A proclamation from the State of Illinois declaring May 2, 2012 Wirtz Beverage Group Day

· A DVD and brief summary chronicling the project from inception to the opening

Wirtz Beverage Illinois is a member of the Wirtz Corporation family of companies. Wirtz Corporation has diversified holdings in real estate, insurance, banking, entertainment and sports, including the 2010 Stanley Cup Champion Chicago Blackhawks. Wirtz Corporation will maintain its corporate headquarters at 680 N. Lake Shore Drive in Chicago.

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BY TIM LOGAN

May 6, 2012

There's a rumble brewing over how you get your beer. And the newest front has opened right in the backyard of America's biggest brewer.

Beer wholesalers - the people who truck the suds from brewery to store shelf - are pushing a bill in the Missouri Legislature that would protect their role as middlemen, by banning brewers from owning wholesalers and codifying the industry's vaunted three-tier distribution system into state law.

It's a pre-emptive strike against Anheuser-Busch InBev, which wants to streamline its complex distribution network, and a sign of increased tension between the big brewer and the people who deliver its product. The fallout from that dispute could eventually affect everything from the price of beer to what brands are on the shelf.

While state laws vary, the three-tier system - in which separate companies make beer, ship it, and sell it to consumers - has been in place since the end of Prohibition, when it was designed to rein in aggressive sales tactics and streamline regulation. The system is in sharp contrast to other consumer goods - Procter & Gamble, for instance, sells toothpaste and detergent straight to Walmart - and unique in the global beer industry.

Anheuser-Busch has more than 500 distributors across the country - five in the St. Louis area - nearly all of which are independent companies with an exclusive contract to sell A-B beer in a certain geographical area. It's a lucrative franchise; distributors typically take about $4 per case, according to calculations by Beer Business Daily. And in recent years, the so-called "red network" of A-B wholesalers has won extra profits by shedding exclusivity agreements and carrying more craft beer, with higher margins and few extra costs.

But Anheuser-Busch InBev has started to push back, encouraging wholesalers to consolidate, urging tighter "alignment" with the brewery and blasting those who sell non-A-B products against A-B in neighboring markets.

"I'm loyal to my wholesalers," A-B InBev North American president Luiz Edmond told the Wall Street Journal in March. "Why would I not expect the same loyalty to me?"

At stake is a lot of money.

Matter of efficiency

Wall Street analysts say more efficient distribution could play a big role in A-B InBev's target of $1 billion in U.S. cost savings. By buying out the middleman and self-distributing, the brewery could tap wholesaler profits estimated at about $1 a case, and centralize functions such as phone operations and truck maintenance.

"It's a good way to squeeze out costs," said Harry Schuhmacher, editor of Beer Business Daily.

These kind of acquisitions are legal in about 20 states, and A-B InBev already owns 14 distributorships - which it calls "branches" - including some in big, if not especially profitable, markets such as New York and Los Angeles. It has bought two just since December, with a third deal pending in Seattle.

A-B InBev is likely to keep buying wholesalers where it can, and to encourage consolidation where it can't, wrote Tony Bucalo, an analyst with the Spanish bank Santander, in a research note last month. All in a bid to drive down costs.

"We estimate that ABI could hypothetically control nearly 50 percent of its distribution, compared to 8 percent today," Bucalo wrote. "We believe it will continue to move in that direction."

But A-B's "costs" are distributors' profits, and distributors are pushing back.

Even as the brewer has talked of consolidation, wholesaler groups are resisting. They warn of job cuts and short-term profit-taking. They argue that the big brewer could restrict sales of other brands at its branches, making it harder for craft beers and imports to find a market.

Those arguments have gained traction in state legislatures. In the past two years, laws banning self-distribution have been passed in Louisiana, Wisconsin, Nebraska and Illinois - where lawmakers acted after A-B InBev's attempt to buy a majority stake in its Chicago distributorship prompted a federal lawsuit.

In Missouri, though, the idea has been a tougher sell. The big brewer's clout in Jefferson City has long been the stuff of legend. Even today it wields considerable influence, employing nine lobbyists and doling out more than $340,000 in political donations statewide in 2011, according to the Missouri Ethics Commission.

Last year, a bill blocking brewery ownership of distributors went nowhere. So far this spring, it has received a hearing and the blessing of a committee in the Senate, but not in the House.

The bill's sponsor, Sen. Mike Kehoe, R-Jefferson City, did not return calls seeking comment, nor did local Anheuser-Busch distributors, who have been silent on the matter. But Brian Gelner, vice president of Premium Beverage, a MillerCoors distributor in Springfield, and legislative chairman of the Missouri Beer Wholesalers Association, said he was hopeful that the bill would at least get to a full floor vote.

"The three-tier system has been a really good system," Gelner said. "Anything that changes that by taking one tier out hurts the whole industry."

Flexing muscles

A-B says it agrees on the value of three tiers, and insists it has no plans to buy Missouri wholesalers. But the brewery says it wants the option to do so if necessary, and is lobbying against the bill.

"We support keeping the existing system in place because it works and fosters competition," said Mark Bordas, A-B's regional vice president for state affairs, in a statement. "This system for many years has allowed for brewers to own a wholesaler in Missouri. If a wholesaler decides to sell, and if it makes sense for us to buy, our ability to own a wholesaler assures that our products are able to strongly compete."

Some say this is a lot of fuss about very little.

Joe Thompson is president of Georgia-based Independent Beverage Group, which helps broker wholesaler acquisitions. When the owner of an A-B house wants to sell, he said, A-B is always a potential buyer - in the states where it's allowed - but just one of many. And while the big brewer usually has right of first refusal in its network, distributors are free to take the best offer.

The real reason for all this push-back, Thompson said, is that many wholesalers don't want to go up against the deep pockets of the brewery, which could easily undercut them on price.

"They'd rather compete against you or me than Anheuser-Busch," said Thompson, who is representing Seattle-based K&L Distributors in its sale to A-B. "Fundamentally, it's just that they don't want a giant in their neighborhood."

But others who have been watching this unfold say the distributors' worries are well-founded.

From Chief Executive Carlos Brito on down, A-B InBev executives have made clear they have plans to save money on wholesaling, said John Conlin, a distribution consultant in Denver. And the more states where A-B owns wholesalers, the less leverage the stand-alone outfits will have.

Whatever happens in Jefferson City and elsewhere, Conlin said, the long-cozy relationship between the people who make Budweiser and the people who ship it is changing, perhaps for good.

"A-B has been flexing its muscles lately," he said. "And there's a lot of fear out there right now."

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Source: NBWA

Apr 30th

Throughout the month of May, the National Beer Wholesalers Association (NBWA) will recognize Tavern Month, a celebration of the many licensed bars and taverns that provide hundreds of thousands of jobs to hardworking men and women and enrich America's social culture.

Bar and tavern owners work together with beer distributors in communities in every state across the country to provide responsible service and sales. Beer distributors and tavern owners support server training programs, ID checks and the effective state-based system of alcohol regulation.

"It's a great American tradition for adults to gather with friends or colleagues to enjoy a beer in their local bar or tavern," said NBWA President Craig Purser. "America's licensed beer distributors are proud to work hand-in-hand with licensed retailers, like bars and taverns, to safely provide consumers from coast to coast with an unparalleled choice and variety of beer - more than 13,000 different labels. Beer distributors are excited to partner with bar and tavern owners as part of a system that helps new brands get to market and offers consumers their choice of the largest international brands and the smallest local brews all on the same menu and bar tap."

Beer distributors and taverns are key components of the state-based system for alcohol control in the United States, which works to ensure that only consumers of legal drinking age receive fresh, safe beer and are served in moderation.

"Just like beer distributors, America's taverns and bars are local businesses providing tens of thousands of jobs in every state across the country," said John Bodnovich, Executive Director of American Beverage Licensees, the nation's largest bar and tavern trade association. "Licensed beverage retailers are proud to work with NBWA and its members to highlight the cultural and economic importance of our industry by celebrating Tavern Month this May."

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By SARAH LONGWELL

Apr. 25, 2012

Given all of the recent discussion of federal deficits, you might be surprised to learn that advocates of the Nanny State now want to spend 24 million of your taxpayer dollars in an effort to stop you from having a glass of wine with dinner before you get behind the wheel.

The recently passed Senate highway bill contains provisions heavily supported by Mothers Against Drunk Driving that would spend your money on the further development of an alcohol-detection device that would eventually become standard in all cars. Known as DADSS (Driver Alcohol Detector System for Safety), the technology uses a variety of sensors to determine the blood alcohol content of drivers through their skin and breath.

While some officials are denying their intention to put this intrusive technology in all cars, the Department of Transportation is on record as stating that "the goal over time is to equip all passenger vehicles in the United States with the technology." MADD's president admits that the organization wants to see the devices as standard in vehicles as seat belts or air bags.

Once installed, proponents claim these devices will ensure those with a blood alcohol content above the legal limit of 0.08 percent can't drive - if that were case, our industry could happily support the technology.

Unfortunately, these devices will be calibrated to be set well below the legal limit. Why? Basic physiology. It can take a couple of hours for a person to reach peak blood alcohol content after he stops drinking. This means that you could have five drinks and still have a blood alcohol content below 0.08 when you started your car. But your blood alcohol level would continue to rise and you could cross the 0.08 legal threshold while you were driving and rise to levels well beyond the legal limit.

Should that driver then get into an automobile accident, DADSS manufacturers and car companies could both be held legally liable in civil cases, at the very least. To avoid such litigation, the alcohol detection devices will have to be calibrated well below the legal limit and could be set as low as 0.02, the blood alcohol content level most individuals reach after only one drink.

The political effort to put alcohol sensing technology in all cars is part of a larger campaign to quash social drinking. The World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have both pushed for lowering the legal limit to 0.05.

Leaving biology aside, let's consider mechanics for a second: Even if these devices meet Six Sigma standards - i.e., they meet the necessary requirements for widespread installation by working properly 99.999966 percent of the time - there will still be 4,000 misreadings per day. That's thousands of people stranded on a daily basis, unable to start their cars - or worse, drunken drivers who are able to get behind the wheel.

Given that our country is more than $15.5 trillion in debt, we shouldn't be using government money - our tax dollars - on the development of a device that will make cars more expensive to buy and maintain, increase the unreliability of our automobiles and make it impossible to enjoy a single drink before driving.

Sarah Longwell is the managing director of the American Beverage Institute, an association of restaurants committed to the responsible serving of adult beverages.

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CSP Daily News | April 20, 2012

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. --A $1-per-pack increase in Illinois’ cigarette tax, combined with extensive program cuts and a major reduction in Medicaid payments to medical providers, anchor Gov. Pat Quinn’s plan to close a $2.7 billion gap in the program, according to a report in the State Journal Register.

Quinn outlined his proposal Thursday, after a working group of state lawmakers failed to come up with a plan that covers the entire $2.7 billion.

Quinn wants to raise the state cigarette tax by $1 per pack. Coupled with federal matching funds, that would produce $675 million for Medicaid, according to the report.

Illinois Gov. Pat QuinnQuinn said the state’s 96-cents-per-pack tax on cigarettes is 32nd in the country. Raising the tax, he said, will encourage people either to quit smoking or not start.

Sen. Dale Righter, R-Mattoon, said he doesn’t think the cigarette tax hike will pass the General Assembly.

“The governor is waving the white flag and saying we’re really not going to change the system much and we’re going to go ahead and raise taxes,” Righter said.

If the $2.7 billion hole isn’t plugged one way or another, Quinn said, the difference will have to come out of other state spending, like schools or public safety.

“Members of the General Assembly may not be wildly excited about this plan, but it is necessary,” he said. “I think the folks who are saying no to that ought to rethink their position.”

Source: Associated Press

Apr 12th

His birthplace newly mocked as "a hellhole" on "Saturday Night Live," U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin doesn't find anything funny about East St. Louis' spiral from the vibrant place he once knew to the withering, poverty-stricken one now considered America's most dangerous city.

And with backing from ministers and prosecutors, Illinois' senior senator has had enough.

Calling into fresh question Mayor Alvin Parks Jr.'s governance of the predominantly black city, Durbin on Wednesday delivered his latest full-throated challenge for Parks to limit liquor sales that the senator believes fuel violent crime and smother the southwestern Illinois city's desperate bid to rehab its sullied image.

"I'm proud of this city," Durbin told reporters outside a church where he joined state and federal prosecutors and ministers who met to discuss the liquor restrictions and the city's troubled state.

"East St. Louis has been down, and now it wants to stand up. And this is just the beginning."

The Democrat, whose return to his native city was heralded by one preacher as "providence," wants Parks to order that the open-all-night clubs close at 11 p.m. on weeknights and 1 a.m. on weekends. Parks has honored the request after certain spates of killings, only to reverse himself out of concern that the restrictions could cost the struggling city of 27,000 residents vital tax revenue.

Parks, who did not attend Wednesday's gathering, has blamed drugs, criminals with guns and people retaliating -- not liquor -- for the problem, rebuffing months of Durbin's demands in what has been their escalating spat over sovereignty. Parks has not returned telephone messages left this week by The Associated Press.

Wednesday's meeting came just two days after a 31-year-old man was gunned down outside a local lounge. Parks said he was told the gunman was chasing Thomas and simply caught up with him outside the lounge.

"It's very easy to say if the clubs had been closed, this wouldn't have happened," Parks said in a statement. "The initial findings in this situation indicates that this young man was going to be killed somewhere. It just happened that it was outside of this club."

The latest killing adds to the troubling mosaic that is East St. Louis, where many shops resemble fortresses, protected by iron bars.

Other storefronts are boarded up, showing no glimmer of the days when the city where Durbin was born in 1944 was a thriving home to glass makers and other industrial companies before the exodus of white residents in the 1960s fanned its decline. The city, where the population is now 98 percent black, was once called home by Miles Davis, Jimmy Connors, Jackie Joyner-Kersee and Katherine Dunham, but now is more defined by its corruption and decay.

And the violence is undeniable.

FBI statistics show East St. Louis is the nation's most dangerous city, "and second place isn't even close," southern Illinois' U.S. attorney, Stephen Wigginton, said after attending Wednesday's forum. The city's homicide rate last year was 109 per 100,000 residents -- more than 20 times the national average of just five per 100,000, he said.

Still shedding population -- the city lost 4,500 residents between the 2000 and 2010 censuses -- East St. Louis is now among the nation's poorest cities. The per-capita income is just $12,047, compared to the state average of $28,782. Four of every 10 locals live in poverty, dwarfing Illinois' 12.6 percent, according to 2010 census data.

All of it has made the city an easy target. In its opening skit last weekend, NBC's "Saturday Night Live" parodied Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney pandering to East St. Louis' Chamber of Commerce.

"You know, Ann and I have lived and traveled all over the world, but I'll let you in on a little secret," said the caricature Romney, played by Jason Sudeikis. "The only place that has truly ever felt like home is right here: East St. Louis, Illinois."

"Are you crazy? This is a hellhole," actor Kenan Thompson retorted as East St. Louis' mayor. "Yes, we hate it here," a female character chimed in.

Parks, after seeing the skit Monday, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that his was a proud city with a bright future but with "a lot of things to overcome and a lot of challenges facing us."

Durbin also waved off the SNL skit, saying: "People can make jokes all they want. But it's no joke when people are getting gunned down."

Bernadette Bowens, a lifelong East St. Louis resident working as a caretaker to the elderly, said forcing the nightclubs to close earlier is misguided and wrongly places blames on the owners.

She had equal disgust for the city's diss by "Saturday Night Live."

"That was terrible. I mean, come on. East St. Louis is not so bad, and they made the mayor look like a joke. That's ignorant," she said outside Wednesday's meeting site, where she hoped to chat with Durbin. "We're living in the city, not in the dump. It's really embarrassing."

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BY FRAN SPIELMAN AND STEFANO ESPOSITO

Apr 12, 2012 02:21AM

With Chicago's murder rate up 60 percent over last year, Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Wednesday launched a coordinated crackdown aimed at shutting down liquor and convenience stores that serve as magnets for crime.

"These locations often harbor drug dealers and street gang members and become a cancer on the community," the mayor told the first graduating class of police recruits since he took office.

"By taking aggressive enforcement action, we can send a clear message that the streets of Chicago belong to the children and the law-abiding residents of Chicago - not drug dealers and gang bangers."

Until now, Emanuel said the city has relied on consumer complaints before moving to suspend or revoke the licenses of liquor and convenience stores.

Under the new and coordinated approach, City Hall will no longer wait for a major incident, such as a shooting, to trigger enforcement action.

Information will be pulled from 311 calls and from all city departments involved with enforcement including Business Affairs and Consumer Protection, Police, Streets and Sanitation, Health and Buildings.

Whenever there's a string of problems, arrests or a pattern of complaints against an establishment, the city "will move to revoke the liquor license and any other city business licenses," officials said. The city may also ask the Illinois General Assembly to "strengthen legislation so the city's authority in this area is strong," officials said.

Since 2008, the city has revoked the licenses of 105 businesses that fall into the convenience store or liquor store category.

But the coordinated crackdown can't come soon enough for South Side Ald. Pat Dowell (3rd).

She's been trying to shut down at least two problem establishments in her ward since her 2007 election without success because a so-called "deleterious impact" ordinance that requires residents to work with business owners is "anemic."

"When the community identifies things we want the owner to do to make the store a better neighbor - hiring security, putting up cameras or stop selling certain products - sometimes they cooperate and sometimes they don't," Dowell said.

"When the owner didn't cooperate in one case, we had to get neighbors to petition to close it. But because of the location and the vacant land around it, were weren't able to meet the [signature] requirement. Meanwhile, the store is still a problem. Last summer, there was a shooting in the lot adjacent to the store."

Dowell said shootings are not the only problem at liquor and convenience stores. So is loitering, public drinking and gambling.

"People go in and get their alcohol and hang out on the street drinking their 40-ounce. It's frustrating," she said.

"... They contribute to a poor quality of life on many of our commercial corridors and act as a hindrance to additional investment," she said. "Some of them have been identified for selling loose cigarettes and expired food products. When you begin to look at all those things together - 311 calls, aldermanic complaints and petitions - the city can move to close down these stores. We should be more aggressive."

One of the stores Dowell has targeted for closure is Calumet Food and Liquors, 315 E. 43rd, although she did not list any specific complaints against the store.

On Wednesday, security guard Tyrone Watson defended the store, saying, "We apply everything they ask us to do. We call police. We make complaints, we go to court. If there is any type of illegal activity, I report it to 911."

Watson did acknowledge there is drug-dealing from time to time outside the store. But manager Ray Fakhouri said the store can't be responsible for what happens on "the streets."

"Whatever happens outside, I cant control it. I have to watch my back. I have four kids at home. I cant go outside and stop what I'm doing."

He added: "It is unfair. This place has been here 35 years and we've never had any problems with nobody. They asked us to stop the selling the cheap wine. And of course we did that. . Whatever they ask, we do it. "

A police officer outside the store said things have improved since the store hired security six months ago.

Customer James Thompson, 39, a carpenter from Bronzeville, said it would be a mistake to close stores like Calumet.

"It's a positive aspect to the community," he said. "If we lose it we have to walk a mile to the next store. If they shut it down, what would they replace it with?"

Sam Joudeh - owner of Jamaica Food and Liquor at Cottage Grove and 42nd- said he's also been targeted by Dowell's office who he said falsely accused him of selling loose cigarettes.

"I believe she don't want no liquor stores around here," Joudeh said Wednesday, standing outside his store.

Joudeh said he's been a law-abiding merchant in Bronzeville for 20-plus years and is "100 percent" behind the mayor's efforts to cut crime. To illustrate his point, he produced a folder, with a yellowed Chicago Sun-Times article about an award he received in 1996 from the city's Human Relations Commission.

But just then, a man who claimed to own four condominiums above Joudeh's store interrupted Joudeh's conversation with a Sun-Times reporter, barking: "You attract the scum of the earth! You sell crap!"

"What crap? What crap?" Joudeh replied angrily.

The man, who wouldn't give his name, said he lives in the neighborhood.

"I want this place closed," he said. "He doesn't sell food. He sells junk, garbage."

"I want you to go inside and see the junk we sell," Joudeh said, before the other man walked away.

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Source: Daily Telegraph

By Matthew Holehouse

11 Apr 2012

In findings that will be toasted by pub quiz aficionados, researchers found drinkers got more test questions right and were quicker in delivering the right answers.

It is thought alcohol hinders analytical thinking and allows 'creative' thoughts that might otherwise by stifled to take root, allowing test subjects to come up with more imaginative solutions.

Psychologists at the University of Illinois set 40 healthy young men a series of brain teasers. They involved being given three words, such as coin, quick and spoon, and coming up with a fourth word that links the three - in this case, silver.

Half the group drank the equivalent of two pints of beer before doing the tests, while the rest carried them out sober.

The drinking group solved nearly 40 per cent more problems than the others, and took an average of 12 seconds compared to the 15.5 seconds needed by sober subjects.

Writing in the journal of Consciousness and Cognition, they said: "The current research represents the first demonstration of alcohol's effecet on creative problem solving."

Author Jennifer Wiley told the Daily Mail: "We tested what happens when people are slightly merry, not when people drink to extreme.

"The bottom line is that we think being too focused can blind you to novel possibilities, and a broader, more flexible state of attention is needed for creative solutions to emerge."

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