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Martin Thibault
Boson de Higgs beer is a wheat beer that combines sour, smoky and spicy flavors ... and it's made with real bosons. The beer was reviewed for Les Coureurs des Boires, a blog authored by Martin Thibault and David Levesque Gendron.
The Higgs-like boson that was unveiled this week at Europe's CERN physics lab is one of the heaviest subatomic particles ever detected, but it also has a lighter side. Like light beer, for example.
The Hopfenstark brewery in Montreal has been serving up Boson de Higgs beer for more than a year, and brewer/owner Fred Cormier told me today that there are 2,500 bottles waiting to be shipped to celebrate this week's discovery. About half of that batch will be earmarked for export to the United States.
The brew has gotten positive reviews from beer aficionados in Quebec.
"It's far from a gimmick with a label," Martin Thibault, who reviewed the beer for a blog called Les Coureurs des Boires, told me today in an email. "It's a delicious brew in which beechwood-smoked malts uplift citrusy, lactic subtleties. Fierce bubbling, cracking wheat and leveled banana esters also enhance the impression of refreshment. It's as complex as it is highly drinkable; a rare treat in the New World where intense flavors are often preferred by brewers and drinkers alike."
Hopfenstark's Cormier said Boson de Higgs is a fusion of three different brewing styles: Berliner Weisse wheat beer ("a bit sour"), the German rauchbier method (which imparts "a smoky flavor") and the Belgian saison style ("tart and spicy.")
Why Boson de Higgs? Just as the Higgs boson is a particle that gives mass to other particles, "this beer gives weight to other beers ... since the Boson de Higgs has been created, many breweries try to do something similar," Cormier said.
OK ...
If a sour, smoky, spicy wheat beer isn't to your taste, there's Flying Monkeys Super Collider Double IPA, a brew from Ontario. (What is it about Canadian beermakers and particle physics?) And if wine is more your thing, you could celebrate the findings from the Compact Muon Solenoid with Hedges' C.M.S. red, or the ATLAS team's contribution with an Atlas vintage from Australia. But if you're a physicist at CERN, the most apt beverage is, of course, champagne.
A few sips of champagne at the Large Hadron Collider's control center would put anyone in the mood for a few Higgs boson jokes. BoingBoing's Xeni Jardin has put together a selection of 'em, and you can find more by checking the Twitter hashtag #HiggsJokes. One joke in particular is already a classic, and it comes straight from the mirthful mind of Brian Malow, the Science Comedian:
To hear the joke as it was meant to be told, check out the archived video of Malow's routine from Wonderfest 2009. The Higgs boson wisecrack comes at the 16:30 point in the video, but if you're like me, you'll want to watch the whole thing — and catch Malow's act in person the next time he's in town.
The Symmetry Breaking blog is doing a photo-bombing contest in which users mash up images to put the elusive Higgs boson in its place. Entries can be posted to Facebook or tweeted for Twitter attention. One of my favorites is Melissa Van De Werfhorst's "Most Interesting Particle in the World," which parodies a certain beer brand's advertising campaign:
Melissa Van De Werfhorst
This video by "recreational mathemusician" Vi Hart pays tribute to the Higgs-like particle in a sonnet:
Vi Hart presents "Sonnet on a Higgs-like Particle."
And this one suggests just how much of an impression the Higgs quest has made on the streets of Brooklyn:
Motherboard asked people in Brooklyn's Williamsburg neighborhood about the Higgs boson.
Meanwhile, Quantum Diaries' John Huth pulled off the biggest coup of all: Getting Mark Twain out of the fires of Purgatory to witness the coming of the "God particle."
"By some chance miracle, my captor-angels granted me this dispensation and directed me to a physicist as a guide," Twain writes. "He was an experimental physicist, who I am told is of the lowly caste, constantly soiling his britches in the muck of reality. Why I was not directed to a theorist, who I was told wore the wings of the eternal, I know not."
It's just a good thing Twain didn't end up with a journalist as his guide.
More of the serious and the silly:
- Higgs boson explained in (more than) a minute
- Milestone in Higgs quest: Scientists find new particle
- The Higgs boson made simple
- Cartoons visualize the Higgs boson
- L.A. Times: So the Higgs boson walks into a ...
- The Guardian: Best Higgs jokes on Twitter
- Borowitz Report: Interview with the Higgs boson
- AFP: Boson discovery spawns bad-joke day
- Dilbert discovers the Higgs boson
- Les Horribles Cernettes sing 'Hey, Mr. Higgs'
Tip o' the Log to Jeff Foust for pointing me toward Boson de Higgs beer.
Alan Boyle is msnbc.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.
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You see ....
You will be able to eat and drink how ever you like soon ....
And all you'll have to do is take your "Higgs boson blocking weight loss supplement" ....
Please keep us updated on which company will be grabbing up that patent ....
That's going to be a must have stock in your portfolio ....
Thanks "Alan Boyle" for this now highly valuable information ....
Riviera here we come ....
Thanks, Big Ben! Martin Thibault had more to say about Boson de Higgs beer, and I thought I'd include that here:
Q: Is there something about the beer that’s “boson-y”?
A: What might be 'boson-y' about the beer is that 1) the beer showcases what many beers in Europe must have tasted like in days of old ('smoke' because malts were dried using direct fire, 'tartness' because fermentation wasn't controlled as neatly and bacteria like lactobacillus often contributed to transforming sugars into alcohol, and light alcohol percentage - 3.8% abv in this case - since people used to drink higher volumes of beer during an entire day, sometimes because beer was more sanitary than water, having been boiled) and 2) it is, still today, a type of flavor profile which one simply cannot "find" on the market, even in the vast microbrewery selection that exists in specialized stores. It is, in a way, a missing link in today's diverse beer market with deep links to the past. ;)
Q: Is this just a gimmick with a Higgs boson label?
A: It's far from a gimmick with a label. It's a delicious brew in which beechwood smoked malts uplift citrusy, lactic subtleties. Fierce bubbling, cracking wheat and leveled banana esters also enhance the impression of refreshment. It's as complex as it is highly drinkable; a rare treat in the New World where intense flavors are often preferred by brewers and drinkers alike.
Q: The reviews sound good. Would it do just as well if it were labeled a "generic Berliner Weisse"?
A: As you can see, it is far from a 'generic Berliner Weisse', mostly because of the beechwood smoked malts, but also because the yeast used was a Saison yeast which shares fruity esters that do not occur in Berliner Weisse. Finally, it is not as dry as a typical Berliner Weisse. It does have some body to it, similar to a Bavarian Weizen's actually.
PS. If you need a bio from me, here's one I sent to Atlanta-based Beer Connoisseur magazine for a feature article I wrote for them, to appear in this summer's issue: "After traveling to over 20 countries to study the beer world's finest products, Martin Thibault co-authored La Route des Grands Crus de la Bière, a gold medal winner at the Canadian Culinary Book Awards. He is now working on a second book which endeavors to showcase beer's vast flavor spectrum, and the appeal of pairing these flavors to different foods."
Q: Is this just a gimmick with a Higgs boson label?
A: It's far from a gimmick with a label. It's a delicious brew in which beechwood smoked malts uplift citrusy, lactic subtleties.
Internal whiskey and hard liquor barrels were burnt for decades ....
They say that the charcoal was used as filtration and to remove impurities ....
Now this brewery is using that method in a segment of their manufacturing process to add flavor maybe with the same reasoning used from the older hard liquor brewers ....
I guess that's unique ....
But attaching the Higgs boson name to it is a stretch to me ....
But the timing couldn't be better .... "LOL"
Thanks Alan ....
You should patent "BAZINGA BEER" .... "LOL"
My favorite from Twitter: "Now that we have evidence for the Higgs it doesn’t make sense to keep calling it 'the god particle.'"
I made up this Higgs boson joke: Did you hear about the God particle who became an atheist? He no longer believed in himself.
Give credit to God. God has given wisdom to Adam and Eve to take care a lot of things, even though they got kicked out from Eden. They, at least, named the animals, plants, and all other basic names, including the routines. As the history continually passing on, the first century people have learned the wine can kill germs, such as stomach problems.
Now, we have scientists that have wisdom that not every one become scientists.
But the picture has shined something that every thing/light is shooting out from the center, and all the lights/things have stopped somewhere that cannot reach both end. And not that many of lights/things can go that far; and we can see the basic of the physics which it has a limit and it has no return which means that is no 360 degree returning to the center.
Adam and Eve are characters from a story. They never existed. You might as well be praising the intelligence and wisdom of the gingerbread man. I'm glad you're interested in science, but all the credit goes to the hard-working scientists who made it happen. Giving an absentee deity any of the credit is obscene.
"Give credit to God. God has given wisdom to Adam and Eve to take care a lot of things, even though they got kicked out from Eden."
But they got kicked out of Eden, for curiosity. For seeking knowledge. Pandora, of Greek mythology got a bad rap for similar reasons.
I can't observe a deity that would suppress such desires. Indeed, it's one of the most noble things humans ever do...
"I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use."
- Galileo Galilei
"Was man one of gods blunders or was god one of mans blunders."
Freidrich Neitzsche
:-)
I think you guys are missing Billie's point: education is important. At least that's the point I took from that inarticulate collection of random words.
One tiny point on a mistake in the article... The Higgs boson does not give atoms mass. The point of discovering the boson was to prove the existence of the Higgs field. The boson comes into existence and interacts with the field and almost immediately decays. It is this interaction which then causes the field to impart mass to the atoms. For instance, if it was the boson imparting mass, a hydrogen atom would weigh 150X more than it does because that is how much the boson weighs. Instead, the boson winks into existence, interacts with the field, and the field imparts mass to the hydrogen atom.
Think of it this way: thumb nail / guitar string / note. The nail (Higgs boson) plucks the string (Higgs field) causing it to vibrate (impart mass) to the atom (note). Simple, really.
Let me preface this by saying that I'm not a physicist, just a follower. As such, please be kind in your criticisms.
I understand Werewindle's illustration of the Higgs and its contribution to the characteristic of mass an atom possesses.
The question/concern I have is that this explanation seems a lot like saying the Higgs field is an "ether" that permeates everything, and that the characteristic of mass is a byproduct of the Higgs boson's interaction with the Higgs field. I'm not saying this explanation is wrong - but I seem to recall that explaining something as an interaction with an ether is simply "kicking the can down the road". You have to be able to demonstrate the independent existence of the ether. Am I way off base here?
I don't know if you're way off base, but I think that finding/creating a Higgs boson, by exciting the field in a particular way, was all intended to demonstrate the existence of the field. I'm not sure what would be meant by 'independent' existence. I don't know if they think of the field as always having existed, or as having been brought about by some process in the development of the universe.
Doug - my concern is simply that we're basing the assertion of the discovery of a new particle simply on its interaction with a field that we haven't independently demonstrated exists. Or at least that's my understanding. If that's wrong, I welcome the correction.
In the late 1800s (1879?) Michaelson/Morley wanted to measure the speed of light. At the time, the theory was that light was propagated through an "ether" of unknown construction. Their reasoning was that if they measured the speed of a light beam when the earth was moving in one direction around the sun (and so, presumably, was the "ether') and then measured it when the earth was moving in the other direction (against the "ether's" movement) the average of the two would be the speed of light. What happened, of course, was that they were unable to determine a difference in speed. This proved to be one of the first cracks in the Newtonian worldview.
Gene, are you religious?
Doug, not particularly. Why do you ask?
Because a day or two ago I got on a thread with someone who expressed similar 'concerns' going back to the ether theory, but I ended up with the impression that he was mainly motivated by his religion, and by a desire to see science fail. If you were headed in that direction, I'd rather cut to the chase.
Doug, I understand and couldn't agree more. There's no point in getting into such a discussion with someone whose idea of veracity is faith-based. On reflection, my comment would seem (to me, at least) to be exactly your point. It *appears to me - and again, I remind you I'm not a professional, just an eager student - that the discovery of the Higgs boson is being surmised based on the existence of the Higgs field - the existence of which seems to me to be a matter of faith. If the Higgs field is a theory, then that's fine with me. A theory that provides an explanation for a phenomenon will serve as a good model until such time as data appears that it no longer explains. I haven't gotten the impression, however, that the Higgs field was just a theory from the articles I've read and the explanations I've received.
Gene, okay good. My impression is that the field is theory, but now has this new evidence of a particle which it - theoretically - produces having been found (or created, if you prefer, by the experiment which excites the field in the right way). I don't think there's any question of the field being independent of the rest of existence, and people having to go back to pre-Einstein days, like the 'ether.' Instead, I reckon the Higgs field grew out with space-time as the universe progressed, and follows the same contours. But that's just me visualizing it, I know zilch about it and could be way wrong.
Fair enough, Doug. I can accept that the field is a theory. So now, to me, the question becomes "What propagates the field?" In other words, what causes the field to be ubiquitous?
We know, for example, what propagates a magnetic field. What's the mechanism for propagating the Higgs field? If there *is one, then we're not at the bottom of the "reality stack" yet. I hope you grasp where I'm going.
I guess you're going into the time before the Higgs field or mechanism existed, in the early universe, when nothing would have had any mass. As I said, I know nothing about physics, but I don't think the standard model of particles or the Higgs theory concern themselves much about that, except tangentially. I'm sure that, if they do eventually consider the Higgs field proved, they will want to know where or what it came from.
And perhaps the Higgs field isn't ubiquitous. If it wasn't stretchy enough to have expanded all the way through the universe from way back when, then perhaps it was torn apart into into small pieces by the expansion, after it had done the job of giving mass to particles, and since then, each massive particle has been accompanied by its own little skin of Higgs field, which somehow clings to it, maintaining its mass, and its ability to interact with other massive particles in whatever way they do. The particles in the colliders wouldn't know the difference, since a Higgs boson could be created from their little mini-Higgs fields during the collision, and who'd be the wiser? No doubt I'm being very silly, but being silly in the main advantage of ignorance. :-)
Well, I wasn't actually going back to the time around the Bang, no. What I'm trying to say is that whatever the field consists of that permits propagation of mass is simply one level lower than the Higgs boson as far as getting to the true building blocks of this Universe. We have delved another level deeper, but we're not at bedrock yet. The existence of the field implies the existence of something that "creates" the field.
Ubiquity - I was told in a thread in a different article that the field is ubiquitous. I don't know one way or the other, but I can see your point of view.
Ya, if it weren't ubiquitous, they would have said that in these articles. I figure it's just very very 'stretchy,' unless it's seeping through holes from other dimensions.. :D
A wave and a particle were walking side by side
One said to the other, which one of us am I?
Albert dance around
Albert be profound
Albert let your hair stick up
Your socks hang down.
From the song, "Einstien the Genius"
Do you ever wonder what Einstien would have to say about all this? I do.
Looking good skip Nicholson, Oklahoma City ....
Thanks ....
Alan you make me laugh and smile with is article. lol But I must Say, "Sheers to you my friend"
:-)
Have a good day, Tom And Lyn.