Alcohol is not the solution. Or is it?

Did you have a few drinks too many on New Year's Eve? Was one of your resolutions to give up the booze, or at least have a dry January? If so, you may just find your creative problem-solving ability diminished.

Thinking back to my early days in advertising, there were a lot of long and liquid lunches which inevitably spawned some pretty damn good ideas, creative and strategic. Certainly, it seemed a more effective method than locking everyone in a "workshop" to drown in Post-It notes.

I'm now quite amused to see a new product which, on the basis of "scientific research", enables you to get to the optimum alcohol level for creative problem-solving: The Problem Solver Beer. 'A delicious way to reach your creative peak'.

Apparently, creative thinking peaks at a level of 0.075 percent alcohol, which is achieved through drinking half the bottle if you're a slim woman, or the whole lot if you are a relatively chunky man. There's a useful scale on the bottle calibrated to indicate your intake for optimum creativity. 'All you have to do is drink and think.'

Professor Jennifer Wiley on the University of Illinois at Chicago is quoted on the brand's website, saying that - amazing, this -  alcohol may help by making people less focussed which can open their minds to new and novel possibilities.

Well, I never!

I think I prefer red wine, though.

Cheers, and here's to plenty of creative problem solving in 2015!