Beer

[turningnut]

When ya drink beer for the reason I do, doesn't matter how it taste, it goes down too fast...LOL

[Old Dude]

Okay, this is a scroller's forum but this is off-topic, and somebody else named the thread beer. So here's today's beer lesson...no quiz (I used to teach). The Bud and Miller class of beer is actually lady's beer, and Prohibition was the cause. During the Prohibition era from 1920-1933 many small breweries went belly up...the ones that didn't (ie, Anheuser-Busch and some others) survived by developing other product lines. When Prohibition was lifted they said okay, let's get back to brewing, but let's appeal to the ladies (after all, it was the ladies who actually caused prohibition in the first place). So they said what if we add RICE to make the beer seem lighter (I'm not talking Lite Beer here), maybe the gals would belly up and stop being so mad at hubby for going out and getting sloshed with the boys. So they did, and they did, and they still do. Basically, beer is made with 4 ingredients: barley for flavor and fermentables, hops for bitterness, yeast for ethanol, and water. Once you start substituting rice and other "stuff" for barley, you draw away from true beer. How far do you want to draw away?...well, you'd have to ask those guys. btw, Anheuser-Busch absolutely knows how to brew true, flavorful beer (probably brews it in a backroom for the family)...but for them the bottom line is the bottom line. Once m'lady caught onto non-beer so did hubby...if you can't fight 'em join 'em. Eventually it became the "national standard". But in the last 10-15 years or so some entrepreneurial types decided to test the waters and see if there was actually a market in this country for real beer (the kind that was brewed before Prohibition). I may be wrong here, but I think the first brewery that achieved some wide-spread recognition in this arena was Samuel Adams. Their success spurred others on...Sierra Nevada, Victory Brewing in PA, DogFish Head in DE, and many others. If you want to keep up with this check on Michael Jackson (not the idiot singer)...he's become "the" officianado of craft beers. If MJ stops in to review your beer and gives it a thumbs up, the stock spikes 20 points if it's publicly held (most aren't). One thing about hops...they really aren't necessary today. Back in the days before refrigeration hops were used as a preservative. If you've heard of India Pale Ale (IPA for short) you may know that one of its characteristics is that it's bitter (ie, highly hopped). The reason is that when England sent beer to the troops in India, and it had to go by sailing vessel around the horn, it needed hops to ensure that it didn't arrive spoiled. No longer necessary, but hops has been associated with the flavor of beer for so long that to leave it out makes it seem like it isn't beer. I chuck extra hops in my homebrew just because I like the flavor. So that's it.

If you just want to get hammered, boil up some sugar water, let it cool to about 70F, chuck in some yeast and cover it...wine yeast would probably work best. After 10-14 days (when activity seems to have ceased), drink up. It will taste awful, but it will contain ethanol. Bud is somewhere between that and real beer (btw, I'm not responsible for anything irresponsible you may do as a result of trying this stupid experiment).

Cheers.

[Nubbin]

Just so you all know, I have tried to drain Florida of all the Amber Bock this past weekend. Don't know how well I did but I gave it my best!!!!

[Hawaiilad]

Listen folks, if you have the chance, try any of the Kona Brews from Hawaii. They have a passion fruit that is really tastey. I have seen then in larger stores on my trips to the Mainland...

And Mike, you should have told me about the barter system you have going Before I placed my last order of blades from you!!