Why does the Saaz hop have a German name? As I understand the famous Saaz hop is grown in a region called Žatec in modern day Czech Republic. Why is this hop not called the Žatec hop? And why exactly is a Czech hop known by a German name? Is this a case of cultural appropriation?

Why does the Saaz hop have a German name?
Along time back, the town of Žatec was part of Germany and not part of the now Czech Republic. Thus the name reflects an historical perspective rather than a cultural one.

Officially registered in 1952, the original Saaz, or Czech Saaz as it is sometimes known, has established itself as a staple variety for brewers and dates back more than 700 years. Originating in Zatec, Bohemia (now part of the Czech Republic) it is an esteemed red-bine variety that is now grown around the world. New Zealand in particular has embraced Saaz, breeding several descendants including the popular Motueka and Riwaka varieties (B & D Saaz, respectively).
Saaz is one of the four original Noble hops and has a distinctive and classic aroma. Known for its prominent use in Stella Artois and countless Bohemian Lagers and Pilsners. Its warm, herbal character stems from a high level of farnesene while its other oils are in fair balance.
With such a low alpha acid percentage, Saaz is inarguably an aroma hop, however, when used as an early addition it is thought to add a delicate bitterness. Additionally, its elevated content of polyphenols aids in abating oxidation, giving beer brewed with Saaz a notably longer shelf life.
Growing Saaz is not without its difficulties. Specifically, it endures a meager yield, has weak mildew resistance and light cones. The original Saaz variety has been successfully cloned 9 times between 1952 and 1993 in an effort to improve these factors. Originally, growers were hesitant to hybridize, fearing the loss of its signature and delicate aroma. This hybridization has become necessary though to breed resistance to wilt and mildew and make it a more viable crop. Despite these few shortcomings, breweries use it prolifically worldwide. - Saaz

Žatec and the Saaz noble hop have an interesting intermingled history.

Žatec (German: Saaz) is a town in Louny District, Ústí nad Labem Region, in the Czech Republic. It has about 19,000 inhabitants.
It is famous for an over-700-year-long tradition of growing Saaz noble hops used by several breweries. Žatec produces its own beer and hosts 'Dočesná', its hops-related harvest festival every year on the town square.
The earliest historical reference to the Bohemian fortress of Sacz is in the Latin chronicle of Thietmar of Merseburg of 1004, when King Henry II of Germany reconquered it from the Polish duke Bolesław I Chrobry. During the 11th century it belonged to the Vršovci – a powerful Czech aristocratic family. It received the privileges of a royal town under King Ottokar II of Bohemia in 1265. A coat-of-arms was given to the citizens by King Vladislaus II for their courage during the storming of Milan.
From the outbreak of the Hussite Wars in 1419 to the Thirty Years' War, the town was Hussite or Protestant, but after the Battle of White Mountain (1620) the greater part of the Czech inhabitants left the town, which remained German and Roman Catholic until 1945, when the German speaking inhabitants were forced to leave their home and expelled to Germany. On June 3, 1945 about 5,000 German inhabitants were gathered on the Market place and marched to Postoloprty, where at least 763 were murdered in the Postoloprty massacre, estimates range up to 2,000 victims killed by Czechoslovak military in Žatec and on the March.
During and after the World War II a Messerschmitt production facility and air base for testing aircraft, including new jet fighters, was located close to the town. In 1948 the production facility continued to produce the Avia S-199, a version of the Messerschmitt Bf 109 aircraft which were sold to Israel, with the initial training for the Israeli pilots provided at the air base. Many other military supplies were flown to Israel from the air base, which helped the new state to secure its independence.


Alternative corks vs natural corks. What is the difference? I have noticed the proliferation in recent years of what most people refer to as 'plastic' corks in wine bottles.  It turns out not to be plastic, but Nomex.  My question(s) is (are):  What exactly is Nomex?  Is it a case of the fact that it doesn't leech into the wine?  Is there a standard/quality/bottle price issue regarding the usage of one type of cork over the other?  What other reasons are there for using a nomex opposed to cork 'cork'?

EDIT TO QUESTION (visual of nomex corks):  The interior of the cork is sponge like, the out is hard.  I have tried googling this and cannot find what I am looking for.  It is not what passes for a synthetic cork.  Apogies for the quality of photo:

Let's start with what are Nomex corks and what are natural corks.

  Nomex is a registered trademark for flame-resistant meta-aramid material developed in the early 1960s by DuPont and first marketed in 1967.

  Nomex and related aramid polymers are related to nylon, but have aromatic backbones, and hence are more rigid and more durable. Nomex is the premier example of a meta variant of the aramids (Kevlar is a para aramid). Unlike Kevlar, Nomex cannot align during filament formation and has poorer strength. However, it has excellent thermal, chemical, and radiation resistance for a polymer material.

"Nomex corks" for wine do not exist. In fact "Nomex cork" material is used as a gasket material for engines and the like. I believe you are thinking of rubber corks.

Natural cork comes from the outer bark of the cork tree.

  Cork is produced from the sponge like material taken from cork oak trees, also known as Quercus Suber. Cork oak trees are grown primarily in Portugal. Cork started to become the sealing material of choice in the late 1600’s when it became possible to create glass wine bottles with an almost uniform shape and design. It took until the late 1700’s to create easy to use corkscrews for the wine lover or tavern owner. At that point in history, cork replaced glass wine stoppers, which while they worked well, glass stoppers were not easy to remove without breaking the wine bottle. The pairing of the cork and wine bottle ushered fine wine into the modern age, as from that point forward, wine had the ability to age and evolve in the bottle. Interestingly cork and fine wine share another commonality. The cork, oak tree needs to be at least 25 years old before the material used to create the cork can be harvested. This is similar to the age of vines in many of the world’s best wine regions. While grape vines are harvested every year, cork trees are only able to be harvested once every nine years. - Wine Corks Everything You Need to Know About Wine Corks

Alternative wine closures or corks can be seen here and many are known as rubber corks and plastic corks:

  Alternative wine closures are substitute closures used in the wine industry for sealing wine bottles in place of traditional cork closures. The emergence of these alternatives has grown in response to quality control efforts by winemakers to protect against "cork taint" caused by the presence of the chemical trichloroanisole (TCA). - Alternative wine closures (Wikipedia)

There are pros and cons to using of all types of corks.

  The problems with synthetic corks is the lack of a perfect seal. In turn that allows more unwanted air into the bottle, causing the wine to oxidize. Worse, many of the synthetic corks have been known to impart a slight rubber or chemical smell, damaging the wine. Beherns and Hitchcock, a producer of Cabernet Sauvignon in Napa California was one of the early proponents of plastic corks. Most of the wines bottled using those synthetic corks have not developed well. Many of those wines are defective. However, today, they have improved since their initial creation. Because the plastic corks allow air to integrate at a faster pace than normal corks, some winemakers actually prefer it. In fact, that has become part of the selling point as the corks can be ordered to allow for a more or less rapid transmission of air into the wine, based on the tightness of seal.

  Wine corks do however have problems, the major issue being infection with TCA, which causes what is known by wine collectors and others in the wine business as Corked Wine. Corked bottles of wine remains a serious problem in the wine industry as many people think that it effects between 5% to 10% of all wine undrinkable.

  The old saying that nothing lasts forever is especially true with wine. When a wine cork degrades, so does the wine, due to additional exposure to air, which in turn causes premature oxidization. Before that happens, for rare and expensive bottles, it might be possible to replace your old cork with a new wine cork. This is something you cannot do at home on your own. For more on replacing your wine cork, Everything you need to know about Re-Corking wine bottles.

  Corks have been the undisputed choice to seal wine bottles for hundreds of years. But with all the alternative enclosures available these days, by 2016, it is estimated that only 70% of all wine bottles today are sealed with natural corks. Still, at the end of day, it is unlikely corks will be replaced as the sealer of choice for the best wines. In part, there is the romance and tradition of removing the cork, coupled with that special popping sound that lets you know, you are about to drink a wine and that is something technology cannot improve on. - Wine Corks Everything You Need to Know About Wine Corks

Although natural cork is more eco-friendly, they are s slightly more expensive than their counterparts.


What makes bourbon sweet? If bourbon contains no carbohydrates (and therefore no sugar) what gives it a sweet flavour? What are the chemicals or compounds?

Many chemical compounds, like saccharin for example, can taste sweet. There are hundreds of chemical compounds in bourbon and a number of them or combinations of them can lead to that sense of sweetness. Ethanol itself has a sweet flavor. The sugar from the corn itself however, will not make it through the distillation process. If we consider for a moment corn based vodka, you'll notice that it doesn't have the same sweet flavor.

I'd say that what sets bourbon apart is the number of chemical compounds present, collectively adding to the sweetness. An important contributor to these compounds are the flavors that come from the barrel, most noticeably vanillin. Vanillin tastes like, well..... vanilla. Another is 3-Methyl-4-octanolide, also known as whisky lactone, which adds more vanilla flavor as well as coconut. The other major contributor are esters. Esters are one of the congeners, things other than ethanol that make it through distillation. Esters add more fruit flavors. One such ester is ethyl hexanoate, which can provide like a pineapple or slightly green banana flavor.

You can actually get totally different compounds in the bottle while using the exact same production materials too. For example in the barrel, a lower alcohol content won't penetrate the wood as deeply as a higher alcohol content would. The sweeter flavors are pretty shallow in the wood so if I wanted to make something sweet, I'd dilute the alcohol a little before aging. You won't be able to tell this by looking at the alcohol content on the bottle though, because the higher proof stuff going into the barrel will be diluted after aging. It's all part of the process.


Why is it every time I try an old expensive wine it's doesn't compare to a 25-35$ two year old wine I buy? On special occasions friends or family have brought over expensive 20-25 year old bottles of Spanish or Italian wines to celebrate the occasion.
I'm no wine expert other than going to the local Liquor Store and asking the clerk to recommend a wine with certain qualities like dry, or sweet, fan favorites etc. I thought 'Oh, old means good.' Come trying time, the wine is thin, lacks flavor, no body or depth, it's happened to me twice now.
Other than the allure of holding something in your hand that you could say has been preserved for 20-25 years for this very moment you're about to celebrate, and maybe for a 25th birthday, a 25 year old bottle of wine would be appropriate as well, in terms of the consumption experience, I'd say it was mediocre. You know you're drinking wine, but it isn't memorable, nor is there any pull to do it again.
I've never had that experience with the 25-35$ bottles of Italian, Spanish, or Portuguese wine that I've bought and tried over dinner with friends and family. Maybe those wines are 1-2 years old, but they've been noticeably better. So much so that some pretended to like the old wine not to offend the person that brought it. Right now I can't see why I would even spend money on an expensive old bottle, when I know I can get what I like, consistently every time, and if I get tired of the same bottle I know I can try other bottles within that price range that wont leave me feeling like something was missing and I didn't get what I payed for. Either I keep getting brought bad old expensive wines or maybe something else is going on, I don't have much experience with old expensive wines?
What is going on? Can someone change my mind on old wines? Are there any whose juice is worth the squeeze?

Not all wines are suitable for keeping - and the ones that may be, still require good stable conditions with regards to temperature, sunlight and so on. Assuming the 20+ years old wines you’ve had were suitable and have been stored well, there still are other aspects worth considering.
Some districts have a ‘classical’ and a ‘modern’ style of wine making, where I generally find the modern more mainstream-friendly compared to the classical ones that typically pair better with quite specific foods.
At the end of the day, it most often comes down to personal taste; younger wines often exhibit more power and fruit while being a bit rough around the edges - whereas older ones are more subdued as the tannin levels have decreased, allowing finer notes to appear. Having an 'average at best' sense of smell, these notes are often wasted on me unless they are very obvious.
Example: While older Vintage Port (e.g. 1963, 1966) is regarded as more sophisticated than the newer vintages, I still prefer the sheer power of a 10 or 15 year old Vintage Port. Conversely, I always prefer older wines from famous districts such as Burgundy, Rhone, Bordeaux as they are made for storing a few years before release, making the newest vintages quite aggressive.


Which Belgian beer is served in wooden bowl? I'm sure I had it in the Delirium Café in Brussels but I can't remember the name of it.

I have no idea if tastes good as that day was a bit of blur ;)

The only brand of beer I can think of is Mongozo, which is brewed in Belgium by a Dutch company (Dutch wikipedia). They brew various kinds of fruit beers, in addition to a pilsener and a wheat beer.


Brewing in a rented space/place. Can you brew beer in an apt? I could let it age in my closet, or the balcony storage shed.

The only concern I'd see right away would be making sure you don't lose your deposit if you have a blow out during fermentation and beer sprays all around.  I've not done it in an apartment, but I just use my stove and a wort chiller that attaches to my sink, so there isn't anything in that process that would be a problem in an apartment.

I suppose if you want to use a big propane burner for boiling the wort you might need to check if such things are permitted at your property.  If they don't allow BBQs you probably couldn't use that type of burner.  If you've got the time you should be able to do it on most stove tops though.  And more time to brew means more time to enjoy previously brewed after all!

For the fermentation, ideally you'll want a dark place that's reasonably temperature controlled, but if your apartment has its temps in a reasonable range you could probably make it work without a special fermentation chamber--which you could also likely buy or make if you care enough to.


Has Prohibition ever worked? Historically, is there any case in which prohibition of alcohol has actually dissuaded its consumption?

It failed miserably in the United States, for example...

Prohibition was an Era in American history from 1920-1933 - and - it failed miserably. If anything, it made alcohol more popular.

Prohibition, in general, also means to prohibit something via law or religion though. The religious aspect is the only case that one can see prohibition working. ::Insert Mormonism/Islamic religion/et cetera here::


What causes my stuffy nose after drinking alcohol? This is an odd question, but one that I have wondered about for a long time.

When I drink alcohol there is a magic sweet spot where my nose gets very stuffy feeling and I sound stuffy while talking. Drinking less and drinking more result in a clear nose and no stuffiness. It is clearly inflammation as blowing my nose results in no production and nasal spray such as Afrin alleviates it.

Here is what I have found:

Beer: results in a stuffy nose after 1.5 - 2 beers. It clears after 3 - 4, like clockwork
Wine: I don't drink it often but have noticed stuffiness on par with beer when I drink white wine. I have not experimented enough with red wine, but have not observed stuffiness after 3 - 4 glasses.
Liquor: For the most part, stuffiness does not occur with liquor. The occasions it does, it takes more (3 - 4 drinks) to get stuffy and clears relatively quickly

NOTE: I have not observed stuffiness from other non-alcoholic drinks and I do not have any known food allergies.

What is it about alcoholic drinks that could cause this reaction, and why would liquors/red wine be less likely to cause it than beer and white wine?

I'll keep it simple. All three of those alcoholic drinks have something different in them. You said wine and booze don't do it very much yet beer makes you stuffy. Hops are very well know to cause stuffiness and allergic reaction. It could be more than hops, it could be something to do with malt. You might try less hopped beers so a Helles Lager vs an IPA and see if one makes you more or less stuffy. Most people have an allergic reaction to the histamines in wine, which causes flushing of the face and neck and nasal congestion.

You could take an anti-histamine (Zyrtec or Benadryl) before you drink and see if that helps.


Why do some beers smell like cannabis? In my experience, some beers smell like cannabis. Stella Artios is a distinctive example.

What causes this? - Is it due to a type of hop, or a style?

The fact that both Humulus lupulus (hops) and Cannabis sativa (marijuana) have similar organoleptic properties (taste and smell) could indicate a common ancestry--but it isn't proof. Lots of plants make similar aroma molecules, known as terpenes and terpenoid compounds, including lemons (which make limonene), lavender (linalool) and conifers (pinene) -- but none of them are closely related to cannabis or hops.

Full article here


What wines pair well with vegetarian dishes? What wines pair well with vegetarian or vegan dishes? White wines?

I was brought up in the fashion that one served red wine with beef and white wine with most fish dishes. But vegetarian dishes are something all together.

  Vegetarian Dish Pairing

  White Wines

  Pinot Gringo

  Veggie wraps

  bright salads
  pasta with cream sauce
  bruchetta

  Chardonnay

  Starchy foods such as potatoes or risotto

  Spring peas
  Corn
  Roasted vegetables

  Riesling

  Thai food

  Curry
  Summer BBQ
  Cashews
  Mexican Dishes

  Gewurztraminer

  German foods
  Cheeses
  Cajun Cuisine
  Kimchee
  Indian Cuisine

  Red Wines

  Chianti

  Pasta with tomato sauce
  Caprese
  Veggie pizza

  Merlot

  Veggie Burgers
  Olives
  Avocados

  Cabernet Sauvignon

  Lentil Soup
  Garlic
  Walnuts
  Eggplants

  Pinot Noir

  Mushrooms
  Bread and olive oil
  Mediterranean Foods

  Quick Guide to Vegetarian Wine Pairings

Pairing rules are not set in stone, but there are a few friendly guidline to follow.

  Match Wine Flavors With Food Flavors

  Specific body and color types and their flavors are also elements to consider when you are pairing vegan foods and wine. For example, when choosing white wine, a light-bodied flavor, such as Vermentino, Pinot Grigio and Viognier all go well with pasta dishes, salads and stir-fry vegetables because they will not overpower the modest flavor of these foods. If you are barbecuing veggie burgers or preparing baked potatoes on the grill, consider choosing a classic white Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc or Riesling, which make a fine complement to the taste of grilled foods.

  If you prefer red wine, then go with Granache for veggie burgers and sweet potatoes, and try a Merlot for olive-based dishes and grilled asparagus. The most important aspect of pairing wine with a vegan meal is to choose flavors that will not overpower the food. For example, avoid pairing a robust, full-bodied red wine with a simple summer salad or pairing a sweet wine with a tart pesto and lemon dish.

  While you might make a few errors when you first start pairing wines and vegan dishes, you should never be afraid to experiment and come up with a few interesting combinations of you own. - 5 Tips for Pairing Wines With Vegan Dishes

And by the way: Bon Appetite!


is "Capilano Pale Ale" still being produced and is it possible to get it in the States? is "Capilano Pale Ale" still being produced and is it possible to get it in the States?I'm referring to the Vancouver, British Colombia, microbrew.

My research suggests that Capilano Pale Ale is no longer brewed.

This Vancouver Archives article on beer in Vancouver suggests that the Capilano brewery was taken over by Molson in 1958. Searching the address given (1550 Burrard Street), I found that Molson still occupies the space. Very little else comes up when I search for Capilano Brewery or Capilano Pale Ale.


What alcohol beverage goes well with a certain type of smoking? Some beverages go well with different foods.  White wine with fish, red wine with ... Is there such a thing as beverage and smokes combinations that suit the taste buds?  For example, beer with certain types of cigarettes or cigars; what kind of difference would there be and how would I aim to please?  The specific smokes I had in mind are the different cigarettes, cigars.  The most simple combination that came to my mind is coffee and a cigarette.  But I'm interested in alcoholic beverages and smokes.

Smoke and drink like a pirate.

  Rum and cigars both hail from the Caribbean, so it’s no coincidence that they work well with one another. Match the spiced and sweet molasses undertones of this full-bodied dark spirit with creamy cigar, like a flavorfully nutty and cocoa-infused Casa Magna. Yes, we know there are clear rums as well but, in all honesty, most combinations with this spirit will be subpar. - Best Cigar Pairings with Beer & Alcohol Drinks

For those into E-Cigarettes here is a suggestion:

  A British e-cigarette manufacturer has a new option for those who enjoy a smoke with their favorite alcoholic beverage. London Fox recently rolled out two new e-cigarettes, the Silver and the Refresh, meant to be paired with beers, cocktails or wine. - This E-Cigarette Offers Suggested Drink Pairings.

Here is some pairings for Marijuana, for those interested and where it is legal to smoke: How To Pair Beer And Marijuana: A Match Made In Hazy Heaven.


'Hooch' - origins of the word I would like to know the real origins of the word (terminology) 'Hooch'.  I have done some research here and here.  However is there another point of view?  If I make my own, can I call it 'Hooch'?

Hooch means "cheap whiskey" and here is the origin of the term:

  hooch (n.)

  Also hootch, "cheap whiskey," 1897, shortened form of Hoochinoo (1877) "liquor made by Alaskan Indians," from the name of a native tribe in Alaska whose distilled liquor was a favorite with miners during the 1898 Klondike gold rush; the tribe's name is said by OED to be from Tlingit Hutsnuwu, literally "grizzly bear fort."

  As the supply of whisky was very limited, and the throats down which it was poured were innumerable, it was found necessary to create some sort of a supply to meet the demand. This concoction was known as "hooch"; and disgusting as it is, it is doubtful if it is much more poisonous than the whisky itself. [M.H.E. Hayne, "The Pioneers of the Klondyke," London, 1897] - The Online Etymology Dictionary


Maraschino cherry - can I use an alternative? Just recently I have got into cocktails.  But I am finding it hard to find the right cherries so offset my designs.  The Maraschino cherry is the classic but what else is there to make my cocktails just that bit 'extra special'?

This is what wikipedia has to say about the Maraschino cherry

There is the Amarena cherry was developed by Gennaro Fabbri and is a particular bitter cherry. Fabbri mixes them with a sort of jam and makes syrups with them.

The sensation is like the maraschino cherry, but more soft, enveloping and a bit less of sugar in it...

I found it perfect in all iced tea cocktail, to give them a twist, also good with pretty everything involving bayleys or similar creamy alcoholic
reference here.

This may be of interest too.


Does milk stout actually contain lactose? I know that lactose is used in the brewing process for milk stout, but I don't know if it remains there by the end of the brewing process.  I'm very lactose intolerant, and want to know if I need to take a lactase pill if I drink a milk stout.

Yes, the lactose remains in the beer at the end of brewing.

In normal beer, the only sugar which enters the brewing process is from the malted barley: maltose and glucose released by the breakdown of starch, and a little sucrose and fructose. This 1953 analysis by a chemist in the Carlsberg research laboratory has all the gory details.

Normal brewing yeast has enzymes that break down glucose and fructose, but not lactose. This kind of yeast evolved on rotting fruit, where there is plenty of sucrose, glucose, and fructose, but no lactose, so they never needed the enzymes. There are other yeasts which can ferment lactose, but they aren't used in brewing, except by zany vodka makers and Mongols.

So, in a normal beer, potentially all of the sugar can be broken down during brewing. Whether it is or not is up to the brewer, who can stop the process while sugar remains, or let it run to completion. However, in a milk stout, there is no way for the lactose to be broken down, so it all remains at the end.

The amount of lactose in a milk stout varies, but it seems that it is likely to be in the range of 5 to 13%; that is, in a (568 millilitre) pint, there may be anywhere from 28 to 74 grams of lactose. The lactose concentration in milk is about 4%, so this is the equivalent of 700 - 1850 millilitres of milk. Rather a lot!

Perhaps you might like a honey porter instead?


A plastic bottle of gira (kvass) expanded in the plane: what are the possible consequence? A couple of friend just came back from vacation in Lithuania and brought me a bottle of gira. However, the bottle is made of plastic (it looks like a soda bottle) and it suffered from what I guess is traveling in a plane cargo at low pressure: it expanded like a balloon, even the screw cap has a dome.

What could be the consequences of this expansion on taste, preservation, carbonation or anything else I might have forgotten?

One possible consequence is that the bottle will pop, sending gira all over the place and possibly hurting someone's eardrums.

I don't know if opening the bottle before it bursts helps or, on the contrary, ensures that it bursts in someone's hands.

An in the end, you don’t get to know what it tastes like. :’(


Craft beer - Ambient temperature for fermentation I am thinking about make my first beer in this summer. However, in my country the summer has an ambient temperature about 25-30º. So my question, is what type of beers are adequate to this conditions?

My first idea is a blond ale (Brewferm Ale), with fermentation at the ambient temperature in Barrel Aging. What do you think about?

That is really too warm as you will get fusel oils as a bi-product.  If you absolutely must do it in that high of a temperature, I would go with an ESB or something.  If you really are going to get into this, you may want to invest in an old refrigerator and maintain around 17 - 20 degrees for an ale.  Well worth the investment if you have the space and money!

Good luck.


At what point/percentage can beer properly "age"? I recently encountered a beer that was utterly rank and had an awful aroma. I tasted a small sip, but had to toss the rest. Investigating the label on this beer, I discovered it had an expiry date of Dec. 2012, making it just over one year old.

This beer's alcohol content was 5.6% ABV, and it clearly did not have a lengthy self life.

Contrastingly, a local brewer annually brews an ice bock with an alcohol content of 9.5% ABV, and they state that because of this high alcohol content, it's suitable for aging (and it ages well, to boot).

What is the minimum alcohol content/ABV percentage required in order to consider a beer safe/suitable for aging? If pasteurization plays a role, please advise.

Aging, from my experience, involves the heavy proteins settling to the bottom of the bottle. Filtered beer typically doesn't need to be aged because all of that is already removed. You can consider this "pre aged" like a shirt may be "pre shrunk". Best not to buy with the assumption that it will get any smaller (or improve with time).

Much of the time, aging allows the beer to mellow out a bit. I find darker beers benefit from this the  most, but it really depends on the type of beer. Lagers, stouts, porters, have to age longer than pilsners and ales, as a general rule. But whether the brewer has begun or simulated this process is unknown. I guess it's best to follow the instructions on the bottle, or look up the bottler and see if they have recommendations.


Beer in plastic bottles and health aspects Are there any potential health risk connected with drinking beer from plastic PET bottles?

The beer in many countries, including Germany, is widely available in plastic recyclable bottles. Does it have any negative impact on health?

Plastic food packaging in general is usually lined with Bisphenol A (aka. BPA), as are some canned goods, which is a rather controversial chemical. It's been linked to cancer, sexual dysfunction, and other ailments. So I try to avoid it whenever possible and buy my food in glass jars. I can only imagine how much BPA is  dissolved into alcoholic beverages which are bottled in plastic or cans, being that alcohol is corrosive. I learned that lesson when I tried cleaning my GameBoy with rubbing alcohol as a kid. So I try to avoid alcohol bottled in plastic and canned alcohol as well.

The thing you have to realize is that plastic isn't really a solid, but a very viscous liquid. Glass is also a liquid, but it's much more viscous than plastic. That's why if you've ever been in a building that's a couple hundred years old, the glass on the windows is thicker at the bottom of the glass panes. Since both are liquids, they're obviously going to get into your drink. However, glass is a natural substance while plastic is not, so I trust it more.


Why do some people put olives in their beer? I live in Minnesota and I will see people put olives in their beer and I have never understood why.

Why do some people put olives in their beer?

Apart from the obvious reason, because they can, they seems to be couple of reasons for this.

Some individuals actually enjoy doing it.
Olives are paired quite nicely with some varieties of beer.
For some it is a sort of tradition: beertini.
It is part of barroom culture in the Midwest.

  Olives still have that much needed salty taste which keeps us thirsty and makes our beer that much more appreciated, and with so many varieties of olives available they make pairing with some great craft beers a perfect choice! And with olives being used in cocktails for decades why wouldn’t they work with beer? The key is finding the right match.

  Through some experimenting with various olives and types of beer, I came to one conclusion, and that was to not go any darker than an amber ale. Beers like stouts and deep IPA’s when tasted with olives felt a little bitter. The hops seemed to be competing with the olive and maybe the brine but anything lighter than an amber ale was really tasty!

  Here’s how some of my favorite Delallo olives ended up being a good pairing with five varieties of beer.

  Calamata Olives + Belgian Ale

  These are popular olives usually from Greece with a smooth skin and chewy bite to them. They’re definitely on the milder side for flavor and went really well alongside a light and crisp Belgian ale. Belgian beers are know to include spices in the fermentation process which also goes well with the olives.

  Piccante Green Pitted Olives + Hefeweizen

  Piccante means spicy and these Sevillano olives are combined with red pepper flakes. Although the olives aren’t too spicy I needed a beer that would tame the heat but still let the olive taste come through and Hefeweizen does that perfectly. The beer is crisp and should be served well chilled. This is the perfect snack pairing for a warm summers day!

  Castelvetrano Olives + Saison

  These Sicilian green olives are buttery and smooth with a soft bite and a mellow flavor. Pairing them with a light and fruity Saison made perfect sense. Saison’s are not that common amongst the rest of the belgian wheat beers but they have a distinctive crisp and fresh summery taste, making them a great pairing choice with the Castelvetrano’s.

  Olives Jubilee Mix + Red Amber Ale

  Because this mix consists of Kalamata, Picholine and green olives marinaded in savory spices, the choice for beer had to be a bold one but not as strong as a dark stout. Tasting these spiced olives with a red amber ale seemed to cut the happiness of the beer and elevate the spices in the olives. This pairing was probably the boldest of all of the combinations but still really tasty.

  Aglio Green Pitted Olives + Pilsner Lager

  Italian green olives with a texture much like the Castelvetrano’s but covered in chopped garlic pieces. The garlic isn’t overpowering and pairs well with a light Pilsner Lager. Some people might say this kind of beer isn’t very exciting. It’s really light but it lets the garlic shine through from the Aglio Olives. This is one for quick picnic on a hot summers day. Throw down a blanket and enjoy! - Olive and Beer Pairing Guide

Putting an olive in a glass of beer has become known as a beertini.

  At first glance, the “Beertini” is the ultimate dad joke—something that a sitcom father would facetiously claim as his favorite drink after overhearing someone order an Appletini. His flannel-shirt-wearing buddies would all chuckle and eye-roll as they clinked their mugs together, happy with their classic, no-fuss beer selection.

  In certain pockets of the Midwest, though, the combination of beer and olives known as the Beertini (also called the Minnesota, North Dakota or Wisconsin Martini, depending on where you’re located) is not only very real, but is deeply engrained in barroom culture.

  In its most elemental form, the Beertini is a drink and bar snack in one. The way a drinker preps his or her Beertini relies both on what’s available and on individual taste: a canned beer or a draft beer can be used, as can a stein or a lager glass, and the olive count can range from just a few to a whole bowl if the spirit moves you. Beertini-crafting is a trial and error process.

  What the drink lacks in a colorful origin story (no one quite knows—or, frankly, cares—where the first Beertini came to be), it makes up for in simple best practices. Craft beer varieties need not apply and the olives can only be green, the kind most often found swimming in their own juices on dusty bar tops. Want to get wild and use a pimento or blue cheese-stuffed green olive? Not a problem. Try to drop a black olive in your beer, though, and watch the room raise a collective eyebrow.

  The olives—and, often, a splash of olive juice—brighten up the beer, spotlighting how the humblest of ingredients can become the perfect odd couple. They also offer a charming lesson in barroom chemistry. When plunked into a glass of beer, the olives neither settle at the bottom nor lollygag around at the top of the glass. Instead, they bob up and down, sinking and rising like tiny, edible submarines. It’s downright hypnotic.

  Travel a little further down into South Dakota, and you’ll encounter a variation unceremoniously dubbed “Red Beer” (sometimes known unappetizingly as a “Bloody Beer”), which calls on both olives and tomato juice to brighten up a standard lager. The addition of tomato juice draws parallels to the Michelada—minus some of the spice, of course. But no one is quite sure if the two share a common ancestor, or if it is, perhaps, a case of multiple independent discoveries in the same vein as calculus or the theory of natural selection.

  There also seem to be an almost infinite number of permutations and combinations for the way Red Beer can be crafted. Several people suggest swapping out the tomato for orange juice if it’s before noon to create a “poor man’s Mimosa,” while others claim the more olives you can plop into the glass, the better. A few even prefer the additional crunch of a pickle.

  Weber estimates you can find Red Beer (or a Beertini) in just about every single neighborhood bar across South Dakota, but seems less optimistic about the drink’s ultimate future. Craft breweries have been frothing up all over the Midwest for years now, supported largely by a boom of millennial enthusiasts, while Beertinis and Red Beer are the barroom hacks of a former generation.

  But it’s hard to imagine olive-speckled beer steins disappearing anytime soon. The practice is, after all, a true testament to the creativity of Midwestern drinkers and their spirit of brassy, briny industriousness. - How the Beertini Became a Midwestern Staple

Some bars in Spain serve olives as a bar snack, so it seems beer and olives are a little more commonplace than simply just the Midwest!


How can I follow limited releases? I've recently been tracking some of Founders's limited releases (like the Kentucky Breakfast Stout, coming out in March I believe). It's easy enough to check brewery-by-brewery, but are there any services or websites that consolidate information about USA-distributed limited releases?

I'd say beermenus.com would be a good bet. My favorite local brewery updates their page every other day or so.

It's funny that you mention this though. I just had an email exchange with the brewmaster regarding this very thing. I asked him to set up a webcam system which will update the list of beer offerings in realtime (similar to what the Dogfish Head Ale Houses do at the bottom of the page). He liked the idea and said he's game for it, so hopefully we'll start seeing these type of things pop up more and more.

In the meantime, I think beermenus.com is your best bet (aside from calling the brewery probably). There's also a smartphone app called UnTapped that was pretty good at this as well, last time I checked (I'm happily a dumb phone user once again as part of a personal experiment of mine; so I haven't used it recently).


How exactly does buying directly from Westvleteren work? Even if I managed to reserve some beer, it appears here that I need my own car, or at least one whose plate # I will know long in advance to pick up beer.  Has anyone done this?  What is the exact procedure?

I live in Amsterdam, and I have not personally been to Westvleteren but I have friends who have made the trip. It turns out that you have a few options:

You can call and make an appointment and IF you get an
appointment then you must drive there at the appointed time to pick
up your crate of bier. If you can't make it at the appointed time
then you lose out, and you must start the process all over again. I
forget how much bier this is for, but I think it is 24-48 bottles. Indeed when you make the appointment then you must supply your license place number which they use to keep track of you. They will not allow you to make 2 appointments with the same license plate number in a 60 day period. Additionally, the phone number you must call to get an appointment is always busy, I have heard of people using automatic redial for hours before they finally get through.
If you are in the area (again you will need a car, because there is no public transport, and biking there is unreasonable from most places.) You can pop in and there is a small shop next to the monastery where you can buy a 6 pack per person without appointment, and also with out a huge price markup. Of course while you are there you can also eat some good food, and buy other items that the monks make and sell. This is much less hassle, but you cannot get much bier, so it may not be worth trekking all the way out there specifically for this.  However if you are in the area already and you have the time to take a small detour then you should certainly pop in for lunch or dinner and get some tasty brew.
Finally if you are in the Benelux region you can sometimes find Westvleteren in local shops or cafes, however the prices range from 10-16 euros per bottle (in Amsterdam) which is a lot more than you will pay at the monastery. (However, beer bought at the monastery isn't meant for selling, it's meant for private consumption, it says so every time you buy some)


Are different mainstream Lagers really all that different? Is there any differences in the mainstream company lagers?

I often see people go into bars and just order a pint of lager, even though there are many different lagers available at the bar. This leads me to believe that most of the mainstream lagers don't actually taste that different from each other.

As I don't drink lagers — I tend to stick to cask/real ales — lagers all taste similar to me anyways.

So is there really any difference with these companies' lagers?

P.S.
By mainstream mean Fosters, Carling, Carlsberg, etc...

Most generic lagers have subtle differences, but in general as you say they are usually very similar.

To be frank, though, this is something I find with just about any style of beer. For instance, if I'm buying an imperial stout from any given brewery I can reasonably expect what the beer is going to taste like for the most part. The only thing that really brings it down below my standard is if it's just not a quality beer.

In the same way generic lagers are an equivalent style and have a similar purpose, to be non-offensive and give people the 'beer' taste that they expect. So if you're drinking a Canadian, to a Bud, to a Sapporo you can expect them to be pretty similar.

The one additional thing I'll say, though, is that when beer falls into the realm of 'craft' you usually see a higher range of flavour within a style, than with generics, though. This is because the very purpose of a generic lager is not to stand out as to gain mass appeal.


What would a good beer to have with very salty food like caviar be? What beer would pair good with the food like caviar?
I'm thinking about food which is salty, has a very strong flavor, but not spicy.

While pairing is generally a matter of taste and therefore no definite answers can be given, for salty food, strong food there are a couple of things to keep in mind.

Rich beers are likely to overpower whatever else you are eating.  I would usually pair rich beers with moderate portions of rich foods.  This doesn't mean that all salty foods would be out with something like this, but it is something to think about.
Bitterness is likely to help contrast a bit with the saltiness you are describing.

Obvious pairings to me would seem to include light, relatively bitter, hoppy beers.  Something like an IPA, an extra special bitter, or the like.  A lot of folks tend to find that bitterness in beer works, pairing-wise, like acidity in wine, so if you'd pair with a more acidic wine you may consider pairing with a more bitter beer.


What is a good beer for starters, or people who don't typically enjoy the taste of beer? Asking as a beer lover, my roommate does not enjoy most beers, nor does my fiancé. I have nobody to share my enjoyment and taste testing with. What is a good beer that I can get them started out on to maybe get them to eventually appreciate the taste of beer?

They enjoy sweeter flavors, whereas I enjoy more bitter flavors.

My roommate recently started drinking Angry Orchards and will occasionally drink a Blue Moon Cinnamon Horchata Ale, so he is starting to appreciate the taste more, but my fiancé just has not found her favorite yet. She says that she didn't mind Dos Equis as much as others, but still didn't really like it.

Is there a beer that is good for starters that is not overwhelmingly "beery"?

I would recommend starting with a draft Hefeweizen or Belgian Wheat, or a fruit flavored mead such as a blackberry or passion-fruit mead.

I would also recommend pairing the beer with a good meal so the experience is not centered around the beer, the beer is instead an accent to the experience.


Why do some beers have expiration date, while others have "born on" date? I have some cans of Busch in my refrigerator that say "Born on: DD/MM/YYYY". That seems odd to me. When I drink craft beers, I always see "Best by: xx/xx/xxxx" or something like that.

Why would some beers have a born on date and others have an expiration, or "best by" date?

Bonus: How long after the "Born on" date will a beer last before the taste begins to diminish?

IPAs don't age well, or at all. The sooner they're consumed, the better they taste (or taste as intended). Are most of the craft beers you have, IPAs? If so, a "Best by:" would make sense.

Meanwhile, some styles taste better aged, e.g. barleywines, imperial souts, sours. You definitely wouldn't see a "Best by:" for these types, and in fact you might even see a "Best after:". So perhaps the "Born on:" label is a way of letting the enthusiast decide how long to age a beer, without feeling forced to wait a minimum number of months or years.

Would you happen to know or remember the styles (or even better, the exact name) of the beers that said "Best by:" vs. "Born on:"? Then perhaps we could validate or invalidate this explanation.

Edit

Interestingly, Anheiser-Busch is the only entity that may use "Born on:", as they've trademarked it.

But anyway, it turns out that another class of beers that typically have production dates are macros (i.e. American Adjunct Lagers), not because they taste better aged, but for a mix of several reasons:

profit-maximization (purportedly),
tracking problems and policing freshness,
giving consumers an (illusory) sense of regulatory safety,
and giving enthusiasts control over when they'd like to consume a beer.

A Lagunitas employee quoted in the aforementioned link claims that

  Bud only really did it to reduce brewery and distributor inventories and wring a one-time load of cash out of the company...

and goes on to say that Lagunitas labels production dates

  to track problems [...] and to give our distributors the ability (if they will use it) to police freshness.

A bit biased, but I can believe some elements of both sides.

Furthermore, these threads on BeerAdvocate suggest that some consumers feel better (even might only drink a beer) when a production date is printed, whether it gives them an illusory sense of regulatory safety or they actually know enough about beer to know if and how long to age them.


What's Martini (the brand)? I'm a total novice, so excuses for what is likely a ridiculously stupid question.  I know that a MARTINI is a drink (like a gin martini, vodka martini) but there is also a bottled drink called "MARTINI", in many varieties (extra dry - torino, bianco, rosso, and so on). What's the relation between MARTINI-the-drink and MARTINI-the-brand?

I use MARTINI-the-brand to make Negronis, to mix with tonic, and so on, and these drinks are obviously not martinis, even though they're made with a drink which has the word MARTINI on the label.

Thanks!

Martini the brand is an Italian vermouth made by Martini & Rossi.

Traditionally, martini the drink is a concoction made with gin and vermouth, and a strong (but unproven) theory as to its etymology is that martini the drink was originally named after Martini the brand.


Can a brewery in California fill any growler? There has been some confusion around the laws regarding "refillable containers" in California.  At times, I have been told that a brewery cannot refill another brewery's growler.  At other times, I have been told that a brewery may (or by their discretion, may not) refill.  I own growlers from at least 3 different breweries, and I have friends who have many more -- it makes sense to me that I should be able to take any clean container to a brewery which offers growlers, and have it filled.

What do the actual laws of California state, regarding who can refill and into what vessels?

They can, provided that they:

Cover up existing labels
Add their own label containing the brewery name, beer name, and abv.
Are a brewery (bars and retailers cannot).

You're not alone in being confused, though.  A lot of breweries didn't really know either, and as a result decided not to, just to be safe.

Further complicating the issue is that many breweries just don't want to, either because they make money on their growlers or because it's a pain to deal with the labeling when their bar is busy.

SFGate has a decent article for further reading.


How do popular Polish beers fit into the "periodic table of beers"? In Poland, outside of imports, microbreweries, and various less popular varieties, about all mainstream brands come in two classes:

Piwo Jasne ('light beer')
Piwo Mocne ('strong beer')

The two comprise the massive bulk of the market and are about never labeled differently, save for brand-specific marketing variations.

I'd like to learn how they fit into the wider image. Are they lagers, stouts, ales, or maybe something yet different? A class of their own?

Piwo Jasne is, translated, "light beer". It's the common market name for all 'light' beers, and they are mostly pilsners.

Piwo Ciemne - this is "dark beer", so something like ale. They are dark, as the name suggests, and usually quite sweet.

Piwo Mocne - this is simply the beer that is more condensed, so it has more alcohol. That can be light beers or dark beers (for example, very good dark strong beer "Warka Strong").

Those names are the most popular market classifications in Poland, but usually you'll find more details on label or producer's page. For example, many beers have information, that they are pilsner-type beers.


Why do some grocery stores in Colorado have regular beer and liquor but some only sell 3.2% beer? I live in Denver, Colorado and I have noticed many grocery stores will have full a liquor selection and normal alcohol content beer, but others will only sell 3.2% beer and no liquor.  This goes even for the same chain of stores.  For example, Safeway will carry a full liquor selection at one location but only 3.2% beer at another.

This seems to apply to every chain in town including: King Soopers, Safeway, Walmart, Target, etc.  Therefore I am wondering if there is a law limiting this?  If so, what are the details?

Retail stores in Colorado sell spirits, wine, and beer. Grocery and convenience stores sell 3.2 percent beer only, and then not between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m. Package stores are open 8 a.m. until midnight and are closed on Sundays. Bars stop selling alcohol between 2 a.m. and 7 a.m.
http://www.alcohollaws.org/coloradoalcohollaws.html

I would guess those "grocery stores" selling spirits and such are probably classified as something other than a grocery store.

This information may be a little out of date, Colorado does allow Sunday sales now. I found this on Wikipedia:

  Spirituous, vinous & malt liquor available in liquor stores and
  liquor-licensed drug stores only.  Liquor stores closed on Christmas
  Day. Sunday sales restriction lifted on July 1, 2008. Liquor stores
  and liquor-licensed drug stores may have only one location, while 3.2%
  beer may be sold in gas stations, supermarkets, and convenience
  stores. Appropriately licensed businesses may also sell 3.2% beer for
  both on and off-premise consumption. A small number of grocery stores
  are licensed as drug stores and sell full strength beer, wine, and
  spirits. As an example, a chain grocery store that has pharmacy
  services at most or all locations may elect a single location in the
  chain as the licensed establishment to sell beer, wine, and spirits.


Should bottle conditioned beers be consumed quickly after purchase and do they carry on changing taste for a while? Just wondering how a bottle conditioned beer will change over its life - if at all? And is there a perfect time to drink one? Also do different types change differently?

Quite the opposite, bottle conditioned beer is perfect for aging. The yeast carbonates the beer and will produce slight changes over time, like upping the ABV. This needs to be done in climate controlled environments similar to wine. The yeast will settle to bottom and you want to avoid pouring this into your glass when finished.

I brewed a Imperial honey stout and aged a few bottles at 68f for about a year for my birthday. The beer started at about 7.2 ABV The beer finished at over 9 ABV (this is because the yeast had plenty of starch to munch on and the carbonation was not affected.


Are there any historical cases where actual POWs made some form of alcohol while being held in a POW camp? Are there any historical cases where actual POWs made some form of alcohol while being held prisoner by belligerent forces in a POW camp?

While watching the classic movie The Great Escape (1963), I noticed that there is a scene in which three POWs made some moonshine out of potatoes. You can watch this scene on YouTube here.

Are there any documented cases of POWs making some form of alcohol under the noses of their enemy while being held in a POW encampment?

Similarly, I recently watched the 2010 Maia Liddell documentary, Colditz The Legend.

  Colditz Castle was a maximum security prison from which no one was meant to escape... but escape they did. Take a fresh look at the legendary escapes, featuring stories from both Colditz survivors and their extended families.

Listening to the narratives by former British officers held captive and memories and anecdotes by family (sons, daughters, grandchildren) prompted Google searches, among them these.

George Drew, 87, British POW Brewed Turnip Hooch at Colditz

  Major George Drew, who has died aged 87, helped his fellow prisoners to cope with the boredom and deprivations of Colditz Castle during World War II by producing potent homemade alcohol.

  He and his friend Pat Fergusson first tried to brew from the sugar and raisins from Red Cross parcels, but failed. Then they realized that there was sufficient sugar for fermentation in the turnip jam supplied by the Germans. Mixing the jam with yeast and water, they used a piece of purloined drainpipe and a large can, sealed with plaster of Paris from the sick bay, to produce hooch for such events as St. Valentine's and St. Patrick's Days.

  However, the effects of the more than 100 proof alcohol could be severe, even leading to temporary blindness. Dental fillings would fall out. If a man was having obvious difficulty walking and talking in the castle yard it was said that he was "jam happy."

  When Drew and Fergusson took part in the British television series "Escape From Colditz" in 2000, they made their potion for the first time since 1945. Taking the first glass before the camera, Drew said "Dear God," remarked that the smell was not quite as bad as it used to be, then drank again. "Oh Christ," he gasped.

And although not brewed, a group of tunnelers, after nine months of digging, took a wrong turn and emerged, fortuitously, in the castle’s wine cellar, enjoying 137 bottles, about four and a half bottles per person.

Article: In 1940 British POWs accidentally tunneled into a Nazi colonel's wine cellar and proceeded to drink everything they saw.


Using 'splenda' in Vodka infusions. Serious headache! Recently I posted a question (here) regarding adding flavor to vodka.  In my usual exuberance and non-scientific approach to matters I thought 'I know, to cut a few calories I will add Splenda'.  OK, the taste was OK, the orange and lemon peel that I steeped in the vodka gave the drink a nice, if not bitter taste.  I added splenda - and then experimented on myself (can't find anyone stupid enough to join me in these ventures!).  I drank the 'vodka' in the same manner (volume) as I would a standard vodka or gin.  Now, first morning after, the raging headache should have been sufficient - but looking for a more conclusive scientific result I tried the 'experiment' for a couple more nights, with the same results each following morning.  So, my question is:  Does adding an artificial sweetener to alcohol increase the chance of a hangover?

Certain people can have very individualistic headache triggers. For me it is second hand smoke. There are quite a few references on the internet tying Splenda to migraines so perhaps it so for you, at least in combination with alcohol. In any case, I'd pitch your experiment. Vodka typically has 65 calories per ounce. Sugar is about 111. However, you probably don't add that many ounces of sugar to your bottle of vodka so most of the calories will come from the ethanol. Some people substitute agave nectar which supposedly has a lower glycemic index than granulated sugar and may be healthier.


Why don't the French drink much Malbec? I've always thought of Malbec as being a French wine, however when visiting France, it appears to be quite uncommon. Does anyone know why is isn't popular there?

Malbec is a French wine and at one point was grown in 30 different departments of France, a legacy that is still present in the abundance of local synonyms for the variety. However this variety of grapes is in decline in part due to its' sensitivities to so many different vine ailments (coulure, downy mildew, frost).

  In recent times, the popularity of the variety has been steadily declining with a 2000 census reporting only 15,000 acres (6,100 hectares) of the vine mostly consigned to the southwestern part of the country. Its stronghold remains Cahors where Appellation d'origine contrôlée (AOC) regulations stipulates that Malbec must compose at least 70% of the blend, with Merlot and Tannat rounding out the remaining percentage. Outside of Cahors, Malbec is still found in small amounts as a permitted variety in the AOCs of Bergerac, Buzet, Côtes de Duras, Côtes du Marmandais, Fronton and Pécharmant. It is also permitted in the Vin Délimité de Qualité Supérieure (VDQS) of Côtes du Brulhois. In the MIDI region of the Languedoc, it is permitted (but rarely grown) in the AOC regions of Cabardès and Côtes de Malepère. There is a small amount of Malbec grown in the middle Loire Valley and permitted in the AOCs of Anjou, Coteaux du Loir, Touraine and the sparkling wine AOC of Saumur where it is blended with Cabernet Sauvignon and Gamay. But as elsewhere in France, Malbec is losing acreage other varieties—most notably Cabernet Franc in the Loire.

  The grape was historically a major planting in Bordeaux, providing color and fruit to the blend, but in the 20th century started to lose ground to Merlot and Cabernet Franc due, in part, to its sensitivities to so many different vine ailments (coulure, downy mildew, frost). The severe 1956 frost wiped out a significant portion of Malbec vines in Bordeaux, allowing many growers a chance to start anew with different varieties. By 1968 plantings in the Libournais was down to 12,100 acres (4,900 hectares) and fell further to 3,460 acres (1,400 hectares) by 2000. While Malbec has since become a popular component of New World meritages or Bordeaux blends, and it is still a permitted variety in all major wine regions of Bordeaux, its presence in Bordeaux is as a distinctly minor variety. Only the regions of the Côtes-de-Bourg, Blaye and Entre-Deux-Mers have any significant plantings in Bordeaux. - Malbec (Wikipedia).


Is peaty whiskey made in other parts of the world besides Islay? I recently came back from a visit to Islay in Scotland, where I learned
that the distilleries use peat in the process of drying barley to give the local Scotch its distinctive peaty flavor.  I'm curious whether this process also happens in other parts of the world where peat is found.

According to Wikipedia, "About 60% of the world's wetlands are made of peat."  And from National Geographic, I learned that "...peat bogs can be found from Tierra del Fuego to Indonesia."  Given this fact, I'm wondering if peaty whiskey has ever been attempted in another region besides Islay, and what the results were.   If so, I'd be super-curious to try it!

Another requirement for this to take place would (I'd guess) be access to barley, but I'd guess this could be imported more easily than peat could?

Is peaty whiskey made in other parts of the world besides Islay?

The short answer is yes.

Here are five examples from around the world:

  5 Smoky World Whiskies Challenging Scotch

  When the topic of smoky whisky comes up in a bar it’s usually in association with Scotland, and more so, the famed isle of Islay. From Lagavulin to Bowmore, Islay enjoys a long, rich history of peated (smoky) whisky-making, made possible through the island’s vast peat bogs, where the organic matter has been accumulating for centuries. Used throughout time on the isle, not only for whisky-making but as a source of fuel, peat and the whisky born through it is now synonymous with Islay. But the whiskey world is changing and peated expressions, bursting with notes of earth, wood, and smoke, are being created in countries you’d never imagine. From the land of the rising sun all the way to the Pacific Northwest, here are the smoky whiskies challenging peated Scotch on the global whiskey stage.

  Westland Peated Single Malt

  Based in Seattle, Westland has been a leading force in the recent movement of American single malt whiskey. The distillery utilizes a carefully thought-out mash bill and uses local ingredients to create a range of stellar single malts. The team also launched the Garryana-matured Native Oak series, which sees Westland travel across the West Coast in search of Garry oak, a rare type of wood native to the Pacific Northwest. Further expanding their portfolio, Westland Peated claims to have a ‘mash of peated malt that is among the smokiest in the world.’ The smoky malt is mixed with their unpeated variety to create a balanced whiskey bursting with notes of campfire wood, smoke, subtle fruit, and vanilla, present through maturation in American oak.

  Mackmyra Svensk Rok

  Sweden is known for many things. Good coffee, cinnamon buns, sustainability. They’re also making a mark on the whisky world. Mackmyra started in 1999 and has since launched successfully in markets all over the world. They keep it local too, as all the ingredients used in production are sourced within 75 miles of the distillery. The Mackmyra Svensk Rok is made using Swedish peat from a white moss peat bog (Karin-mossen) in the region of Gästrikland. The release also features the addition of Swedish juniper, with twigs placed on top of the peat stacks before burning. Speaking to Angela D’Orazio, Mackmyra’s master blender, she emphasizes that juniper makes up only 1% of the smoking material. As juniper’s profile is so strong, this percentage is enough. The nose brings fruit, vanilla, juniper, and subtle smoke. Aromas of raisins and plums continue on to the palate, where the smoke intensifies. Earth, wood, and soft juniper in the air deliver the whisky of Sweden.

  Paul John Peated Select Cask

  Based in Goa, India, the Paul John distillery is one of the pioneering forces behind the Indian single malt whisky boom. Alongside Amrut, Paul John creates one of India’s only single malt whiskies, exporting their expressions across Europe, Asia, and the US. Despite the company's huge size, modesty is quickly seen in their ethos. As the master distiller, Michael D’Souza, puts it during our chat, ‘we do not do anything special to create quality single malt whisky, we simply see that each and every whisky-making step is meticulously followed.’ Bottled at 55.5%, the Paul John Peated Select Cask is made using Scottish peat, as India doesn’t have peat bogs. The smoke from the peat fire dries the malt and flavours it, before it’s broken down, fermented, and finally, distilled. Matured in bourbon casks and distilled using six-row barley, the nose is sweet and surprisingly spicy, with ginger, pepper, and cinnamon aromas. The palate delivers abundant smoke, meatiness, and leather, while the spice turns sweet, bringing about a stellar balance. Colourful, vibrant, and balanced, this Paul John single malt is a must for lovers of peat.

  Kavalan Peaty Cask

  There’s not much to say about Kavalan that hasn’t already been said, even Paul Giamatti sings the distillery's praises on Showtime's 'Billions' series. The distillery is truly a wonder. In just 11 years the team have managed to create whisky which stands tall against the oldest, most established distilleries in the world. Based just outside Taipei, in Taiwan, the distillery utilizes the country’s hot, humid climate, which greatly accelerates maturation, making Kavalan whiskies burst with deep flavours far beyond their years. While Kavalan doesn’t (yet) make peated spirit in the traditional sense (drying the malt over a peat fire), this expression was matured in a cask previously holding peated whisky. This interesting approach delivers a subtle smokiness, with some pineapple and sandalwood on the nose. The smoke intensifies on the palate as does the presence of summer fruit and caramel, finally delivering a long, rich finish of balanced sweetness and smoke. A truly spectacular smoky expression, partially reminiscent of a traditional peated malt but with the exotic, oriental addition of sweet tropical fruit and incense.

  Yoichi 20 Year-Old

  Founded by the father of Japanese whisky, Masataka Taketsuru, Hokkaido’s Yoichi distillery has come to be known as the maker of intense, smoky Japanese whisky. Taketsuru dreamt of creating whisky similar to the Scottish, but in his own homeland of Japan. For this reason, he left his job managing Suntory’s Yamazaki distillery after 10 years and started Yoichi (and Nikka) back in 1934. Sadly, the Yoichi aged range was discontinued a few years ago, amidst stock shortages at Nikka. But some bottles of the 10, 15, and 20 Year-Old remain in the 'wild' for those willing to search.

  The Yoichi 20 Year-Old is the very definition of peated Japanese whisky. Powerful and bold, yet deep and rich, it all comes together to create this timeless expression. Aromas of deep smoke, umami, and leather blend in with the presence of vanilla and burnt caramel. The palate is unexpectedly lively, with winter spice and dried fruit joining the thick earth, oak, and smoke. Meaty notes with some liquorice bring a well-balanced finish to this truly exceptional whisky from Japan.


Mixing very strong alcohol for cocktails Having discovered a trove of ridiculously alcoholic spirits.  In what quantities should I mix them?  If I slip and pour a little too much in this could cause a major problem!   Let's say I am using Cocoroco which is sold as "potable alcohol". Like rum, cocoroco is made from sugar cane and is 96% (ABV). So, how much, and what is the best mixer to team up with it?

A rule of thumb, one shot of high proof is like two shots of an average liquor. It'll still be stronger but, you can wing recipes by halving the alcohol.

When working with high proofs the trick is achieving proper dilution. Somewhere in the range of 20 percent ABV is a noble choice for a finished cocktail. Often you may want more than 20 percent (even up to 40 percent which is like taking straight shots, easy does it) rarely you'll want less. For a bottle sitting at 96 percent, a 1:4 ratio (booze:mixer) should put you around 19 percent while 3:7 will up you to 28 percent.

Since you don't have to add much spirit to your drink, you can add it to things without changing their mouth texture or flavor too much so, they're good for keeping thick or rich fluids just the way you like them. In my experience, these high proofs don't have much flavor to start with but they do have more bite or burn than say, a good vodka. I would keep the vodka for lighter flavors like lemonade but, this might work just fine for orange juice. I think something like this would make a good candidate for a boozy shake, if that's the route you go I recommend pulling that ABV down past that 20 percent, closer to 12 or 15 percent (where most wine sits at) because milkshakes are big... nobody wants a tiny milkshake.

Fair warning, if your mixer is a liqueur.... if it has alcohol in it, the math below won't work. Don't mix 141 or 160 or 192 proof alcohol with nothing but Bailey's and then wonder why you blacked out, you have to add more non-alcoholic liquid to offset the extra alcohol....

Now for the math. I got those ratios up there by taking the ABV and multiplying it by decimals. So... a bottle with 96 percent ABV, if you multiply 96 by 0.5 you get 48, your new ABV. That 0.5 represents how much of your original alcohol is added to the mix. 0.5 is half alcohol and half mixer. 0.2 is 2 parts alcohol to 8 parts mixer. 0.3 is 3 parts alcohol to 7 parts mixer... notice how the ratios always add up to ten. You can do this with any ABV. If I wanted to mix with a 40 percent ABV just start playing with numbers. 40 ABV x .7 = 28 ABV in a 7 part alcohol to 3 part mixer ratio.


Alternative ways to know the impact of ingredients My first batch of beer was very complicated with lots of different ingredients and to be honest I wasn't even sure exactly what I was doing. In my second batch I decided to go "neutral," making a smaller batch (5 liters) and used only Pilsner, only Saaz and single infusion (to see the impact of each ingredient, and from there evolve). The beer is ready but now I'm kind of clueless to where to go. Is there any other way to see the impact of each ingredient without actually brewing a batch? I want to know how temperature, yeast, malt, etc. act on the beer.

This discussion would be more suitable in the homebrew stack as Andrew said, but I will answer it anyway.

You are on the right track, making a simple pilsner recipe will show you the effects of the malt, yeast, water and hops.

There is a technique called SMASH (single malt, single hops), which is widely used to "test" the effect of a new ingredient. It is pretty much exactly what you are doing.

The best technique: brew as often as possible. Be critical of your beer. Get a BJCP judge (or similar) to try your beer and give you feedback.

Relax, dont worry, have a homebrew. (Papasian).


How can I keep Whisky from corking over time? I'm not a wine man but I believe the general rule is to keep the cork wet, although the story is entirely different with whisky due to the effect of its high alcohol content breaking down the cork.

If the rule for whisky is to store the bottle upright, will it not suffer the same fate as wine stored upright? Assuming I open a number of bottles for enjoyment rather than waxing the seal for longevity, how can I make my spirits last?

Edit: for clarification, this question is focused on whisky that comes with a cork and by extension what to do with the cork, not whisky storage in general.

Hard spirits naturally degrade over time once opened

You've already opened the bottle because you wanted to actually enjoy the drink, here are step you can take to help ensure the slow and unstoppable flavor degradation takes as long as possible.

Store out of the light in a cool and dry place.

A good general rule of thumb for just about any type of alcohol is to store the bottles in a cool, dry, and dark location this will prevent any fluctuation in the environment from causing changes and prevent UV radiation from getting in.

Keep the bottle completely sealed.

Whiskey and other spirits will not mature like a wine in a bottle over time, in fact using an open cork will likely contribute to the breakdown of the flavor as the spirit will have more opportunity to oxidize. A proper rubber stop/cork will do the job just fine.

If you are looking to "age" a whiskey your best bet would be to store it in a small used whiskey cask or in a sealed class bottle with whiskey cask staves added. Both will allow the whiskey to absorb more flavors over time.


Beer Sizes in Spain and Portugal Beer sizes in spain are aptly explained in http://matadornetwork.com/nights/order-beer-spain/ (copa, cana, tanque, jarra, etc.)

In portugal, similar sizes appear but I've only heard of imperial and caneca.

Are there other sizes of beer in Portugal/Spain?

Actually you have nice words to ask in Spain for a shooter beer, but I can add somes:

big quantity (1L or more)

mini
cachi

regular size (200cl-500cl)

tubo

little quantities:

cañita
corto
chato  (used for beer but usually of wine)
zurito (basque country and andalucia but extendind all over Spain)

but we have also words to name beer bottles depending the size:

20cl bottle:

botellin
quinto    (in north regions like Catalunya)

33cl bottle:

tercio
mediana   (in north regions like Catalunya)

1 l  bottle:

litro
litrona
xibi *

* from Xibeca, Damm big bottles


How do I make red wine vinegar from red wine (or clear vinegar from white wine)? I have a bottle that has been standing opened in room temperature for a while, and has become a bit sour.

  How do I make it into vinegar?

  How long time does it take?

  Any precautions/instructions I should follow?

  Will the process affect the alcohol level?

First of all, let us consider what can be turned into vinegar.

  What you can turn into vinegar?

  Anything with sugar or starch can be fermented by yeast into alcohol, which can then be converted into acetic acid by acetobacter bacteria. The acidity of commercially made vinegar is at least 4 percent but not more than 7 percent, according to U.S. Food and Drug Administration standards. Vinegar has an almost indefinite shelf life, though some color changes and sedimentation (in unfiltered, unpasteurized bottlings) may occur. Some varieties are aged or reduced, which changes the flavor and character.

  Wine based

  Banyuls
  Red wine, including varietals such as Cabernet Sauvignon
  White wine, including varietals such as Champagne
  Sherry

For starters you must choose the wine (red or white) you desire to turn into vinegar, but do mix the two together. The more aromatic the wine is, the more flavorful the vinegar will be.

There are many recipes to make vinegar on the web, so I can only give a small sampling here. For the most part the techniques are somewhat similar.

  Mixing Wine Vinegar

  1. Choose your wine.  You can combine a few glasses of leftover wine or buy a fresh bottle to use. Don’t mix red and white wine together. Instead, either make white wine vinegar or red wine vinegar. Red wine vinegar is great for bold salad dressings and deglazing cooking pans. White wine vinegar is lovely in rich sauces and tart vinaigrettes.

  2. Find a “Mother of Vinegar”. This commercially available product is also called a vinegar starter or a mother. The bacteria in a mother creates vinegar when combined with wine, cider, or fresh fruit juice. You don’t have to use a mother when making wine vinegar. However, some people find that using a mother helps create wine vinegar faster.

  3. Choose a live vinegar. If you don’t want to purchase a mother, use a live vinegar instead. Look for vinegars that are advertised as “unpasteurized,” “unfiltered,” and “active”. For example, Braggs organic apple cider vinegar is a live vinegar.

  4. Mix the wine and starter together. Use a large, wide-mouthed jar or bowl made of nonreactive materials such as glass or ceramics.[4] Stir everything together well. This will evenly distribute the bacteria throughout the wine and aerate the mixture.

  If you’re using a live vinegar, add 3 tablespoons of vinegar for every cup of wine.

  If you’re using a mother, follow the instructions on the package. Otherwise, add the mother to the wine and gently mix it in.

  5.Cover the jar with a cheesecloth. The cheesecloth will block out the light while letting air circulate through the mixture.[6] First, drape the cheesecloth loosely over the top of the jar. Next, secure the cheesecloth in place with a rubber band.

  Fermenting Wine Vinegar

  1. Set the container in a cool, dark place. Place your cheesecloth-covered container in a dark corner of a pantry or under your sink. Choose a spot that won’t get much light or heat. The vinegar will need to sit for two to three months while it ferments.

  The optimal temperature range is 75 to 86 degrees Fahrenheit (24 to 29 degrees Celsius.) If you store your vinegar outside of this range, the process will take longer.

  2. Monitor your vinegar. After three weeks of fermentation, examine the vinegar for a gelatinous film. This is the new mother. Try not to disturb this layer or you’ll risk agitating the bacteria that creates wine vinegar.

  3. Taste the vinegar for doneness. Begin tasting the wine vinegar periodically after one month of fermentation. To do so, gently push aside the mother with a spoon and gather a small sample of vinegar. You’re looking for a brightly tart, acidic taste.

  4. Harvest the vinegar. Once your vinegar tastes ready, it’s time to harvest it. First, use a spoon to push the mother down into the vinegar. Next, pour away the apple cider into a large bowl. While you pour, use the spoon to block the mother and keep it in the jar.

  5. Save the mother to use in new batch. Add more wine to the jar with the mother in it. Replace the cheesecloth and ferment the vinegar for another two to three months. Once the mother is used up, it will sink to the bottom and another mother will form on the vinegar.

  Once the mother sinks all the way to the bottom, you can scoop it out and throw it away.
  You can use this method to create wine vinegar indefinitely.

  Storing Your Vinegar

  1. Choose a secondary storage container. Choose a heat-proof container that’s made of a nonreactive ceramic or glass material. The container should also come with an airtight lid or cork. For example, purchase a swing-top or sealable wine bottle. Some other examples of storage containers include:

  Mason jars with lids

  An old empty vinegar container
  A glass beaker with a cork

  2. Sterilize your storage container. Wash the container with hot water and a strong dish soap. Next, bring a pot of water to boil on your stove. Submerge the container in boiling water for ten minutes to sterilize it. Allow it to air dry completely.

  Pour the vinegar into your storage container. Use a funnel to siphon the vinegar from the bowl to your storage container. Depending on how much vinegar you make, you may need two or three containers to collect everything. After pouring the vinegar, tightly secure the lid of the storage container.

  Store your wine vinegar in a cool, dark place such as your pantry for up to one year.

  Source:  How to Make Wine Vinegar (wikiHow)

And by the way: Bon Appetite!


Is there formaldehyde in beer? Is there formaldehyde in beer? If there is, what purpose does it serve?

tl;dr—Yes, but only at safe levels.

Formaldehyde was detected in beer, at safe levels, as far back as 1983:

  A simple procedure was developed for the determination of formaldehyde in samples of beer and soft drinks. [...] Levels of formaldehyde found were in the low mg/kg range. Detection limits were less than 0.1 mg/kg of sample.

Lawrence, J. F. and Iyengar, J. R. The Determination of Formaldehyde in Beer and Soft Drinks by HPLC of the 2,4-Dinitrophenylhydrazone Derivative. 1983; published online 2006. [URL]

A more recent study summarizes how China came under scrutiny, but also how industry standards have changed since (emphasis mine, hereon):

  In 2005, various Chinese newspapers reported that formaldehyde was detected in 95% of the samples of Chinese commercial bottled beers tested in the course of a journalistic investigation. The addition of formaldehyde during mashing is allowed in China, and it is believed to improve the clarity of the resulting wort and beer and the colloidal stability of the latter. Nevertheless, the hygienic standard for fermented alcoholic beverages in China was revised, to stipulate that the formaldehyde content of the finished beer must not exceed 2 mg/L.

Wu, Q. et al. Investigation into Benzene, Trihalomethanes, and Formaldehyde in Chinese Lager Beers. 2012. [PDF]

From the abstract of the same paper,

  Beers brewed commercially in China have been surveyed for the presence of a number of potential contaminants, including benzene, trihalomethanes and formaldehyde. [...] Formaldehyde was measured in 29 beers (including 7 imported brands) using solid-phase microextraction with on-fiber derivatization. Formaldehyde levels were between 0.082–0.356 mg/L. None of the beer samples exceeded WHO drinking water criteria for benzene, trihalomethanes or formaldehyde.

The researchers compared their results to existing literature, which they found were similar:

  Donhauser and co-workers examined beers from Europe, using a HPLC method, and showed that 65% of them contained detectable formaldehyde, although in many the level was close to the detection limit of 0.2 mg/L. More recently, the South Korean Food and Drug Administration has analysed imported beers (13 from China and 4 from Germany). They found that the average content of formaldehyde was 0.132 mg/L, which was compatible with food safety legislation.

(I couldn't find a free link to the above-referenced material, only a citation.)

Apparently, formaldehyde does appear naturally in the brewing process (though, again, I couldn't find the study, only another citation):

  Borchert has confirmed that formaldehyde can be formed naturally in the brewing process, thus beers can contain up to 0.1 mg/L of formaldehyde, even when none is used in the brewery.

Anyway, formaldehyde no longer seems preferred as a clarification agent, as a substitute exists:

  To meet consumer expectations and to avoid further problems, more and more breweries now choose PVPP as a replacement product for the clarification of wort and beer.


What is the difference between historical beer and 'modern' beer? This question might be a bit broad, but what I'm trying to understand is generally how the brewing process and the subsequent end result differed before the early-modern to modern era.

I had asked a question here some months back on where I could find some historical styles of beer, but without having much luck I thought I'd try to get at least an understanding of what's known about the evolution of beer from ancient to medieval to modern times.

So the question is: if I was a European medieval man drinking beer circa 6th-15th centuries what would that beer have been like? How did it differ from what we've been brewing for the last few centuries? And is that product distinct from what existed in ancient times?

Not only has variety improved, but so has the technology and agronomy of brewing.

Malt variety, yield, and efficiency

Crop science has increased the size of barley kernels and the amount of starches available to convert to sugar.  The common grain at the time was 6-row malt, today the most common brewing barley is 2-row.
Understanding of the malting process has drastically improved. Today we understand how to get perfectly malted barley. Historically the malt would have been over or under modified.  Under modified would have lots of unconverted starch which would leave a hazy beer that tasted rather bready. Over modified malt would would have no starch, but less sugar than possible so the resulting beer may lack body.
Kiln dryers allow for greater variety of malt. By controlling the heat cycle, the same variety of barley can make different malt.  Drying the grain in medieval times consisted of heating it over a fire.  Fire dried grains would have a smokey flavor that would be present in the beer.  The traditional Scottish Ale uses malt that has been dried over a fire where the fuel is peat, which is a very distinct smoke flavor.  The fire also was not nearly as exact or even as a modern kiln so some kernels would be burnt and other may be under cooked, so to speak.

Water

Needless to say, but water purity is drastcally better today than in the 6th-15th centuries.  Because the brewing process boils the water, the beer was safer to drink than the water. Hence the patron saint of brewers said "Drink beer, not water."
Dissolved mineral content of water and pH control.  Medieval brewers had the water that they had.  Today, a brewer can start with distilled water and add whatever minerals they desire to change the flavor profile and pH of the mash.  The water pH can effect the mash efficiency and fermentation profile of the beer.  This lack of water control lead to specific styles coming from specific areas. I.E. Burton upon Trent is known for pale ales, Pilsen for golden pilsners, Munich for malty lagers.Some water source mineral content.

Hops

Ancient beers were not hoppy. Hops were not used extensively in beer until about the 12th century and were not cultivated en mass until about the 13th century.  Most beers older than that were bittered with Gruit..
The hops that were used were not high in bittering acids.  The oldest common hop varieties are the Noble hops.  Just like today, costs of ingredients was a major factor in brewing.  Making a really hoppy beer was prohibitively expensive.  Just compare an English IPA brewed from old recipes vs. an American IPA.

Yeast and Microbiology

This is where modern technology really helps out.  Louis Pasteur discovered yeast in 1857. Up until that time, the changing of sugar into alcohol was considered magic or an act of god.  It was understood that the foam on top of a fermenting wort could be passed around to other vats of wort to start the process (Krausening). Others would transfer Magic Sticks from batch to batch to start fermentation.
There are other microorganisms that can inhabit beer. Brettanomyces, Lactobacillus, and Pediococcus to name a few.  These can cause a sour, acidic flavor in beer.  Some ancient breweries would just let the cold night air in through an open window in order to cool the freshly boiled wort, exposing the warm sugar solution to whatever might land on it.

Technology

Thermometers - The temperature of the mash can affect the fermentabilty of the wort. The temperature of the malting and drying affect the sugar content of malted barley.
Chemical cleaners - All of the brewing equipment is sanitary. Modern living through chemistry.
Food storage/availability - I can get whatever ingredients I want, whenever I need them.
Refrigeration - I can cool the wort in controlled conditions. Beer can travel farther. I can ferment at optimal yeast temperature.
More than can possibly be named...

The Result?

Ancient beers would be sweeter and thicker than today's thanks to less fermentable sugars in the wort due to inconsistencies in the brewing process, and inconsistencies in the malting process and poor yeast/microorganism control.  The alcohol content would be lower as well.
Ancient beers would not be hoppy.
Ancient beers would have to be drunk quickly before they spoiled.  The other bugs in the beer would turn the beer bad after a few weeks.  This also prevented the beer from traveling very from from the brewery.
Ancient beers could vary greatly, batch to batch.  The brewers of the times were very skilled with what they could work with, but they were constrained by what ingredients they could use, whether by law or availability.  Flavor can be affected by fermentation temperature, so a hot day in December could ruin my beer.
Ancient beers were dependent on the season. When was the grain harvested? When is it cool enough to ferment?

Probably more information than you need, but hopefully it helps.


Why aren’t people in Ohio allowed to order a bottle of scotch? If you check websites like Drizly, it seems that people in Ohio aren’t allowed to order a bottle of scotch. Why is that?

Edit: The delivery services I’m referring to (e.g. Drizly) are a delivery service like food deliveries, not UPS or FedEx. They aren’t distributors, and they don’t carry the packages across state lines — they’re just local drivers that pickup and deliver a bottle from the nearest liquor store.

Also, they deliver beer, so I doubt it has to do with minors.

As an additional note, they deliver scotch in the state I’m from, so it seems to be something unique to this state, like some kind of law (which I have been unable to find).

It seems as though there were certain restrictions on home delivery of spirits up until just a few days ago, actually.
"Home delivery," being the same as food-service-home-delivery, and different from having alcohol mailed to your residence, oddly...

Ohio
ALLOWED. Ohio has relaxed laws for alcohol delivery fulfillment but
prohibits producers that make more than 250,000 gallons of alcohol
from delivery to consumers. You will need to become compliant for
mailing alcohol to consumers in Ohio, as well as be aware of local and
city laws.
https://2ndkitchen.com/breweries/how-to-ship-alcohol/

Again, this has apparently changed as of 2021 since Ohio Governor Mike DeWine signed a bill allowing home delivery of liquor.
So, look for this site and other services to update their respective catalogs and available products very soon - just in time for the next quarantine, no doubt...


How is Light Beer produced? I was talking to an American friend the other day and he told me they had something called "light" beer. This was to be a light product just as you would find for instance for Coca-Cola or other soda pop, which contains less calories than a normal beer.

How are they produced to contain less calories than a normal beer?

The calories in beer come mainly from the alcohol and the carbohydrates in the beer. By reducing either or both of these, the beer will become lighter. As well as being lighter in calories, light beers are typically lighter in taste also.

Alcohol is reduced by starting with a lower amount of sugar in the wort (lower OG.) By fermenting less sugar, less alcohol is produced. The carbohydrates in beer are so-called residual sugars. These are reduced by reducing the amount of non-fermentable sugars, such as by adjusting the recipe to avoid malts that contain unfermentable sugars (such as Cara/Crystal malts, and highly kilned malts). Also the brewer can adjust the temperature that the grains are mashed to produce a more fermentable wort with less residual sugar.

To see how alcohol and carbs affect the calories in beer, here's an excerpt from this table that lists the % abv, grams of carbohydrates in a 12.oz serving:

Name        Brewer          abv     cal.    carbohydrates
Busch Ice   Anheuser Busch  5.9%    169 12.5g
Busch Light Anheuser Busch  4.1%    95  3.2g

The light beer has considerably less calories than the regular beer. In fact, around 80% of the calories in that beer come from the alcohol:

1 g of alcohol = 7 kcal.

1 g of carbohydrate = 4 kcal.

Volume of beer is 12oz. x 28.6g = 343ml.  Volume of alcohol is 4.1 % x
343 = 14 ml

To convert alcohol volume to weight, divide by 1.25. Weight of alcohol
is 14 / 1.25 = 11.2g

So

  Energy from alcohol is 11.2 x 7 = 78.4 kcal. As percent: 78.4/95 =
  82%

  Energy from carbs is 3.2 x 4 = 12.8. As percent: 12.8/95 = 13%

(The total is less than 100% - the data doesn't account for protein, which is typically about 1g/12oz, which is about 4 kcal.)

By brewing the beer with an even lower %abv, the beer would be even lighter in calories, but possibly at the expense of flavor.


Cooking with beer for a vegetarian I know, that there are many threads on what you can cook with beer as an ingredient.

But: I recognized that all of them include some sort of meat or fish and I eat neither.

So what am I asking you:

Do you have some ideas on how to use the possibly greatest liquid of all times to cook some awesome (vegetarian or vegan) dishes?

To start I think I found a nice beer-pumpkin soup which ingredients are, besides the obvious beer and pumpkin, butter, onions, vinegar, cream and cress.

EDIT :

To be more clear. I ask you to name me something that you have tried and that you would recommend.

I used this recipe for Black Bean Soup with Roasted Poblano Chiles.  It doesn't include beer as an ingredient but I chose this recipe as part of the beer/food pairing menu I put together for my parents.  I decided to pair it with Out of the Ashes (Smoked Marzen) from Fort Collins Brewery.  I poured about 1 1/2 cups of it into the soup while it was cooking.  You may not be a fan of smoked beers, but it went amazing with this soup.  The smokiness blended with the soup and did not have a strong flavor.


Which production methods make one whisky more palatable than another? A simple enough question. If we take any given style of whisky on the lower end of the spectrum, and we compare it with a fine Scotch, what is it about the production of the two bottles that causes one to be more palatable and easy to drink than the other?

This question may end up being closed as too broad, as a full answer to this would include many lifetimes of experience by master distillers, and would have to incorporate opinions (some people find peaty, smoky whiskies absolutely foul and undrinkable while others would not ever want to drink a mild lowland whisky)

That said, I'll summarise my most critical ones, and the thoughts that guided me when distilling my own whisky:

Aging: the cask imparts the vast majority of the flavour, from the type of wood, the previous contents, how charred the cask is, length of time in the cask etc. The more desirable whiskies carefully choose casks and aging to deliver tastes that customers will like. This typically costs money (especially for storage costs) so a cheap whisky may not put so much effort into cask selection, quality control, age etc.
The Middle Cut: The foreshots start off with mostly methanol so would not taste good, and are mostly poisonous, but a small amount of methanol is useful in the process (and evaporates first after casting as part of the Angel's Share anyway) so the decision when to extract the middle cut is essential. Similarly, the feints, which contain propanol and heavier fusel oils are not wanted so are fed back into the spirit still. But there will be a small amount in the final product. Knowing how much of the foreshots and feints to include is part of the master distiller's craft.
Speed of heating / shape of still: Tall stills give a very smooth clear taste, especially when slowly heated. Short, squat stills combined with rapid heating allow many more fusel oils and other substances into the distillate, which will make the flavour more interesting, but can lead to a lack of smoothness.

Some cheaper spirits get around some of these issues by multiple distillations to remove some of the more complex substances - this can lead to an easier flavour for drinking, but also to something far more boring (from the perspective of a whisky afficionado) and bland.


How can I try a wide variety beers without buying them by the case/spending a lot of money? Like most of you here, I thoroughly enjoy beer.
How can I try a wide variety beers without buying them by the case/spending a lot of money?

Aspiring beer enthusiast that is grows tired of the usual, and wants to branch out.
Also on a broke, paying for school out of pocket, college kid budget.

You can look for breweries in your areas that give tours. These often include free tastings. (Since you mentioned you're from the Chicago area, I know there's a bus tour that takes you to different breweries in Chicago and Milwaukee. There's a fee, but you'd get to try a lot of different beers.)

Also, look for brewpubs and restaurants in your area that sell flights of beer. A flight is 4-5 samples of different beers served together. The cost is normally about the same as a full glass, and the total volume is usually the same or a little more. This allows you to try 4 or 5 different beers for about the same price as you'd normally pay for one.


How accurate is Alcohol by Volume in beer? If I get a beer labelled 5% ABV, how accurate is that measurement likely to be?

tl;dr — By regulation, ±0.3-0.5%.

Chemically speaking, I'm not sure—maybe someone else can go into measuring techniques, alterations (continued fermentation?) during distribution, etc.

But countries and regions specify tolerances for error.

In the United States, according to Title 27: Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, Part 7: Labeling and Advertising of Malt Beverages, §7.71:

  (c) Tolerances. (1) For malt beverages containing 0.5 percent or more alcohol by volume, a tolerance of 0.3 percent will be permitted, either above or below the stated percentage of alcohol. Any malt beverage which is labeled as containing 0.5 percent or more alcohol by volume may not contain less than 0.5 percent alcohol by volume, regardless of any tolerance.

http://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?SID=1affcd509f9614478fbbc0c85551765a&node=27:1.0.1.1.5.8.41.1&rgn=div8

In the EU,

  0.5% vol. for beers having an alcoholic strength not exceeding 5.5 % vol. and beverages classified under subheading 22.07 B II of the Common Customs Tariff and made from grapes
  1% vol. for beers having an alcoholic strength exceeding 5.5 % vol. and beverages classified under subheading 22.07 B I of the Common Customs Tariff and made from grapes; ciders, berries, fruit wines, and the like; beverages based on fermented honey
  1.5 % vol. for beverages containing macerated fruit or parts of plants
  0.3 % vol. for other beverages

http://www.icap.org/table/alcoholbeveragelabeling


What is pale pilsen? We have this local beer in the Philippines called San Miguel Pale Pilsen. Looking at this style guide I don't see any mention of the word Pilsen, though there is the word Pilsner. Are they in any way related?

Yes, they are related. The pilsner beer style got its name from the city of Pilsen, in what is now the Czech Republic, where the beer was first brewed in 1842.

Reference: Pilsner