Is there a legitimate ~$500 vodka out there whose price isn't based on the bottle? There are some very expensive vodkas that are in pure crystal bottles, etc etc

I'm looking for a vodka that's so special it warrants an approximate $500 price tag where the money is going to the contents, not the weird/special/extreme bottle.

Bottle size somewhere around the standard 750ml- no 5 liter bottle please.

Anyone have a direction to point me?

There are vintage bottles that will set you back that much, but they get their price tag from rarity, not quality. If you're just looking for fancy vodka, you reach diminishing returns pretty quickly. The New York Times noted Smirnoff as the best in a blind tasting, while Playboy's booze columnist had good things to say about Popov, which comes in a plastic bottle.. Even a vodka that is supposedly easier on your liver (because you know.... science and stuff) only goes for 30 dollars.

On the luxury end of the spectrum vodka tops out around 70 bucks. This includes a numbered, limited edition bottle, that uses potato vintages in the same way that wines use grape vintages, and even lists the name of the potato farmer on the label. There are some notable and pricey exceptions to that. Stolichnaya released three limited edition bottlings a few years back, each going for 3k. The big deal with these was that they used special water sources. When you go for ultra-premium vodka, that's what you get.... really expensive water.

If you are still interested, Subzero in St. Louis was named one of the best vodka bars in America by both USA Today and Liquor.com. They have one of, if not the single largest vodka collection of any bar in the US. As far as I know, three of their bottles are over a hundred dollars. The first is one of the Stoli bottles mentioned above. The second is called CLIX, and is made by Buffalo Trace distillery. The name comes from the roman numeral for the number of times it's distilled....159. Which is 157 times more than necessary, in my humble opinion. The other is Ciroc Ten. Both of those come in around 300 greenbacks.

Personally, whether this is a gift or you just want to try something different, here are a few things that might interest you. Napa Reserve Neutral Brandy is vodka made from wine. It used to be called vodka and not brandy, pretty sure they had to change that for regulatory reasons. Grey Goose VX is vodka mixed with a little bit of brandy. Finally Black Cow Milk Vodka. It was the first vodka made from milk and if I remember right, a couple years back I could swear I heard it was Prince Williams favored vodka. Then again, apparently a bottle of Smirnoff was seen at Kensington Palace... and if the cheap stuff is good enough for royalty, it should be good enough for anyone.


What was the most common hard liquor of the Late Middle Ages? Is it possible to know what was the most common hard liquor of the Late Middle Ages?

I am not asking for the strongest drink in the Middle Ages, but which hard liquor was the most common during the Late Medieval Period.

I finally did a little digging. The Late Medieval Period is generally considered from 1300-1500. Whisky, did not become wide spread until the 1700s. The first recorded instance of Whisky production was in 1494:

  The Guild of Barber Surgeons.[15] The earliest Irish mention of whisky comes from the seventeenth-century Annals of Clonmacnoise, which attributes the death of a chieftain in 1405 to "taking a surfeit of aqua vitae" at Christmas.[16] In Scotland, the first evidence of whisky production comes from an entry in the Exchequer Rolls for 1494 where malt is sent "To Friar John Cor, by order of the king, to make aquavitae", enough to make about 500 bottles.

There is ample evidence that liquor distilled from grapes and other fermented fruit well before the 1300's and Brandy was widespread by 1500. Neither Brandy or Whisky was drunk as much as wine or beer during this period, but just from the time line it looks like Brandy was a) easier to make since you start with wine and no cooking involved until distillation b) had a several hundred year head start on Whisky.

There were distilled beverages in Asia, but again not as widespread as Brandy in Europe.

Just based on the fact that the first mention of Whisky production isn't until 1494, only 6 years before the end of the Late Medieval Period and Brandy production is mentioned many times in The History and Taxonomy of Distilled Spirits before 1500, I think we can safely assume that Brandy was the most widespread distilled beverage in this time frame.


How do you tame a 'foamy' keg? Have a kegerator home built system for 1/2 barrel beer in the garage. Recently had a keg of beer that was foamy no matter what we tried to do. Served it low temp, 37 degrews, and almost no CO2 pressure. Tried serving warmer, with more pressure, still tons of foam.

There are a few things you can check with you keg.  You said it's a home built system, yes?  So is this a mini-fridge conversion, chest freezer/keezer conversion, or some other kit?

Anyway, what length are the beer lines?  Generally you need to balance CO2 pressure against beer lines to avoid consistently foamy pours.  If your system isn't properly balanced the beer will always be foamy, on every pour.  I have 5-6 foot lines in my kegerator and it works pretty well for me, when I was having foamy pour problems everyone suggested replacing them with 10 foot lines just to make damn sure the pour wasn't too violent.  Also making sure the lines are clean.  Any beer stone or other sediment in the lines is going to cause foam.

Serving warmer with lower CO2 would also be a better step.  One frustrating thing about these sorts of adjustments is that it takes time for equilibrium to be hit.  So if you lower the CO2 pressure, the headspace is still pressurize.  You'll need to vent the keg via the pressure release valve.  Same deal with raising the temperature.  Once the beer actually comes up to the new temp, there will have been CO2 driven out of solution that you need to vent from the headspace via the pressure release valve.  It's a pain.  Regulators will also often have their own pressure valve, which you should poke and vent slightly when setting the pressure...especially when coming down since excess pressure in the system is going to mess with the reading.  So vent, watch it rise to the actual pressure, then adjust, vent again, and watch.  It takes some time but generally once you set it there's very little change required.

It's hard to tell without seeing the speed of your pour.

Definitely check the keg temperature itself.  As a homebrewer I reuse kegs, so I have stickers on all my kegs that have a little temperature line.  These liquid crystal thermometers, like this one, are pretty cheap.

You can also check the ambient temperature using a regular thermometer and a small glass of water.  You should check temperature at multiple spots inside the kegerator, so you could fill some tumblers or shot glasses with water and place them at the bottom of the kegerator, then maybe on top of the keg, and then maybe a back shelf if you have anything like that.  This lets you know if you have any hot spots which you can reduce by reorganizing tubes or tossing a small computer case fan in there.

Also, if you haven't disabled the dome light in the fridge, do so or find some way to make sure the switch stays down beyond a doubt.  When I first built my kegerator I was getting incredibly foamy pours and a huge contributor wound up being the dome light kept coming on and heating up the tops of the kegs and the beer in my lines.

Another final check is the temperature inside of the tower.  If you have no way for the cold air to get from the body of the fridge into the tower the lines in the tower will get warm and cause foamy beer, though if the CO2 pressure is set correctly, this would likely only result in the first 1-2 pours being foamy, then it calms down until the lines warm back up.  A lot of people will put fans or run copper tubes up the towers.  I filled mine with insulation.


Is it possible to change the outcome of a beer in the fermentation stages? I am brewing a batch of Amber Ale right now and I was wondering if it would be possible to put something in with the wort while it is fermenting in order to change it's flavor. Could I add in like orange extract or something along those lines in order to get a citrus flavor in the beer? Is there anything I can do or should that have happened when I was boiling the wort in the first place? On a different note, would it be possible to raise the alcohol percentage of the beer/ make it stronger in this stage?

Could I add in like orange extract or something along those lines in order to get a citrus flavor in the beer?

Yes; search Google for "secondary fermentation additions".

  Is there anything I can do or should that have happened when I was boiling the wort in the first place?

There are flavor additions you can throw in the kettle but you'll get the most bang for your buck with (SANITIZED!) additions during fermentation. Don't think twice about an amber ale, though; wait until you have some more experience before improvising with recipes.

  would it be possible to raise the alcohol percentage of the beer/ make it stronger in this stage

Again, yes and no. In theory you can add more cane sugar, but in practice it only works with yeast that are highly alcohol tolerant. (Usually Belgian; highly alcohol tolerant yeast strains usually make no secret about their properties.) The yeast used for an amber ale is most likely not tolerant enough to go very far outside the recipe, and beer that is too alcoholic for the recipe generally tastes pretty bad.


What if beer (opened) was left in fridge for like... months I left 2 beers in the fridge, Just found them and I'm sure they've been in there for like ... maybe 4 months

Are they okay to consume?

Your question says they were opened?  I'm going to venture probably not.  You tagged this 3.2-beer, does that mean these are low alcohol session beers somewhere around 3.2% ABV?

If the beers aren't moldy, best case scenario is you now have two bottles of home made malt vinegar.  Make a balsamic, have some steaks with side salads.

If they were closed or sealed in any way, they're probably fine, though depending on the style they probably won't taste great.  Low alcohol and hoppy beers don't age gracefully.  Higher alcohol or darker beers often do better with some time on them.  But either way you have to keep them away from air, namely other microbes and oxygen or else things go downhill real fast.


Trying to find a resealable bottle cap A long long time ago (.. I can still remember ♫) there were these old bottle caps. My parents still have 2 or 3 at home from soviet times. They look kinda like this:

What are those called? Ar there some keywords to find them? It took me at least 3- minutes to even find this image (and it was in  middle of completely unrelated images down on something like the third image-search page). Or, the best option, where can I buy a box of these?

P.S. I know that the image is from "flip-top" wikipedia page, but what I am looking for is a cap, that is independent from the bottle itself.

Found what I was looking for: WESTMARK 3 Flaschenverschlüsse, Flaschenstöpsel mit Hebel und Gummidichtung, 40 x 60 x 15 mm, farblich sortiert.

Now I only need to order a box of these.


Where to buy "Grimbergen" in Canada I've spent much time in Ottawa and Halifax, and have yet to find a consistent source of this nectar of the gods.
Locations Found:

Liquor Store in Whistler, BC

LCBO in Trainyards, Ottawa

Greek Restaurant in Downtown Ottawa

Brussels.

Anyone know where to find it?

This may not help you in Quebec, but if a product can be found in an LCBO somewhere in Ontario, you should be able to order that product at any LCBO in Ontario.


What should I do when my wine's cork crumbles? I bought a bottle of wine the other day, and when I attempted to open it, the cork crumbled to pieces! I was eventually able to dig a hole through the cork, and pour the wine (slowly) through a coffee filter. But for the future, I'd like to know:

Is there a more elegant way to open a ruined cork than stabbing it repeatedly and hoping for the best?
Should I even be drinking wine like this? Does a ruined cork mean the wine has somehow spoiled? For reference this was a bottle from 2004.

The best way to take out bad corks is with an Ah So. Keeps the crumbly corks together better.

Instead of picking at the cork, push it back into the bottle and then strain the wine through a stainless steel tea strainer like this:

Many times the wine is good, but when the cork is that bad it's probably oxidized to hell, vinegar or corked. The only way to tell is to smell and/or taste it.


Anxiolytics, Antidepressants and Alcohol Is it safe to drink while on Anxiolytics or Antidepressants?

In general it is known that some drugs should not be mixed with alcohol. Some of this knowledge are myths and some other are true.

As alcohol itself is a kind of anxiolytic it isn't clear if it really could cause
a side effect while on anxiliytics medication.

On the other hand, it seems that alcohol tends to make depressions worse.

If there are undesired side effects, is there a limit?
is it safe to drink just a little or it is better to avoid it completely?

Both alcohol and prescription drugs (anxiolytics and antidepressants) can have a variable effect on one's alertness and reactions. Some people can drink 5 litres of beer and feel nothing. Many will feel dizzy and some will get near a coma.  Men tolerate alcohol better than women and some guys are very quick metabolizers, so they get alcohol out of their blood very quickly. The same reasoning aplies to drugs that act on the central nervous system. They have a sedating effect similar to alcohol and one may not feel one hundred percent alert while others may feel extremely sedated and unable to perform tasks that require attention and precision. For all this, there is always a warning about mixing alcohol with those drugs. However, effects vary a lot and you may get away with drinking and taking an SSRI such as Fluoxetine, Paroxetine or Sertraline. With a Benzodiazepine (Alprazolam, Clonazepam, Diazepam) you have to be more careful.  These drugs are more sedating than antidepressants and you may feel nothing, you may feel dizzy, or you may fall sound asleep.  One never knows for sure, so you gotta be careful. And do not drink and drive, even if you haven't taken any of these drugs.


Why is beer regulated differently than other types of alcohol? In the US there are tons of rules about alcohol that vary widely from state to state and at the federal level. For example you can brew your own beer in most states but you have to have a license for liquor. Similarly, wine tastings are usually OK but beer tastings are illegal in many places.

I'm not asking about the specifics of how each law came to be, that would take an encyclopedia. Rather, I want to know if there was an overall philosophy that drove regulating beer differently from other alcohol. Did different companies or industry groups lobby for laws that benefited their product over other companies products? Was there an overall public sentiment that drove the differences?

Part of it is philosophical

Why are airplane pilots regulated differently from car drivers?  Because it's much easier to do damage with one vs the other.  Likewise, it's a lot easier to get so drunk that you do something stupid (or just get alcohol poisoning) on liquor than beer.  As such, they're treated differently.

Part of it is political

The companies that make beer are not generally the same ones that make liquor.  Those two groups of companies also have different groups of lobbyists, who have pushed for laws at different times in different political climates.

Part of it is practical

Liquor and beer production face different logistical needs.  For example:

Beer has much higher shipping costs per dollar worth of product, so shipping rules might need to be different.
Breweries have a need to keep their product cold at the point of sale, so it might make sense to have them sold in stores that already have coolers (like gas stations), whereas liquor companies wouldn't push as hard for that availability.
Liquor has no equivalent of the brewpub, so they don't really care much about sales at their production facility.
Beer has less consumer utility per unit of volume than liquor (ie, you need more of it to have the same amount of fun), so people generally need it closer to their houses.  Since you don't need to buy liquor as often as you buy beer, it's more feasible to have centralized liquor stores

Part of it is "moral"

Especially on the US East coast, there are a lot of laws around booze with their origins in religious morality and the puritan aversion to alcohol.  Beer, being seen as a "lesser evil", tends to have less opposition to laws that would increase its availability.


Do you need to actually be flying somewhere in order to buy booze duty free at the airport? I live in Sydney. I was wondering if it would be possible to take a trip to the airport and buy a whole bunch of Johnnie walker duty free? Do you actually have to be boarding a flight, or can you just rock up, splash some money around and go home?

If you absolutely must be flying somewhere in order to buy some booze, would a domestic flight be sufficient? I've been thinking of visiting Melbourne for a while, and if it were possible to pick up some blue label on the way home I wouldn't complain!

Thanks

Duty-Free shops are placed in such a way that travelers must leave the country of origin (sale). Australia is no exception.

  Duty-free shops (or stores) are retail outlets that are exempt from the payment of certain local or national taxes and duties, on the requirement that the goods sold will be sold to travelers who will take them out of the country. Which products can be sold duty-free vary by jurisdiction, as well as how they can be sold, and the process of calculating the duty or refunding the duty component. - Duty-free shop

J. Caron makes this statement about the Sydney airport:

  Don’t remember the exact layout in Sydney, but in most airports (if not all), you can’t get to the duty-free shops without going through immigration (where applicable) and security, which you generally won’t be able to do without a boarding pass for a flight.

  The shop will also often require to see the boarding pass, and in some places will make a distinction between people travelling domestic or international. In some countries like the US, as there is not necessarily a separation between domestic and international travellers, and you can exit the departures area at will, they will not give you the goods right away, but deliver them during the actual aircraft boarding.

  In some airports (especially in the EU), duty-free shops will actually sell duty-free when they can (you are actually leaving the country, or in the case of the EU, leave the EU customs union), and make a discount equivalent to duty-free for other cases.

I have seen duty-free sales of liquor and other items sold on in-flight only on some international flights.


Is beer healthy if drunk in moderation? Beer is obviously not healthy if it is drunk to much, however, one of my friends argue a little beer in moderation can provide certain health benefits. Like it can lower risk of stroke and heart diseases. Is this true or is it just baloney people say to get someone else to drink a little bit?
Are these claims true?

According to this research paper published in BMJ they concluded the following:

  Results from observational studies, where alcohol consumption can be
  linked directly to an individual's risk of coronary heart disease,
  provide strong evidence that all alcoholic drinks are linked with
  lower risk. Thus, a substantial portion of the benefit is from alcohol
  rather than other components of each type of drink.

This argues that health benefits are alcohol related and not specifically beer related. This is, again, during moderate consumption.


What are abbey beers? How did they come about? Why do monks brew beer? What are abbey beers? How did they come about? Why did monks brew beer? Does the monks still brew beer or is it done by brewing companies now?

It is exactly as you would interpret it from the name. It is brewed in abbeys. Monks started brewing beer to gain money. Beer was very popular in the middle ages and water was mostly infected. The brewing process would cleanse the water from bacteria and other filthy stuff because of the boiling process. Some unofficial abbey beers are in fact not linked officially to an abbey but use the name to gain profit out of this. I am not sure whether the monks still brew it completely themselves, but I would strongly believe that they are still hugely involved.
The Trappist is a special and rare beer that is also an abbey beer. An abbey beer can only be called Trappist if it is brewed by monks that are Cisterciënzers. The only trappist beers in the world:

Achel   Abdij van Achel (Belgium)
Chimay  Abdij Notre-Dame de Scourmont (Belgium)
Engelszell  Stift Engelszell (Austria)
La Trappe   Abdij Koningshoeven (The Netherlands)
Orval   Abdij Notre-Dame d'Orval (Belgium)
Rochefort   Abdij Notre-Dame de Saint-Rémy (Belgium)
Spencer Saint Joseph's Abey (USA)
Westmalle   Abdij van Onze-Lieve-Vrouw van het Heilig Hart (Belgium)
Westvleteren    Sint-Sixtusabdij (Belgium)
Zundert Abdij Maria Toevlucht (The Netherlands)


Does eating meat along with booze have any benefits? TL;DR:
Is eating meat along with booze beneficial? Or does it reduce any adverse effects of drinking?
By drinking, I mean liquors like whisky, vodka or rum. I seldom drink wine.

Some optional background on this-
I was advised to eat meat whenever I drink by a person. That advice is common and has probably propagated by word of mouth.
That person (perhaps) exaggerated it further by making a rhyming sort of moral verse like sentence

"M for Mod (booze in my language), "M" for Mansh (meat in my language);
"G" for Ganja (cannabis in my language) , "G" for Gakhir (milk in my language).

I am wondering if the first sentence has any relevance. I eat anything ranging from peanuts, roasted peas, etc. when I drink. Liquors are harsh on the throat, and eating any of those comforts the throat and the mouth. Occasionally, I eat meat as well. I would appreciate any response on if eating meat is better while drinking.

Does eating meat along with booze have any benefits?
Generally speaking: no.
Drinking a little whiskey may be beneficial for the stomach, but would be better somewhat prior to eating.
Even St. Paul ( for those of us who are believers) tells Timothy to drink a little wine because of stomach and frequent ailments.

Stop drinking only water and use a little wine instead, because of your stomach and your frequent ailments. - 1 Timothy 5:23

Drinking in moderation is best. When I am somewhat hungry, I find that one drink will ease my stomach’s wontedness for food if drank about one half hour to an hour before I eat. That includes meat.

Especially after fatty meals, alcohol is said to promote digestion. But it seems it's not the alcohol that has a positive effect on the stomach. On the contrary: alcohol actually impedes gastric emptying. It blocks the action of nerves that are important for the transport of food in the abdomen. So high-proof alcoholic drinks are not beneficial to digestion. Herbal liqueur before a meal can be enjoyable. But here again, it's not the alcohol but the bitter substances the drink contains that stimulate the mucous membranes of the stomach to release acid. That can actually facilitate the pre-digestion of foods. The bitter substances in non-alcoholic beverages such as espresso have a similar effect. The right time for this digestive aid is about half an hour before a meal. And after you eat, a postprandial walk is better than any drink. - Does alcohol after a meal really help digestion?


An alternative to Vodka to pair with caviar With some Russian friends coming I intend upon serving caviar in the correct manner.  Here is a link to The Telegraph's idea of what I should be doing as far as the caviar is concerned.  However I know that my friends do not like Vodka!  What other alcoholic drink can I serve, yet keep the Russian feel?

Here's the caviar - now what to drink?

Your main criterion, especially if you are serving sturgeon caviar, should be something to freshen the palate without leaving a strong aftertaste.

A brut champagne goes exceptionally well. If keeping the Russian theme is important and you have a good eastern European shop at hand, you could try to get a Russian or Ukrainian Шампанское. Be aware that many Russian and Ukrainian wines tend to be much sweeter than a western European would expect; make sure it is Брют / Brut, and ideally try a bottle before serving it.


As yeast is a fungus, are there any alcohol recipes that contain mushrooms? As fully asked in the question are there any alcohol recipes that contain mushrooms?

As yeast is a fungus, are there any alcohol recipes that contain mushrooms?

The short answer is yes, but you still need the yeast to start the fermentation.

  Mushroom-Infused Beer Recipes

  Below you’ll find some basic beer recipes that incorporate mushrooms. Each recipe is sized to make 5 gallons of beer. However, given the broad range of ingredients available to homebrewers, you don’t have to limit yourself to the ingredients you see here. You can modify any existing recipe. Just be sure to formulate your beer to balance sweetness and bitterness. And consider making it a specialty regional beverage that incorporates local and organically grown ingredients. Have fun making your first mushroom beer, and “hopfully” many more!

  Turkey Tail Ale

  A golden pale ale with turkey tail (Trametes versicolor)

  6 pounds extra-light malted grain

4 ounces fresh or 2 ounces dried turkey tail mushrooms
  1 ounce hops
  Ale yeast

  Iceman Amber

  An amber ale with birch polypore (Piptoporus betulinus) and amadou (Fomes fomentarius)

  6 pounds extra-light malted grain
  1 pound amber malt

12 ounces carrot juice (preferably organic)
  4 ounces fresh or 2 ounces dried birch polypore mushrooms
  4 ounces fresh or 2 ounces dried amadou mushrooms
  1 ounce hops
  Ale yeast

  Reishi Red

  A natural red lager with reishi (Ganoderma spp.)

  6 pounds extra light malted grain
  1 pound amber malt

12 ounces red beet juice (preferably organic)

4 ounces fresh or 2 ounces dried reishi mushrooms
  1 ounce hops
  Ale yeast

  Agarikon Stout

  A dark, earthy brew with agarikon (Laricifomes officinalis, Fomitopsis officinalis)

  1 pound chocolate malted grain
  1 pound crystal malted grain
  5 pounds pale malted grain
  2 ounces liquid agarikon mushroom extract (from colonized grain)
  1 ounce hops
  Trappist yeast

  Note: Agarikon is endangered and should not be harvested in the wild, but it is a powerful medicinal mushroom worthy of a stout beer. Since this mushroom cannot be cultivated in large quantities and the mycelium is slow to grow, the best option for this recipe is to allow myceliated cakes to supercolonize over the course of several months, until they are thick with biomass, and then prepare an extract from them. - Brew Outside the Box: Making Mushroom-Infused Beer

Technically speaking, working with mushrooms doesn’t pose any major technical hurdles during the brewing process, making it an easy ingredient to play around with, although approaches vary by brewery. Some infuse whole dried mushrooms into the wort (the water extracted during the mashing process), transforming the hot liquid into a sort of mushroom broth, which is then fermented and bottled. Others dry mushrooms and grind them into a powder, which is then made into a tea and added to the beer after fermentation is complete.


What's the benefit of cap *and* cork? Some beers, like Lindemann's lambics, come in a bottle that resembles a champaigne bottle (but smaller), with a cork -- and a bottlecap.  What does the cap add to this?  Why is it there?

(By "resembles a champaigne bottle" I mean the glass is thicker and the bottom has that "indent" characteristic of bottles whose contents are under higher-than-normal pressure.)

The bottle cap has the same purpose as a wire cage-- to ensure that the cork doesn't pop itself under the bottle's interior pressure.


Using barrels for aging Whisk(e)y - preparing the barrel? I've been in homebrewing and homedistilling for some time and read a bunch of useful information about all types of whisk(e)y's and how are all of them named and such. I can't get the right information on how exactly are the barrels reused? When wine or spirit or whatever liquor was in the barrel gets taken out how exactly does the procedure look like then? Do they clean the barrel with water or steam before they put the fresh whiskey in there? I imagine you would want the flavors of whatever was previously in the barrel to have an impact on your future whiskey but there might be some trub and bad stuff on the bottom as well.

The barrels are pumped out at the winery. The barrels are probably rinsed with hot water until it's free of the gunk from the wine making process. Then left to drip dry for a while for a few days. If they are going to be used for spirits, the barrel head has to be taken off and then the barrel is charred on the inside. Otherwise, you won't get any of that smokey flavor. Wine barrels are toasted, not charred. Wine barrels go easy on the toasted oak flavor, where as whisky/scotch barrels go completely burned to almost charcoal on the inside that's how the flavor gets in there. If they just used wine barrels without doing anything, it would have a fairly weak flavor profile.


What are the pros and cons of "Non Age Statement" Whisky In the Scottish whisky market there has been a level of controversy over the last couple of years relating to "Non Age Statement" (a.k.a NAS) whisky.

Several of the leading distillers now have NAS whisky in their line-ups for example Glenlivet Founders Reserve or Macallan Gold .

This has led to critism of the distillers that they're trying to pass off younger spirit at a premium price.

I was wondering what the pros and cons of NAS whiskies are?

It would seem like you hit the nail on the head:

The main benefit would be that distillers can put out whisky that's younger and still charge a higher price.

In the Scotch market age isn't just a sign of quality, it's also a sign of status. Rich people will spend a lot of money on bottles that are as old as 25 to 50 years, even if there is a very minimal difference in the actual flavour of the tipple. This means that an age statement can lend itself to a lot of profitability, or lack thereof.

By excluding age statements that allows distillers to put out product faster, and not have to correlate their pricing model with age necessarily.

The cons to a distiller would be very minimal as the average consumer doesn't think too much about this type of thing, knowledge about whisky is typically very low. The only real con is to a consumer that may be getting fleeced by marketing tactics.


What is the difference between ice wine, iced wine and late harvest wines? What is the difference, if any, between ice wine, iced wine(sometimes called frostbitten ice wine) and late harvest wines?

Late Harvest these are grapes that are left on the vine until they reach a certain brix (sugar %) level outside the normal range for regular table wine. There are several sub categories of Late Harvest, which include Ice Wine, Botrytized, sun dried (raisined) and regular late harvest.

One of the better known of the late harvest wines is Sauternes. These are wines picked after the grapes have gotten moldy. (AKA Noble Rot) The mold acts to dry out the grapes making them like raisins. These wines are from white grapes mainly. In Hungary they are from Tokay. In the Alsace they are called Sélection de Grains Nobles (selection of the noble berries). The mold concentrates the sugars and adds it's own special flavor.

Ice Wine In certain places in the world, like Canada, USA and Germany the grapes need to be naturally frozen on the vine to be called Ice Wine this is the law. The temperature varies but somewhere around -7f to -10f before they are allowed to be picked. It's a crap shoot since you are not assured you will get that cold in the winter following harvest. So it is rare. They need to use special hydraulic presses since you are pressing the sugar out of little round ice balls. Sugar levels are so high that the yeast cannot complete fermentation leaving residual sweetness after fermentation.

Iced Wine In many parts of the world there is no regulation around the word "ice wine" and many wine makers just take grapes and throw them in a huge freezer and mechanically freeze them called cryoextraction. Since they can't legally use the term "Ice Wine" without freezing them on the vine, they had to come up with a made up name. Iced Wine is one of those names. Frostbitten Ice Wine is a proprietary name from winemaker here in Washington State


What exactly is a golden stout? I just saw a golden stout, I thought that stouts had to be dark and use roasted malts. What does a golden stout taste like? The same as a stout minus the color?

Sort of.

These stouts my also be known as "Blonde" or "White" in additional "Golden". Supposedly the idea first came about in 2007, when it was joked that Stone should brew a Golden Stout, it being a sort of oxymoron. However, it appears that now it exists. Stone Brewmaster Mitch Steele decided to create it, a light colored beer which had the flavors of a stout,

  “To achieve the qualities of a stout, we relied on our prior experience brewing with coffee to pull flavors from the beans without affecting the hue of the beer,” explains Steele. “As the beer warms and opens up, the chocolate adds another level of complexity and helps build the traditional flavors typically associated with dark beers. It’s been really fun to see a prank with questionable viability become a reality.”

While this isn't the only example, it's one of the more notorious ones that serves well to explain the idea as well as how the flavoring is achieved.


How to avoid egg white being cooked in drinks? So, i love to drink Peruan Pisco sours. You make these with Pisco, lemon juice, sugar and egg's white. You are supposed to shake the drink. However, every time i make this drink, i end up with little pieces of cooked egg in the drink. They are disgusting. How can i avoid this problem, while still conserving the the foam obtained with the eggs?

Thanks.

Several suggestions:

On a fresh egg, remove the chalazae, the ropey bit in the white (it anchors the yolk);
Use either pasteurized egg whites or powdered egg whites;
Add ice only after the mixture has become foamy and voluminous;
Use a finer mesh strainer (if bits are getting through your shaker strainer).


Do kegs go bad faster once they are tapped? If a beer keg is tapped and served but is then untapped before it is empty, and kept cold, does that make the beer in the keg more likely to go flat or become undesirable?

Context would be if a bar takes a keg off a line to make room for another keg, but then eventually serves the original keg again.

Soo... There are two main ways to push beer out of a keg. Carbon Dioxide and regular air. Most bars use CO2 (and Nitrogen in some cases) to push the beer out. Your regular backyard kegger uses regular air which is full of oxygen. A keg will not go bad if you take it offline as long as it was being filled with CO2 at the right pressure. (Or let's say it won't go bad for many days or weeks if properly filled with CO2). Your backyard keg with the hand pump, the beer will go stale within a day or two.


Which are the most caloric beers? Are there, say, visual criteria to identify them? Is there a visual criterion to roughly estimate the order of calories a beer contains?

Specifically, I wonder if "the darker the beer, the more energetic value it has" holds [1]. Please, prove or disprove.

[1] (What lead to this belief: When I drink a trappist or a Guinness Extra Stout, both dark, I somehow identify the density with calories. But is that true?)

No. Color has little to do with calories, and possibly surprisingly, mouthfeel can have little influence also.

You can have a Belgian Tripel that is medium light bodied, that has many more calories than a pint of Guinness, simply because the alcohol level in the Tripel contributes more calories than the sugars from Guinness. Also Guinness is served on Nitrogen which creates the sensation of a thicker beer, as if there were more carbs and protein giving a fuller body.

The calorific load from a beer comes from both carbohydrates and alcohol, which are present in both dark and light beers regardless of beer color.


Is it weird that I like my red wines slightly chilled? Is it weird that I like my red wines Slightly chilled? Or is this normal? I constantly hear that we should be drinking reds at “room temperature."

No, it is not weird.  In social situations, such as hosting an event, you should serve the wine at the recommended temperatures only to meet the expectations of your guests.  If you are just talking about yourself, you should drink it at whatever you find the most pleasurable.

There is much too much nonsense surrounding wine where perceived quality depends too much on the design of the label, the price, and the reputation, and very little depends upon the actual liquid itself.  There is a reason that wine competitions are not blind tastings because the few times they have done them that way, the recognized "best" have not done so well.  The California wine industry burst on the international scene because of the infamous Judgement of Paris, which was done blind (at least one of the French judges was so outraged that California wines won, that she demanded her ballot back for the wines they themselves heaped much praise upon).  In a delicious bit of irony, in blind tastings "Two Buck Chuck" has taken double gold medals in blind tastings over the "best" California wines, leading to some California wine industry people to cry foul over the results just as the French did 25 years earlier.

Drink what you enjoy served however you enjoy it best, because isn't that the whole point in the first place?


Are there broad stylistic differences between Scotch and Irish whiskey? This isn't a question about typical production: I know that Scotch is often peated while Irish rarely is and that Irish is usually triple-distilled whereas Scotch is usually double-distilled. That's covered well by the question Whiskey - Irish vs. Scottish. This more of a question about whether those processes make a noticable difference to the result.

Imagine a wine tasting: a skilled wine taster can identify the grape(s) and regions from a sip of the wine without seeing the bottle. I guess my question is: could a consuisseur readily identify whether a whiskey was Scotch or Irish from the flavour alone? Are there typical "giveaway" flavours, smells or textures (other than peat) which identify each?

Or, put it another way, if you wanted to showcase a typical range of whiskey styles, could you do it solely with a selection from North America and Scotland, or are there examples made in Ireland of a style unique to that country?

I'd say yes, but with the caveat that I've only tried a limited number of Irish whiskies (mostly big name brands) and so they might be a bit more varied than I'm aware of.

I'm largely ignorant of what goes into the distilling process of both Irish whisky and Scotch, but what I notice as a taster is that Irish whisky is often very sweet, with more like a sugary or fruity taste to it. I'd normally recommend them to people with a sweet-tooth.

Scotch can be very sweet too, but I find the Sherry versions often with more of a butterscotch/caramel flavour, and if they're well produced the sweetness is usually a bit more balanced than in the Irish whiskies I've tried.

If one was a connoisseur I'd imagine they'd be able to differentiate an Irish from a Scottish whisky a majority, but probably not 100%, of the time. But if someone was a beginner they'd most definitely have trouble.

So to answer your question more directly, if you were to showcase whisky, I would argue that you could do so with product coming out of Ireland, but that it would probably be more on par quality wise with American whisky, than it would Scottish.


Universally Accepted Beer Education I have been searching for Beer education with universally accepted certificate like WSET for a while but I couldn't find one. I've found some courses Prud'homme ,Cicerone, and The Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) but I don't think they are like WSET.
Are there any training program like WSET for beer?

Just like there is no standards for understanding Computer Science education there is no standardized wine or beer education. You get the education where you can. I have pretty extensive experience in both wine and beer education. At one time, long ago, I was a BJCP certified judge. I have a winemaking certificate from UC Davis (short course) Both were a rigorous education. Then I went on to start a winery and eventually taught at a local community college that has a 2 year wine program. I think only the lead instructor had anything like a masters in wine (MW) the rest of us just university classes and self taught.

Getting a degree in brewing from an accredited college like UC Davis would have the most clout. I wouldn't say the WSET is universally accepted as the "gold standard" in wine education. If all you want to do is get some type of certificate for being a server then the Cicerone or BJCP will probably serve the purpose. Getting a Master Cicerone would probably be the highest for beer. Beer education has always been less formal than winemaking. I'm not sure why since brewing beer is way more complicated than making wine. I'm sure it has to do with the snobbery associated with wine vs. the everyman appeal associated with beer.


Why are some beers warm and some cold? While out at my local I always like to try new beers, and as I was going through a few different beers and I noticed that almost all of them all had varying temperatures. Some where ice cold whilst some were warmer I understand that this is on purpose but I'm not sure why?

So why is it that some beers are served Cold and why are some served Warm?

I don't think anyone would deliberately or professionally serve warm beer, if by warm you mean something close to body temperature. Generally speaking, cask ale (as opposed to pressurised keg beer) is served, in the UK at least, and according to CAMRA's website, at cellar temperature: 12-14 C (54-57 F), whereas lager and keg beer is usually served much colder.

So much for the purist. My preference is always for cask ale to be served cool, but not cold, so that the flavours can be properly appreciated. Good quality lager should be served colder, and I prefer Czech pilsners at around 6-8 C - about the same temperature as you'd want white wine to be. But on a burning hot day in the African sunshine (where I'm from), there is nothing as refreshing as an ice-cold (and I mean ice-cold) ordinary mass-market lager, straight out of the bottle. You can't distinguish tastes as readily at those temperatures. Refreshment is the key there: you don't really care about taste in those circumstances (if you did you'd be drinking something else).


Is there a modern wine that is designed to resemble an ancient Hebrew (Palestinian) wine? After seeing this question on the site (Is there a modern wine that is designed to resemble ancient Roman winemaking?) sometime back and I became interested in knowing if there is a modern wine that is designed to resemble ancient Hebrew (Palestinian) wines from  around the first century?

It would be awesome to have some sort of a regional "historical" wine to drink at Easter or even to be able to obtain such a wine for a minister friend for his liturgical usage during Holy Week or Eastertide.

Is there a modern wine, commercially available today, that is intended to resemble ancient Palestinian wine as closely as possible from around the first century (more or less)?

How about Marawi Wine from the Recanati Winery in Israel.

  The wine, called marawi and released last month by Recanati Winery, is the first commercially produced by Israel’s growing modern industry from indigenous grapes. It grew out of a groundbreaking project at Ariel University in the occupied West Bank that aims to use DNA testing to identify — and recreate — ancient wines drunk by the likes of King David and Jesus Christ. - Israel Aims to Recreate Wine That Jesus and King David Drank


How do Trappists Brew so much? I'm pleasantly surprised to find a small selection of Trappist beers for sale at a venue in Inner City Brisbane, Australia.

A quick look at the Chimay website (one of the beers available) shows a map explaining that you can get a Chimay pretty much anywhere. This map doesn't even include Australia, so I assume it's more widely available than they claim.

Now, all the branding explains how the beer is brewed in a traditional Trappist abbey, under the supervision of the monks, which is congruent to my understanding of how Trappist brewers operate.

So how does one Abbey produce enough beer to be able to sell it not only all over Europe, but on the other side of the world in seemingly mainstream quantities?

Wikipedia's article leads to several sources that substantiate what @ValentinGregoire preempted. For example, Chimay put up a series of short video clips that take us through surprisingly up-to-date facilities capable of bottling up to 40,000 bottles a day! (Probably it's just my own prejudices—associating monks and monasteries with old times, thus old technologies—causing surprise in my case.) With many other competing beers, and demand checked by relatively higher prices, the abbey alone suffices.

The volume produced, according to this 2012 article, is 120,000 hectoliters of beer annually, or 16,000,000 bottles (750 mL) of beer. To put this in some perspective, according to this 2008 article St. Bernardus at the time was exporting to 20 countries and producing 13,000 hectoliters (considerably lesser than Chimay) annually. And as @ValentinGregoire started saying, Westvleteren is difficult to find because the monks of the abbey of Saint Sixtus decided not to increase production despite the beer's popularity, and thus produce only 4,800 hectoliters according to a 2005 publication.

For me, it's hard to grasp such large numbers in any meaningful way. I looked up Stella Artois' production figures (and not because it's Belgian—it was just the first popular, global beer to come to mind), and found that in 2012 they produced a little over 10,000,000 hectoliters that year. Divide that by Chimay's 120,000 hectoliters per annum. Can I believe that 83 units of Stella are being consumed for every 1 equivalent unit of Chimay? Meant only as a sanity check and not any rigorous argument, it checks out as believable to me—after all, Stella's on draught all over the U.S. (I can't speak for other countries but I'm sure everywhere else too).


Does drinking hot beer prevent the common cold? After graduating from school, I served my two years of mandatory alternative civilian service with a hospital gardener in Swabia. In Winter, every morning we used to come in one hour early to drink hot beer.

Warming beer – "stauchen" in German –, by placing the bottle in hot water, was common in the southwest of Germany, and althought the practice has fallen out of use in recent years you can still order your beer "gestaucht", i.e. warmed to about 50 to 60°C (122 to 140°F), in traditional restaurants (at no extra price, of course).

Here is an image of one restaurant that uses old hot-water bottles to warm their beer as a gimmick (source):

The old gardener and his younger colleague claimed that drinking warm beer would keep away any cold that working in the wet and cold outside would otherwise bring on them. We were certainly all very healthy those two winters (and got a lot of snow shovelled), so my question is:

Does drinking hot beer prevent the common cold?

No, drinking warm beer will not prevent the common cold.

There was at least one study conducted revealing that humulone, an chemical found in hops, could help to fight a cold. This study seems to be both biased and exaggerated, as it was conducted by a beer company and the concentration in beer is so low that getting a therapeutic dose would create more problems than it would solve.
Got a Cold? Have a Beer!

I imagine that the rumor was based on either the above misleading story or a similar one based on a historical view of beer through "rose colored glasses".
This coupled with the commonly known (and scientifically supported) method of drinking hot fluids to treat cold symptoms creates a believable enough tale to increase sales.
Study finds hot drinks help colds.


How is reduced alcoholic beer made? How is low/no alcohol beer made? I'm assuming that the beer is made normally and the alcohol is then removed, is it any more than just boiling it off? I've noticed that no/low alcohol beers' taste improved hugely a few years ago, is this due to a new technique?

There are a couple of ways to do that.

The two main "approaches" are to extract the alcohol afterwards or just don't allow the generation of it.

The extracting part can be achieved by filtering and reverse osmosis. Alcohol and water are getting sucked out and the "beer mass" gets re-watered. These steps may affect the taste quit a bit. A few brewers (especially in Germany) have developed a "top secret" technique to brew a alcohol free beer which tastes the same as "normal" beer - but most of these are "top secret".

Latest science experiements revealed a new way of brewing alcohol free beer, by just stopping the fermentation process. This can be done by lowering the temperature of the liquid containers.

Beers brewed with this technique tend to taste more sweet.

Both method have their up and downs so a couple brewers combined both: Less fermentation than usual and extracting the extra bits of alcohol.


Why did my cherry juice turn directly into vinegar while never being wine? These canned, additive-free cherries are packed in their own juice, watered down.  I previously left this juice in a plastic water bottle while drinking it, for only three days, and it became pleasantly bubbly - carbonated juice.  A honey and water mix used for eye medicine turned into a strong alcohol over just 1-2 weeks (it was only one ounce of mixture).  This time, I used the extra, way-too-high amount of yeast to put in the juice, but after two months, it is still just sour juice, and no tasteable bubbles.  So I added a very small piece of kombucha SCOBY - maybe it will become kombucha-like or become fizzy juice.  One week later, it tastes exactly the same.  Two weeks after that, it is vinegar.  It was never wine and it was never kombucha.  Why?

It's difficult to answer why fermentation did not complete without further information.

It's quite possible the sugar content was too high and pH to low for whatever yeast was added to survive and begin fermentation.

Vinegar however is created when bacteria that produce acetic acid are present in an environment with a sugar source and oxygen. They will thrive off of the sugar just like brewer's yeast, but will also produce acetic acid as a byproduct of their life processes.

If you wish to make cherry wine, I would suggest diluting the juice down to somewhere in the range of a sugar concentration of 10 percent, measuring with a hydrometer or refractometer, and using a yeast, possibly a dry wine yeast, that can withstand alcohol in ranges of 10-14 percent abv.


Different Beer with Different food I was wondering if there are certain combinations of beer and food go perfect together in my own experience I have found that Negra Modelo goes really well with Mexican food

do you guys know of any other really good combinations ?

Beer and food pairings have an entire subculture, not unlike wine. On both Ratebeer and Beer Advocate, there are entire forums dedicated to beer and food pairing. Honestly, there are an infinite number of combinations.

One thing I've heard is that a lot of chefs really like pale lagers. Not because the pale lagers themselves are all that amazing (personally, I'm not a fan of them), but they present a neutral palate, which allows them to pair well with most dishes.

Personally, two of my favorite pairings are hoppy IPAs with spicy food, and imperial stouts with desserts (especially if they are chocolate-based). IPAs complement the spice and help cut the heat of the spicy food. And the dark roastiness of the imperial stouts really complements the sweetness of dessert.

The infographic below is from craftbeer.com and contains their recommendations on food and beer pairing. I tend to like what it suggests.


Any experience making fig liqueur? I've successfully made a black raspberry liqueur, and am doing a similar process now with fresh figs. Has anybody done that? What have your experiences been?

Recipe:

1.5 cups vodka (I'm using Tito's)
1.5 - 2 cups fig puree

Combine figs and vodka, shake well, store in refrigerator. Shake daily, after 2-3 weeks strain well, and add simple syrup to taste.

Fig liqueur completed after 4 weeks.  Here are notes:

A lot more work than I expected it would be to strain out the liquid.
Next time I'll use a food processor instead of making the base puree
by hand.
It's much darker than I expected
The taste is nice, a little tannic on the finish.
I've successfully used it in a Collins-type cocktail - in a rocks glass, add:

2 ounces fig liqueur, chilled
1.5 tbsp simple syrup
juice of 1 lime wedge
sparkling water to top


Discount Scotches in North America Recently, I became aware that Scotch distilleries sometimes put out discount product at stores like Lidl and Aldi without an age statement, so they can turn product faster at a cheaper price.

And in the past few weeks I got my hands on a Ben Bracken Speyside from Lidl, and found it to be a shockingly good Scotch at it's price point (about 30 dollars Canadian, as opposed to around 75 - 80 for our typical entry level Scotches).

My question is - are there similar Scotches available in North America (and more specifically Canada, but I don't want to be too specific)? Is this type of thing done over the pond, or are we pretty much limited to entry-level Scotch?

It's not that Scottish distilleries 'put out discount product at stores like Lidl and Aldi', but stores like Lidl and Aldi buy whisky from the producers to sell as own-brand products. It's a standard way of selling whisky, and has been around longer than the current distillery brand model.

Most non-distillery/major blender whiskies you find in a supermarket will probably be an own-brand. The ones I know of in the US are Trader Joe's own-branded stuff and Kirkland at Costco – I've not heard of any Canadian specific brands, especially thanks to the monopoly rules getting in the way.

It's difficult to find out who bottles the whiskies, but it's usually a larger whisky maker in Scotland who has casks from a wide range of distilleries, and can fulfil the large orders that they'd ask for. Common culprits are Whyte & Mackay and Grant's (through QSI, their bulk bottling wing), as well as smaller folks like Angus Dundee and Burn Stewart.


Why do I seem to pee out more beer than I drink? When going out for some beers, after a while, I seem to pee more than the amount of beer I drink. Is that true, and why is that?

Alcohol is a diuretic.  According to this article, 1 gram of alcohol will increase urine excretion by 10ml.  Combine that with this CDC article stating that a standard 12 ounce (354ml) beer has 14 grams of alcohol, your can expect to pee 494ml, or 16.75 ounces per 12 ounce bottle.

The graphic would be more accurate with you drinking three beers but peeing four.


Is there a BeerAdvocate-like ranking of beers commonly found in supermarkets? Is there a ranking of beers (maybe by country) you can actually find in a supermarket?

I know the BeerAdvocate one, but it seems I would need to sell my soul to get any beer in the top 250.

You can check out the top rated beers at the user ratings site Untappd.

You can filter by style and country, and the app is very easy to use. I'll bring it up on my phone when I'm at a restaurant or grocery store and I want more info about a beer I haven't seen before or to check out the ratings.


I'm aging a few bottles. They've been in the fridge for a while. Should I take them out now? Pretty much this. I'm storing/aging bottles. They've been in my fridge for 6+ months now. I want to leave them there at least another 6+ months and on. But I've read aging beers in fridge is a "bad" idea because the cork will dry up. (All my bottles have corks). Temperature in the fridge is just above 32F (0 celsius)

I've talked to my father recently who's more into wine and told me I should get them out of the fridge and leave them somewhere else. That somewhere else is pitch black, pretty much on a cool floor and ambient temperature is about 65F(18 celsius), 85% humidity

Is there a risk to change the ambient temperature while it is aging, am I better getting them out of the fridge or does it matter little. I have a few bottles I've left out of the fridge in that place already. Should they go into the fridge? I'm also a bit curious as to why as well how it would affect the beers.

I believe the general principal is that lower temperatures will result in slower (or negligible) aging process than warmer temperatures. The results will certainly vary depending on the ABV and other qualities of the beer. Storing bottles horizontally should prevent the corks from drying.


Where can I find a type of beer that comes in flat top beer cans? I am looking for a beer that is sold in flat top cans or at least cans that require a tool to open it. A friend and I were discussing it and I thought that it would make an excellent present.

I am not looking for a vintage buy, preferably it should be drinkable.

Any help will be appreciated.

You are in luck! There is a retro can operation called the Chuchkey Beer Co. that is canning beer in the old style flat top cans that you need a churchkey to open (I think they supply one with the case). Looks like it's only available on the West Coast. Enjoy it if you can find it! Chuchkey Beer Co.


Can I pour cans into a keg? Can I pour cans of  Carling  in to a keg to use with a beer tap?

It's a 9 liter keg, and all the beer will be drunk that day/night

What gas pressure would I need? (If it's possible.)

Can the same be done with dark fruit cider? Again, it will all be drunk on the same day/night. (It's just a show off thing for the beer garden.)

I will pour the cans in slowly taking my time, I would just like to know if it will be possible.

I have done this with homebrew beer, but never commercially-bottled beer. The issues should be the same, though:

You will significantly shorten the beer's lifespan due to the oxygenation, but if you fill the keg as full as you can so there's little to no airspace at the top and you're drinking it all that day, you'll be fine.
When you force-carbonate after sealing the keg, I'd recommend 10-15 psi of pressure.
I have no experience with ciders, so I'll defer to someone else on that, although I can't see why it would be any different.


How does serving temperature affect the taste of beers? For example, from the label of Uinta's Crooked Line Labyrinth Black Ale:

  Flavors are enhanced when served cool, not frigid.

How does serving temperature affect the taste of beers? By "How?" I'm asking more about its effects on flavor, e.g. hoppiness, crispness, the aftertaste, etc. more so than the chemical process.* That is, what flavors become pronounced or dulled with the changing of temperature?

There's a question, What temperature should I serve my beer?, where an answerer states, for example, that letting darker beers warm up brings out new flavors—but what flavors? It doesn't seem to be the case that cooling kills all desirable flavors in general—for example for pilsners, lagers, and hefeweizens, "letting them get warm changes their flavor profile for the worse" (from the same answer).

* Knowing the chemical process, e.g. how certain elements or ingredients react or suspend differently according to temperature, would be very interesting indeed, but it seems difficult to find solid literature / knowledge on the subject.

There is a blog post which also cites this article discussing the chemical effects of cooling and dilution on whiskey.

The post concluded that the mix of dilution and cooling causes the alcohol to become soluble, which releases the flavour.

  Ethanol becomes more soluble when whiskey is diluted and cooled, this promotes release of flavour molecules

I think this theory is applicable to beer, but with a few caveats; firstly, beer is already diluted and doesn't need any more water added; secondly, the alcohol content of beer is much lower than that of whiskey, so not as much cooling would be required.


Are there quarantine themed beers? Are there any craft beers themed for quarantine or confinement? Are any beers specifically marketed for this type of occasion?

Are there quarantine themed beers?

What about the obvious: Corona beer!

  The novel coronavirus pandemic has temporarily killed all production of Corona beer — but not because of the fake rumours or jokes linking it to the disease.

  Grupo Modelo, the company that brews Corona beer in Mexico, has been forced to temporarily suspend production under the country’s lockdown measures to slow the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus. - Corona beer production halts due to coronavirus pandemic

It looks officially quarantined to me!

As a joke they should perhaps rename it Ebola in lieu of Corona!

I will say this at least: Doing external maintenance in town I find empty Corona beer cans or bottles every day!

Black Plague craft beer might fit the bill also.

Baphomet - Graphic Stein

If you can not find a ”quarantine beer” in your neighbourhood or home, perhaps to can just go ahead and drink your favourite beer in a beer stein. After all they came out with lids during the bubonic plague as a means to reduce infections from insects.

  Some 500 years ago Europe was inundated with swarms of flies during the summer months. This combined with memories of the plague called for some sort of action by citizens.

  By the 1500s folks in Germany had figured out that the plague had taken fewer victims in areas that adhered to certain hygienic standards. Cleanliness made a difference in who lived and who died so laws were passed to encourage citizens to leave their filthy ways to the past. One of those laws was that all food and beverage containers had to have lids to protect people from dirty insects.

  Covered containers were just a small part of the movement to clean up the community. Another law required that beer could only be made from hops, cereals, yeast and water. This allowed for a better quality beer and did away with the recipes that made beer from rotten bread and such.

  Long story short is that the beer industry took off in Germany and has never looked back. The covered beer stein was one innovation that took the fancy of the population long after the threat of disease had passed. The upper class would have had their beer steins made from pewter but the commoner would have embraced those made of pottery. Other mediums used would have included ivory, porcelain, wood, silver and more. Everyone would have had their own individual stein and some of them could be right fancy. All sorts of designs from coats of arms to biblical scenes have turned up on the outside of these steins.

  When the industrial age hit beer steins became less expensive to make. Instead of individually molding pottery into a mug they could now be mass produced with each design having a sharpness once associated with the hand made. Strong pottery seemed to be the chosen medium for most steins however glass and pewter did enter the market in a big way.

  Finding one of these beauties would be a treat for the collector. Over a 500 year period there would have been lots of steins made in Germany for the discerning collector to find. For the collector of the original steins they can expect to pay hundreds of dollars. Those who collect steins issued by American breweries will pay considerably less. - Beer stein an invention caused by the bubonic plague


How to choose spirits? I'm almost 20 years old and a 2nd year UG student. After going to college, occasionally I tried a bit of Vodka (Smirnoff, Magic Moments), Whiskey (Red Label, Signature, etc.), Rum (Old Monk), etc.
As our stipend is not that high (5k/month in Indian currency, Much more than many UG stipends though).
It would be great if I can get some light on how to select among these drinks, how are they chosen (say for serving various purposes), how can I both save money and have a fine drink, etc, etc.

All of them may be had straight, as they often are in the places from where they originate.
Having said that, some people find cheaper spirits more palatable when mixed:

Vodka + orange juice
Whisk(e)y + Coca Cola (or Ginger Ale) + perhaps some squeezed lime
Rum + Coca Cola + squeezed lime

How much mixer to use, is up to individual taste. Some might prefer to camouflage the spirit entirely, while others times want the spirit to 'bleed through' the drink.


Why do you call some wines by region and other wines by grapes varietal? Why do you call some wines by region and other wines by grapes varietal?
What is the reason behind?

This is a historical thing. In Europe in the ye olden days, there was no separation between where someone grew the grapes and what the wine was called, ie Burgundy, Chianti, Bordeaux, Rioja. In most of these regions, these grapes were selected over generations of growers to work perfectly in those regions.

Later on, maybe about 100 years ago, people started naming their wines similar names to these well known regions. Champagne is the classic example and probably the first to assert it's region name (aka appellation) around the world. Calling something Champagne in California did not make it Champagne. Champagne only comes from the Champagne region of France not Napa Valley in California.

It was intrinsically known what would grow where in Europe and mostly people didn't fiddle with it. Chardonnay and Pinot Noir grew well in Burgundy and that's pretty much all they grew. Then along came the New World. Mostly after WWII, growing regions all over the world started growing grapes and didn't have the history that many of these old European regions had and they wanted to tell people what was in the bottle so the rise of grape names came into being.

In Europe they created governing bodies to protect their appellations and making laws about how and what people could grow grapes. Protecting place names became a big deal. Now it's spread to many other things like tea, cheese, tomatoes (San Marzano), etc.

In the new world, they have the freedom to pretty much grow whatever they want, how they want and wherever they can so an emphasis on cute names and grape names is emphasis and places where grapes are grown are de-emphasized (OK, there are excepts like Napa Valley and Barossa Valley) As new world areas really figure out what is best grown in their regions you will see more emphasis on regional names and less on grapes.


Craft brew in Dublin Other than the popular Porterhouse (http://www.porterhousebrewco.com/bars-dublin-temple.php), are there other pub that serves craft/microbrewery beer in Dublin, Ireland?

Other than the famous Guinness brewhouse, are there other microbrewery around Dublin?

Other than Guinness Stout, what other Guinness beer is a must-have? Are there any Dublin exclusive beer?

Try against the grain on wexford street got a good selection there


What is the Hong Kong craft beer scene these days? When I lived in Hong Kong a few years back I enjoyed several interesting microbrewed beers and a small but enthusiastic beer scene. I still think about the much-missed Belgos East, which had a whole suite of Belgian ales on tap. What's available these days?

Craft Beer Association of Hong Kong
http://www.cbahk.org/

Link to several of the craft brewers in Hong Kong:
http://www.cbahk.org/brewers

"Hong Kong's Best Craft Beer Bars"
http://beertopiahk.com/pages/bars


Would it be sexist for a beer shop to have a "selection of beer for women"? I was on a webshop for beer and was surprised to find a "selection of beer for women". It consisted mostly of fruit-flavored beers and other sweet-type beverages such as ciders.

This struck me initially as sexist, since women can, and do, like all kinds of beer. I decided to ask the company and they said that those are the beers that their female customers order most (although I'm doubtful that they did a statistical analysis...).

I'm curious if beer experts out there believe there should be a category of "beer for women" and if so, what would be in that category.

Yes, I think this is a pretty unnecessary (and non-descriptive) label to put on a category of alcohol. If I go to a liquor store looking for cider or for a dry stout or for anything else and I see a section labeled "women" that effectively tells me absolutely nothing about what it is I'll find over there. Not to mention it basically assumes a woman will have no clue what it is she's looking for, so we'll just label this shelf "women".

I would definitely opt for something more descriptive and that doesn't imply clueless-ness i.e. "Radlers and Ciders", "IPAs", etc.


How do you pour a bottle conditioned beer? Bottle conditioned beers (such as many homebrews or those explicitly labelled as bottle conditioned/fermented) are, I'm told, supposed to be poured a specific way to avoid getting the yeast from the bottle into the glass.  How should I pour such a beer?

Bonus points for gifs or diagrams I can distribute with my homebrew.  :)

When pouring a beer with sediment, or lees, make sure your glass is of a size to accommodate the full contents of the bottle plus the attendant foam. Pour smoothly into the glass, watching the neck of the bottle, and suspend pouring when you see sediment starting to come to the neck. If you haven’t screwed it up, you have a glass of clear, inviting beer. Well done.


Will Adding Wood Chips meant for smoking to whiskey add bad flavor Take a Kirkland Blended Whisky or something similar. Is it reasonable to put that in a container with smoking wood chips and let sit for a long while with good results?

Are there any gotchas that will just make this a terrible idea.

Also thought about charring the woodchips first.

Yes, it will taste like wood and not the smoked flavor you are seeking. First they should be oak chips. Then they should be charred. You should probably visit the Distiller's Forum and this topic comes up quite a bit. You want the chips to be charred black but not burned all the way through before you use them. Unlike wine chips, that should be toasted to just a deep brown.

Why should you want even more charred flavor in a Whisky that's already got it? If you want to make your own Whisky, just use vodka or Everclear.


What is the max ABV that can be attained with instant yeast? Wine yeast is not sold in Indian markets, and online it's very costly; around 12 times what it would cost in the US. I like wine above 15% ABV. Will that be possible with instant yeast? If so, then tips please.

For fermenting with bread yeast most sources cite an average yeast alcohol tolerance of 13-14% AbV.  Obviously bread yeasts vary between manufacturers.

There are numerous other factors influencing attenuation, some common ones are:

concentration of sugars in the juice / must / wort
amount of yeast used
fermentation temperature

If your intention is to make quality wine, then it would be best to purchase a small amount of a purpose-bred wine making yeast, and grow it up into an amount large enough to ferment a batch.  Before pitching the yeast into the wine, reserve a small amount to grow up for the next-batch.  This method requires the least cost, but still ensures the yeast-type is appropriate for the beverage.

If you are making a "country wine" (fermented fruit juices, ginger "beer", flower-flavoured water+sugar, etc.) then bread yeast will be OK, but you would need to experiment to get the pitch correct.  For a rough idea, on a beverage that would ferment out to ~14% I would start with 40 grams* of dry bakers yeast into a 20 litre batch.

I strongly advise you to purchase a hydrometer so it's possible to monitor the performance of the fermentation.  Do this by taking a reading before pitching the yeast, and during fermentation.

My reasoning on this is the original gravity to produce this amount of alcohol would be quite high, say 1.1 SG / 23 Brix.  If this were beer, a pitch rate like this would be in order, and was verified with a pitch-rate calculator online.


Dry Cider recommendations I find most ciders to be a bit too sweet for my tastes.  Most of the lineup from Woodchuck is on the sweet side.  I like most of the Crispin Cider lineup.

Does anyone have any recommendations for dry cider that is available in the United States?

I'm not a huge cider fan myself, but you should check out the Ace ciders. One of the drier ones I appreciated was Ace Joker Dry, which should be pretty ubiquitous and findable where you are.

And if price isn't a big deal (as you indicated), here is a list of the top 50 dry ciders:

ÆppelTreow Sparrow Spiced Cider
Sea Cider Wild English
Snowdrift Cornice Cider
Russell New England Dry Cider
Left Field Little Dry Cider
Michel Jodoin Cuvée Blanc de Pépin (Fort)
Castle Hill Levity
Spire Mountain Dark & Dry Apple Cider
Potter’s Craft Farmhouse Dry
Mt Defiance Old Volstead’s Cider
Urban Orchard Ginger Champagne
Cydr Ignaców
Farnum Hill Extra-Dry Cider
Castle Hill Celestial Merret
Wilkins Cider - Dry (Draught)
Snowdrift Dry Cider
Swamp Donkey Dry Cider
Wandering Aengus Ciderworks Oaked Dry Cider
Albemarle Ciderworks Royal Pippin
L’Hermitière Cidre Brut
Applewood Naked Flock Draft Cider
Luscombe Farm Organic Devon Dry Cider
Albemarle Ciderworks Pomme Mary
Hartlands Dry Cider
MacIvors Traditional Dry Cider (Bottle)
Brickworks Batch 1904
Castle Hill Gravity
Hopkins Vineyard Off-Dry Cider
Black Mac Traditional Dry Cider Retired
Noble Cider The Standard Bearer
Blue Bee Gold Dominion
Baron Noir Sparkling Dry Cider
Eaglemount Homestead Dry Cider
Oliver’s Cider - Dry (Draught)
Malvern Magic Wapping Dry Cider (Draught)
Burrow Hill Stoke Red Bottle Fermented Sparkling Dry Cider (Bottle)
Henney’s Frome Valley Herefordshire Dry Cider (Bottle)
Double Vision Cider - Dry (Draught)
Potter’s Craft O’Tannenbaum!
Cascade / Cider Riot! Rising Tide
Troggi Bowmore Whiskey Cask Dry Cider
Butford Farm Craft Dry Cider (Bottle)
Cornish Orchards Veryan Dry Cider Retired
Troggi Old Dry Cider
Blue Bee Hopsap Shandy (Apple Brandy Barrel)
Mill House Farm Dry Cider
Small Acres Sparkling Dry Cider
CJs Dry Cider
Leprechaun Dry Cider
West Avenue Heritage Dry Cider


What's responsible for the "metallic" taste in Belgian beers? Whenever I've had Belgians, I've tasted something metallic, especially in the aftertaste. It was especially strong in Lost Abbey's Judgment Day, a quadrupel. I thought it was something unique to me because no one knew what I was talking about, but today a friend said the same thing ("metallic", without me suggesting anything). What in the brewing process causes this taste?

In case it helps, I also taste it in Killian's Irish Red.

Common causes for a metallic taste are dissolved metals such as iron or copper, either from the water supply or brewing equipment, or due to the oxidation of fat molecules which can bind with metals.

Personally though, I find that I can regularly taste metal in the finish of any of a variety of beers that are over-chilled.  I don't recall Belgians being particularly an issue (but I love Belgians and am probably more likely to ensure they're properly temp'ed before drinking) but when served too cold, I can almost guarantee that I'm going to get a strong taste of cold steel right at the end of many brown ales, red ales, and stouts among others, and that it will generally disappear as the beer warms.


Is a bottle of Sake that was open for roughly two years safe to drink? I have an already opened bottle of sake in my possession that I'd like to drink. I opened it roughly two years ago, it was sealed with a simple screw-cap and stored at room temperature. Due to its relatively low alcohol content (15%) I wonder if it's still safe to drink.

If it isn't, is it safe for cooking?

It's safe to drink. I don't think you want to drink it or cook with it. The rule of thumb if it tastes bad, why would you cook with it? The chances that it actually tastes good at this point are about zero. You could do a taste test if you really want, but it won't hurt you (unless you drink too much and then you'll get a hangover)


Why does Belgium have such a rich and profound brewing culture? I discovered craft beers some years ago, but I've been always been amazed by Belgian brewing culture, which is so different from German and Great Britain traditions.

Why is it that beer has such important and diverse roots in Belgium? What are the historical reasons?

When one speaks of "Belgian brewing", one must distinguish between two major styles of beer: the famous abbey ales produced by Trappist orders in Belgium (and now one in America), and the the saisons and bières de garde produced as inexpensive nutritional supplements and dietary staples for farm life. An interest in the history and production of these beers is best served by Phil Markowski's Farmhouse Ales and Stan Hieronymus' Brew Like a Monk.

To touch on a few of your questions:

As previously alluded, beer served a utilitarian purpose as a dietary staple and nutritional supplement for an agrarian society. Beer was frequently brewed in large batches at regular intervals in support of farm life, and the result were table beers and saisons for work during the harvest and bières de garde (loosely translated: "beers for keeping") to survive the winters.
Abbey ales are not as varied as they initially appear. Much of the variation in beers brewed in Trappist style come from fermenting different "runnings" of the same batches of wort (unfermented beer); to summarize very briefly, the strength is dependent upon the sugar content which is dependent on how many times the mashed malt has been "rinsed". See Wikipedia's page on lautering for more details.
Belgian and English brewing are actually not very dissimilar from a historical perspective, and there was quite a bit of overlap in technique between English, Belgian, and Flandrian brewers. The differences in style we perceive now (e.g. IPAs vs Flemish sours) evolved by regional taste preferences from common roots: malt-forward beers (which were originally quite sour) using the low alpha acid noble hops which thrived on the continent. Consider the similarities in taste and composition between an ESB and a dubbel.

In addition to the above referenced works, a quick read through the history section of Jeff Sparrow's Wild Brews should answer any remaining questions you might have about the history of Franco-Belgian beer.


National Wine Registry (USA) Is there a US National Wine Registry of vineyards, varieties, and vintages? Would I really have to contact every vineyard in America to get this information?

There is no clearinghouse of all wineries in the USA. There are some that attempt to do this like Wine.com but they do not like to share the information unless you pay for it. The TTB (Alcohol and Tobacco and Trade Bureau) has to track every wine bottled because every label has to be approved by them. BUT, there are caveats. You don't need every label approved every year. If your label only changes vintage year every year and everything else is the same, then you don't need a new label. Also, you can get generic style labels approved that just say the appellation and winery name. You can just put "white wine" or "red wine" on the label. Not many people do this anymore. Then there are blends. If you don't see the blend % on the label you might have to dig more since the TTB doesn't track that kind of information.

You might have some luck extracting this information out of individual states, like the Washington Wine Commission's website. But, again nobody has a complete list of all wines, wineries and varietal information.


Vaping Alcohol - fad or here to stay? Just recently I discovered that not only can I vape in stead of smoking, but I can also vape instead of drinking.  What's vaping alcohol all about?  Well, you put a shot of spirits into an orb, which sits over a small candle (tea-light), and then through a glass or metal straw inhale the results.(check it out here with buzzfeed)

This is what the Vaportini looks like - credit Vaportini

I understand that the alcohol bypasses the liver stage and just goes straight to your head and lungs.  So, none of that 'oops, I've drunk too much - excuse me whilst I visit the bathroom' nonsense, with this method you apparently don't get to expell what your body can't handle.

With all this in mind, is there a limit (average) that can be vaped without doing myself some serious brain damage?  What also is the effect on the lungs?  Is this just another fad or is this the future?

Limit: So, I would speculate that if you're "vaping" the same quantity of alcohol as you might instead drink, then you're facing the same risk. It's the same as drinking alcohol - the risk is cumulative and hard to define - it really depends on how much you drink and how often.

Effect on lungs: Frankly this is hard to say, as I am quite confident there have been no large scale (AKA reputable) studies (nor can I find any) performed on the effect of vaping alcohol on lung tissues. I would expect the effects to be minimal, but then again, personally, I'd probably still just stick to drinking my alcohol.

I can't provide any scientific basis to this, but I am thoroughly confident that vaping is simply a fad or novelty to enjoy - think of the increased costs and lack of accessibility compared to just drinking alcohol - you simply need a bottle of beer and a fridge, or a bottle of spirits and a glass versus a specialised glass, tea candle, vapour catching vessel and a glass or metal straw (seriously, who keeps one of them around?).


How to measure the caffeine content of a coffee beer at home? I recently got a winter sampler pack by Sierra Nevada, which had 3 Coffee Stout beers. I've also brewed my own coffee stout for early next year. I was wondering, having tried both, they both have a decent coffee taste, but is there any home science way to find the caffeine content of a coffee beer.

FWIW my homebrew was "dry hopped" with 6 ounces of coffee grounds for two weeks, in a 5gal batch. Not sure if that can help with any calculations.

Let me know if this is off topic, and I can move it to the homebrew SE, or even maybe the chemistry or cooking stack.

There was a similar question on the Cooking SE site. Perhaps you can try the approach suggested by Adam Shiemke in the accepted answer. He recommended using ethyl acetate and performing a little home science experiment as detailed here.


How can I prolong the life of beer in a growler? Beer in a growler typically lasts for 24 hours or less, depending on how full the growler is, how many times it's opened over that period of time, and how efficient the seal is on the lid. Are there ways of prolonging the life in a growler or at least seal it properly?

Unfortunately, there's not much one can do, at least using only household products.

While filling, using a counterpressure bottle filler would maximize the longevity of the beer as well as filling the beer while it's very cold, near its freezing point ~29 degrees F (so that its CO2 is maximally dissolved), if you have a choice in the matter (likely not).

Once opening the growler over multiple sessions, however, it's not the ineffectiveness of the seal (using a swing-top growler should do just fine) as much as it is the growing amounts of air that get sealed within.

There exist several products funded and developed via Kickstarter you might want to check out:

FreshCap (See retailers for purchase.)
The Growler Saver (See retailers for purchase.)
Drink Tanks (See store for direct purchase.)
TapIt Cap (See store for direct purchase.)


How can different ingredients be replaced in the Singapore Sling recipe? I recently was in Singapore, where I tasted some of the most incredible Singapore Slings ever (hint: the best was NOT at the Raffles, but I guess this is a matter of personal taste).

When I came back home, I really wanted to buy the ingredients to prepare it at home, but I found that if I follow the original recipe (well, I do have something different), the taste is different.

I am pretty sure then, that the bars I visited did something different, and I'd like to find out the combination that I like the most.

I used:

120ml Generic brand pineapple Juice
7,5ml Cointreau
7,5ml DOM Benedectine
15ml Generic brand lime juice
15ml Bols cherry brandy
30ml Beefeater gin
10ml Monin Grenadine
Dash of Angostura bitter

If I drink it near the ice, it tastes good, while if I do it with a straw from the bottom of the glass, the after taste is... Too much Almond-like, sweet/bitter.

I wonder if Cherry Heering really is that "something" here (I know the Bols is cheap, maybe DeKuyper instead?), or if I can substitute Cointreau with a Triple Sec, or if I have to choose a better gin.

Any idea?

I adjusted the recipe to be:

120ml Generic brand pineapple Juice
7,5ml Cointreau
7,5ml DOM Benedectine
10ml Generic brand lime juice
15ml Bols cherry brandy
30ml Beefeater gin
10ml Monin Grenadine
Dash of Angostura bitter

Plus I bought a shaker and shook the whole thing with 4 cubes of ice.

I got a very good flavour with a slightly creamy texture, which is very near to what I drank in Singapore. The color is not pink as wanted, but it is a very good cocktail :)


How much pressure can a flip top take? I'm making mead, 3 lbs honey topped up to 1 gallon with champagne yeast. My final gravity is ~1.044. Still lots of sugar in there, but fermentation had all but stopped. I put it all into 1 Liter flip top bottles. Here's the question: have I just made bombs? How much pressure can fermentation-grade flip top bottles take?

I know 1.044 is still kinda high; I don't need a lecture. I don't think that fermentation will start again, but if it does and this stuff pushes itself dry, how much pressure will that make, and can the bottles handle it?

The short answer is - "It depends, probably not".

Bottles are usually rated for Volumes of CO2.

Champagne bottles are typically rated for 7 volumes.
Wheat beer bottles should take around 5 volumes.
Ales/Lager beers are normally carbonated at 2-3 volumes.

However, flip-top bottles (I assume you mean the ones with the rubber seal) are produced in both CO2-rated and cheap un-rated beverage bottles - found in supermarkets.

As you say 1.044 is quite high - plenty of beers start around that point.  This could generate a lot of CO2 (> 15 volumes) if it fermented out.

The actual CO2 volume calculations are discussed in another answer.

It might be better to transfer the mead to PET(plastic) bottles, and store them in a safe location.


When did J&B Scotch switch from corks to screw-tops? A friend of mine has come into possession of some rather old alcohol.  On one bottle of J&B Scotch, the label looks like this one from 1958 and not any of their later ones, but my friend's bottle has a screw-top cap, not a cork.

When did J&B start using caps?  (There is no contact information on their web site to ask them directly.)

From what I can find I'm not sure I can give an exact answer to the main question (when J&B started using screw caps) but I think I found something that matches your description, from 1972:

https://www.maxliquor.com/product-p/j-and-b-scotch-1972-quart.htm

As far as I can tell the label matches the picture on the page you linked and appears to have a screw-cap.

Also, on the website you linked to, there are example bottles from the 60's and the 70's.  Interestingly though, the 70's bottle has a different label than the one above from 1972.

Given all of this, I would assume the switch to screw caps happened in the late 60's or early 70's and that the bottle your friend obtained is likely from the same time period.


What to do against hangovers? Occasionally, I catch myself having a beer or two too much. Which of course can cause hangovers. I was wondering what one can do to prevent this? Or what can be done if it's already too late.

Drinking less is the obvious solution.

But you can also reduce the causes:

One cause for a hangover are the metabolic products of the fusel alcohols (unwanted alcohols) in your drinks. First your body metabolizes the ethanol and then the fusel alcohols. That's why drinking alcohol helps against a hangover as if gives the body some more ethanol to work on and thus reduces the toxins of the fusel alcohols. That's why a Bloody Mary is a well known hangover cure.
So try reducing the amount of fusel alcohols you consume by choosing high quality drinks that have less of them.

Another cause is dehydration and lack of electrolytes. So start hydrating yourself before, while and after you consume alcohol. And to keep the water in your body, make sure, you add enough electrolytes to bind the water. In russia and other slavic countrys there is a culture of eating salty (electrolytes and increasing thirst), sour (helps making you thirsty) and fatty (proteins and delays alcohol absorbtion) food along with drinking. In a way it's like having a hangover breakfast while drinking.

All of this can be done when you wake up with a hangover: drinking some alcohol as "hair of the dog" (this will reduce the symtoms but increase the time you feel them but won't fix anything!), eating a rich breakfast, drinking lots of water (tea, juice, ...) and maybe pop a blood-thinner like ASS (Aspirin).


Why are wine bottle volumes in centiliters not in liters or milliliters? Almost every beverage bottle I have come across has it's contents' volume specified in either liters or milliliters. That is except for wine bottles which are more often than not designated in centiliters. For example:

Milliliters or liters are far more popular than centiliters in the countries using SI units. Why use centiliters then, especially for something as simple as 1 liter in the example? Has it some historic background?

Why are wine bottle volumes in centiliters not in liters or milliliters?

Part of the answer is in the marketing system used in a particular country or region and part of it would be about the size of bottle being purchased.

In Canada and the USA, in a standard bottle of wine, there are 750 millilitres (ml), 75 centilitres (cl) or 0.75 litres (l). Wine bottles aren't quite litre-size, but the average wine bottle will contain 750ml of wine.

I see only 750ml bottles in the area where I live. I am fine with that. A bottle of wine marketed as 0.75 liters seems less appealing than wine sold in a bottle marketed as 750ml. And one marketed with a 75cl label seems less traditional in this neck of the world and may not sell as good as one sold with 750ml marked on the label. It is sold in a more positive light so to speak. It is all marketing.

I am sure there are other reasons, but take a look at Difford's Guide to mandatory bottle sizes around the world. It is an eye opener to say the least.

However there is more to the Subject:

  When glass bottles become popular though, it is surprising to see that both continental Europe and Great Britain had glass containers of a similar size. The British had an official glass-container size of a fifth of their Imperial (UK) Gallon at around 900ml, while other Europeans' bottles gravitated around 700ml to 800ml. The US officially adopted the 750ml bottle as a standard in 1979, as a metric equivalent to the fifth of a US Gallon (757ml). - Standard Bottle

Alcohol measurement in bottles has undergone several revisions in the last few decades as Difford's Guide point out for the USA mandatory spirits bottle sizes (January 1, 1980) and the European Union mandatory spirits bottle sizes (January 1, 1990).


"Green Schlitz" myth: Was the beer green, or the flakes? I am editing an academic economics paper (I'm a grad student), and I ran across the following line:

  Schlitz changed preservatives, which led to green flakes in the beer.

The paper references an article --- amusingly titled Why the Schlitz Hit the Fan --- which makes the following claim:

  In 1976, new Food and Drug Administration regulations regarding which ingredients needed to be printed on the bottles prompted Schlitz to change the preservatives it used (it had been using silica gel). The company did not spend sufficient time testing the new process, and tiny green flakes appeared in the beer.

Internet sleuthing reveals this Beer Connoisseur article, which gives more info and claims that the flakes were, in fact, white:

  Schlitz decided to use another beer stabilizer instead, one that would be filtered out of the final product and thus would not have to be listed as among the ingredients. Unfortunately, what Schlitz's brewing technicians did not know was that the new anti-haze agent, called Chill-garde, would react in the bottles and cans with the foam stabiliser they also used, to cause protein to settle out. At its best this protein looked liked tiny white flakes floating in the beer and at its worst it looked like mucus, or "snot," as one observer bluntly called it.

After more research, I can't find any other references to Schlitz being [literally] green. As a beer lover and homebrewer, this inconsistency is driving me nuts. Does anyone know which color the flakes in Schlitz were in the mid-1970s? I have the following hypotheses:

Beer Connoisseur also mentions that Schlitz switched from whole to pellet hops; coupled with inadequate filtration, this could have led to green flakes.
Adults doing research thought of "snot" like kids, which meant that a "snotlike" substance in beer was probably green.
This is a misunderstanding created by non-brewers reading that Schlitz was "green" (which does appear frequently in search results); combined with knowing that there were flakes, and that the liquid of beer is generally amber-ish, it must have been [to someone unfamiliar with "green beer" being beer which needs to be further aged] that the flakes were literally green.
Beer Connoisseur is wrong, and the flakes were in fact green.

Does anyone have first-hand experience with this era of beer?

"Green" refers to the flavor of the beer. Under-matured beer can have a green apple aroma called Acetaldehyde. IT is reduced by yeast in the maturation phase.


Is Zlatopramen lemon 1.9% still available in the Czech Republic? I am wondering if the Zlatopramen lemon 1.9% is still available in the Czech Republic (in supermarkets, liquor stores, bars et cetera).

Yes, it is available
You can even get it delivered to your door for 14,90 Kč per 400ml can.


What is being doubled or tripled in a doublebock/triple bock? Some beers are classed as "doublebock" and some as "triple bock".  Doubles seem to be a little stronger (higher APV) than average and triples seem to be stronger than that, but is that they definition or an effect?  What exactly is being doubled or tripled in the production of these beers, and is the primary goal strength or some aspect of flavor or something else?

Doppelbock (or double bock) is intense in its maltiness and higher than "single" bock in terms of alcohol content, typically starting around 6-7% and going up to around 13%.  There isn't anything specifically doubled or tripled; rather, doppel idiomatically refers to be being "bigger"/stronger than a standard bock.  In terms of how higher "maltiness" is accomplished, that would depend on the specific beer; mashing at high temperatures, reducing lautering, using certain grains or different yeasts, and other factors all can increase the maltiness of the final product.

A triple bock would just be a naming convention emphasizing even further the maltiness and alcoholic strength of the brew.

As an aside, doppelbocks are an evolution of strong monastic brews used as "liquid bread" for fasting monks, as they were not allowed to consume solid food.  These sweet, malty beers evolved over time into the modern doppelbock.


What exactly is a Cicerone? What do they do? Recently I've started seeing references to the term 'Cicerone' pop up around the internet; generally, they are described as a 'Beer Sommelier' and the subject is left at that.

I'd like to understand the role a little bit better. What exactly does a cicerone do? If I encounter one in a restaurant, what sort of knowledge can I expect her to have? Is there a certification or credential of some sort that they're expected to receive? What sort of training is required?

Basically, they are experts in beer. They are knowledgeable in everything from the brewing process and the beer styles to properly serving beer and how to pair it with food. Yes, there are certification programs around, such as this one. I'm not sure about training, but it seems like it involves a series of exams, much like actuarial exams or the FE and PE for engineers. craftbeer.com has a great article.


Which Brahma beer is unhopped? I had a bottle of Brahma beer when I was in Brasíl some years ago, and I didn't save the label.  These are what I remember:

it was sweet and malty.
it had a white label.
it had 4% or thereabouts alcohol.
I purchased it at a decent and reputable restaurant circa 2008 — so it most probably wasn't an old or even a mislabeled bottle.

Reading their website is difficult for me, but I don't see anything which strikes me as a clear match — not even the Weiss (White) variety.  Possibly, I suppose, but I don't see anything in the description here which would obviate this question.

Are you sure it wasn't the Brahma Malzbier? I've had regular Brahma before and it taste like any other watery pale lager from MillBudCoors.

The Malzbier is a beer that is dark and they add caramel and it's low alcohol and sweet.

http://www.brahma.com.br/cervejas/malzbier

  Manufacture: American pale lager type beer in which, after filtration, caramel and sugar syrup are added, giving the dark coloration and sweet taste.