Moderators Anniversary On The Forum

[Bombastinator]

1 minute ago, fpo said:

I was mostly trying to pit bud light, Budweiser, Coors light, so on. 

 

Sounds like flyover country figured life out. 

The national brands all have problems because they have to ship vast distances.  No good beer there.

[Bombastinator]

The rule I have with beer is go local, always.  

[Red :)]

17 minutes ago, fpo said:

You mean discount polish beer?

 

The discount Austrian beer which is discount Belgian beer which is discount German beer? 

11 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

There are two different Budweiser companies.  Wisconsin and Eastern Europe.  Might be Poland. The American bud is the famous one, but the euro bud is the one worth drinking.  Again, long ago though.  For all I know the American one bought the euro one and ruined it

ok, there are actually three companies:

there's American Budweiser (in Europe it's apparently known as Bud), Czech Budweiser (in the States it's known as Czechvar) and then there's Samson, which is made by Budweiser Bier Bürgerbräu and this brewery got bought by the parent company of American Budweiser

[Guest]

17 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

The rule I have with beer is go local, always.  

This was my rule until I went somewhere where every beer is an IPA.

Swear... I ordered a lager and it tasted like apple juice. 

Best beer available here is Miller light. 

 

[Beerzerker]

3 hours ago, Bombastinator said:

The rule I have with beer is go local, always.  

The rule I have is 80 proof or more - Always.
I grew up around beer and beer drinkers but the fact it tends to "Suds up" on me is something I don't like.
I'm not really into straight liquor either, prefer it to be mixed instead and I do have a few recipes for concoctions I've made before, these being suitable for making anything from sipping on to getting totaled/trashed at the party.

[Bombastinator]

3 hours ago, Red said:

ok, there are actually three companies:

there's American Budweiser (in Europe it's apparently known as Bud), Czech Budweiser (in the States it's known as Czechvar) and then there's Samson, which is made by Budweiser Bier Bürgerbräu and this brewery got bought by the parent company of American Budweiser

Did they ruin it?

[Bombastinator]

14 minutes ago, Beerzerker said:

The rule I have is 80 proof or more - Always.
I grew up around beer and beer drinkers but the fact it tends to "Suds up" on me is something I don't like.
I'm not really into straight liquor either, prefer it to be mixed instead and I do have a few recipes for concoctions I've made before, these being suitable for making anything from sipping on to getting totaled/trashed at the party.

Last I heard that was a very German thing.  So much so that a lot of German brewing equipment got pulled out and moved to microbreweries in the US.

[Bombastinator]

2 minutes ago, Caroline said:

My rule is that if you can buy it in a store then it's not fun.

 

If I drink then I drink only the finest of local moonshines, one sip and you feel a volcano in your throat.

Then cider may be your bag.  When I was a kid the thing to do in the fall was buy local apple cider (the opaque brown stuff, not the clear stuff) and hang it out your window for a couple weeks till it got fuzzy.  If it froze all the better.  You drilled a hole in the ice and poured out apple jack.

[Beerzerker]

52 minutes ago, Caroline said:

My rule is that if you can buy it in a store then it's not fun.

 

If I drink then I drink only the finest of local moonshines, one sip and you feel a volcano in your throat.

Then you'd like it here because moonshine (Good 'ol corn liquor) is a tradition.
What's made here goes down almost like water - Esp if you just knock it back.

If you drink it slowly it will have a taste to it that's..... "Ugh" but at the same time it's nothing you coudn't get used to either. That's one reason why we tend to knock it back in small amounts (Shot glass or just in sips) and another reason for the small shots/sips is so we don't give ourselves alcohol poisoning from it.
200 proof is the straight, pure stuff and you have to be careful with it, eps if you've already been drinking before you got into the shine itself.
Kick back two or three shots and wait - Takes about a minute to really hit you but it does.
Good shine itself won't make you sick either.

[Bombastinator]

2 hours ago, Beerzerker said:

Then you'd like it here because moonshine (Good 'ol corn liquor) is a tradition.
What's made here goes down almost like water - Esp if you just knock it back.

If you drink it slowly it will have a taste to it that's..... "Ugh" but at the same time it's nothing you coudn't get used to either. That's one reason why we tend to knock it back in small amounts (Shot glass or just in sips) and another reason for the small shots/sips is so we don't give ourselves alcohol poisoning from it.
200 proof is the straight, pure stuff and you have to be careful with it, eps if you've already been drinking before you got into the shine itself.
Kick back two or three shots and wait - Takes about a minute to really hit you but it does.
Good shine itself won't make you sick either.

Making actual 200 proof alcohol is really hard.  Alcohol is hydroscopic.  The way they do ethanol for gasohol is they do a cascade still to get it to something like 180 or so, and then they put in a tank with balls of a special type of clay that is even more hydroscopic than alcohol.  So the clay absorbs the remaining water.  My dad was a researcher and they had small bottles of 200 proof alcohol in his lab for I don’t remember what.  A janitor tried to drink some and wound up in the emergency room close to death.  Something about the hydroscopic thing and his internal organs.  I was just a kid.  Any alcoholic beverage over 140 proof is banned in most of the US as it is classed as a poison.  That’s the whole thing behind medicinal alcohol.  They put another compound in it that will make you vomit if you drink it. Safety.  There is legal moonshine (unaged whisky usually) and illegal moonshine (which can easily get above 140 and near 180) but if you have a bottle of 200proof alcohol, take the cap off, and leave it for an hour it won’t be 200 proof by the time you put the cap back on.  It will draw water right out of the air.  So dangerously close to 200? Sure. But if someone says their stuff is 200 they’re probably lying to you.  Alcohol will burn at 100 proof, but there’s so much water in it it doesn’t burn hot enough to ignite paper.  That’s how one does the “burning a hundred dollar bill” trick.  Maybe it’s even lower.  Not sure.

[SimplyChunk]

I have a Cider.  Once..Maybe, twice a year..

[Arika]

Drink recommendations?

 

here is "my" drink:

Spoiler

Water

 

[rrats]

What have I missed

[Beerzerker]

On 11/19/2022 at 12:51 AM, Bombastinator said:

Making actual 200 proof alcohol is really hard.  Alcohol is hydroscopic.  The way they do ethanol for gasohol is they do a cascade still to get it to something like 180 or so, and then they put in a tank with balls of a special type of clay that is even more hydroscopic than alcohol.  So the clay absorbs the remaining water.  My dad was a researcher and they had small bottles of 200 proof alcohol in his lab for I don’t remember what.  A janitor tried to drink some and wound up in the emergency room close to death.  Something about the hydroscopic thing and his internal organs.  I was just a kid.  Any alcoholic beverage over 140 proof is banned in most of the US as it is classed as a poison.  That’s the whole thing behind medicinal alcohol.  They put another compound in it that will make you vomit if you drink it. Safety.  There is legal moonshine (unaged whisky usually) and illegal moonshine (which can easily get above 140 and near 180) but if you have a bottle of 200proof alcohol, take the cap off, and leave it for an hour it won’t be 200 proof by the time you put the cap back on.  It will draw water right out of the air.  So dangerously close to 200? Sure. But if someone says their stuff is 200 they’re probably lying to you.  Alcohol will burn at 100 proof, but there’s so much water in it it doesn’t burn hot enough to ignite paper.  That’s how one does the “burning a hundred dollar bill” trick.  Maybe it’s even lower.  Not sure.

I'm not doubting you from a medicinal/scientific point here, you're probrably right.
However what's called 200 proof is what's in the jar once it's distilled and runs out the top.

From a lab-qualified purity standpoint what we have isn't 200 proof - From an enviromentally stable point (As pure as it's gonna be outside a controlled/lab enviroment) it is.

The flame test is what's used to check purity and if it's safe to drink.
Invisible flame or with a hint of blue is fine, that means you have next to, if not any impurities in any amount to worry about in it.

It's when you can really start seeing the flame well is when you probrably don't want to drink it because the presense of an easily seen color as it burns indicates impurities are present.
In this case we'd probrably pass on it because the purer it is, the less colors you will see as it burns, and being able to see the flame easily means it's got some impurities; Not to mention it's gonna taste like shit anyway because of it. 

And if you see any, and I mean ANY hints of other colors such as red or orange, DO NOT DRINK!!!

That spells contaminants and it's poisonous enough to make you really sick or worse - Sometimes a batch like this is referred to as rotgut for obvious reasons.
 

[Lightwreather]

17 hours ago, Tog Driver said:

Anyone have hot drink suggestions that don’t have a lot of caffeine or sugar? Hot chocolate is a lot of sugar and coffee is too much caffeine to drink more than a couple cups. (I should try decaf though)

Hot water fits the bill.

[Bombastinator]

19 minutes ago, Beerzerker said:

I'm not doubting you from a medicinal/scientific point here, you're probrably right.
However what's called 200 proof is what's in the jar once it's distilled and runs out the top.

From a lab-qualified purity standpoint what we have isn't 200 proof - From an enviromentally stable point (As pure as it's gonna be outside a controlled/lab enviroment) it is.

The flame test is what's used to check purity and if it's safe to drink.
Invisible flame or with a hint of blue is fine, that means you have next to, if not any impurities in any amount to worry about in it.
It's when you can really start seeing the flame well is when you probrably don't drink it becuase the presense of an easily seen color as it burns indicates impurities are present.
In this case we'd probrably pass on it because the purer it is, the less colors you will see as it burns and being able to see the flame easily means it's got some impurities, not to mention it's gonna taste like shit anyway because of it. 

And if you see any, and I mean ANY hints of other colors such as red or orange, DO NOT DRINK!!!

That spells poisonous enough to make you really sick or worse - Sometimes referred to as rotgut for obvious reasons.
 

Ethanol and methanol both burn and both will intoxicate you.  The methanol is the bad stuff behind the stories about bathtub gin though.  The flame test is the color of the flame iirc.  It will be different for ethanol and methanol.  Methanol has a slightly lower boiling point so it comes out of a still first then it gradually changes to ethanol, then to water.  All are clear liquids though so there’s no indicator that way. The trick is to remove the methanol leaving only ethanol.  That’s what triple distilling is about. You distill the mash, then you distill the output, then you distill that output. Each time throwing off the very first stuff to come out of the still because it’s methanol.  The question is when the methanol stops and the ethanol starts.  That will be well above 140 proof.  Alcohol saturated with water. I want to say 183 maybe? I don’t remember.

[Guest]

9 hours ago, Beerzerker said:

The rule I have is 80 proof or more - Always.
I grew up around beer and beer drinkers but the fact it tends to "Suds up" on me is something I don't like.
I'm not really into straight liquor either, prefer it to be mixed instead and I do have a few recipes for concoctions I've made before, these being suitable for making anything from sipping on to getting totaled/trashed at the party.

You have to pour beer at an angle. 

 

Or be a Savage and drink out of the bottle or can. 

 

I don't drink too much "hard" stuff. I usually like expensive hard liquor because I drink it room temperature out of a scotch glass. 

[Bombastinator]

8 hours ago, Arika S said:

Drink recommendations?

 

here is "my" drink:

  Reveal hidden contents

Water

 

I drink a lot of water too.  I don’t get thirsty in the usual way anymore and can dehydrate myself by accident.  I went into the doctor because I was having dizzy spells so she took my blood pressure sitting and standing and then put a 2liter IV in me.  I didn’t pee.  So I keep a couple 2quart jugs of water in the fridge and I make it a point to empty one a day.  Tea is nice though.  Electric kettles are the way to go for heating water.  They’re faster and more efficient than a microwave.  

[Bombastinator]

On 11/19/2022 at 12:07 PM, Caroline said:

I tried cider once but it was clear, it tasted like bitter diluted juice, plain awful.

 

If I put a bottle out my window it'd boil in the scorching sun. So I'm not doing it.

 

Sounds like you have a still.

 

Moonshine In The Forum.

Lol.  Yeah. It needs freezing cold.  Jacking is a really old distillation process. The alcohol doesn’t freeze so it gets driven to the center.  One way to do it is to put the stuff in a trough and let it freeze then throw off the top sheet again and again.  I understand the final result of that isn’t quite brandy, but close. 
 

As for cider it’s an issue.  Angry orchard is one of the worst offenders that way.  Strongbow isn’t as bad, but it’s close.  The problem is they’ve been breeding apples for high shugar content for a couple hundred years and there’s so much of it now that the yeast shit themselves to death (kind of like humans) before they eat all the sugar.  There is a brand made from Harlson apples. Crispin, I think or something like that, which have a high acid content and are only so-so for eating apples.  They were the first cold-weather apple (from the U of Minnesota USDA program in the 60’s researcher’s last name was harlson) and aren’t as sweet as some modern ones. That stuff isn’t bad.  Get the same problem with mead.  There is the dry stuff and the “honey soup” variety.  You want a really really dry cider.  The guy behind the counter at your local liquor store should be able to hook you up.  I was looking up crispin. (This one got under my cap for whatever reason) my data on that one is old. It’s now made in California and owned by coors. I did wonder why it seemed to disappear from local bars.  Now I know.

Edited November 21, 2022 by Bombastinator

[Beerzerker]

10 hours ago, Caroline said:

Sounds like you have a still.

 

Moonshine In The Forum.

I knew a few that did, including one of the old bootleggers from back in the good 'ol days of running shine. 

I can't say who did what (Because I wasn't there to see it in person - Before my time) but I do know the local sheriff where he was would tell him when to go with it and when to hold up. 
 

[Crunchy Dragon]

8 minutes ago, Beerzerker said:

I knew a few that did, including one of the old bootleggers from back in the good 'ol days of running shine. 

I can't say who did what (Because I wasn't there to see it in person - Before my time) but I do know the local sheriff where he was would tell him when to go with it and when to hold up.

I also know people with ties to moonshine.

 

It's fun to just hear it mentioned casually.

[Bombastinator]

59 minutes ago, Beerzerker said:

I knew a few that did, including one of the old bootleggers from back in the good 'ol days of running shine. 

I can't say who did what (Because I wasn't there to see it in person - Before my time) but I do know the local sheriff where he was would tell him when to go with it and when to hold up. 
 

Iirc it’s legal in a few places to have a small still for personal use.  It’s legal most places with a license.  There are a few places where it just isn’t, like Qatar iirc

[Lightwreather]

3 hours ago, Bombastinator said:

 There are a few places where it just isn’t, like Qatar iirc

Or any Middle Eastern Arab country that isn't Bahrain. Source: I lived in that region.

[Bombastinator]

On 11/18/2022 at 5:24 PM, IkeaGnome said:

I thought it was Washington only growing up, but it's also up here in Alaska. It's a far PNW mostly thing though. I'd be surprised if it's out east much at all.

Might well be. Mt. Rainier is in Washington after all. 

[Tog Driver]

On 11/18/2022 at 12:17 PM, TVwazhere said:

Sounds like you just described Green Tea

Tea is of course the obvious answer, I was hoping someone had something I wouldn't think of.

On 11/18/2022 at 12:52 PM, wONKEyeYEs said:

Chamomile tea

Doesn't chamomile make one tired?

On 11/18/2022 at 12:56 PM, Bombastinator said:

I like hibiscus myself. It’s the red in red zinger.  Has a lot of vitamin C.  Makes it a touch sour.  Sour can be a good substitute for sweet.

 

i get my hibiscus off eBay as a food item.  It’s used in Jamaican cooking. You can get a kilogram for a few dollars that way.

kilogram of tea sounds like something I wouldn't want to explain to the law.

On 11/18/2022 at 1:02 PM, Caroline said:

Rooibos (red) tea.

 

On 11/18/2022 at 1:34 PM, Crunchy Dragon said:

Water

Sounds revolutionary.

On 11/18/2022 at 3:40 PM, fpo said:

 

In China hot/warm water is as popular as soda in America, tea in England, so on.

I would've thought coffee would be the American beverage.

On 11/19/2022 at 3:11 AM, Arika S said:

Drink recommendations?

 

here is "my" drink:

  Reveal hidden contents

Water

 

Daring today, aren't we?

On 11/19/2022 at 5:22 AM, Lightwreather JfromN said:

Hot water fits the bill.

Doesn't sound like it'd taste amazing, but worth a try.