What are the exact risks of drinking alcohol in a too high concentration?

Here are some hard alcohol risks.

  Hard Alcohol Risks:

  Hard alcohol consumption is contraindicated in certain segments of the population because of the latter’s higher susceptibility to the effects of the beverage. For instance, individuals who have difficulty sleeping, or suffer from depression or other mental disorders, are advised against intake as the psychoactive mechanism of the drink can further worsen said conditions. Consumption is also strongly advised against in pregnant women as it can lead to severe gross motor development, fetal alcohol syndrome, and sudden infant death syndrome, to name a few, in children who got exposed to hard alcohol in the womb. Persons who have to deal with chronic gastrointestinal disorders like irritable bowel syndrome have to steer clear as intake can severely aggravate the conditions as well.

  This beverage has a substantial concentration of ethanol per volume as well. Excess ethanol consumption inflicts sever damage to the liver and can bring about scarring or cirrhosis, inflammation or alcoholic hepatitis, and even cancer of said organ. This type of alcohol is associated with other cancers such as those afflicting the mouth and pharynx, the bowels, the breasts, the prostate, and the stomach.

  Hard alcohol has a powerful diuretic effect as well. Because this is the case, individuals who have diarrhea, renal problems, or other medical conditions that are prone to severe dehydration must avoid consumption of this drink as well. Such fluid-draining effect of hard alcohol can instigate premature wrinkling of the skin due to dehydration, and may increase the frequency and severity of dermatological allergies like psoriasis and eczema. - Secrets of the Superhuman Food Pyramid: Negative Effects of Hard Alcohol

These are just the tip of the iceberg, for drinking those extremely high levels of alcohol could lead to alcohol poisoning very fast and thus cause unconsciousness or even worse, death.

  Alcohol overdosing is nothing unusual. It’s hard to come across anything beyond 40 percent at bars (unless on demand) because the higher the ABV (alcohol by volume), the higher are your chances of you getting knocked out. But still, there exists a dark land of spirits where ABV can go up to a suicidal 96 percent.

  Spirytus Rektyfikowany (96% Alcohol)

  The purity of rectified spirit has a practical limit of 95.6% ABV; this hard to pronounce Polish Vodka is a murderous 96% ABV. In short, abusing this drink can literally make you meet God! Spirytus is actually more potent than the widely-known Everclear and sits atop as the world’s strongest alcoholic beverage. -  10 Alcoholic Drinks So Strong They Can Knock Out The Manliest Of You


It's simply grade inflation. I have won a few Double Golds at the Seattle Wine Awards. Contests were giving out too many Golds and they came up with Double Golds. Here is how it normally works. Judges sit around a table and taste together. Then they discuss and award medals as a group. If the majority thinks it's worth a gold, they give it a gold. If the whole table says it's a gold, then they give it a double gold.

There are Platinum awards too. Another group of judges (not from the same contest) taste all the Double Golds from a region or something from other contests and give Platinums. It's all a subjective thing based on the contest. There is no coordination among contests on what a double gold means.

Seattle Wine Awards

Platinum Awards Northwest Wines


Well, I never tried such an heresy, but theoretically you will end up with some kind of syrup (or broth, I really don't know the most appropriate word in english for it), thick, and more or less sweet depending on the beer you use. Some beers have more residual sugars than other ones.

Alcohol will be the first to evaporate, then water, which is basically the majority of beers composition, in volume, leaving behind sugars and proteins, basically. Those last compounds can be modified or merged, as well, I can't say. Then, depending on the beer's malt bill (pale, crystal, caramelized, roasted, smoked, etc), you might get different flavors related to it. I don't know what would happen to hop compounds when boiled for a long time, but you'll probably still get some bitterness from them.

You know what, you question got me curious about how it would taste at the end. =P


Why do some brewing companies only export certain beers outside of their primary location?

I'd say it comes down to three things.

Distribution Rights

Breweries in most states are restricted by the three-tier system which divides the brewing industry into three categories:

Producers
Distributors
Retailers.

A few states allow the producer to engage in self-distribution (usually to a limited degree) but most require that a brewery get distribution rights with a third party, which will hold full, exclusive, and unlimited rights to shipping that producer's beer. ProBrewer.com has some excellent reading on the subject.

  The rules and regulations pertaining to the distribution and advertising of beer products are highly regulated and are enacted and enforced at the state level. Therefore, each state has its own set of laws in which the brewer is responsible for knowing and abiding by. It is incumbent on you, the brewer, to know the specific regulations of each state in which you sell.

It boils down to what the distributor wants to do and state-by-state requirements for what can be sold there. Ohio has a cap on alcohol by volume of 12%. Any beer over 4% ABV in Oklahoma must be sold only at liquor stores at room temperature. It varies so much that some brewers don't want to go into those markets.

Demand

There's also the simple issue of supply and demand. In 2013, Founders Brewing delayed entering the Florida market for a few months while they brought on more 600BBL fermenters because of some slight under-reporting of potential market numbers. There's nothing worse than not being able to supply your customers with beer. (Ahem, Cigar City's Great Jai-Alai Shortage of 2013).

Expense

Bottling/canning beer is expensive. There's also only a certain amount of time available to package. This is why there will usually be only a certain number and type of beer that gets packaged in these containers until a brewery grows to a certain size that allows better economies of scale. Once there, it's easier to start releasing seasonals, one-offs, and more nuanced beer styles compared to just cranking out a wheat ale or amber ale.


It is generally preferred to store wine on it's side, but I think the climate the wine is stored is even more important. Generally, a wine like a vintage port, will spend only a short part of it's lifetime on a shelf in a store. I really doubt that even a year or two will dry out the cork unless the humidity levels are very low. One way to check if the ullage level is low. Ideally, any wine that you want to age should be kept on it's side, in a dark, cool location. Moving the wine upright and back once a years is not ideal. Will it hurt the Port? I really doubt it. Port is pretty sturdy stuff since it's fortified. I wouldn't worry too much about it. The age is also a factor. If it's 10 years old, that's nothing for a port. If it's 50 years old, then I start to worry about it...


He was an English author who was a noted expert on beer and whiskey, and he wrote a number of books on beer, probably most famously The World Guide to Beer.


Is there a legitimate ~$500 vodka out there whose price isn't based on the bottle?

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 is the difference between Trappist beer and Abbey Beer?

Trappist beer is a designation of the origin of the beer, rather than a designation for the style.  That is, it must come from one of the ten Trappist monasteries recognised by the International Trappist Association.  There are similarities between the styles produced by these monasteries, but if one decided to make something in a completely different style it could presumably still be called a Trappist beer.

In contrast, the term abbey beer is used to refer to any beers produced in the style of the Trappist monasteries.  It isn't necessarily produced by a monastery, and some beers produced by major breweries could be described as abbey beer.

It is kind of like the difference between "Champagne" and "sparkling white wine".


Why is drinking beer after wine a bad idea?

Beer contains a lot of CO2, and CO2 causes the alcohol to 'hit to the head' much faster. This is why champagne has such exhilaration (Rausch) effect.

It's not a good idea to drink any high-CO2 drink after drinking wine or stronger alcohols, and even more discouraged is mixing carbonated water with vodka, for example. Many people have heavily regret such mixing.

As well, it is said you should never drink lighter alcohols after stronger. You can start with beer, than after an hour/2 drink some wine, rest and drink vodka. Never opposite. But the best is to keep one genre of alcohol on one evening. At least so are saying people in Poland.


A few fairly popular (and very different) beer cocktails are:

The Boilermaker or Depth Charge
The original English version was a mix of draught and brown, but it's more recently been popularised in Australia and the USA as a pint of beer with a shot of spirit (usually whisk[e]y) in it. If the shot is poured in, it's a Boilermaker. If the entire shot glass is dropped into the pint glass, it's a Depth Charge. Take care as this can make you very drunk more quickly than you expect (some may consider this a feature, but I'm trying to post responsible advice here).
Useful when: you want to make your beer (or your spirits) more interesting.
The Black Velvet
Equal parts stout and champagne served inna champagne flute. The stout is floated on top for a striking visual effect.
Useful when: you want to add some class to your beering.
The Michelada
Lager spiced up with lime juice, salt and hot sauce. There are many variations, some including things like clam juice, tomato juice, worcestershire sauce or chilli flakes. It's kind of like a Bloody Mary in beer form.
Useful when: you want to treat a hangover.
The Shandy
Equal parts beer and a softer drink, usually lemonade.
Useful when: you don't really like beer or lemonade but there's not much else on offer.


How to open a bottle of wine without a corkscrew?

-**1.** Use a Screw (the longer the better), a screwdriver, and a hammer. Wrap a small towel around top of bottle and screw. Pry slowly and cautiously the screw out with claw hammer, just like pulling a nail.
-**2.** Push the cork in with the handle of a wooden spoon, or any blunt object similar in size.
-**3.** Pump it out. Start with a bike pump and place the pump needle between the cork and the rim of the wine bottle. Pump it three or four times, but be careful because if you pump too much the bottle could explode. After a couple of pumps it cork will jump out or you can pull it out.
-**4.** Twist it out with keys or a serrated knife.
-**5.**  Wrap the bottle with a towel and use the wall to smack it out.
-**6.** Slap it out with a shoe, with wine bottle facing horizontal or between your legs facing down to start.
-**7.** Take a hanger and form it in the shape of a hook with a pair of pliers. Place the new hook on the edge of the cork with the u shape facing up. Wiggle the hook back and forth until it’s about 2 inches down. Rotate the hook so it grabs the bottom of the cork and then begin pulling once it catches the hook.
-**8.** Make a small cut on either side of the cork and find a pair of clean, curved nail scissors or a pair of pliers. Put the nail scissors or pliers into the place the cork was cut and lift.
-**9.** Insert a key, preferably one you have extra copies of, at a 45 degree angle into the cork until most of it is inserted into the cork. Then begin twisting the cork up as pushing up with the key until you get the cork out. Be careful because a weak key has a possibility of breaking.
-**10.** Insert a screw hook into the cork and once sufficiently screwed in, pull. Next time you won’t have to spend so much time searching for a wine opener.
-**11.** Use a string. Tie a figure eight knot and slip it past the cork by wedging it down with a screwdriver or scissors. Once the knot is below the cork, tilt the bottle and then pull the string.


I don't think there's a site dedicated to that purpose specifically. However, Untapped and Beermenus are probably your best bets. I've never used Untapped as I do not have a smartphone and I think they've just recently added desktop/laptop support, but I have used Beermenus. It's ok, not great though. Again, it's really up to the brewery/bar to update their menu and sometimes they just forget; they're human too, despite being able to brew some godly beers.

But in general, this question is a bit too broad. in my opinion. You don't specify whether or not you're talking about local beers or just beers in general. There's a few thousand breweries worldwide; many of them coming out with new releases regularly. Keeping tabs on all of them would be somewhat of a challenge (especially the ones who don't update their sites regularly (ahem...if my local friends across the bay are on here, I'm looking at you). So in terms of local beers, Untapped and Beermenus should do what you're looking for. But At this point in time, I think a global list is infeasible until somebody develops an easy-to-use API which gets some traction in the industry.


Can a brewery in California fill any growler?

They can, provided that they:

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

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

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

SFGate has a decent article for further reading.


The style of whiskies produced in England?

Generally, they make something that doesn't resemble Scotch Whisky. There are many styles and types of whisky, or whiskey with an 'e', and it's made all around the world. There are distinct and famous styles from Ireland, Japan, and the United States. Sullivan's Cove from Australia, Mackmyra from Sweden, and Kavalan from Taiwan have all made award winning whiskys. There are at least 4 whisky distilleries in Toronto, Canada alone.
Not every whisky made in Scotland can even technically be called a Scotch, there are regulations that Scotch follows and some distillers will step outside of those bounds for creative reasons. Scotch regions are also individually recognized for their unique styles.
Often in areas where there is no strong history of whisky, each distillery will kind of do their own thing because the drinkers of the region don't have strong expectations of what the whiskey should be. This is especially true in today's global economy, consumers have tasted bottles from all over the world so there is no accepted standard in new markets. The distillers will borrow ideas from regions that do have a strong tradition, mostly they just try to make something that tastes good. So even though Japanese whisky, for example, was borne essentially directly from Scotch in the 60's, there are strong differences between them. Some of this is because whisky highballs are super popular in Japan, and whiskys will be blended with this in mind. Some of this is for technical reasons, different altitudes make for different distillation temperatures.
In conclusion, they different... probably.


Why have craft beers increased in alcohol content?
From my point of view there seems to be at least three reasons for this trend.

Beer drinkers are drawn to the bolder flavors and the mouth feel of stronger beers.
The higher alcohol content gives such beers a longer shelf life.
Stronger beers do not have to be served at cooler temperatures as lighter beers, some can be served somewhat warm.
Part of craft beer's popularity is in its variety, including high ABV beers.

What is driving the popularity of high alcohol beers, and will it last?
With the surge in popularity of craft beers, the alcohol content in a good many of them has also risen. While most large breweries turn out beer with an ABV (alcohol by volume) around 4 to 5 percent, some craft beers boast ABV counts of up to 29 percent, with the average being 5.9 percent.
The American IPA trend among craft brewers exploits this proclivity toward higher alcohol content, with most being between 6 and 10 percent. Double and triple IPAs are even higher. Most craft brewers now have at least one higher ABV variety, and much of it has been driven by consumer demand.
Why do consumers like higher alcohol beers?
Much of the appeal has to do with taste. Higher ABV beers tend to have a richer, more complex taste that can sometimes be on the bitter side. Fans are drawn to the bolder flavors and the mouth feel of these stronger beers, some of which may be barrel-aged like stronger spirits. Instead of having three or four beers, they may share one with a friend to compensate for its strength.
The popularity of higher ABV beers persists in spite of their steeper price tag. A decanter bottle of Sam Adams Utopia, with an ABV of 29 percent, can cost as much as $200. Another factor in popularity with both brewers and drinkers is that the higher alcohol content gives it a longer shelf life. Either way, consumers tend to identify beers with higher ABV as being higher quality.


Where is it possible to legally obtain powdered alcohol in the USA and Canada?

As Steve S. says, the "Palcohol" product does not seem to be on the market at the moment, and their FAQ states "When will it be available? As soon as we can. We're working on it. No samples will be released ahead of time."... but in the meantime, you could always buy some cyclodextrin powder (easily sourceable from Amazon US), put your favorite azeotropic firewater into a spray bottle and spray it on, if you were so inclined. Here is a 1974 patent describing a process that gets to ~60% ethanol by weight of end product; in the same ballpark as the "Palcohol" packet mentions.

Thunderf00t has suggested using feminine pads instead as a better all-round idea.


Is it possible to make a mock Chartreuse liqueur?

I recently made a chartreuse clone by diluting everclear to 110 proof.  Then add 3 tbsp juniper berries, 2 tsp herbs de Provence, tsp fennel seeds, 4 peppercorns, tsp coriander seeds’ 1 bay leaf, and 3 mint leaves.  Let stand for a week a filter. Add 1 cup sugar. The recipe is for a fifth.


What beers or other drinks did Native Indians brew in the Americas prior to the arrival of Europeans in 1492?

From 'Indians of North America' by Harold Driver.

The distribution of alcoholic beverages falls almost wholly within the bounds of horticulture. However, there was a sizeable area in Northeast Mexico which was without agriculture and where wine was made from wild plants. For the world as a whole, there is a definite correlation between alcoholic beverages and agriculture, although negative instances can also be found in the Old World. The explanation is a simple one--the liquors were made principally from domesticated plants. It is commonly assumed either that knowledge of the fermenting of these plants spread with the plants or that the making of the liquor from the plant could spread only as far as the plant was known.
e.g. Agave and Dasylirion -- Two distinct plants were widely used in the Southwest, Meso-America, and Northeast Mexico for the production of alcoholic beverages. They were even more widely used as food. It has been conjectured that before the time when agriculture was common, say, in the second or third millennium BC these plants were a staple food or even the staple food of a large part of the region. In the Southwest, the wine was usually made from the cooked juice of the agave, not from the fresh juice as in Meso-America.

So from this I'm going to infer that technologically most native tribes who knew of fermentation would have been restricted to that form of alcohol production, and so wine would be the only form of alcohol available pre-European contact. It's also safe to say that wine production only occurred within cultures that had ferment-able produce available to them.


X's and K's actually derive from turn of the last century British brewing practices where the letters and how often they were repeated denoted the basic style and relative strength of the beer.  See more here.

The more in depth answer is that back then malting and kilning practices weren't as good so you generally just ended up with "Malt", which was kindof brownish but varied wildly.  So you just sort of made "Beer" out of it.  X Ales were table beer, made to be consumed relatively fresh, and K Ales were keeping beer made to be kept.  Hopping rates likely differed as well as starting strength.

I think at some point later X came to denote "mild" ale, which referred to a lower hopping rate and K/AK/etc came to refer to "bitter", but the blogger I linked to above knows more about that progression than I ever will so I may be totally wrong.


Do they sell powdered alcohol as a premix drink?
The short answer is yes, but it is not being sold at present. Latter half of my answer shows how to make your own palcohol at home. It is so easy, so why pay for the extras!
First of all, palcohol was created by a gentleman by the name of Mark Phillips.
The US federal government approved Palcohol on March 10, 2015 and it is now legal to be sold in the United States. However it will not be for sale immediately but possibly in late 2021 at the earliest. I doubt it will ever make it to market, but that is me.
Palcohol, when used as directed, by adding six ounces of liquid to it, is equal to a standard mixed drink.

What flavors are there? We plan on releasing five versions sold in a pouch that is the equivalent to one shot of alcohol:

V which is powder made from premium vodka distilled four times.

R which is powder made from premium Puerto Rican rum

V and R can be used two ways. One way is by adding six ounces of your favorite mixer to make a Rum and Coke, Vodka and Orange Juice, etc. Another option is adding six ounces of water to the powder and then adding a flavored drink powder to make it any flavor you want. The result is equivalent to one average mixed drink.
The three cocktail versions are:

Cosmopolitan

Powderita - tastes just like a Margarita

Lemon Drop

Just add water to these three flavors for an instant cocktail. - Palcohol is Powered Alcohol

Mark Philips from Scottsdale, AZ. explains what palcohol is in his YouTube video: The Truth About Palcohol
Addendum:
You can always make your own. It is so simple you do not need to wait any longer!
On Popular Science's website, Paul Adams wrote that he didn’t know how Palcohol did it but he explained how he could make powdered alcohol at home using a specially modified starch - a maltodextrin made from tapioca and sold under the brand name N-Zorbit M.

In the right ratio, N-Zorbit M powder can fully soak up the alcohol and still remain powdery.
For an example, Adams suggested drizzling 30 grams of high-proof (150- to 190-proof) alcohol into a mixing bowl containing 100 grams of N-Zorbit M while whisking steadily. You can then either sift it though a fine sieve or just use a blender to begin with.
Done properly, he says, you end up with strong soluble alcohol.
No need to limit yourself to rum or vodka. Any strong alcoholic liquor will do, including whiskey, tequila, gin and absinthe.
Ps. If you do make it yourself in any large quantities make sure to keep it in individual airtight freezer bags and depending on when you intend to use them store them in your fridge or deep-freezer.


There are several beers with honey, some of them are quite famous.

For example the ones I know are from Belgium and France:

"Barbãr" and "Barbãr Bok" from the Levebvre brewery
"Bière des ours" from the brewery "La Binchoise"
"Bière de miel biologique" from the Dupont brewery
"Véliocasse" from the brewery "La bière du Vexin"

The easiest to find are probably the ones from the Levebvre brewery.

I don't know any beer with cinnamon but I'm quite sure that it exists.


Is there a difference between the inebriation caused by liquor/wine/beer?

The effect of ethanol will always be the same. For that matter, two bottles of 5% beer equal one bottle of 10% wine.

Depending on its fermentation, it would contain different and different amounts of more complex fermentation products. Usually, a fermentation process that is very short (and thereby cheaper) would result in something that could easily cause a hangover. Wild yeast strains also tend to produce a larger variety of undesired substances. Modern distilleries have these removed during distillation allowing for faster fermentation.

In beers and wines, undesired by-products cannot be removed. Modern breweries and vineyards deal with that by using cultivated yeast strains and/or controlling the fermentation environment, resulting in products that don't give you headache.

The amount of hops in standard beers is negligible. Even if there were enough hops in beer to have any effect, hops may not have sleep-inducing effects after all. Apparently, research indicating such effects was conducted in combination with valerian.

The reason for adding hops to beer was its inhibiting effect on gram-negative bacteria. Nowadays, it's mostly added for its 'typical' beer flavour.


Actually, the label doesn't say it's Straight Bourbon Whisky. It says it's Straight Bourbon Whisky finished with french oak. So, it was Straight Bourbon before it was finished.

Jim Beam probably didn't use Straight Bourbon in earlier releases, or made sure they can legally put "Straight" on the label in the meantime.


What is a "sour malt" beer? Are there any commercially available sour malt beers?

Sour malt (aka. acidulated malt, saurmalt) is a base malt that has been processed so that it contains lactic acid.

The acid is useful in adjusting the pH of the mash during brewing. Typically brewers use a 1-10% with 2-5% being typical.

The malt's existence is due to the Reinheitsgebot - the German Beer Purity law. This forbids the use of any ingredients other than malt, hops, water and yeast - making the use of other additives to adjust mash pH illegal. Hence, saurmalt was developed as a way to allow brewers to adjust the mash pH while staying within the restrictions of the purity law.

Nowadays, using a sour mash goes way further than just correcting pH. It's used to define the sourness in some beers, such as Berliner Weisse, Lambics, Flemish Reds and Browns and Stouts.

So, while you can't buy a beer made only with sour malt, there are plenty that have used it, or an equivalent souring technique to produce the sour notes in the beer.


Lemon Juice Producing Colloid in Everclear

The good news is that you can find an answer here, the bad news it is not in English.

Briefly, it doesn't say how to remove opacity now that you have it, but it gives explanation on not having it in your next try (basically, opacity depends on microemulsions in 190 proof everclear: if you use everclear mixed with water and sugar, and it is lightly heated, opacity will not appear).


Why don't bars keep their bottles in the fridge to avoid using ice?

I can only speak for whiskies as I use to sell and give out samples of that stuff.

There are a couple of things to understand first about whiskies.

During the aging process of the whisky, the whisky is placed in a barrel to add flavour to it.
If the alcohol percent is below 40%, the whisky has a hard time retaining the flavour of the barrel. This is not impossible but it is easier if it is 40% or higher.

The reason why there is on the rocks vs neat is due to this 40% alcohol threshold.

If you add ice, it will dilute the whisky below 40% alcohol content which will allow the flavours to "pop out" more. This is really good for new whisky drinkers trying to understand "how to taste" whiskies.

So for whiskies, it is not so much about cooling the drink but rather allowing the flavours of the barrel to be more prominent to the drinker. For veteran whisky drinkers, they may not need the ice and prefer it at room temperature and thus, they would not want it cold.


First, I would check to see if it's still drinkable. You might have a carboy of apple cider vinegar if you haven't put any sulfites into it or somehow prevented from oxidation. The way to test it is to get a siphon (that you have sanitized) and suck out a little to taste. If it tastes ok, then you need to prepare for bottling.

I would follow these directions except when it says to prime with 1/2 cup of corn sugar, I would put in a little yeast (maybe a tablespoon?) and mix with some water before you bottle. Make sure the yeast has dissolved. I'm sure the yeast in your carboy is dead at this point.


The primary effect a spitoon would have, is less alcohol recpetion (some alcohol will get into the blood via the mouth-mucus). The alcohol could lead to different results for the later wines.

You might get a more intense taste of the wine if you could take more of it into your mouth and "wash" with it. Even more if you take a sip, wash, gulp/spit, take another sip and taste.

Maybe you want to try it, when you drink a glass of wine next time and then decide if the bigger sips / double sipping makes a difference to you.

If it does but you dislike the idea of a spitoon, try reducing the number of wines per evening, so the increasing intoxication is not a problem.

I really like your version of private tastings and might adopt some ideas from it. Have fun!


Legally, a Scotch Whisky is a distilled spirit made in Scotland from cereals, water and yeast and has been matured for a period of not less than three years (The Scotch Whisky Regulations 2009).

An Irish Whiskey is distilled in Ireland and aged for a minimum of three years in oak barrels.

Thus an Irish distillery can not produce a Scottish whisky!

However our question does not end here because the Scotch Whisky Regulations 2009 define five categories of Scotch Whisky:

  •Single Malt Scotch Whisky: A Scotch Whisky distilled at a single distillery using only malted barley.

  •Single Grain Scotch Whisky: A Scotch Whisky distilled at a single distillery.

  •Blended Scotch Whisky: A blend of one or more Single Malt Scotch Whiskies with one or more Single Grain Scotch Whiskies.

  •Blended Malt Scotch Whisky: A blend of Single Malt Scotch Whiskies which have been distilled at more than one distillery.

  •Blended Grain Scotch Whisky: A blend of Single Grain Scotch Whiskies which have been distilled at more than one distillery.

But some Scotch Whiskies have a smoky flavor which originates from the peat fire over which the green malt is dried, prior to grinding and mashing.

Hold on for one moment, "in Ireland, whiskeys distilled at Cooley are only distilled twice, and they make smoky whiskeys there too (Connemara)."

Thus the question as what the differences are between an Irish Whiskey and a Scotch whisky, other than how one spells whiskey remains a question of geography!


This answer was originally an answer to Optimal mulling temperature?, but adapting it to this question seemed better, as the former asked a more specific question I couldn't address.

  Most well known of all the mulled beers was Wassail. Recipes for this holiday favorite vary, but all were based upon the same basic formula. Sugar was placed in the bottom of a bowl, one pint of warm beer was then poured in along with nutmeg, ginger and cinnamon.

Smith, G. "Mulled beer." [URL]

One mulls beer by simmering beer in a pan, nearly always with the following ingredients:

ginger
nutmeg
cinnamon
cloves
honey, agave nectar, or sugar

but also sometimes adding

egg yolk
cardamon
star anise
coriander
black pepper
allspice berries

and occasionally garnishing the drink with orange rinds. The mixture should be brought to a simmer but not a boil, and heated for 5 to 10 minutes depending on the recipe.

Some even refer to warmed beer as "mulled" beer, i.e. beer heated it in its bottle in a pot (or slowcooker) filled with water. For this case, there is not a consensus on the heating temperature, as it appears to vary according to the beer:

  Mulled beer needs to be heated slowly. A slow-cooker half-filled with water works well. Just open the bottle and stand it in the uncovered appliance. I also have used a large pot on the stove, with the burner on low. Don't let the water to get anywhere close to boiling -- 130 to 140 degrees is ideal. It's also important to keep the water level constant, so replace the water as it evaporates.

Brooks, J. R. "Brooks on Beer: Hot, Mulled Beer?" 2011. [URL]

  Before serving, you warm the opened bottle [of Brasserie des Franches-Montagnes' La Dragonne] in a pot of hot water to raise the ale's temperature to about 110 degrees.

Russell, D. "Cold day, cold beer? Give warm beer a try." 2010. [URL]

  [Unibroue "Quelque Chose"] should be served like a mulled wine at 122 to 158 degrees Fahrenheit.

"Unibroue Quelque Chose Beer." [URL]


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

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

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


What's the difference between an "export" beer and a regular beer from the same brewer?

It doesn't actually mean anything; or at least, it almost never means the same thing twice, and doesn't refer to any specific common style or process. It's about as meaningful as the fact that several dozen breweries have a beer they label as "Select".

For example, in the case of Molson Export, the story goes that it was deemed so high quality that it was "good enough to send overseas" - and, implicitly, better than competing imported brands.

One common usage is for a line with slightly higher ABV (it keeps better in shipment!) or tailored to suit the ABC laws of other jurisdictions to which it might be shipped. But there isn't any single meaning that's widely understood.


Generally speaking, your mead is fine if you haven't opened it.  Normally, commercial meaderies bottle in dark bottles (or something other than clear) which keep out the UV light.  I doubt that the temperature was much of an issue.  You should be able to chill your mead and enjoy it.  FWIW, I'd drink it out of a wine glass made for white wine rather than the skull of an enemy.  You'll be able to pick up on the subtleties of the mead this way, while the other might be more enjoyable.


Do Bartenders ever make their own inventive drinks for the Christmas holidays in bars?

Do bartenders try to do this?  Yes.

Do they advertise it as such?  Yes.

Is it truly original - as in nobody, anywhere, anytime, has ever made that drink before?  Maybe.

I used to run a bar, and my bartenders would experiment with these things for various holidays and special events.  Customers want to feel special - they know you're not making the alcoholic equivalent of the Mona Lisa, but having a special drink at your local bar is fun and appealing to them.

Once you get beyond the standard cocktails, bartenders (and bars) try to distinguish themselves with variations and twists (pun intended) to stand out in the marketplace.

For example:

Combine 1 part each of cinnamon-flavored (some rum) and mint-flavored (some vodka) with 2 parts of (some cream liqueur), shake well with ice, serve it in a martini glass that's been rimmed with (some flavored sugar), stick a candy-cane in it, and dust with (some spice).  Call it an "Old Saint Nick" or a "Naughty Rudolph".

Is the Old Saint Nick in XYZ Bar in Birmingham, Alabama, USA the same as the Old Saint Nick in ABC Pub in Birmingham, England?  Probably not.  Does anyone care?  No.


Which is the most expensive beer as of now?

as mentioned above but with more details: the most expensive beer is a 12 liter bottle of Vieille Bon Secours which was stocked in a London restaurant for over 10 years. So it's the age and uniqueness of this one bottle that make it worth around 700£ / 832€.


Why and when did the interest for micro breweries and craft beers arise?

I'm not sure about the German market for craft, but American craft can almost certainly be traced back to Frederick Maytag's purchase of San Francisco's Anchor Brewing in 1965. Since then, 'craft' or 'microbrew' grew slowly through the years.

A lengthy but interesting report called THE MARKET FOR CRAFT AND SPECIALTY BEER, A Market Intelligence Report, March 1997 has an impressive description of why craft in particular was able to keep growing, and why it wasn't labeled a 'fad':

  "There is also a floor under the craft/specialty segment. This is not
  a fad segment like packaged draft, dry, ice, clear, or perhaps even
  red. While growth in the craft segment will slow, it will not peak
  quickly and then lose share, as the fad beers have. The
  craft/specialty segment has firm underpinnings from homebrewers and
  other beer aficionados. Many of the homebrewers prefer to brew their
  own beer (done right, it’s even better than the best of the craft
  brews), but they often sample commercial brews to try unfamiliar or
  difficult-to-brew styles, and of course they’re top prospects for
  drinking craft brews when they are at a restaurant or brewpub."

That explains a lot through the 90's, but why the quicker increase in growth patterns in the last 10 years?

According to the Brewers Association (a US-based trade group):

  "Between 2011 and 2013, 80% of craft growth came from new craft
  appreciators, the majority of which were in the 21 to 29 age group,
  and their impact is still muted. Lester Jones of the National Beer
  Wholesalers Association (NBWA) sees Millennials as not fully
  economically activated yet due to the impact of the economic recession
  and their struggle to transition into aging Baby Boomer jobs. This
  means as the economy improves we should feel the impact of the
  Millennials even more. The message here is the fastest growing and
  most influential demographic is also moving the fastest toward craft."

Pair this with the increased ideals behind "Trade-ups and premiumization", and you have people willing to spend a little more to gain an perceived increase in value and quality.

IBISWorld shares that craft beer has enjoyed a 19% growth in the past 5 years. I don't know about you, but that's incredible considering the economic woes of developed nations.

It appears to boil down to a long, slow pattern of growth that has reached a massive generational shift in consumption which has caused a spike in sales volume, which in turn is pushing every store from New Jersey to Frankfurt to attempt to capitalize on one of the few growth industries.


What should I do when my wine's cork crumbles?

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.


"Green Schlitz" myth: Was the beer green, or the flakes?

"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.


Most effective way to freeze beer bottles

Well you're going to be the genius here, because as it turns out, they're both wrong.

First, we're going to eliminate "novel" options for cooling, like liquid nitrogen and fire extinguishers, and limit ourselves to ways we can cool bottles every day in the freezer.

What we need to maximize here is thermal conductivity.  Since the goal here is homeostasis, we need to move heat out of the bottle and into the surrounding medium as quickly as possible.  And air, as it turns out, is a pretty lousy conductor.  So that makes your first friend most wrong.  Keeping the bottle dry will cool it eventually, but quite slowly.   However, ice isn't that much better.  Because there's a lot of air still touching the bottle when it's in ice.  It'll cool it better, but it's certainly still not the best option.

The best option, it turns out, is an ice water mixture, with a healthy dose of salt to help keep the water liquid, even below 0 degrees Celsius.  Water happens to be an excellent conductor, and with ice to keep it cold and salt to keep it liquid, can draw heat out of bottles faster than any other non-exotic method, by a significant margin.

So, if you want to cool your bottles quickly. and ice-water bath is the ticket.


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.


How do I tell if I poured a stout correctly?

Like most beers, the main thing is the height of the foam on top of the beer.  It's largely a matter of personal preference; the only considerations I'm aware of are:

Bottle-fermented beers should be poured slowly and all in one go to prevent yeast from going into the glass (and, to that end, leave half a finger of beer in the bottle).
Unless it's an unfiltered wheat beer, in which case the yeast is meant to go in the glass.  Also, hefeweizens like this should go for a little larger head than normal (2-2.5 fingers).
Or if it's a nitrogenated beer (Eg, Guinness with a widget), you should simply upend the can or bottle into the glass
Otherwise, most people aim for about 1 finger-width of foam.  As long as you have at least some head and it doesn't overflow the glass, you're pouring fine.


While:

this might not be the type of drink they like
this was a numbered birthday present
this website is in the UK

Nonetheless, it might spark off some ideas: https://www.thewhiskyexchange.com/p/18434/grahams-40-year-old-tawny-port

It was his 40th birthday, so a 40 year old port with a custom engraved bottle. He's a Tolkein fan, so the inscription read: "Such an excellent and admirable hobbit"


Which types of beer are commonly used for half-and-half beers?

In a Half and Half (also known as a "Black and Tan" in certain locations), the primary factor will be the density of the two beers -- one beer must be of a lesser density than the other to stay afloat.  Contrasting colors are used for visual effect; otherwise, how might you know one was floating?

Common recipes involve floating the less dense Guinness over a Bass, or a Guinness over a Harp Lager.  Its Guinness' particular light density that makes it a good candidate for so many half-and-half style recipes.


Red Wine recommendation for the Feast of St John the Apostle!

Ken, as you requested in your response to my comment, I post this as an answer:

Despite not fulfilling the first criteria, I suggest considering St John's Commandaria, a sweet desert wine made in Cyprus from white grapes.

From: A legendary wine

  The Commandaria wine of today still bears the name of this area [Grande Commandaria, Limassol District], for the Knights of St John gave this name to the wine not only because it was produced in the villages that constituted the Order’s fief - the Commanderie - but also because knighthood was then held in high esteem among the Catholic countries of Western Europe and among pilgrims who, on their way to the Holy Land, stopped at Cypriot harbors for provisioning - which of course included the sweet Commandaria wine.

The bottles are generally available for less than 20$ and bear what I believe is called the cross of St John. I have been lucky enough to have been introduced to its long history and the wine itself by a local enthusiast in Cyprus. I've also been impressed by its quality, which I consider outstanding for the price. It also would be an excellent sip after a good lunch or dinner, and as desert wine is typically drunk in smaller quantities than 'normal' red or white wine, the limited supply from a blessed bottle can be shared among more people.


Any fruit juice that will ferment. Apple, grape, orange, peach or whatever sugary concoction you can get your hands on. Raisins are especially good. Prunes. Tomatoes. Fruit Cocktail. Packets of sugar. Maple syrup. Even bread that has been turned into mush will ferment again. The hard part is fermenting it without being caught. Any plastic bucket will do. Ziploc bags. Even the toilet in your cell is good enough. Don't worry about yeast. If you can get a piece of fresh fruit like an apple it will have enough yeast to do the dirty work. Then just like our ancient ancestors, drink it when it's done fermenting. Who cares if it's cloudy or full of chunks, you have one goal and that's to get a buzz...

Friends of mine worked for Aramco in Saudi Arabia. Of course there was not alcohol allowed, but the Americans lived in a separate community and the Saudi police turned a blind eye as long as they didn't catch you drunk in public. People got very creative about brewing up stuff from the grocery store. Apple juice and grape juice were easy to get. Baker's yeast and a large bucket and voila, you had apple cider. Then stick it in the freezer until frozen solid and then drain out the alcohol, then you have something about 30% alcohol. Yum!


How much of an impact does the water have on a beer?

Most of beer is water, so it is vitally important.

Here in Atlanta, we have some of the better tap water compared to many cities, but Monday Night Brewing in particular takes all minerals and chemicals out of the water and adds back in the appropriate properties to match the style of beer that they are trying to brew.

They emulate the water from the origin of the beer style. Just consider that anything but the most pure form of water will impart some taste in your beer good or bad and is worth being aware of.


When, where and why did the tradition of clinking glasses and saying "cheers" or "to your health" first start?

There is the usual great stuff relating to 'Toasting'. From wikipedia - which is normally correct.

I then had a quick look at snopes.com, they proclaim the following to be false:

  Q: Why do people clink their glasses before drinking a toast?
  A: It used to be common for someone to try to kill an enemy by offering him a poisoned drink. To prove to a guest that a drink was safe, it became customary for a guest to pour a small amount of his drink into the glass of the host. Both men would drink it simultaneously. When a guest trusted his host, he would then just touch or clink the host’s glass with his own.

ORIGINS:   Many explanations have been advanced to explain our custom of clinking glasses when participating in toasts. One is that early Europeans felt the sound helped to drive off evil spirits. Another holds that by clanking the glasses into one another, wine could be sloshed from glass to glass, thereby serving as a

Wine glasses

proof the beverages had not been poisoned. Yet another claim asserts that the “clink” served as a
symbolic acknowledgment of trust among imbibers who did not feel the need to sample each others’ drinks to prove them unadulterated.

Each of those explanations is false. While making a racket for the purpose of scaring off evil spirits underpins other customs that carry over to this day (e.g., the tolling of church bells at weddings, and the loud shouts and noisemaking at the stroke of twelve on New Year’s Eve), the “clink” is a relatively new aspect of toasting and, as such, came along well after folks had relinquished the notion that demons both lurked in every corner of typical day-to-day existence and could be sped on their way by a bit of noise. As for sloshing wine from one glass to another, drinking vessels would need to be filled to the brim to effect that, and if they were, such practice would waste valuable potables (because some would be sure to land on the floor) and likely douse the toasters too. And while the poisoning of enemies has long been part of the ordinary mayhem of the world, the practice of touching of one’s filled glass to those of others when participating in a toast is unrelated to suspicion of the wine’s having been tampered with; such killings were not so common at any nebulous point in the past that a signal to one’s host indicating he was clear of suspicion of attempted murder needed to be enshrined in the canon of social gestures.

To get at the real reason for the clink of glass on glass, we have to first look at why and how we toast, and where the practice originated.

The custom of sealing with booze expressions of good wishes for the health of others dates back so far that its origins are now lost to us, yet in numerous cultures

such acts of camaraderie often involved shared drinking vessels. The clinking of individual cups or glasses as a proof of trust wouldn’t have meant much when
everyone drank from the same bowl. Indeed, in those cultures where shared drinking containers was the norm, to produce one’s own vessel in such company was to communicate an unmistakable message of hostility and distrust; it would have been regarded as akin to bringing along a food taster to sample the repast.

“Toasting,” our term for the pronouncement of benedictions followed by a swallowing of alcohol, is believed to have taken its name from a practice involving a shared drinking vessel. Floated in the “loving cup” passed among celebrants in Britain was a piece of (spiced) cooked bread that the host would consume along with the last few drops of liquid after the cup had made one round of the company. In modern times toasting has become a matter of imbibing from individual drinking vessels rather than from one shared flagon, so to compensate for the sense of unity lost in doing away with the sharing of the same cup we have evolved the practice of simultaneously drinking each from our own glass when a toast is made, thereby maintaining a communal connection to the kind words being spoken.

The clinking of glasses has been added to the practice of offering toasts for a few reasons, none having anything to do with poison. Prior to such augmentation, toasts pleased only four of the five senses; by adding the “clink,” a pleasant sound was made part of the experience, and wine glasses have come to be prized not only for their appearance but also for the tones they produce when struck. Yet beyond mere aural pleasure, the act of touching your glass to that of others is a way of emphasizing that you are part of the good wishes being expressed, that you are making a physical connection to the toast. The practice also serves another purpose, that of uniting the individuals taking part in the benediction into a cohesive group: as the wine glasses are brought together, so symbolically are the people holding them. On a deeper level, the wine is also being recommuned with itself — that which had been one (when it had been in its own bottle) but was separated (when it was poured into a variety of glasses) is brought back into contact with the whole of itself, if only for a moment.

Etiquette mavens say one need not clink glasses with everyone present when participating in toasts among large assemblies. Rather than reach across vast expanses of wide tables (thereby risking losing your balance and ending up in the guacamole), simply raise your glass and make eye contact with the group.

MY OWN THOUGHTS ON THE SUBJECT

So, with all this in mind, my own thought is that in times gone by as 'rivals' drank each others health, they would drink from the other person's cup (to avoid poisoning - however all one would have to do would be to poison one's own cup - surely that would have worked?!), as the cups were held to the other person's lips they would inadvertantly 'clink' together.  As time moved on and we attempted not to kill everyone in our paths the clinking just wort of became symbolic.


What are some types of red wine that aren't buttery or sweet-ish?

What are some types of red wine that aren't buttery or sweetish?
My guess is that one could try a red wine like Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Pinot Noir. Generally speaking they are dry and thus not sweet.

Red Wine Sweetness Chart
Some Chardonnays may in fact be buttery, but not all.

What does the term “buttery” mean in reference to wine?
"Buttery" can refer to a flavor, smell, texture or some combination of all three, and it's most commonly associated with Chardonnay. Buttery flavors usually come from diacetyl, an organic compound that’s a natural byproduct of fermentation. Diacetyl can also be a result of putting a wine through a malolactic conversion. Exposing a wine to oak barrels can also emphasize buttery notes—both from the toasting on the inside of the barrel, and the softening effect barrels can have on a wine’s texture.
Have you ever smelled a wine and it’s a dead ringer for butter-flavored popcorn? That’s not a coincidence. Diacetyl is sometimes added to foods for its buttery flavor—think movie-theater popcorn, margarine, crackers and cooking oil.
I consider “buttery” a positive note. Just like any other wine characteristic, I prefer it in balance with a wine’s other elements. But buttery Chardonnays used to be very fashionable, and now much less so. These days, sometimes “buttery” is used as a pejorative term.
Other descriptors in a similar vein are cream/creamy, piecrust, caramel, butterscotch or brioche.


How bad is it to storage beer at 20 to 25 degrees celsius?

According to this non pasturized <45°F (<7.2°C)
And even then a shelf life of 60 - 90 days

It might be time for a party

Beer Storage

As for wine cooler.  For shelf life the colder the better as long as you don't freeze.


Good beverage suggestions to get drunk but not too drunk?

I'll give you my advice after 30+ years of being an adult and working in the alcohol industry for many years. Here it is: Drink the drink that has the least amount of alcohol you can stand. For me that means light beer when I know I will be at a party or another situation. I had friends of mine that would take Coors light and put it in a pitcher with crushed ice so they could drink more. It could mean putting ice cubes in your white wine. It could mean putting less alcohol in your mixed drinks. One shot instead of two.

Another tactic many take is one alcohol drink, one glass of water.

Beer is kind of self limiting because it fills you up and limits how much you can drink. Avoid things like red wine, whisky and mixed drinks with a lot of sugar. They will make you the sickest.

In the end, you can get drunk on anything and throw up and have a really bad hangover. But from some limited research (Look up Mythbusters Vodka vs Beer episode) that the clearer the alcohol (Vodka, White Wine, Light Beer) the less worse your hangover will be.


Are adjunct ingredients always GMO by default?

The chances of corn being grown for industrial purposes, like making dextrose have a very high probability of being GMO. If you are buying specialty grains (like for steeping), the probability of those ingredients being genetically modified are much lower.

That said, finding out whether or not your adjunct is made from GMO corn (or rice) is very difficult. You may be able to find companies that market things as GMO-free, in that case, they are probably GMO free. Otherwise, they may or may not contain GMOs.

If you are concerned about the safety of genetic modification, you should know that GMOs are very safe and are tested for safety much more than the wild crops their genes are borrowed from.


What online Italian wine stores ship to USA (South-West)?

The Italian Wine Selection will ship internationally. They seem to have a large selection. Caveat: Some countries at any one time may or may not be deliverable due to particular domestic rules and laws of the country being shipped to.

  We are in the wonderful city of Sorrento, you can come and visit us in our 3 restaurants, where in addition to drink the wines of Italian Wine Selection, you can enjoy specialties of our land revisited by our Chef. - Enoteca on line - Italian Wine Selection


How do I remove the smell of sulphur from my elderflower wine?

Sounds like you have a hydrogen sulfide problem. There is a three steps I follow when I get this problem.

Give it time. Many times it will dissipate on it's own, especially with racking and introducing oxygen. But this doesn't always work.
Add some potassium metabisulfates (campden tablets). This sometimes will drive out the problem making the sulfides dissipate on their own.
Add copper sulfate. This is the last resort and most of the time I end up here. There are kits to help you figure out how much to add. Some people will just tell you to add some copper pipes to your wine but not nearly as effective as copper sulfate.

This is a common problem for amateur and professional wine makers. There is a good article here but searching google will yield many results.

BTW, do not put it in the barrel. You might ruin the barrel. Take care of the problem first then put it in the barrel.


Does Sam Adams sell its 'White Christmas' beer in six-packs?

Yup, they do!

You can find it online at Binny's, for example ($9.99).


By the time you open your beer the yeast has mostly exhausted itself by converting the sugars into alcohol.
You may be able to use it to kick start a sourdough starter, or grow it back to an active bacteria, but it will not be able to leaven a batch of bread by itself from the bottle.


What's the effect of Chill-filtering on Whisky?

The main reason to chill filter a whisky is actually purely cosmetic

Chill filtering is a process that makes sure that a whiskey won't go cloudy if water or ice is added to it.

It is mainly only done as people don't want to see a cloudy whiskey so it is done a a cosmetic touch to make the whiskey more appealing.

Although if a whiskey is above 46% this process is not necessary as the alcohol level will stop the cloudiness from happening.

It is causing a bit of bother with whiskey distillers as people want a natural organic whiskey so they don't want it to go through the process of chill filtering but they also want a nice clear whiskey.

For more information see Here


What type of beer require the most time to produce?

The most time?  I'd think Gueze.  It is a blend of 1 and 2 (and sometimes 3) year old lambic.  So the minimum time to produce would be 2 years.


Can one pilsener cause a hangover when another doesn't?

It's true that there are different types of hangovers.

However, those are mostly the result of differences in the impurities in the alcohol (that is, all the non-alcohol stuff that differentiates beer from wine from vodka).  And for those differences, it's largely the difference between different types of liquor.

Beer is, compositionally, pretty much the same.  There might be enough difference between a heavy chocolate stout and a hoppy IPA, but between different brands of lighter beers (like pilsners), there's unlikely to be a noticeable difference in hangovers barring a weird food allergy to a minor element of one pilsner vs another.

Some far more likely causes of your friends reporting worse hangovers for different brands of the same beer type are:

Different quantities between evenings.  One evening you drank 10 Pilsner Urquells and the next you drink 8 Beck's.  How well are you really counting at that point?  If you think you had "about 9 beers" both nights, you might blame the worse hangover on Pilner Urquell.
Differences in alcohol level between brands.  The difference between 3.8% and 4.2% adds up after a while.
Small sample size.  Would you rely on a medical study of only 3 or 4 people?  Probably not.  Likewise, if your friend reports getting a bad hangover the last 3 or 4 times they drank Konig, it may just be a bit of coincidence, and they would have had a nasty hangover those nights regardless of what they drank.


Can alcohol (ethanol) exist in nature without the intervention of man?

All fruit when crushed or rotten will have naturally occurring alcohol. As long as there is sugar, yeast and water alcohol will happen. Most commercially purchased fruit juice has a small amount of alcohol in it when you purchase it.

  Low-alcoholic beverage[edit]
  Sparkling cider, sodas, and juices naturally contain trace amounts or no alcohol. Some fresh orange juices are above the UK 'alcohol free' limit of 0.05% ABV, as are some yogurts and rye bread.

  Ethanol distillation is used to separate alcoholic beverages into what are advertised as non-alcoholic beverages and spirits; distilled wine produces low alcohol wine and brandy (from brandywine, derived from Dutch brandewijn, "burning wine"),1 distilled beer may be used to produce low-alcohol beer and whisky.

  However alcoholic beverages cannot be further purified to 0.00% alcohol by volume by distillation. In fact, most beverages labeled non-alcoholic contain 0.5% ABV as it is more profitable than distilling it to 0.05% ABV often found in products sold by companies specializing in non-alcoholic beverages.

There are many stories about deer, bear and other wild animals getting drunk on apples that have fallen and rotted on the ground. Do animals get drunk

  “I’ve watched white-tailed deer eating fermented apples in orchards," Moore says. They get pretty “sleepy,” even “stumble-y.” It’s a common observation in apple-growing regions, he adds.

But I think you want to know if there are naturally occurring drinks other than eating a bunch of rotten fruit and there are only a couple of that I have heard of and the one you mention in your question was one and the other was naturally occurring mead which happens when water gets into a beehive with honey in the comb. Honey fermenting in the comb

  To produce honey, bees collect nectar from flowers and add enzymes from their honey stomachs. Once the mixture is stored in cells, the bees fan it with their wings until it dehydrates to a moisture content of about 16 to 18.5 percent. If the moisture content is higher than that, the bees simply won’t cap it. If cold weather arrives before the honey is capped, it will sit open in the hive and may eventually ferment.


Is beer dangerous to drink past its "sell by" date?

The pH of beer is low enough that no known pathogens can survive in it. That's why you never hear about botulism problems with home-brewed beer like you do with home-canned foods, for example.

Beer slowly changes over time. High gravity beers, like barley wines or imperial stouts benefit from this, and acquire richer flavors as they slowly oxydize. Belgian styles, like lambics do as well and the wild yeasts and bacteria continue to grow. However, even those have a limit -- eventually they will begin to taste very stale.

Low gravity beers begin to taste stale much more quickly. If you are keeping them refrigerated, they may last for 6 months or more. Seven years is definitely way too long.

So it won't make you sick or harm you if you want to taste it. But it is extremely unlikely that you will enjoy it.


Californian red semi-sweet wine similar to Kindzmarauli?

Kindzmarauli is a region in Georgia that is well known for their wines. There is also seems to be some confusion about if it's a style of wine or not. Wikipedia claims that it's a sweetish red wine made from Saperavi grapes and other sources say it's just the appellation and several grapes can be used. Saperavi is a teinturier grape which means it has both red skin and flesh. Most red grapes only have red skin and clear flesh. They can be very powerfully colored and are many times used to color wines that need a little help in the color department. A well known teinturier in California is Alicante Bouschet which at one time was one of the most grown grapes in California. I suspect if you could track down a off dry California Alicante Bouschet it would have a similar flavor profile. There are Saperavi grapes in California, but I don't know a winery using them.

Or you can just buy the real thing from Georgia at your Total Wine store in California.


Great question for the dessert enhancement front.

Zabaglione is generally thought as sweet, however it can also be made without sugar, using dry wine and egg yolks, thus becoming a fine sauce for fish, chicken or vegetables. It is used this way in French cuisine as well as Italian.

  In Italy chefs and home cooks often measure the ingredients for zabaglione quite casually. Six egg yolks, for example, would be combined with six egg shells of sugar and 12 of wine or liqueur. Although Marsala is most often used for zabaglione, there is no reason why other wines or liqueurs can't be substituted, depending on the final flavor desired. Italian recipes usually call for dry Marsala. If a sweet wine or liqueur is used, the amount of sugar should be substantially decreased. Grand Marnier, Sauternes, Madeira, oloroso sherry, Southern Comfort, anisette, coffee- flavored liqueurs, Amaretto or La Grande Passion, the new passion- fruit liqueur, are just a few of the possibilities. - ZABAGLIONE, AN ITALIAN DESSERT

Personally, I would not use whiskey or cognac in this dessert. But this is a personal preference. I am impartial to either a blackberry wine or strawberry wine. When I say these particular wines, I mean real blackberry wine and not simply blackberry flavored wine. It makes a difference in my mind. All said and done whiskey can be used in zabaglione and in fact here is an Italian recipe for it. The following is in Italian:

  Sbattete 4 tuorli con 60 g di zucchero, versate a filo 1/2 dl di whisky e cuocete a bagnomaria, montando con una frusta. Montate 1 dl di panna e unitela allo zabaione. Per un'alternativa sprint: Zabov (0,70 litri, 8,50 e). -  Zabaione al whisky.

Angela Hartnett’s zabaglione recipe uses whiskey, brandy and a sweet wine.

How about an Irish Zabaglione recipe and once again it is in Italian: Zabaione Irlandese.

Bon Appetite and Pleasant Drinks Everyone.


Mash overflows and lid comes off distiller

Lots of people refer to this as a "puke". It's like the distiller is puking.

I managed to solve my problem (Currently half way through the first batch ;-)). I used a "distilling conditioner" AKA defoaming agent purchased at my local brewery store

I also degassed the wort using a drill and a whisk, however this alone was not enough.

Note: I didn't use any of the below advice, just leaving it here for completeness

Other advice I've gotten on other forums includes clearing the wort better (E.g using cold temperature + time or a clearing agent), and putting a few rashing rings or stones inside the distiller as the airstill's inside may be too smooth.


I think they would not make a good candidate for beer or wine bottles if you want to subject them to moisture or cold

Static Cling Labels

  Static Clings are usually made of a flexible vinyl or plastic that has a very smooth coat and will stick to clean glass surfaces utilizing the moisture in the air and on the glass to adhere to the surface. In cold weather and dry climates static clings tend to dry up, freeze and then fall off easily. The vinyl material will not retain its "cling" abilities for more than a year or two depending on the conditions where the cling is exposed. Some static cling options can be refreshed with soap and water, which is great for long-term use. Static Clings may need a custom quote.<


Eggnog appears in grocery stores in (at least) the US from late November through early January.  Whether it's specifically a holiday drink or more generally a seasonal one is unclear.

According to the Wikipedia page, eggnog gained its holiday association in the 18th century in the US:

  The drink crossed the Atlantic to the British colonies during the 18th century. Since brandy and wine were heavily taxed, rum from the Triangular Trade with the Caribbean was a cost-effective substitute.[7] The inexpensive liquor, coupled with plentiful farm and dairy products, helped the drink become very popular in America.[13] When the supply of rum to the newly founded United States was reduced as a consequence of the American Revolutionary War, Americans turned to domestic whiskey, and eventually bourbon in particular, as a substitute.[7] Eggnog "became tied to the holidays" when it was adopted in the United States in the 1700s.[11] Records show that the first US President, George Washington, "...served an eggnog-like drink to visitors" which included "...rye whiskey, rum, and sherry."[14]

The same page notes that a hot version of the drink, Tom and Jerry, is mentioned in two 20th-century Christmas-themed works of fiction, Damon Runyon's 1932 short story "Dancing Dan's Christmas" and Yogi Yorgesson's 1949 novelty song "I Yust Go Nuts at Christmas".

There's nothing in the ingredients that is especially available during a particular time of year (unlike, say, apple cider), and yet it is not routinely available the rest of the year.  I suspect this is due to combination of (a) a cultural association between eggnog and winter holidays and (b) the perception of a limited market for something with a limited shelf-life -- suppliers have decided that it won't be profitable year-round and instead promote it during a time of year that already has some traditions and anyway is more likely to have parties.

That said, you can make your own and enjoy it in June if you like.


Has anyone tried infusing Torani sugar free syrup?

I have never personally tried but my advice would be not to heat it.

In the same way that you wouldn't heat a shop bought sugar syrup - you will boil off the water and be left with a thicker syrup and possibly one which would crystallise.

You can either add the ingredients to your Torani's Syrup and leave for X days to see what happens, or follow a recipe to make your own!

Here is one I found for a sugar-free lavender syrup which you should be able to amend for a Ginger Cardamon version.


What gives a porter or a stout its dark colour?

If you follow the information trail through Wikipedia's page about Stout beer, you find that what was known as Stout became a strong, dark beer in the 1800s:

  In the 19th century, the beer gained its customary black colour through the use of black patent malt, and became stronger in flavour.

You can see from the article about mash ingredients that black patent malt is "barley malt that has been kilned to the point of carbonizing, around 200 °C." It is apparently called "patent" malt because the inventor was awarded a patent for it.

Sometimes, this malt is used to darken the colour of other beers.


Why do stouts foam so much when you pour them over ice cream?

For the same reason that root beer floats behave in a similar fashion.  Even though there is less carbonation than in root beer (and I presume similarly less foam, though still a significant quantity) the irregular surface of the ice cream offers a massively larger number of nucleation sites than the smooth glass of your favorite beer vessel.   These nucleation sites cause the CO2 to come out of solution, and voila, much foam does appear.  I believe that the ice cream has properties that enhance the foaming effect as well.


What factors affect the carbonation level of beer?

There are two main ways to carbonate beer.

Force carbonation - This is where CO2 is forced into the fermented beer. Because of the pressure (and the temperature at which it is done) the CO2 will dissolve into the beer solution. The fizz that happens when you open a beer is the CO2 coming out of solution. (Technically you can re-carbonate flat beer!)

Natural carbonation - All beer has SOME yeast present. Home-brewers that bottle will actually pour a little bit of sugar into the racked beer before bottling. The yeast that is present will re-activate and eat the sugar. One of the bi-products is CO2. Because the beer is bottled and the CO2 has nowhere to go, it will dissolve into solution. This is why you will often see little yeast cakes in the bottom of home-brewer's bottles.

There are some beers that used forced-nitrogen to nitrogenate (if that is the appropriate word) their beers.

TL;DR - Temperature, methods of carbonating, storing beer can all affect carbonation.


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.


Does the choice of bottle cap or stopper make a difference?

I do not think that the type of cork is important. The important thing is that the cork used seals of the bottle so that no wild yeasts or bacteria are able to enter the bottle.

Traditionally cork and flip-top caps have been used for beers required for preservation, however any seal would do.

In my opinion it's more about tradition than functionality. Just as with french wines plastic corks can actually provide a more durable seal than metallic caps or real corks as they are less susceptible to decay due to moist. However in the spirit of the tradition and to keep customers happy it's often a less preferred option.

For instance, Belgium is a fairly traditional country and you will often never find plastic beer bottles or twist-top caps. Not because they are up to the task, but just because the Belgians didn't like it.


Sounds like the Ron Centenario Fundacion 20 anos


As an example, McCormick Rum Extract has 35 percent alcohol, and lists the other ingredients as water, run, and natural flavor, in that order. Depending on the volume of your other ingredients, the alcohol content may become insignificant. Even imitation extracts, rum and others, contain alcohol. Bakery emulsions are an alcohol-free alternative, a water-based flavor concentrate, such as those marketed by LorAnn Oils and Flavors.


Why do some beers have expiration date, while others have "born on" date?

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

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

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

Edit

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

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

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

A Lagunitas employee quoted in the aforementioned link claims that

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

and goes on to say that Lagunitas labels production dates

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

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

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


How do I get beer to chill to the maximum possible?

To get beer as cold as possible, as quickly as possible, it should be submerged in a salted ice water bath.

Because of the alcohol in beer, the freezing temperature of beer is slightly lower than that of water.  (How much lower depends on the actual alcohol content of the beer you're cooling.)

The salt in the ice water will in turn lower the freezing temperature of the water slightly, ensuring it is as cold as possible, and the conduction cooling of the water against the cans or bottles will cool them much more rapidly than exposing them primarily to cold air, as they would be either in a freezer or in ice alone.

Additionally, since the temperature of ice-water will naturally be moderated by the water, you don't have to worry about your beer freezing, no matter how long you leave it it, and it will get as cold as it is going to get within 15 mintues or so.


Are Birra Moretti Beers from the series "Le regionali" still available?

Can't tell you shops or supermarkets, but buying in internet should be possible, e.g. here: bevandeadomicilio.com, trovaprezzi.it, Amazon.it.

I didn't look for sales outside Italy, since you mentioned to be in Southern Italy. Sometimes local people do know more.


Do kegs go bad faster once they are tapped?

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.


What gives a "smoky" beer a smoked flavor?

To add a bit of detail to the existing answers, the primary method for adding a smoked flavor to beer is by using malts that have been dried over a smoky fire, rather than in a kiln which allows the malt to absorb compounds from the smoke that they then release into the beer during brewing.  Some of the oldest smoked beers still produced are German (Rauchbiers) and the malt is dried over beechwood.

Other woods can be used, and you can find malt smoked over oak, cherrywood, and any number of other species.  As mentioned in another answer, peat can be used as well and in fact is for Stone's Smoked Porter.

Another method for adding a smoky flavor is to use liquid smoke extract. This is made my cooling and condensing smoke with water, and can be used instead of smoked malt.  I'm not aware of commercial brewers who use this method, but it's a way for home brewers who use malt extract instead of dried malt to add smokiness to their beers.


Why Red Wine Stains

  Strong pigments in red wine are instant stain-makers for porous surfaces like your teeth. These pigments, called chromogens, give it that deep, intense hue, and leave their mark on your teeth after just a few sips. The nature of enamel plays a big part in this process.
  "Enamel isn't perfectly smooth," says Benjamin Rudow, D.D.S. "It has small cracks and irregularities, and pigmentation from red wine will settle in them

So you need to seek out wines that have the highest amount of tannins possible. Your run of the mill grocery store wines will not have a lot of tannins because it's more work and that makes the wines more expensive. Wines meant to age a long time will usually have more tannins since they help buffer the effects of oxidation and help the wine last longer.

So, really you want expensive, long lived, tannic wines. Those would be Cabernet, Petit Sirah, Tempranillo, Nebbiolo. But if you really want to go full stain, try a Tannat wine. It will stain your lips, gums, teeth and tongue! It's hard to find a 100% Tannat, but there are some that make it.

Tablas Creek in California makes a 100% Tannat that I've had before and it will stain like nobody's business!


What is the difference between ice wine, iced 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


There are some other Cistercian monasteries like the Abbey of New Clairvaux, which has a vineyard and produces wine. Also, Sierra Nevada produces the Ovila beers in cooperation with the abbey.

It should be noted that the abbey can be considered a Trappist monastery, but that the beer is not sanctioned by the International Trappist Association, and is therefore not a 'trappist beer'.

Ampleforth Abbey is a Benedictine monastery that produces beer.

And you may be interested in this book which describes, as the title puts it, making wine under Buddhist supervision.


How do I add a smoked flavour to a red wine?

If you want that oaky, smokey flavor the best way to do it is with toasted oak. At a home level, most people opt for cubes or chunks of toasted oak. At a professional level, the insides of barrels are toasted and impart that flavor.

How much and how long you do it is a preference thing. You need to taste every couple of weeks to see if the oak is giving you the flavors you want. When you are there, pull the wine off the oak. You can put the oak in a mesh bag and then pull it so you don't have to rack it because the oak will sink to the bottom eventually.


Sparkling wine from Spain, is it Cava or not?

I dug into their website and they are moving away from the Cava distinction because it is associated with cheap sparkling wine and they want to go higher end. They could call it Cava but choose not too. I would put this wine at the same level as a nice Champagne. Looks like a really nice bottle of wine!

If you dig further on their website, you'll read this:

  In 1888, Manuel Raventós Doménech created a sparkling wine in Penedés with three native varieties: Xarel•lo, Macabeu and Parellada.
  When we created CAVA in 1872, we dreamed of a World Class sparkling wine. This is why Josep Raventós Fatjó decided to innovate with Xarel.lo from the same vineyard where de la Finca comes from to this day. He understood the great potential of this grape, the mineral structure of our oldest soils and, most importantly, that to become World Class you have to be AUTHENTIC.
  After 150 years CAVA has become a volume-oriented DO lacking geographical distinction in terms of climate and terroir; it also suffers from low viticultural standards.... For this reason, in November 2012 we decided to leave the CAVA DO.
  We believe that we need to create a LOCAL, VITICULTURALLYORIENTED DO with strict controls in order to showcase our wines and help them to be better understood worldwide.


There are several things going on.

Mouton Rothschild is on of the few "first growth" Bordeaux wineries. All of them are highly collectible. New bottles go for between $600 and $700 for Mouton Rothschild, from a quick glance around the internet, which is a jump in price from the bottle you are looking at.
1993 wasn't the best vintage in Bordeaux, which is why the bottle price is lower for such an old wine. The 1995 vintage was much better and is selling for significantly more money
Why is it $2100 at Cibo? First restaurants mark up wine about 3x the retail price (even though they buy wines at wholesale). Five times the price is a little excessive for a wine that's probably not that great. Then sometimes restaurants will have that special extra expensive bottle just daring some high roller, that doesn't know anything about wine, to drop money on it. It's very common.


What characteristics does Becks have, and what are similar beers?

Beck's is a pale German pilsner brewed by Beck's Brewery headquartered in Bremen.  The actual beer you drank was likely brewed in St. Louis, however, as Beck's is wholly owned by AB InBev.

Pale Lagers as a style are usually straw colored, up to a light gold with a white head.  The flavor is very light and dry with only slight malty sweetness.  A little crisp hop bitterness without too much hop aroma.

Most "macrobrews" will be somewhat similar, though the stock "American" variant of Pale Lager like Budweiser or Miller will have a corn sugar flavor to them and likely be a bit lighter in body.  Beck's claimed to adhere to the German Beer Purity Law which would prohibit the use of an adjunct like corn.

St. Pauli Girl is a very similar beer, and I think is even brewed in the same town as the original Beck's.

If you want to stick with imports just about any pale German lager is going to do it for you since it's a very traditional style.  Anything by Spaten, Hacker-Pschorr, or Weihenstephan is solid and usually pretty easy to get ahold of.  Pilsner-Urquell is also a great beer, but it's in the Pilsner style so while it's still a pale lager Pilsners can have a sulfur-y or buttery tinge due to the green bottles and slight diacetyl.  Pilsners also have a strong hop character and bitterness.

If you wanted to try local or American brewed versions just about anyone's Session Lager (Full Sail comes to mind, as does Notch if you're near MA at all) should be similar.  According to this list on BeerAdvocate you should be near Berghoff and Baderbrau which will both make traditional German styles.  Some breweries, Baderbrau included, will call their pale lager a "Lawnmower beer".

Branching out, Sam Adams Boston Lager is a style called Vienna Lager which may also appeal you.  Though it will be significantly maltier than Beck's.  Anything with Dortmunder in the name will also be similar, though hoppier but not like an American Pale Ale or IPA or anything.  You might also be interested in any brewery's Cream Ale, which is an Ale version of the Pale Lager style.  Kolsch style beers may also appeal to you since they share the same light body and slight maltiness.  Kolsch's are hybrid beers which are fermented warm like an Ale would be, but then cold conditioned like a Lager.  Officially Kolsch can only be brewed in Cologne, Germany, but many American breweries will make a Kolsch style since it drinks really well in the summer and provides more flavor variety than pale lager or Cream Ale.

Does that help?


What are some breweries locals like to visit in New York City?

Brew York (which is one of the foremost local news sites for Beer Enthusiasts in NYC) wrote up a really great guide to NYC's Beer Culture for Super Bowl visitors last week.

The strongest picks, if I had to rattle them off myself, would be Brooklyn Brewery for someplace with some serious scale, Singlecut's taproom in Astoria for some great hoppy lagers and the best in-brewery drinking experience in town, and Peekskill Brewery and Barrier Brewery if you're willing to spend 30 minutes on a commuter rail line (Metro North or LIRR respectively), for two of the most daring and inventive brewers in the region.

Really though, even though NYC has a number of local breweries, it isn't a great place for drinking at the source -  beer culture in the city, while heavily local, is largely centered around a number of fantastic bars; Check out Torst, Barcade, Spuyten Duyvil, Alewife, The Pony Bar, Blind Tiger, the Ginger Man, Burp Castle, or any of the tons and tons of other great venues.

The Craft Beer New York app for both major smartphone platforms is also excellent, with up to date listings on new bar and brewery openings, local events, limited releases, and more. Easily worth a few bucks for any serious enthusiast.


How is Lambic fruit beer traditionally made?

Lambic is a type of beer brewed in the Pajottenland region of Belgium and in Brussels itself at the Cantillon Brewery and museum. Lambic beer is produced by spontaneous fermentation: it is exposed to the wild yeasts and bacteria native to the Zenne valley. This gives the beer a dry, vinous, and cidery taste, usually with a sour aftertaste.

This beer forms the basis of the Lambic fruit beers. After the Lambic is made, fruit juice is added to the barrels right before bottleing the beer.


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.


Other than beer are there any fictional drinks that eventually became real?

The Vesper Martini was first described by James Bond in Ian Fleming's book Casino Royale in 1953. The recipe is:

  "Three measures of Gordon's, one of vodka, half a measure of Kina
  Lillet. Shake it very well until it's ice-cold, then add a large thin
  slice of lemon-peel."


Is there any documentation on the origins of the Sake Bomb?

Take a look at this article: WHERE THE HELL THE SAKE BOMB CAME FROM: A LESSON IN IRONY

From the article:

  A few sources suggest that sake bombs were actually invented by American soldiers occupying Japan in the years following World War II.

The "sources" mentioned are this additional article at Los Angeles Magazine: An Ode to the Sake Bomb


How long does it take before the taste 'flies away'

I would say that it has to do more with carbonation than anything else. Like soda, beer goes flat after a while and tastes bad (or not as good) when the carbonation is gone. Some beers have more carbonation than others, so I don't think you can accurately measure this, it really depends on the brew.

Oxidation (exposure to air) also may negatively impact the flavor. Of course, I wouldn't recommend exposing a beer to air for weeks and then drinking it due to various health concerns and I can't say I've ever tried it, nor do I want to.


For how lambics are made and what distinguishes them from other beers, see this Wikipedia article.  To summarize, lambics are exposed to wild yeast (rather than the usual cultivated yeasts) and tend to have a dry, tart taste.  These are not heavy-bodied beers, nor are they bitter.  (Hops are used for their preservative effect, but old, dry hops are used to minimize the flavor impact.)

Frequently, lambics (like the one you had) have fruit added later in fermentation.  Common fruits for this include raspberry, peach, and cherry, and I've also encountered apple.  The sweetness you're tasting probably comes from the fruit (and some of these varieties taste sweeter to me than others).  If you'd like to try a lambic that doesn't have the fruit, which is likely to be less sweet, look for "gueuze".


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