[modi123_1]

Quote

When gets limp wristed, it's time to put it out of it's misery.

@baavgai - does this imply drinking it?

[baavgai]

Only if it smells like it won't kill you.

During the process of fermentation, you want your yeast to take over the medium. However, they aren't the only microbes available and sometimes the bad guys win. It's not subtle. If it smells like booze, you win. There is a tipping point where the medium contains enough alcohol not to support other microbial visitors.

[jon.kiparsky]

This is the essence of open fermentation: if your local yeast are tough enough and/or fast enough to beat out the competition and get to that tipping point without any other colonies establishing themselves, you and the yeast both come out as winners.

An old brewing buddy of mine had lived in one house for ten years, and had maintained a sourdough starter for the whole time. When we started brewing at his place, the beer always came out a little different from the way it worked out anywhere else. We assumed it was because his starter owned that kitchen, and wasn't going to let any other yeast have a go.

The beer tasted good, so it wasn't a problem.

[mgcdrd]

There are many different "ways" they make the higher content beer. There is sink the bismark, that I think mad dawg makes, where they crate it and drop it like 30 meters in the sea. they let it sit a few weeks, and then finish the process. With the Tactical Nuclear Penguin, they freeze it, and remove the water and thaw.

As for how they get higher content beer, the yeast will process sugar into alcohol as long as there is sugar to process. there are also hundreds of different yeast they use for beer. Each like a different mixture of ingredents, and each will give different flavors.

As for history, download "How beer saved the World."

[jon.kiparsky]

mgcdrd, on 14 June 2012 - 03:41 PM, said:

As for how they get higher content beer, the yeast will process sugar into alcohol as long as there is sugar to process.

Not exactly. When the alcohol level gets beyond the yeast's tolerance, it dies. Just getting more sugar in the mix won't help, the yeast kicks out when it drowns in alcohol. You'll notice that beer is still sweet, even if you let it go in secondary until fermentation stops. The yeast hasn't eaten all the sugar, it's poisoned its environment with alcohol.


Yes, you can always strengthen the product later by removing the water (by freezing or boiling), but the real macho point of high-octane beers is to brew them, not distill them. That's what makes this an extreme sport.

[h4nnib4l]

mgcdrd, on 14 June 2012 - 05:54 AM, said:

I'm over in Europe, and so far there isnt a beer i could drink again in the States. I used to like Bud

Really? You're in Europe now, so you're "better" than US beer? Qualifying your statement with "so far" doesn't take the douchebaggish attempt at snobbery out of your statement. I've had plenty of delicious beers overseas, but the "I drink beer in not America so I only like not American beer" bullshit hasn't held water in a long time. Budweiser, Coors and Miller are not the only American beers (and we've already debated about Budweiser even counting as beer); in fact, there is such a fantastically wide variety of microbrews here that if you like beer, there is practically a limitless variety to enjoy. Yeah, some big fucking companies mass-produce a shit-ton of shitty beer (thus my chosen unit of measurement) and share it with the world, but saying you don't like American beer because of Budweiser is like saying you don't like Italian food because of Michelina's.

[modi123_1]

Like Warsteiner?

[Curtis Rutland]

For the record, there are shitty mass-produced beers anywhere you go. They're just not as well-known as the mass-produced American beers. For instance, Fosters. Australian for "piss", if you ask a native. And the US has just as vibrant a micro-brew scene as any other country does.

[Choscura]

Almost all the local here is piss. most of it technically doesn't qualify as beer, but only as a fortified barley wine- vat fermented (not brewed) and alcohol is distilled and added separately. Chang is extremely bad about this, Singha doesn't seem to do this anymore (but it's still a mediocre lager- easy to drink, comes back out the same color). Strangely, however, Beer Lao is excellent. Nobody seems to know why and it surprises everyone that tries it.

[mgcdrd]

h4nnib4l, on 14 June 2012 - 03:33 PM, said:

mgcdrd, on 14 June 2012 - 05:54 AM, said:

I'm over in Europe, and so far there isnt a beer i could drink again in the States. I used to like Bud

Really? You're in Europe now, so you're "better" than US beer? Qualifying your statement with "so far" doesn't take the douchebaggish attempt at snobbery out of your statement. I've had plenty of delicious beers overseas, but the "I drink beer in not America so I only like not American beer" bullshit hasn't held water in a long time. Budweiser, Coors and Miller are not the only American beers (and we've already debated about Budweiser even counting as beer); in fact, there is such a fantastically wide variety of microbrews here that if you like beer, there is practically a limitless variety to enjoy. Yeah, some big fucking companies mass-produce a shit-ton of shitty beer (thus my chosen unit of measurement) and share it with the world, but saying you don't like American beer because of Budweiser is like saying you don't like Italian food because of Michelina's.

I will haveto agree, there are micros in the state that are delicious, but the mass public think of the mass produced beers, and that was what i was thinking too at the time. there are 100s if not 1000s of micro in the states, and that many tastes. Also, there are skunks, and piss beer anywhere. But as for Europe having better beer overall, that is probably a generalized statement some people think. Do I? yes, I do. In general, I have had far many more better tasting beer here, than I did in the states. It might be because beer is everywhere, and the general selection size in any given store is bigger than the states. You will have a hard time finding store"S" close together that have 100s of beers to choose from. You might find a store here or there that you can choose 20 or 30, but I'm talking about stores that have 50 - 100 different beers across the street or down it.

Also, did you know Budweiser in the states had an older brother by the same name made in the Czech Republic? The Czech Bud is far far older than the foundation of the States....700 years. And even that beer is piss to most around here. Europe made an art of brewing long before we as a nation (the States) existed...why? because the water over here was deadly. Brewing beer and ale sanitized the water, and made it possible to drink.

[jon.kiparsky]

Within a mile of my house, there are four stores which stock, at a guess ~100 bottles each, of which 50% to 75% are domestic, depending on the store.
Maybe I'm just lucky, though.

(of those domestics, there might be three or four up to maybe a dozen entries from the macro-brews, the rest will be beer)

This post has been edited by jon.kiparsky: 14 June 2012 - 10:07 PM

[Aphex19]

Carlsberg Export and Stella are probably my favorite beers, although I like real ales. I also have quite a taste for Schnapps.

[mgcdrd]

to be honest. I dont know what europe considers to be a micro or not. Obviously, there are mass produced beers, and there are specialties, and trappists. other than that I'm not sure. The big differences i see between here anf the states in general ( was only drinking age there in Montana, and Tennessee)is the mass produced beers have areas where they are drank more in Europe. the area i am in Bavaria is the biggest. I drive north a little and their party beer is heineken. I go south that drink budels. Where as in the States, you have all the big names everywhere.

When I made my statement earlier, I was remembering my visits back to family and friends, and I haven't had a beer that I could enjoy there since I moved here. Then again, I've only been back a couple of time so the time to find new and interesting beers has been limited. The other limiting factor on my American beer experience is I don't drink to get drunk or trashed; I drink to enjoy and relax. Lose of body function-not cool.

It is also cheaper to drink beer here that it is to buy water. Party beers are like 50-60 cents a bottle when bought in crates (24 pack) for the most part. Now than again, I do like one called Kwak, that runs about 40 bucks for a crate.

[strawhat89]

What kind of schnapps? American or German?

I had a friend who's uncle lived in Germany. He had got this awesome schnapps from there for my friend. Apparently, it had deer blood in it.. Not sure how true that is though it ranks among my most drunk times.

This post has been edited by strawhat89: 14 June 2012 - 11:28 PM

[modi123_1]

Deer blood? That's jagermeister.