Glibertarians.com 2019 Archive

Category: Beer

  • Access Denied — Web Filter Alert: Alcohol

    The wild wacky world of beer and brewing is replete with innocuous terms that appear meaningless for the average consumer.  Lager vs. Ale or Pilsner vs. Urine for example.  There is one, however that to my understanding has not been covered yet, so I will pull one from the archive…

    This is my review of Carlsburg Unfiltered

    We’re heard the old commercial for Miller Genuine Draft.  It includes the phrase “cold filtered”, which is pretty much meaningless given the product being peddled.  Filtering beer is a similar process to filtering any other liquid:

    There are two basic types of filtration: depth and surface. Depth filtration, also called powder filtration, uses a convoluted labyrinth of channels in the filter media to trap particles. The media can be diatomaceous earth (DE), Perlite, or other porous media.

    Adjust for beer accordingly

    Depth filtration works similar to a pool filter.  Where the pump simply pulls water from the pool to a tank filled with either sand or diatomaceous earth (DE).  The filter media creates a path that is smaller than the dissolved solid the user desires to not be in the water.  The pump puts pressure on the water through the filter media, which gets trapped in the tank on top of the filter media.  The result is clean water flowing back into the pool.

    Surface filtration uses a thin film material with pores smaller than the particles to be removed. Particles remain on the surface of the filter while clarified liquid flows through. If the pores are of a defined size (for instance, up to 5 μm), filtration is said to be “absolute” to the pore size. Membrane and cross-flow filtration are examples.

    This is more like reverse-osmosis.  It produces a cleaner end product but as one might expect is a more cost intensive process.

    In both circumstances the desired substances to be removed from the beer include hops, dead yeast and other microbes that in high enough concentration can result in unpalatable beer.  In the case of commercially produced pilsners, a crystal clear appearance is also highly desired by both the brewer and consumer.  So why then do so many seem to obsess over unfiltered beer?

    Some will say filtering removes too much from the finished product, leaving it with a “sterile” flavor.  Others will go on and on about “mouthfeel” when the words “texture” and “body” have an almost identical meaning and does not bring connotations related to fellatio.  There are even specific styles that happen to be unfiltered by tradition, Hefeweizen and Belgian Abbey ales for example, where some would prefer not to be made any other way.

    In the above example, I had at a fine dining establishment in Northern Ireland and I pretty much had Guinness with every meal for about a week so I wanted something different.  I can’t really say it went well with my braised duck but it was rather nice on it’s own.  I recommend it over regular Carlsburg, which in of itself is nothing to write home about.  Carlsburg Unfiltered: 3.2/5

  • A Quart of Blinker Fluid

    Upon leaving work one afternoon, I heard the most annoying sound in the world.  What is that noise?  I asked myself as I put on my seatbelt.  So I checked the messages.

    Stupid Chrysler product and their stupid defects.  Time to go to Wal-Mart.

    This is my review of Brady’s Barrel Aged Irish Whiskey Coffee.

    Nope. Still no beer.

    Later that evening, while I was showing my son how to use the electronic tool to lookup the proper lamp for a 2012 Jeep Grand Cherokee, the thought occurred to me.  It isn’t a particularly difficult item to replace, nor is it prohibitively expensive, yet people neglect to change these out in a timely manner.  If people were more responsible, perhaps a cop wouldn’t have to pull people over when their tail lights are out.  Then again, I’d hate to see the creative lengths small towns would go through to replace the lost revenue.

    Sure enough, the boy found the lamp number:  3157.  Wait…red or amber?  I never look at the back of my car, so I don’t know off the top of my head.  But I bet if I look it up…Here we go, Jalopnik says:

    the US (and Canada, but they’re just piggybacking on our regs) is the only place in the world where the rear turn indicator may be red, instead of orange/yellow/amber. Up front, indicators need to cast an amber light to differentiate from the white headlamps, but out rear you can actually just use one red-shining bulb for stop/tail/turn functions, as many cars do — especially trucks and jeeps and other vehicles that use off-the-shelf cheap trailer-type lights.

    Okay so red is okay, right?  Lets make sure and hit the next link.

    American regulators, alone in the world, have dismissed the idea that there might be something wrong with trying to convey two very different messages with two (or just one!) identical red lights. So automakers play “now it’s amber, now it’s red” with rear turn signal color in the American market: amber this year, red next year, back to amber at the next facelift. Even imports have red rear signals in America, sometime because stylists will use any tool at their disposal to differentiate this year’s model from last year’s.

    You’re not helping…

    Some of the problem goes away if the two identical red lights, the brake light and the turn signal, are widely separated from each other. It’s instructive to look at the ECE regulations, used just about everywhere but in North America. They don’t allow red rear turn signals, but they do require two bright red lights in the back: the brake light and the rear fog light, an extra-bright tail light activated by the driver when it’s foggy, so following drivers can still see the car. They look similar to each other, just like the American red brake and red turn signal, so the ECE regulations say their closest lit edges have to be at least 10 cm (4 inches) apart. That way, drivers have no problem seeing and discerning both functions. But there’s no such separation requirement for brake lights and red turn signals in American regulations.

    This is ridiculous, red or amber?  At this point my son was wondering what I was up to.

    Shortly after releasing their tentative and preliminary 2008-09 findings, NHTSA opened a public docket requesting comment on the matter. Naturally, there are opinions on both sides. But it’s interesting to see how many ordinary drivers, with no ulterior motive or axe to grind, strongly urged NHTSA to please require amber signals.

    Perhaps it’s time to think about taking a deep breath and moving the American turn signal regulation boldly into line with what the rest of the world has known since before the Beatles.

    I don’t care what the &@#*% nannies in the rest if the world think they know.  Red or amber!

    “Dad.  Right here.  3157W.”

    White.  A white lamp will work.

     

    I found this coffee at a tourist shop in Galway (H/T Swiss).  It looked interesting enough but seemed a tad steep for what I paid for it.  Now they take green beans and store them in old Irish whiskey barrels.  Once it ages for the time they want it to age they roast the beans in-house.  The result is a product thst smells nothing like coffee.

    In the end though, its not very acidic, and seems meant to add a particular ingredient; I’ll let you guess what that is.  In the cold brew setup it winds up tasting like muddy water, but it smells like something you probably shouldn’t take to work.  Good luck finding it.

     

     

  • Enter the Twatter! (Part 2)

    Previously, I wrote up a rant related to Joe Rogan’s interview with Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey.  It got a lot of bad reviews because Joe didn’t ask any tough questions, other than an underhanded attempt at advocating President Trump be banned from Twitter….because apparently he might start a nuclear war with a Tweet.  This rant resulted in my calling Rogan a bitch, and Dorsey full of shit.

    Continuing my self imposed beer ban…meh.  Screw it.  I might need a drink if I have to listen to Dorsey again… This is my review of High West Doube Rye.

    Not my photo

    To give credit where credit is due, Joe took a lot of flack for that podcast.  The majority of his audience is probably right-leaning even if he insists he is a lefty.  They let him know.  He admitted he didn’t know a lot about Twitter’s rules, the controversy surrounding Twitter, and the few instances he did ask Jack direct questions, Jack didn’t have much of an answer.  They agreed to have another podcast, one where Jack brought somebody familiar with the process of banning and specific circumstances leading to the bans: Vijaya Gadde, Global Lead for Legal, Policy, and Trust & Safety at Twitter.

    “Blue checked people at ANTIFA continue to post death threats against me…no action by Twitter”
    “Um….Thank you for your feedback.”

    Joe on the other hand, brought on former Vice reporter, YouTuber, and beanie enthusiast, Tim Pool.

    I will link it here if you have not seen it and would like to.  Otherwise, here are a few notes I thought might be of interest to this group to skip around.  All times are approximate since some of us have to work (Rufus).

     

     

    2:50 Joe asks about Dr. Sean Baker—an advocate of the carnivore diet that had his Twitter account locked, recently.

    – Vijaya assumed it was an algorithm, related to the banner being a lion eating a carcass.

    – Making fun vs. targeting.  Pool suggests the “mob” understands the system, its flaws, and consequently uses it against ideological enemies.

    9:10 “Do you really want corporations to police whats true?”  “But you guys do that…”

    – Pool cites dead-naming and mis-gendering (again at 40:00) as explicit bias against conservatives in Twitter policies.

    – Rule is against hateful targeting.

    – “You say its about behavior, but I have a number of examples….”

    16:30 “All the burden is placed on the victim.”

    18:10  WOODCHIPPER!

    20:20  Tim brings up Milo…

    – “You have a verified user that called for the death of another user…”

    – “That’s your impression, that’s not what happened.”

    25:40  Chuck Johnson

    – “I can understand why you feel that way, I don’t think that’s true.”

    30:39  “We don’t have any PR constraints…”

    – “So why did you ban Alex Jones?”

    – Joe has a response from Jones ready.

    1:00:00  “Shouldn’t you guarantee free speech as consistent with US Law?”

    – “You do not allow “hate speech”, so free speech is not on your platform.”

    – The next 15 mins is excellent and leads into “Learn to Code.”

    1:28:00  “Intersectional POV”

    – “What does that mean?”  (Twitter lady seriously asked that)

    2:00:22  Discussion about Jacob Wahl, fake news, accounts created to disperse news that was misleading vs. Twitter’s response to Rusian Botz 2016.

    – “Did you investigate Jonathan Morgan?”

    – “I don’t know who that is.”  “Why?’

    – Morgan created fake news, manipulated AL senate election with fake reports on Roy Moore.

    – “…but…you investigated the conservative guy…’

    TL/DR version:  Pool was awesome.  Not very often you get to see an actual journo, doing what a journo is actually supposed to do.  So much so that another YouTube Channel called, Body Language Ghost did an analysis of an excerpt of the podcast, which I found interesting. In the end, Twitter insisted it wasn’t biased against conservatives, and Pool cited specific instances suggesting otherwise.  As he put it, no single snowflake is responsible for an avalanche.

    –Snob Alert–  This whiskey is a blend.  –Snob Alert–

    That doesn’t make it bad.  Its a blend of two ryes one that meets minimum requirements for rye (>50% rye) and another with a whopping 95% rye malts.  I rather enjoy rye, and this one doesn’t disappoint.  Though I should mention the first time I had it was in Salt Lake City, where local ordinances require ice.

     

     

     

  • Because I’m Bad…

    I am not drinking beer this week but the cryptid captors required that I write about beer.  Those assholes gave me no leeway on this, and said that I didn’t want to end up like Swiss.  Honestly, it was either that or I had to defend Michael Jackson.  So they get nothing remarkable.

    This is my review of Northcoast Scrimshaw Pilsner.

    Let’s get something straight, I am not defending Michael Jackson.  If any of these allegations are true, then he is burning in Hell for all eternity.  That’s fine by me.

    The problem is, in his time the allegations turned out to have little empirical evidence.  This article here from NPR goes through a timeline of all of the allegations.  Ever single one failed to produce anything more than an allegation.  Some where the police investigated and found no physical evidence, another where the prosecution couldn’t move forward because one boy could not testify.  Even one from his sister La Toya that she eventually walked back.  He also had several come to his defense him from the allegations both then and now.

    Thankfully, this is a country where due process of law still matters, right? … Hey! …. Stop laughing!

    The problem here socially, is the attempt to silence Michael Jackson and remove him from the culture.  Here there is a lack of precedent.  One might point out R. Kelly was also accused of similar crimes, also acquitted, and radio stations are also not playing his music, effectively depriving him of his livelihood.  The difference here is scale.  R. Kelly made a couple songs a few of us can name off the top of our heads.

    Michael Jackon in the other hand, has the highest selling album of all time.  Thriller, released in 1982 sold over 100 million copies and counting. He has a unique ability to transcend time, and continues to influence artists even today.  Want an example?  Here’s Bruno Mars…Notice a resemblance?

    Can they really unperson somebody that big?  They‘re certainly going to try…

    At the beginning of the year, I made the decision to no longer play songs by Michael Jackson during my DJ sets. I choose to believe that, in the wake of the HBOdocumentary “Leaving Neverland,” you cannot separate the art from the artist when it comes to using your public platform.

    I humbly disagree.  Its just music.  He might have been human garbage while he was alive, but he is dead.  He is not being punished, his kids are; as far as anyone knows, none of whom have committed a crime. His contributions to culture are immense enough to not have an analogue.  R. Kelly can’t say that.  A few banned authors ? Maybe but nobody is burning books.  The Roman Catholic church is arguably behind thousands of atrocities, but nobody is going to burn the Sistine Chapel or throw out the Gregorian calendar in response.  Too big perhaps?

    Perhaps the only analogue with as much cultural significance and the focus of naked censorship because of moral outrage is John Wayne.  But then, it doesn’t matter if either produced something that others can love within the context of their time, or within their art form.  Neither is allowed to influence culture anymore, because that culture no longer respects freedom of expression.  And that’s bad.

    What isn’t bad is Northcoast’s take on the Pilsner.  It is done competently, but unremarkably.  If a safe bet is what you are looking for, this is probably it.  Here’s another safe bet to go with it.  Northcoast Scrimshaw Pilsner:  3.5/5.

  • I’m on Vacation

    As the title says, I am not here.  Please do not attempt to contact me directly as I am most certainly out of the country.  I contacted the editors regarding my absence but was met with a response that was as predictable as it was unhelpful.

    While I will not explicitly inform you of my wherabouts, I’ll give a bit of a hint.  Unfortunately, I already wrote about an appropriate beer for this occasion so I will just go ahead and throw you all for a loop… this is my review of Jameson Caskmates Stout Edition.

    I know what you’re thinking, “that’s not beer, your wheelhouse is beer, and that looks like whiskey.”  Well…you’d be right, but who’s stopping me?

     

    Irish Whiskey has an interesting history.  It is said, the first written example of distillation occured during the 1st Century AD (or CE).  The Arabs are creditied with discovering the process as applied to perfumes, but the first known example was found in Alexandria.  Later during the 7th Century Irish monks trained in the process, applied it to create a drinkable spirit, called Uisce Beatha.  It is from this spirit, we ultimately get Whiskey.  Once again, leave it to the Irish to be at the forefront of drinking technology.

    Which means…Whiskey predates Whisky, sort of.  To explain, by the 18th Century Irish Whiskey was held in higher regard than its Scottish counterpart.  It was not until in 1820 that Irish Whiskey as we know it today came about.  The Single Pot style was developed in response to a tax levied by the English on malt.  The Irish distillers responded simply by using both unmalted barley and malted barley, resulting in a distinctive flavor.

    Over the next century Irish Whiskey fell out of favor for a variety of reasons:  Temperance movements in Ireland (seriously), potato famines, mass migrations, restrictions on exports to the rest of Britain, Irish Revolution, Irish Civil War, two world wars, prohibition in it’s largest customer (The United States), American servicemen stationed in England developing a taste for Scotch Whisky during the war, and the Scots developing the Coffey Still and the blended whisky that suited the palates of the day.

    Mostly, it was war and the government being bad for business.

    Irish distilleries began to add the “e” to differentiate themselves from the distilleries in Scotland.  At the time, Irish whiskey was more popular than Scotch, even in Scotland.  Americans simply adopted the spelling.  Hence my statement, whiskey predated whisky.

    So does it taste like beer?   No.  This tastes like whiskey.   By aging whiskey in old beer barrels rather than the other way around, they took a fun idea and turned it on its head.  I’m not even going to rate it, because its not beer of course, and rating it implies that whiskey is equivalent to beer.  Its not.  It is smooth however, and has an ever so slight chocolate notes.  I might have to try the IPA barrel next, just out of curiosity.

     

  • Its that time of year (again)

    Like I mentioned before about a year ago, I give up beer for Lent.  I do it every year.  Not to worry, I’m not going to explain it again.  I am just going to leave a link here, explaining the whole thing.

    This is my review of Saison Dupont Avec Les Bons Vouex.

    If you’ve been following long enough, this is not to be confused with regular old, Saison Dupont…which I reviewed here.

    Incidentally, this one was even mentioned before.  Bon Voeux is a French phrase meaning, “best wishes.”  This beer was initially put to market during the 1970s and offered to the brewer’s most loyal customers.  Am offering of sorts, for best wishes for the new year.   I guess I am a bit late.

    The biggest difference with this one over the standard is it is quite a bit more intense with the citrus notes.  I might go so far as to say it has an almost lemon-like sourness.  Like Nephilium, I will have to say the standard is better.  Saison Dupont Avec Les Bons Voeux 3.5/5

    I drink a ton of Saison, don’t I?  Maybe I need to give it up for a while…

  • In defense of Brett

    A few months ago, it wasn’t easy for our friend Brett.  Due in no small part to the most outrageous of outrages, sparking an outrage amongst those most eager to be outraged.  Even people that were only coincidentally named Brett  were affected by the outrage.

    Now Kavanagh, a salesman, says he has to change his whole pitch following the Supreme Court nominee’s scandal.

    ‘The first thing I say is my name is Brett Kavanagh. And literally the first reactions is “Wait, what did you just say.” I have to stop and explain it’s been a crazy couple of weeks,’ he said.

    Some people are dumb…

    This is my review of Boulevard Saison Brett

    Should I have made this bigger? Just click the link…

    Brett doesn’t have to be bad, and nobody should ever put you down just because you are named Brett…or are a cokehead.  There a many famous Bretts out there, and the list get even bigger when you remove a T.  Which means there is nothing to be ashamed of.  Especially since so many of them are athletes, country singers, and 80’s hair metal icons. Plus, the one at the top is known for sending pictures of his junk to this chick.

    Lets be real though, the name reference has absolutely nothing to do with Brett.  Sorry brah.  It has more to do with this.

     

    Which is a a difficult type of yeast to work with, given it is a “wild” strain and you don’t really know what you will wind up with.

    • Brettanomyces (aka “Brett”): A strain of yeast, not a bacteria, that Dawson refers to as “the wunderkind of the wild beer world.” It serves the same function as saccharomyces does: fermenting beer. But Brett works more slowly, meaning a beer that could have fermented within days or weeks with saccharomyces will take weeks, months or even years to display its full character when Brett is used. Dawson rephrases a quote from the late beer author Michael Jackson: “Saccharomyces is like a dog and Brett is like a cat. It’s a little less predictable. It’s going to do its own thing; it’s not going to come when you call it and sit when you say sit. If you can respect its individuality and suggest rather than dictate what it does in your fermentation, it can reward the brewer and the drinker.” There are different strains of Brett, each of which produces its own flavors ranging from tropical pineapple and fruity peach to the intense flavors described as sweaty horse blanket, dirt, earth and barnyard. TL;DR:Brett is the microbe responsible for funk.

    So what was the result?  In this case it was actually pretty special.  So much so that I bought it a second time…

    …which is truly saying something because I had to get these things at Whole Foods, and find inventive ways to justify why I am giving Jeff Bezos $15 for a single bottle of beer.  Its that good. Get it before it’s gone.  Boulevard Saison Brett:  4.2/5.

  • Mmmmm…Beeeerrrr

    Or, “How Nephilium Popped My (beer) Cherry”.

    So with all the posts by Nephilium and Kinnath, I decided to dip my toe into the beer making hobby. I don’t drink the quantities I used to (not a bad thing), so I opted to follow Nephi’s advice and go with nano brew kits from Brooklyn Brew Shop. The kit with brewing supplies was just under $60 but I will be making many batches with it. The recipe kits run about $16.

    Okay, before you IPA haters jump on your soapbox(and not a peep out of you, Ted), I chose single hop IPAs for a reason. I wanted to learn about the flavor and aroma profiles of the different hops. So there.

    Anyways, the kit comes with pretty much everything you need. Grains, hops, yeast, sanitizer. For the process, it has a gallon jug, an airlock, thermometer, plastic tubing, and a racking cane. Since I made this batch, I’ve added a beer hydrometer and grain bags(you’ll see why). Everything else I needed I had on hand.

    First off, everything gets sanitized. The instructions direct you to mix half the sanitizer with a gallon of water, the rest will be used during the bottling process. I’ve done a couple of modifications that I think make the process easier for me. I weighed the sanitizer and now I mix up a quart and also have a small spray bottle filled with sanitizer. It really made my life easier.

    After that, comes the mash in. It takes an hour, and you have to keep track of the temperature. It needs to stay between 144-152 degrees, with it being stirred every so often. You’re basically making oatmeal here. You don’t use the whole amount of water. There’s a pot of water at the right temperature waiting to be added later. You also need an extra pot because the “wort” that’s created by steeping the grains gets poured over the grains twice.

    So after an hour, “mashing in” is done. You raise the temperature to 170 degrees and strain into another pot. The liquid and additional four quarts of 170-degree water get poured over the grain twice.

    As you can see from the photo, this is why I went to grain bags. I made a bit of a mess.

    Next, we go to the boil. For this particular kit, it’s a 60 minute boil with hops added at specific times based on the recipe. Once the boil foams, you reduce to heat to a point where it’s just boiling, and start the process. I used the digital scale I use for charcuterie for weighing out the hops.

    You lose 20% of volume during the boil, which leaves you a gallon of wort. Cool it on ice to 70 degrees and into the jug. I added a hydrometer to my supplies because this is what tells you if you achieved the specific gravity(sugar content) the wort needs to ferment to the proper alcohol level. This is also where you add the yeast(“pitch”) and shake to mix and add oxygen.

    The sanitized tubing is stuck through the cap about an inch, and the other end sits in a bowl of sanitizer. The first couple of days is where the most aggressive fermentation takes place, and the airlock isn’t up to the task. After a couple of days, the tubing is replaced with the airlock, and then it’s time to wait for two weeks while fermentation does its thing. I’m using the guest bedroom closet that doubles as my “root cellar”. Close the vents and it stays a consistent 60 degrees during the winter.

    The other purpose for the hydrometer is the determine if the beer has reached the proper alcohol level. I didn’t have one for this batch, so I crossed my fingers and hoped the recipe was correct.

    At this point, the fermented beer is siphoned out of the jug and into a pot containing a half cup of water and three tablespoons of honey. The beer is flat, so this is the sugar that will ferment and provide carbonation. The beer is siphoned into sanitized bottles and placed back into the cool, dark closet for two weeks. I screwed up and lost my prime towards the end, so I ended up with six pints, instead of seven.

    After two weeks, it’s time to chill, pour, and see if I made something actually worth drinking.

    Hey! That ain’t half bad. Citrus notes from the Cascade hops, creamy mouthfeel with just a little bitterness on the finish and just the slightest hint of residual sweetness that will probably go away over time.

    I’m enjoying this hobby, so far. It’s not saving me any money and given that we’re in the Golden Age of craft brewing, it’s not like I can’t find dozens of awesome beers at the local grocery store. I chalk it up to my toddler “me do it!” mentality. It goes well with gardening, canning, charcuterie, etc. The second single hop IPA is in the closet and I have a Cream Ale cold fermenting in the bar refrigerator. Next up is a batch of raspberry mead from the recipe Kinnath posted. When Spring comes, other things will take place of brewing to keep me busy, but when it’s like this outside, might as well make beer!

  • Super Bowl Controversy

    One Sunday, I took it upon myself to create a set of links I believe were worthy of discussion amongst those otherwise uninterested in a prominent sporting event that occurred that day.  Predictably, most of you decided it was better to discuss the sporting event anyway.  Which brought on this brief moment of inspiration, brought on by a silly commercial.

    This prompted me to research what the big deal was.  While I provided an answer, the gentleman asking didn’t seem to appreciate it as such.

    This is my review of Oskar Blues Dale’s Pale Ale

    Adjuncts are ingredient used in the wort to create an environment the yeast can easily metabolize.  Most people subscribe to the idea the German Reinheitsgebot created the perfect balance with the four allowed ingredients.  For good reason:  German beer is typically pretty good.  Adding an adjunct however, does not have to be a bad thing.

    It is fashionable among homebrewers to dismiss adjuncts as unworthy ingredients in beer. They often cite the German “Reinheitsgebot,” a purity law promulgated in 1516 that allowed only the use of water, malted barley and hops. Yet adjuncts are viewed differently around the world. Köln and Brussels are both world-famous brewing centers. Although located within 165 miles of each other, the brewing philosophies of these cities are light years apart. While German brewers were restricted for centuries by the Reinheitsgebot, Belgian brewers have long obtained fermentables from a wide variety of sources. In fact, adjuncts play a role in some of the world’s great beer styles.

    […]

    Adjuncts can be divided into two broad groups: kettle adjuncts and mashable adjuncts. Kettle adjuncts, like honey or candi sugar, contain fermentable sugar and are added to the kettle in the boil. Mashable adjuncts contain starch. This starch needs to be converted to sugar before it can be used by brewer’s yeast. These starchy adjuncts must be mashed, which means that enzymes degrade the starch to fermentable and unfermentable sugars and dextrins.

    Most adjuncts — including rice, corn and kettle sugars — contain very little protein and they are reluctant to yield the protein they do have during mashing. So they also can be considered in terms of their ability to dilute the protein in a wort made from low-protein adjuncts and malted barley. All the protein in this wort comes from the barley, so adding a source of extract that carries no protein effectively dilutes the total protein in the wort. Protein in barley can cause haze. People generally prefer beers to be crystal clear and they expect that clarity to last for months. So by diluting protein with the proper amount of adjuncts, brewers can increase clarity and stave off the onset of chill haze.

    Fuck off slaver!

    In other words, there is probably a pretty good reason to use an adjunct.  Don’t dismiss a beer offhand just because it does not conform to the Reinheitsgebot.  A good example is The Samurai from Great Divide, which uses rice as its source of malt.  It’s been a few years since I had it while I was stationed in Colorado, but from what I remember it is actually quite good.

    The adjuct in question however, is the use of corn syrup.  First, in my personal opinion, high fructose corn syrup is not necessarily any worse for you than any other sugar—in fact high fructose corn syrup is defined as a sugar that is half fructose and half glucose…this dissacaride is known as sucrose—which is a fancy name for table sugar.  The problem is most people eat a shit load of sugar, regardless of the type of sugar in question.

    Warty is going to kick my ass…

    That said, the use of corn based sugar is not a new thing at all.  In fact many brewers in the United States began using it around World War II for a variety if reasons, but rationing was the rationale behind using it, and the reason why they continue to use it is obvious…people buy it!

    When Miller & Coors first started using corn they used simple flaked corn which adds a wonderful perceivable sweet cornbread-like flavor while continuing to dry out the beer, like Batch 19. Anheuser-Busch wanted to stand out and try something lighter so they went with rice, which can have a slight diacetyl and acetaldehyde flavor but for the most part keeps the same ABV content but imparts, again, a dryness and lower color.”

    The rest, as they say, is history.

    “A-B’s new light beer or reformulated Budweiser sold like mad! A lighter more thirst quenching lager that people could drink all day made people go crazy for the stuff,” said Kelly. “With the success of AB’s beer Miller started making their beer lighter and the watering down war began its vicious battle until they both started using enzymes to lower the final gravity. [Then] the zombie war of calories took over bringing an end to caring about the best tasting beer and a beginning to MGD 64 and Bud 55.”

    It’s not hard to see why corn doesn’t get much respect amongst the brewing community[…].

    The fact several craft brewers use adjuncts, including corn, should be enough reason not to freak out over corn syrup in your beer.  This is just a marketing ploy designed to entice the faux-health nuts into buying Bud Light over Coors Light…if you don’t like it…don’t buy it.  I personally can’t stand either, which brings us back to the beer in question.

    Dale’s Pale Ale is a standard American Pale Ale.  Oskar Blues has a wide enough distribution most people can find it on the same shelf as the dilly dilly beer in question but does so in a manner that I am under no delusion I am being healthy by drinking it.  Its cheap, it’s tasty, it does the job.  Oskar Blues Dale’s Pale Ale:  3.5/5

     

  • Enter the Twatter!

    Last Friday Twitter Founder and CEO, Jack Dorsey was interviewed by Joe “that’s a complex issue” Rogan.  Should you be of a mind to actually listen to the podcast, the YouTube link is here:  Joe Rogan Experience #1236

    …but be warned.  It is two hours long, Joe is in an exceptionally passive mood, and Jack is pretty much the pompous bullshitter you expect him to be.

    This is my review of Pizza Port Brewery Bacon and Eggs Imperial Coffee Porter.

    To my understanding, Joe has a bit of a marmite effect around here.  Much of the criticism of Rogan’s show is that he rarely challenges his guest, accepts facts from his guests with little question, engages in conspiracy theory, and overall he can be a bit of a meathead.  It is the first item here I wish to focus.  The reason I like his show, aside from constantly having UFC fighters on the show, is Joe does not drive the conversation.  He mostly has a few questions that act as prompts and lets the guest yammer away.

    This allows me to determine if the guest if full of shit in a reasonable amount of time.  For example, prior to the multiple episodes where he interviewed Jordan Peterson, I thought Peterson was just a guy writing self help books and wasn’t particularly interesting.  Boy was I wrong.  Another example is Peter Schiff, where my only exposure was a brief video from TOS where he yells at Occupy Wall Street.  Its cool he did that, but who didn’t want to yell at those idiots?

    Ban me from twatting…. I’m starting my own twatter! With gay frogs! Blackjack, and Green Hookers! AH! The hell with it!

    Back to Dorsey.  Where I want to focus is around the 48 minute mark where Joe asks him about why Alex Jones was banned…if you don’t know what he said by now I’ll let you hit the link here, where his explanation begins.  I’ll wait.

    …

    …

    …

    My ass he doesn’t know!  “It’s just my platform, I don’t always know what goes on in the day to day…..”  whatever Jack.  “Oh, he didn’t violate the terms of service, there was a succession [incoherent mumbling] [more mumbling]…”  Okay, that makes a lot of sense, Alex does have a history of getting in people’s faces, and saying stupid things.  A history that predates Twitter….  No matter what you think of Jones he has the right to say stupid things, excommunicating only feeds the perception social media companies are silencing dissenting voices.  It certainly doesn’t help they enforce their code of conduct subjectively and only seem to drop the hammer on conservatives.  Keep on bullshitting Jack, we get it.

    The problem people have with Joe here is he didn’t challenge Dorsey at all.  He has acknowledged Twitter’s subjectivity in enforcing its rules in the past and that social media is overwhelmingly left wing.  He is even perfectly capable of challenging his guests when he wants to, such as arguing with Dave Rubin over enforcement of building codes, Steven Crowder over his ambivalence with marijuana use, Candace Owens over her “wrong” opinion on Climate Change, or Gavin McInnes for of all things—being Catholic.  Okay, Gavin was either intentionally being an idiot or a troll.

    Jack is full of shit.  Even if one of Dorsey’s companies sponsors Joe’s show (Cash App), Joe could’ve at least pointed out the inconsistencies.  He even apologized for it earlier this week…sort of.

    For a guy that constantly tells people not to be a bitch, Rogan sure bitched out. As of this writing, the ratio is ?11k to ?73k.

    This beer is rather expensive but at least you get six full pint cans.  It is really heavy on the coffee, which means its probably a good choice for day drinking.  Your wife, boss, and mother-in-law will never know the difference.  Pizza Port Brewery Bacon and Eggs Imperial Coffee Porter: 3.5/5.