Thread "Beer...?" in forum "Comic Talk and General Discussion *"

Posted at 10:04AM, Apr. 10, 2011

I drink around a 12 pack a day, every day, and have for years…

I'm sorry but… that sounds like too much to be particularly healthy.

Posted at 10:04PM, Apr. 10, 2011

Really down on snobs eh, Tim? The smaller brewery stuff is generally what I prefer, I'll drink stuff like Bud, PBR or Miller when that's available though. What can I say, I just don't think those beers have much flavor to them. I'll admit though, there's been some terrible stuff to come out of small breweries too.

Posted at 1:04AM, Apr. 11, 2011

Hardly, as my ever so wise and all-knowing Medieval Studies professor used to say, "It's liquid bread." Can't drink the water? Drink the beer. A staple of the pre-modern world. Manage your intake and you'll learn how to can get full before you get drunk!
Yeah, but Mead and Cider were popular in the distant past too and neither is as popular as beer today, so the mystery remains.

Mead is better than beer in every possible way :P

Only to you. :p

Every civilization that has had both, beer won out. Mead is expensive to produce and keep. It's also more seasonal than beer because anyone who grows wheat can make beer. Mead is harder to make and if not done right or when spoiled is SOUR ick that you can't even spread on bread. Beer is often still drinkable. Liquid bread versus sweet icky stuff you have in the springtime that lasts longer and tastes better on corn cakes washed down with beer and cider.

Cider is still popular in the USA. I grew up near Delicious Orchards Colts Neck NJ and Battlefield Cider is a big deal around here. Named for Monmouth Court House Battlefield which was also in prime apple growing country. But then the Continental Army was happy they captured the beer stores of the Brits after the battle. Not cider, not mead; beer.

And the Pilgrims weren't forced to land in Massachusetts because they were nearly out of cider or mead.
They didn't rush out to get honey to make mead. They grew apples for hard cider and wheat to brew beer.
You can keep beer in a barrel and have it last an ocean voyage. Can't do that with mead. You can't make HUGE barrels of the stuff relatively quickly. It won't keep a few months in a damp cellar like beer.

No mystery. Beer is commonly made, easily stored and shipped. Mead isn't. It was a special occasion, seasonal drink.

Posted at 3:04AM, Apr. 11, 2011

No mystery. Beer is commonly made, easily stored and shipped. Mead isn't. It was a special occasion, seasonal drink.

No, I think your argument is skewed.
OK, a quick historical survey Tells me that for mead things were primarily dependant on bee populations- When those were plentiful it was easy to make mead- as population spread increased and the forests gave way to cultivated lad, bees deceased. Mead seems to be one of the earliest beverages, a drink more suited to the wild and wooly days before the world was tamed, farmed and deforested.

Around the Mediterranean grapes were easier to grow so wine remained popular there, beer in the middle east… Mead was going strong in Scandinavia and England until the reformation when bee-keepers suffered a decline.

Due to various reasons, some cultural and sociological (and others mentioned above), in later years mead became more expensive to produce.

It really does seem that beer won out because it was a cheap sort of bog-standard, basic alcoholic drink that anyone could make anywhere. Not a beverage of preference.
-and whatever was the easiest alcoholic beverage to make in whatever region was the most popular there.

…And that gives me an inkling as to the future of beer:
Will it continue to be as popular? Right now that's only the case because of the large brewing monopolies really, and their continued promotion of the drink. The old cultural, practical and sociological reasons for its popularity have altered now. The big industries that produce most beverages could just as easily switch gears to make anything else (except mead ironically because bees don't fit well with industry and mass production), so if broader community tastes begin to shift to something else, or fragment, there's nothing to keep beer in the central spot.
Interesting :)

Posted at 4:04AM, Apr. 11, 2011

Cider is posed to make its comeback.

Posted at 8:04AM, Apr. 11, 2011

I'm also at a loss with things like Whisky, scotch, cointreau, brandy etc. -The flavour in those is pretty much akin to going to see a heavy metal band live and standing right in front of the speakers- no sound, just a screaming decibel drill paired with a body-reverberating rhythmic thud. Perhaps that's the reason they're usually paired with cigars?

one of my favorite drinks is whiskey and water , but i also like cigars and putting my head in the amplifier and standing very close to speeding freight trains .

Posted at 8:04PM, Apr. 18, 2011

I'm desperately ignorant about beer in general.

The first time I went out with my cousin (who works at a family owned brewery) she ordered me a glass and declared, "This is an excellent wheat beer! If you don't like this, you're nuts!" After one uninspiring swill, I declared it tasted like tortilla-chip flavored soda that had turned. I guess I'm nuts.

In my opinion it's safe to assume beer gained it's original popularity from availabilty and cost efficiency, because I certainly can't be convinced they made it for the taste. Point in fact - people just want to get drunk for cheap.

When I worked as a guard in a prison, we found a batch of hooch made from raisins, lime juice (and a few things we couldn't identify) after an entire bunkhouse got drunk and rowdy one night. They made the batch in a toilet.

I couldn't help but think at the time that it probably tasted better than Miller regardless.