Malt Liquor

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debtman7

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So I was at the store the other day and saw a bomber of Rogue Daddy's Little Helper Malt Liquor. Now, I don't know about everyone else, but when I see a bottle that says 'Rogue' and 'Malt Liquor' on it, that's just something I'm going to have to buy.

My wife and I popped it open and skipped the traditional paper bag serving method to instead drink from glasses. It was light, yellow and smelled sweet. To my surprise, it tasted pretty good. It had that distinct malt liquor corn sweetness, but it was nicely balanced with hops and was pretty drinkable.

Not something I would drink a lot, but probably the best malt liquor you're going to find :)
 
Speaking of Malt Liquor, we're celebrating my good news today by partaking of Old English 800 and a Super Burrito. And when I say "we", I mean "me and my buddy Mike". My wife hates burrito-and-40 night. And morning-after-burrito-and-40-night.
 
Probably a stupid question, but what distinguishes malt liquor from beer? I drank a lot of it as a college student, but mainly because it got me drunk like beer does. Mickey's Grenades...:D
 
desiderata said:
Probably a stupid question, but what distinguishes malt liquor from beer? I drank a lot of it as a college student, but mainly because it got me drunk like beer does. Mickey's Grenades...:D

Well, I think malt liquor is pretty much a style of beer. But you get into semantics here since there really aren't any regulations on what is a malt liquor and what is a beer. I think a malt liquor is generally considered to be a light american lager style of beer with a higher alcohol content and more adjuncts. Sort of like 6% fermented corn syrup...
 
desiderata said:
Probably a stupid question, but what distinguishes malt liquor from beer? I drank a lot of it as a college student, but mainly because it got me drunk like beer does. Mickey's Grenades...:D

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malt_Liquor


The apparently confusing and inconsistent use of the term 'malt liquor' has to do with the vagaries of American alcoholic beverage regulations, which can vary from state to state. In some states 'malt liquor' refers to any alcoholic beverage made by fermenting grain and water; in these states a non-alcoholic beer may also be called a non-alcoholic or non-intoxicating malt liquor. In some states, products labeled 'beer' must fall below a certain alcohol content, and beers that exceed the mark must be labeled as 'malt liquor'. A typical legal definition is in Colorado Rev. Stat. ss. 12 – 47 – 103(19), which provides that:
"Malt Liquors" includes beer and shall be construed to mean any beverage obtained by the alcoholic fermentation of any infusion or decoction of barley, malt, hops or any other similar products, or any combination thereof, in water containing more than three and two-tenths percent of alcohol by weight. (Note: alcohol percentages measured by weight translate into larger figures when re-expressed as alcohol percentages by volume, because ethanol is lighter than water.) Some states do not define a category of malt liquors; in these states, beers labelled malt liquor are typically available, but the label simply identifies the product with the style, and has no legal significance. While ordinary beers in the United States average around 5.0% alcohol by volume, malt liquors typically range from 6.0% up to 12% alcohol by volume. In some areas of the western United States, beers that are too strong to be legally called beer are confusingly called 'ale'.
 
thanks, Cheese. I was wrong: I guess malt liquor get you drunk better than beer does. :D
 
Malt Liquor is a term invented to to encompass all beer-like products where "Beer" has a more specific definition. I don't believe you will find the term used anywhere unless the term "beer" already has a set definition.

Malt Liquor is simply liquor made with malt. FWIW, many of those fruity drinks are called malt liquor, such as Smirnoff Ice. Yup- there's no Vodka in there. Nobody really argues about what malt liquor is. Everyone agrees that if it's liquor and is made with malt, then it's a malt liquor.

Beer, however, is more contentious. There are those (such as myself) who say that a beer may contain nothing but barley, wheat, hops, water, and yeast. Others say that you can add anything that you want and if it tastes like beer, then it's beer.

To each their own. Perform a search for "velveeta cheese" if you want to read the entire debate on the subject. :p
 
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