Funny things you've overheard about beer

[SiriusStarr]

We use a very close chemical to PROP in the lab to prevent pigment formation in zebrafish embryos. It's called PTU and it can be used to used to identify supertasters as well. I'm crazy sensitive to it. If I get any on my fingers, no matter how often I wash my hands any food I touch for the next day will get the bitterness on it. But I have yet to find an IPA too bitter for me.

Ah, the joys of working with phenylthiourea. Dev bio, I assume? (sorry )

 

[biertourist]

Per the post on the previous page; the "ale vs. beer" thing isn't pure ignorance; it's also a cultural delineation. The British Isles and pretty much anywhere a large populations of Brits live use the "ale vs. beer" nomenclature to denote traditional English ales vs. lagers.

"lager" is VERY often incorrectly spelled "larger" in the UK and Ireland because that's how a number of local accents pronounce the word.

"Ale" would be the traditional non-hopped British malt-based beverage.

You'll often see "Ales, Lagers, and Stouts" or "Ales, Lagers, and Porters" listed on the outside of Irish and British pubs which is how they've viewed the world of beer for a while. But certainly among the average beer consumer in Ireland "Ale" really means "Smithwicks" or "Kilkenny" and "Lager" means only macro pilsner: Carlsberg, Heineken, Coors, or Budweiser. Sometimes pub-goers even think that "Guinness" is literally the name for the style of beer that is black.

I was in Dublin's first pub that refused to sell Guinness a couple of years ago, right after it opened ("Against the Grain") and a pub-goer strolled in and said "I'll have a Guinness"; the bar man replied that they don't have Guinness but that they had a couple of other stouts and listed them; the confused pub-goer replied, "Uhh well what's yer Guinness, then?" (And was given a Carlow Brewing Company O'Hara's Stout.)


Although all of this is kind of similar to how some folks here in the US will almost only order "IPAs" so much that some brewers are creating "India Session Ales" to refer to regular pale ales...


Adam

 

[biertourist]

I guess I'll add to the thread more inline with it's original intent:

My buddy Geoff is the barman at the "Bull and Castle" in Dublin (one of the "top 20 places in the world to have a beer") and during St. Patrick's day American tourists will invariably wander in (to the craft beer bar and restaurant) and order a pint of green beer. (Which Geoff refused to offer for a number of years.)
-Now he'll happily tell the story of how the brewers use a special process to get the green out of the hops while he pours the green dye into the pint of Carlsberg or Heineken discretely! LMAO!


My second contribution:
2 American college aged kids were placing their order in pub in the west of Ireland and ordered "2 Irish car bombs" (the single most insensitive order possible), the barman calmly replied that they were out of Irish car bombs but that he'd bring them something better. A few minutes later he arrived with two tall shot glasses and set the top on fire and explained that he'd instead made them a couple of flaming twin towers. (They didn't get it, but I almost died laughing at them on the inside.)


Adam

 

[unionrdr]

^^^Is that anything like a flaming A-hole?! I got to disliking green beer rather quickly,since the cop pulling you over can't be bs'd,since he sees your green teeth & "It's officer O'maly of the east side,& yoooouur busteeeed"! Shoulda took the reds,man...

 

[drainbamage]

I guess I'll add to the thread more inline with it's original intent:

My buddy Geoff is the barman at the "Bull and Castle" in Dublin (one of the "top 20 places in the world to have a beer") and during St. Patrick's day American tourists will invariably wander in (to the craft beer bar and restaurant) and order a pint of green beer. (Which Geoff refused to offer for a number of years.)
-Now he'll happily tell the story of how the brewers use a special process to get the green out of the hops while he pours the green dye into the pint of Carlsberg or Heineken discretely! LMAO!

Haha, that's pretty funny.

My second contribution:
2 American college aged kids were placing their order in pub in the west of Ireland and ordered "2 Irish car bombs" (the single most insensitive order possible), the barman calmly replied that they were out of Irish car bombs but that he'd bring them something better. A few minutes later he arrived with two tall shot glasses and set the top on fire and explained that he'd instead made them a couple of flaming twin towers. (They didn't get it, but I almost died laughing at them on the inside.)

Adam

I'd heard before that ordering Irish car bombs in Ireland is a no-no. I can't blame the bartender for getting them back.

 

[fuzzy2133]

I'd heard before that ordering Irish car bombs in Ireland is a no-no. I can't blame the bartender for getting them back.

A Black and Tan is a bad one too. I don't know if there are any Irish still sensitive to it.

 

[drainbamage]

Good point. "Half & half" is the accepted term, isn't it?

 

[biertourist]

A Black and Tan is a bad one too. I don't know if there are any Irish still sensitive to it.

Yes, yes there are.
Also definitely a bad one to order.


Adam

 

[biertourist]

From the Wikipedia article on Irish car bombs:
"and also to the many car bombings that took place during the Troubles in Ireland. For this reason, the name is sometimes deemed offensive and some bartenders refuse to serve it."
Particularly insensitive as isolated car bombings have started again in the North since the economy went to crap.


And the Wikipedia article on Black and Tans:
"Their role was to help the RIC maintain order and fight the Irish Republican Army (IRA); the army of the Irish Republic. The nickname "Black and Tans" arose from the colour of the improvised khaki uniforms they initially wore. The Black and Tans became infamous for their attacks on civilians and civilian property."

The Black and Tans represented a foreign aligned police force occupying their country and beating them up, so yea, don't order that one either (ESPECIALLY in any of the little towns along the border with Northern Ireland).


Adam

 

[Billy-Klubb]

I'm 'Merkin. I'm also quite insensitive to overly sensitive crap. you shoulda heard the crap me & my Lakota friends used to say to each other. it usually ended with smallpox blankets and scalping. ahhh... good times. I don't drink car bombs since I think they're nasty. but I do make black & tans at home. and I'll continue to do so and call them what they are.

 

[Cincy17]

Sorry for the derailment again

Ah, the joys of working with phenylthiourea. Dev bio, I assume? (sorry )

Haha, you got it. I'm a grad student working on a doctorate in dev bio

 

[tyzippers]

Went to dinner with my parents and some of their friends at a small Italian restaurant i had never been to last weekend. When the waitress came to take my order, I asked what beer they had since it was not listed in the menu. The response I got was, "pretty much anything you'd want!"

Do I really need to go any further here?

 

[drainbamage]

Went to dinner with my parents and some of their friends at a small Italian restaurant i had never been to last weekend. When the waitress came to take my order, I asked what beer they had since it was not listed in the menu. The response I got was, "pretty much anything you'd want!"

Do I really need to go any further here?

Well, you wanted Bud Light, Coors Light, or Blue Moon, right?

 

[tyzippers]

Well, you wanted Bud Light, Coors Light, or Blue Moon, right?

That's what she thought. And blue moon was a stretch. I thought about being an ass and asking for something like Cantillon Oude Geuze or something of the like. But I thought better and simply asked what the craft offering was. I was expecting to order a Guinness, but they actually had a Penn Brewing Oktoberfest. Score! Anyway, she tried to push the Italian imports and was kind of put off when I politely refused.

 

[jhoneycutt]

Went to dinner with my parents and some of their friends at a small Italian restaurant i had never been to last weekend. When the waitress came to take my order, I asked what beer they had since it was not listed in the menu. The response I got was, "pretty much anything you'd want!"

Do I really need to go any further here?

You should ordered a westy 12.

 

[tyzippers]

You should ordered a westy 12.

That was THE very first thing that popped into my head!

 

[Keith66]

I had a bar tender tell me once that a true Black & Tan is made with Guinness and Harp. Guinness and Bass is not a true Black & Tan because the Irish and English hate each other; that would be a Half & Half.

Personally, I'd rather have a full pint of each, and don't mix anything.

 

[SiriusStarr]

Sorry for the derailment again



Haha, you got it. I'm a grad student working on a doctorate in dev bio

Nice, what university? (I'm an MD/PhD student at UChicago.)

 

[ChshreCat]

Went to dinner with my parents and some of their friends at a small Italian restaurant i had never been to last weekend. When the waitress came to take my order, I asked what beer they had since it was not listed in the menu. The response I got was, "pretty much anything you'd want!"

Do I really need to go any further here?

I would have started asking for beers that I knew they wouldn't have, one right after another.

 

[Lazarous]

I would have started asking for beers that I knew they wouldn't have, one right after another.

And you would have had spit in your lasagna...why do people feel the need to be rude to food service workers?

 

[ChshreCat]

And you would have had spit in your lasagna...why do people feel the need to be rude to food service workers?

Who said I'd have been rude? She said they had any beer I wanted. I'd have been very happy and cheerful about it.

 

[JoeyChopps]

And you would have had spit in your lasagna...why do people feel the need to be rude to food service workers?

Why does everyone that gets butt hurt about people being "rude" to servers always say that we are going to eat spit. If every food server does this then they need to kill there selfs for being a$$ holes. And some how it's still the rude customers fault.

 

[Cincy17]

Nice, what university? (I'm an MD/PhD student at UChicago.)

Awesome, there are quite a few MD/PhD students in my program. I'm at University of Cincinnati

 

[bobmcstuff]

"Ale" would be the traditional non-hopped British malt-based beverage.

Erm, not quite? Non-hopped ale might be available somewhere in some speciality shop that makes medieval beers or something but that's not what people think of and it's not commonly available in any pub or even specialist beer shop. Ale has hops, and probably has for the last several hundred years. I don't think any of the general population outside of beer fans even know it exists, and the CAMRA definition of ale refers only to hopped varieties.

The association most of us make is normally that ale refers to cask-conditioned traditional stuff served by hand pull, fairly flat and quite warm. That's what most Brits think of when you mention ale (along with beardy sweaty men wearing brewery t-shirts ).

I tend to find that most people are loosely aware that ales and lagers are both beers, but don't really know what the difference is (e.g., my friend who thought all Belgian beers were lagers just because they're served cold and fizzy...).

 

[reed1911]

Go into most places here in the US and ask for an ale and you will be asked which one, bud, bud light, coors, miller? All are lagers. The general population here in the US has no clue about beer other than the big name breweries that serve colored water.

 

[gometz]

Sitting at Buffalo Wild Wings right now. Their explanation for an IPA finishes with: IPAs have more hops, leaving them with more bitterness, aroma and malty sweetness.

 

[thatjonguy]

Sitting at Buffalo Wild Wings right now. Their explanation for an IPA finishes with: IPAs have more hops, leaving them with more bitterness, aroma and malty sweetness.

Ha!

 

[tyzippers]

Sitting at Buffalo Wild Wings right now. Their explanation for an IPA finishes with: IPAs have more hops, leaving them with more bitterness, aroma and malty sweetness.

They were actually not doing too bad until that last part.

 

[gcdowd]

Let me preface this by saying that I am a little but I really wanted to remember this story so I will try.

Allow me to attempt to set this one up. Me and two friends go to a local place that has been open for a little while, an off-shoot of a local brewery. They just built a restaurant/pub (they do not brew on premises but have a few of the brewery beers on tap). They offer some decent craft beers and have a high end menu. We get there and I ask for a beer menu. I receive the attached beer menu. My first impression was, barrel shipped beer? WTF is that? Do they mean kegged beer? I would find out later that no, they did not. Anyway, the second thing I noticed was that it just named the breweries and not the specific beer. Conversation went like this:

Me: Which Dogfish Head beer do you have?
Bartender: I'm not sure. It's really dark though.
Me: Ok....which Great Lakes beer do you have?
Bartender: I don't know, do you want me to find out?
Me: No that's ok. Can you ask which Dogfish Head beer it is though?
Bartender: Sure. (She calls the upstairs bar and returns) It's just the Dogfish Head. Would you like one?
Me: No thanks. I'll just keep looking at the selection.

At this point I decide to walk upstairs to check out the taps for myself. I find that it is indeed the Dogfish Head 60 Min IPA (clearly stated on the tap handle). I look over a few more and see the Ithaca Country Pumpkin Ale. I then proceed to chat with the upstairs bartender.

Me: Can I try the Ithaca Pumpkin Ale?
Bartender: DO you just want a sample or a glass?
Me: No, I'll take a pint
Bartender: It's actually a pilsner
To myself (WTF?? no...ok...whatever)

So I go back downstairs with my pumpkin ALE. I know the bartender downstairs will question how I have a beer without her serving it but I play it cool. ****, bartender notices.

Bartender: What did you get?
Me: Ithaca Pumpkin ALE
Bartender: You should have just told me, I would have gotten it for you.
(Me thinking to myself, I would have if you knew which freakin beers each brewery had on tap).
(Check the pic of the menu at this point and you will see it clearly just says Ithaca)

Anyway, this post has officially taken me about 20 mins to post so I will quit now.

Long story short, there were a few other things that went on before we left that I won't get into because it's not beer related.

Sorry for the long post

 

[tyzippers]

Let me preface this by saying that I am a little but I really wanted to remember this story so I will try.

Allow me to attempt to set this one up. Me and two friends go to a local place that has been open for a little while, an off-shoot of a local brewery. They just built a restaurant/pub (they do not brew on premises but have a few of the brewery beers on tap). They offer some decent craft beers and have a high end menu. We get there and I ask for a beer menu. I receive the attached beer menu. My first impression was, barrel shipped beer? WTF is that? Do they mean kegged beer? I would find out later that no, they did not. Anyway, the second thing I noticed was that it just named the breweries and not the specific beer. Conversation went like this:

Me: Which Dogfish Head beer do you have?
Bartender: I'm not sure. It's really dark though.
Me: Ok....which Great Lakes beer do you have?
Bartender: I don't know, do you want me to find out?
Me: No that's ok. Can you ask which Dogfish Head beer it is though?
Bartender: Sure. (She calls the upstairs bar and returns) It's just the Dogfish Head. Would you like one?
Me: No thanks. I'll just keep looking at the selection.

At this point I decide to walk upstairs to check out the taps for myself. I find that it is indeed the Dogfish Head 60 Min IPA (clearly stated on the tap handle). I look over a few more and see the Ithaca Country Pumpkin Ale. I then proceed to chat with the upstairs bartender.

Me: Can I try the Ithaca Pumpkin Ale?
Bartender: DO you just want a sample or a glass?
Me: No, I'll take a pint
Bartender: It's actually a pilsner
To myself (WTF?? no...ok...whatever)

So I go back downstairs with my pumpkin ALE. I know the bartender downstairs will question how I have a beer without her serving it but I play it cool. ****, bartender notices.

Bartender: What did you get?
Me: Ithaca Pumpkin ALE
Bartender: You should have just told me, I would have gotten it for you.
(Me thinking to myself, I would have if you knew which freakin beers each brewery had on tap).
(Check the pic of the menu at this point and you will see it clearly just says Ithaca)

Anyway, this post has officially taken me about 20 mins to post so I will quit now.

Long story short, there were a few other things that went on before we left that I won't get into because it's not beer related.

Sorry for the long post

That gave me a good chuckle! Sorry to hear of your plight!