Funny things you've overheard about beer
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GrogNerd
mean old man
belongs in this thread AND Epic Pictures/Memes
ThatVideoKid
Well-Known Member
GrogNerd
mean old man
forgot to mention... that's part of the beer list from Mellow Mushroom, Herndon, VA
That is funny... Miller Lite doesn't have any beer flavor...
CGVT
Senior Member
Eh, there is a time and a place for almost every beer.
I like Miller Lite. Of all of the light beers, I think it is the only one that tastes like beer. I like to swill a few on a hot summer day when I'm hanging by the pool and don't want to get hammered.
Some of you will think that is a funny thing that you overheard about beer...
I like Miller Lite. Of all of the light beers, I think it is the only one that tastes like beer. I like to swill a few on a hot summer day when I'm hanging by the pool and don't want to get hammered.
Some of you will think that is a funny thing that you overheard about beer...
![Craft A Brew - Safale S-04 Dry Yeast - Fermentis - English Ale Dry Yeast - For English and American Ales and Hard Apple Ciders - Ingredients for Home Brewing - Beer Making Supplies - [1 Pack]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41fVGNh6JfL._SL500_.jpg)
TL: DR Beer is not required to have hops. 
I while researching the chemisty behind skunked beer I read the following and got a little chuckle.
"In fact, American and German beers are required by law to contain at least a small amount of hops." http://www.professorbeer.com/articles/skunked_beer.html
But then I thought "Well, I know that the Reinheitsgebot limited beer ingredients to barley, hops, and water. But are all three required. And what about US laws."
So I got my nerd on and looked up the US law.
http://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/retriev...a1ae108e6c&mc=true&n=pt27.1.25&r=PART&ty=HTML
Title 27 → Chapter I → Subchapter A → Part 25 → Subpart B → §25.11 Defines beer as
" Beer. Beer, ale, porter, stout, and other similar fermented beverages (including saké and similar products) of any name or description containing one-half of one percent or more of alcohol by volume, brewed or produced from malt, wholly or in part, or from any substitute for malt. Standards for the production of beer appear in §25.15."
Checking on §25.15 "Materials for the production of beer", we find the following.
(a) Beer must be brewed from malt or from substitutes for malt. Only rice, grain of any kind, bran, glucose, sugar, and molasses are substitutes for malt. In addition, you may also use the following materials as adjuncts in fermenting beer: honey, fruit, fruit juice, fruit concentrate, herbs, spices, and other food materials.
(There is a paragraph (b) but it only discusses additional sources of alcohol.)
So, I find no basis in US law that requires the use of hops in beer.
(I also found funny that the US govt definition of beer doesn't specifically mention lager, but includes ale, porter, stout and saké.)
Yes, I know, I have a strange sense of humor. :fro:
I while researching the chemisty behind skunked beer I read the following and got a little chuckle.
"In fact, American and German beers are required by law to contain at least a small amount of hops." http://www.professorbeer.com/articles/skunked_beer.html
But then I thought "Well, I know that the Reinheitsgebot limited beer ingredients to barley, hops, and water. But are all three required. And what about US laws."
So I got my nerd on and looked up the US law.
http://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/retriev...a1ae108e6c&mc=true&n=pt27.1.25&r=PART&ty=HTML
Title 27 → Chapter I → Subchapter A → Part 25 → Subpart B → §25.11 Defines beer as
" Beer. Beer, ale, porter, stout, and other similar fermented beverages (including saké and similar products) of any name or description containing one-half of one percent or more of alcohol by volume, brewed or produced from malt, wholly or in part, or from any substitute for malt. Standards for the production of beer appear in §25.15."
Checking on §25.15 "Materials for the production of beer", we find the following.
(a) Beer must be brewed from malt or from substitutes for malt. Only rice, grain of any kind, bran, glucose, sugar, and molasses are substitutes for malt. In addition, you may also use the following materials as adjuncts in fermenting beer: honey, fruit, fruit juice, fruit concentrate, herbs, spices, and other food materials.
(There is a paragraph (b) but it only discusses additional sources of alcohol.)
So, I find no basis in US law that requires the use of hops in beer.
(I also found funny that the US govt definition of beer doesn't specifically mention lager, but includes ale, porter, stout and saké.)
Yes, I know, I have a strange sense of humor. :fro:
I find this strange, cause I seem to recall there being something in multiple episodes of the Dogfish Head Brewmasters show where they talked about having to use some hops in all of their beer for some legal reason....or was that malt? Should look up what that is all about.
I checked the Delaware Administrative code and found this general definition in Title 4 Alcoholic Beverage Control.
(5) "Beer" means any beverage containing more than one half of 1 percent of ethyl alcohol by volume, obtained by the alcoholic fermentation of any infusion or decoction of barley malt and hops in water and includes, among other things, ale, porter, stout and other malt or brewed liquors.
However, Texas uses the following general definitions.
(12) "Ale" or "malt liquor" means a malt beverage containing more than four percent of alcohol by weight.
(15) "Beer" means a malt beverage containing one-half of one percent or more of alcohol by volume and not more than four percent of alcohol by weight.
(15) "Beer" means a malt beverage containing one-half of one percent or more of alcohol by volume and not more than four percent of alcohol by weight.
But then in Sec. 109.21. HOME PRODUCTION OF WINE, ALE, MALT LIQUOR, OR BEER. of the regulations has this statement
" Only ale, malt liquor, or beer made from the normal alcoholic fermentation of malted barley with hops, or their products, and with or without other malted or unmalted cereals, may be produced under this section. "
So I guess everyone in Delaware and home brewers in Texas better add those hops. But you can make un-hopped commercial beer in Texas.
Does anyone here have a un-hopped recipe that is any good? Or anything that is actually funny?
The website gruitale.com presumably has a few recipes.
There are several good ones (un-hopped beers, that is, not funny things) in the book Sacred and Healing Herbal Beers, with a focus on those with some mildly entheogenic properties such as yarrow. The historical part of the book is about 7/10ths bull****, but still fun to read.
Check the section on the recipe database on fruit and herb beers, especially for the ones marked 'gruit'. I don't know which ones are actually any good, though.
I did find these in a forum search on 'gruit'
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=204033
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=237269
Keep in mind, however, the main reason hops came to dominate over other herbs in beer: it's antibacterial properties. You may need to be a bit more assiduous in your sanitation without it, or else do as the Lambic brewers do and use just enough aged, low-alpha hops to keep the less desirable microflora in check (though in that case they are doing it that way in part to encourage microbiota that most other brewers avoid - they want to control and guide the mix of wild fungi and bacteria without killing off the ones they want - so there's still some risk at that unless you really like brett and pedio character).
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lowtones84
Well-Known Member
Gruits can be really nice, just don't go into it expecting what you normally think of as beer. If you do, you will be sorely disappointed. Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers is an incredibly interesting book, just read it with care as mentioned above as there is plenty of author's opinion in it. There is also a TON of valuable information, however. As far as any mild narcotic properties, I think you would have to drink somewhere around a 6 pack in one sitting. I drank three in a row once and the buzz was definitely a little different than if I had drank three standard beers, but it was subtle.
I've made three and am about to do another, and 2/3 were clean as can be. The one that got infected I added fresh flowering yarrow tops in the fermenting vessel, cut directly from a field. Guess there was some wild yeast on those
Turned out to be a very tart sour, almost like lemonade, so not all was lost.
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WilliamSlayer
Well-Known Member
TL: DR Beer is not required to have hops.
I while researching the chemisty behind skunked beer I read the following and got a little chuckle.
"In fact, American and German beers are required by law to contain at least a small amount of hops." http://www.professorbeer.com/articles/skunked_beer.html
But then I thought "Well, I know that the Reinheitsgebot limited beer ingredients to barley, hops, and water. But are all three required. And what about US laws."
So I got my nerd on and looked up the US law.
http://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/retriev...a1ae108e6c&mc=true&n=pt27.1.25&r=PART&ty=HTML
Title 27 → Chapter I → Subchapter A → Part 25 → Subpart B → §25.11 Defines beer as
" Beer. Beer, ale, porter, stout, and other similar fermented beverages (including saké and similar products) of any name or description containing one-half of one percent or more of alcohol by volume, brewed or produced from malt, wholly or in part, or from any substitute for malt. Standards for the production of beer appear in §25.15."
Checking on §25.15 "Materials for the production of beer", we find the following.
(a) Beer must be brewed from malt or from substitutes for malt. Only rice, grain of any kind, bran, glucose, sugar, and molasses are substitutes for malt. In addition, you may also use the following materials as adjuncts in fermenting beer: honey, fruit, fruit juice, fruit concentrate, herbs, spices, and other food materials.
(There is a paragraph (b) but it only discusses additional sources of alcohol.)
So, I find no basis in US law that requires the use of hops in beer.
(I also found funny that the US govt definition of beer doesn't specifically mention lager, but includes ale, porter, stout and saké.)
Yes, I know, I have a strange sense of humor. :fro:
I find this hilarious! So you are telling me that my Hard Cider (by this definition),made from glucose and the adjunct of apple juice.... is beer??
I highly doubt the US or various state governments care about style guidelines or recipe choices. I'm assuming these laws are more concerned with how a product should be taxed. I'm sure they're not saying you can't sell an unhopped beer, rather that it will probably be taxed as a wine, or malt beverage instead.
I'm gonna go ahead and say a cider is a cider.
I'm gonna go ahead and say a cider is a cider.
cyanmonkey
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Is cider ale? This sounds like a definition for ale rather than beer.
...and now I'm considering fermenting cider with a lager strain.
...oooooohhh...I bet cider with 3711 or 3724 would be pretty great.
Tomcat0304
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cyanmonkey
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I died a little inside when I served my wife Duchess de Bourgeon in a ball jar with ice because that's how she wanted it...
mcspanner
Well-Known Member
That's when it's time to say " No. This is how it's going to happen"
Everyone has that moment eventually.
kombat
Well-Known Member
Not really a funny thing I overheard, but I was at a relatively fancy restaurant Saturday night for a friend's birthday party. Their beer selection was mediocre, but they did have a couple of craftier options. I ordered an Amsterdam Boneshaker IPA (7.1%, 80 IBU), which is a nice, very hoppy, very bitter unfiltered IPA. She brought it to me in the bottle. Eventually, I realized she wasn't going to bring me a glass, so I stopped her and requested one. "Sure, I'll bring you an ice mug." Ugh.
A local brewpub tapped a new sour and I was asking the bartender what style it is. "It's a sour." Yes, but do you know what style? "Well it's like.. sour, so it has like a bitter sour taste." Mmm that sounds good, I'll have that.
It's a Berliner Wiess with a subtle amount of apricot added. Delicious. The staff really should get some lessons on beer styles. At least be familiar with their own offerings.
It's a Berliner Wiess with a subtle amount of apricot added. Delicious. The staff really should get some lessons on beer styles. At least be familiar with their own offerings.
GrogNerd
mean old man
heck, yeah, that
brewpub servers should know a little bit about their own beers, even if they have to have cheat sheets with a few adjectives they can use
I give restaurant servers a break, at least about beer, but they should at least know the food being served
comes down to it, it's a failure by management to properly train the staff
think this has come up more than once in this thread. even more often than statistics & economics
WilliamSlayer
Well-Known Member
Agreed, I had the same problem at a restaurant I went to this past week where the server was proudly listing off every Budweiser/ Miller /Coors that they had when I asked for their beer selection! When I asked what they had for craft beer I stumped the server!
GrogNerd
mean old man
Once asked if they had anything other than BudMillerCoors and she replied "BudBudLightMillerMillerLiteCoorsCoorsLight..."
Ug, stop. Bring me a co-cola
Ug, stop. Bring me a co-cola
jr72023
Active Member
Had he been from the eastern part of the south he would have asked for a, "CoCola." Were the server from the same area she would have responded, "What kind?"
DoD_Ales
Well-Known Member
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1464540047.974558.jpg
Actually, I don't know if this is funny, or just sad.
Actually, I don't know if this is funny, or just sad.
I'm going with sad...& to think, I drank a lot of that stuff decades ago?!...
fuzzy2133
Well-Known Member
ftfy
Yeah, getting more for less, instead of less for more which is more...
NickTheGreat
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Can you get that price on a Blue Moon or Leinie's? :
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