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Posted by Christine (Member # 1646) on :
 
All right, let's learn a thing or three about alcohol for those of us who are a bit ignorant of the subject. So, if you have an appreciation for alcohol of any sort, I'd love to hear from you.

At the moment, I'm writing a story where a romantic dinner for two is paired with a red wine...a burgundy? Is burgundy a type of wine? My husband said it was a color, but he doesn' tknow any more than I do (he thinks he does but he doesn't).

More generally, I have found myself stuck on alcoholic beverages throughout my writing career. I hate beer and have no idea what kinds there are, what colors they are, whether they are good warm or cold, and who would drink them. What's a poor man's beer? A rich man's?

And wines...whit wine goes with fish and red wine goes with red pasta, but that's about as much as I know. Do you chill them? What's an expensive wine and what's a cheap wine? What do you have with dinner and what with dessert?

Then, of course, there are hard liquors and mixed drinks to ask about, but perhaps we should take this in doses so I don't get confused.

So...if anyone knows anything about alcohol, please share. I'm floundering.
 


Posted by Jeraliey (Member # 2147) on :
 
You could probably get a lot of the higher-class information by doing a Google search.

For the rest, just talk to your local college frat boy.
 


Posted by Beth (Member # 2192) on :
 
I'm no wine expert but yes, burgundy is a kind of wine.

White wine is generally chilled and red wine is generally not. As for cheap vs expensive, I don't think there's any one kind of wine that's generally expensive vs cheap, and most wines don't have a lot of name recognition. Well, Boone's Farm on the cheap wino-in-the-gutter side. Wine in a box is generally scorned by wine snobs.

Wine with dinner can be either red or white. Dessert wines are usually sweeter and I think white or rose (pink). I know almost nothing about matching food to wine - for advice on the subject, call a fancy French restaurant in your area and ask to talk to the sommelier - he's the wine dude. Call in the middle of the afternoon, not during dinner.

Beer is usually cold. It's my understanding that in the UK at least some beer is served warm, but here, it's cold. Generally the cheap beer is what you see advertised on TV: Bud Light, Miller Lite, Pabst Blue Ribbon (PBR), etc, and are marketed to horny guys who watch sports. They are pale yellow in color.

If you need a snootier beer, go with some kind of microbrew. There's a wide range of colors, flavors, and styles, ranging from very dark to very light.

Those are really really broad questions! Hopefully that will get you started.



 


Posted by Beth (Member # 2192) on :
 
Your local frat boy is most likely to be an expert on how to obtain and consume large quantities of cheap beer. Frats like kegs, which are large barrels of beer, suitable for large parties of frat boys.

Probably not the best source of advice on beverages for a romantic dinner, though.
 


Posted by Christine (Member # 1646) on :
 
That is a fine start...for my WIP I will keep my burgundy but take it out of the ice bucket.

I think I'm mostly interested in the social side of all of this. I don't drink because I don't like how it tastes and it's expensive -- even the "cheap" stuff -- but a great many people do drink, particularly socially. I run into this many times in stories when characters who are not me are in these situations and I guess I['m just looking for some idea of what drink to stick in their hands.
 


Posted by Robyn_Hood (Member # 2083) on :
 
Burgundy is a type of red wine. The colour was named for the wine which was named for the region in France where it is made.

A good wine for dessert could be a rose or blush (I think...)

I don't know much about wine experientially because there are so few that I actually like.

Hopefully MCameron will spot this, I believe she actually makes her wines sometimes.
 


Posted by Beth (Member # 2192) on :
 
Yes, definitely take the burgundy out of the ice bucket! You should probably also pop the cork half an hour before dinner so that it can breathe, if it's a good wine.
 
Posted by Robyn_Hood (Member # 2083) on :
 
As this is a date, you could have them drinking Champagne or some other sparkling wine which should be chilled. Popping the cork together is supposed to be a bit of a romantic thing.

I second the reccommendation of calling a restaurant or winery if you need to get specifics. A winery would be able to give you tips on how to store, prepare and serve various wines.
 


Posted by wbriggs (Member # 2267) on :
 
Pour the wine glasses less than half full, usually. I think red wine glasses are closer to globular (not all the way there) and white wine glasses are more vertical. I'm not an expert, but I do know some of it. Chardonnay will cause a Frenchman to turn up his nose, I think. I don't know what the real epicures will think of American, Australian, or South African wines, but they do exist.

Winos like MD 20/20 ("Mad Dog" 20/20) because it's cheap and has a high alcohol content.

Newbies to wine, like me, prefer sweeter, and those with experience often go for drier (opposite of sweet). Port is a very sweet one, for dessert, not common in the US. Absinthe is illegal in the US because it has hallucinogenic properties (foxglove?), but shows up in Christie books.

Merlot and Chablis, IIRC, are general descriptions, not brands; I'm sure you'd be safe saying "a merlot" regardless of the wealth of your characters.

More than you wanted: http://www.drinkwine.com/

Most beer seems to be $4-$6/six-pack, so you won't find so much class difference in beer. Pabst and Miller are for lowbrows, though. Sam Adams, Corona (you need a squirt of lime juice or they're not so good), Dos Equis, Coors, Yeungling (sp?), Heineken, all pretty much the same in cost. Harp and Bass can be expected in the UK (we got it here too, though); US drinkers take 'em cold, Brits drink it at room temperature. Bud and Bud Lite are maybe lowbrow-ish, but not extremely so. Rolling Rock is like drinking so much water (IMHO). Guinness (Ireland) is like drinking a sandwich. People who like it, swear by it. You can mix it half-and-half with Bass and get something called a "Black and Tan," an ironic name because it also means, I think, British police in Ireland back during oppressive times.

O'Douls is "near beer" (non-alcoholic).

[This message has been edited by wbriggs (edited July 19, 2005).]
 


Posted by Beth (Member # 2192) on :
 
Absinthe is distilled from wormwood, and is pretty toxic stuff.
 
Posted by MCameron (Member # 2391) on :
 
Sorry, I've never made wine. Paul brews beer, which is probably what you're thinking of. The only wine I like is port, as long as it isn't the cheap stuff *shudder*. Port is a very sweet, thick red wine, that you would generally drink after dinner, possibly with dessert. I haven't tried very many kinds, but Graham's Six Grapes is good.

I have sampled quite a few beers from around the world, so I could probably answer many of your questions about it. Robyn_Hood is right, most beers in the United States are drunk cold. I have tried Guiness and Beamish at room temperature, and it was nice. You notice more of the flavor when it is warm, which is why swill like Bud Light, etc, must be chilled to be drinkable.

Mexican beers are generally served with a slice of lime to be squirted in them. This helps cover up the skunky flavor that so many of them have.

I'll stop rambling now. If you have any specific questions about beer, I might be able to answer them.
 


Posted by Isaiah13 (Member # 2283) on :
 
Red wine with red meat, white wine with poultry. I believe that is the norm. I would agree with blush for dessert. Mmmm...blush.
 
Posted by benskia (Member # 2422) on :
 
Hey Christine.

I'm sorry to have to say this, but you're in for a whole lot of pain...

You need to remember to write about the after effects of drinking if you plan on doing any scenes the day following the drinking session.

You might need to get somebody to help you write this for you if you're a tea totaller, or use the writing as an excuse to sup a few jars and write how you feel when you wake up in the morning.


 


Posted by Beth (Member # 2192) on :
 
A glass or two of wine with dinner shouldn't lead to any ill effects the next day.
 
Posted by kkmmaacc (Member # 2643) on :
 
When you say "a Burgundy," it just means any wine originating in the Burgundy region. It could be either white or red. So it is parallel to saying "a Napa Valley" or "a Bordeaux."

You can also refer to wines by the grapes used. Red wines coming from Burgundy use pinot noir. So, you can refer to such a wine either as a Burgundy or a pinot noir. If the wine was made in California using the same type of grapes, however, it is a pinot noir only. Burgundy also turns out a lot of Chardonnay and Chablis, which can be referred to as "white Burgundies" (assuming they were in fact made in Burgundy).

The common wisdom is that white wines have more subtle flavors, so you shouldn't pair them with foods that have strong flavors lest they be overwhelmed; red wines would by the same logic, be paired with stronger flavored foods. The red wine that you get at Italian restaurants -- the type with the straw basket woven around the bottle -- is
Chianti, and is generally thought to go well with spicy Italian fare. However, in practice wine aficionados will tell you to drink whatever wine you like and not worry about pairing it up wrong.

As for letting a wine breathe -- it is mostly an myth. Exposing the wine to oxygen is a way of mellowing it a bit, and is only useful if you have opened a bottle prematurely (it was intended to age for several years and you opened it before then). If you let a properly aged bottle of wine breathe, it makes it taste worse.

Dessert wines are usually very sweet and sometimes thick. Examples would be port, sherry, or vermouth. I happen to like "ice wines," a type of dessert wine made from grapes that have been left on the vine through a freeze. When you say something is a dessert wine, it is supposed to be drunk as dessert, not with it. If you have food dessert with your dessert wine, it should be something like cheese or nuts.

White wines are served chilled, and red wines are served at room temperature. However, "room temperature" has been getting warmer and warmer over the centuries. The wine experts I've spoken with often suggest putting a red wine in the fridge for two hours, then letting it sit out on the counter for one hour before opening it.

As to what makes a wine expensive versus cheap: Wines that require aging will be more expensive. Even a really, really stellar Beaujolais Nouveau, for example, will be pretty inexpensive -- these are meant to be drunk young. An aged Cabernet Sauvignon will be more expensive. Coming from a winery and winemaker with a good reputation, as well as being tasty, will also increase a wine's price.
 


Posted by Jeraliey (Member # 2147) on :
 
I've been doing some brewing, mainly mead and alcoholic cider. I enjoy both, although I'm not sure how popular mead is anymore.

My fencing teammates are huge fans of Woodchuck cider and vodka-based "girly-drinks" like Smirnov and Skyy Blue.

I, however, am a total oenophile. Dry reds are my favorite, and I don't like anything citrus-based. The price of the bottle doesn't always correlate with the quality of the wine. The best wine I've ever tasted was a $20 Australian shiraz with vanilla overtones and a pepper finish. The worst wine I've ever tasted was from a box.

(Random fact: cooking wine has added salt. So, if you ever want to make a dish which calls for cooking wine as an ingredient, just get a bottle of cheap chardonnay. It's SO much better. Or, if you want to get fancy and a little pricier, get a nicer bottle of wine and use the same for your cooking wine and your table wine. Draws the meal together nicely. Ok, the caterer in me will proceed to shut up now.)

I've never had any problems the morning after drinking. However, I do tend to stay to only one or two drinks per occasion.
 


Posted by Christine (Member # 1646) on :
 
First, I've been drunk before. I simply do not drink often or well. The few times I've done it I've drunk excluseively "girly" drinks...which are the only ones I can stand. I believe the quote from my first time getting drunk, "My brain feels fuzzy." pretty well sums it up.

Second, I'm not going to reexperience it until after I'm finished being pregnant.

As to the after effects...I'm not too worried about that. I don't have a story planned in which anyone actually gets drunk. If they do, I will use my recollections as well as reports from others -- it doesn't seem to effect any two people the same way.
 


Posted by MaryRobinette (Member # 1680) on :
 
AH! There is a lot of mis-information in the above posts, no offense folks. My husband works in the business, and is a true wine geek. I'm a wine geek-by-marriage.

Oh, boy. Where to start.

Okay. Burgundy is a region in France which produces both red and white wine. A white burgundy is made from Chardonnay--which is a type of grape. The red burgundy is usually made from a grape called Pinot Noir. So a frenchman might turn up his nose at California Chardonnay, which is heavily oaked (meaning that it spends a lot of time in new oak barrels. The newer the barrel the more pronounced the oaky quality), but the frenchman wouldn't necessarily turn his nose up at wines made with the Chardonnay grape.

Dessert wines are not usually roses, although they can be. A rose is better for a picnic and is one of the perfect summer wines. It gets a bad rap in the U.S. because of White Zinfandel (which is a sin and should never be made) but is perfectly respectable in Europe. A blush is not quite the same thing as a rose, but I'll have to ask my husband to explain the difference.

A desert wine would be a wine that contains residual sugar, such as a late harvest riesling, or a fortified wine like port (ports are red in color)

When you are wanting to know "what drink to stick in their hands" it's going to depend on the specific context and the person.

You should probably also pop the cork half an hour before dinner so that it can breathe, if it's a good wine.
Not necessarily. That could kill an older wine.

Popping the cork together is supposed to be a bit of a romantic thing.
When a bottle of champagne is uncorked the sound should be "no louder than a baby's fart" (honest-to-god wine term) or you will lose the effervesence that makes champagne interesting. Shooting it across the room is a no-no.

A winery would be able to give you tips on how to store, prepare and serve various wines.
Nope. They can give you information on how to make it and what their wine is best at. They are not necessarily foodies, so won't always know what to pair it with. Call a high-end wine store; they are in the business of knowing about lots of wines. They are reguarly asked to suggest pairings.

Or email me the scene and I'll insert the right wine lingo. (limited time offer)

Most beer seems to be $4-$6/six-pack, so you won't find so much class difference in beer.
Unless you live in an area with microbrews in which case it can go much higher than that.

Absinthe is distilled from wormwood, and is pretty toxic stuff.It contains wormwood, but is not distilled from it. It is not toxic, but was banned for being dangerous.

Sorry. At this point I'm feeling overwhelmed and don't know where to start. Why don't you email me your scene. Heck. You could even post in F&F if you want to use it as a learning experience for others.

[This message has been edited by MaryRobinette (edited July 19, 2005).]
 


Posted by JmariC (Member # 2698) on :
 
A dessert wine not mentioned (and I've only found two) is a Lambrusco. It's a very tasty sweet red wine, can be found cheap by Reunitie or by an Italian winery (don't remember the name).

Beer is a wide topic, you can get reviews of different beers at http://www.beeradvocate.com/
The saying of Europian beers are warm is not quite accurate. They are room temparture, which in most places is cool/cold by american standards. Dark beers are better warm than the american pale beers.
American pale beers came out around the time of (or just after) prohibition. Due to the downtime of beer, americans weren't up to the stouts of old, so brewers worked on making a 'soda' beer and the rest is history.

Alot can be learned about liquores by just reading the recipes and the names. Most of it is intuitive, because drunks can't be relied on to remember much.

If you have any questions, shoot me an email.

(Really, I'm not a lush. I just sound like on on T.V.)
 


Posted by Beth (Member # 2192) on :
 
See? The fastest way to get the correct information is to post something wrong.
 
Posted by Robyn_Hood (Member # 2083) on :
 
I always find it interesting that "girly-drinks" tend to have more alcohol content than "Manly-Beer".

A drink that I like with dessert, especially served on vanilla ice cream, is amaretto. I usually buy Disaronno. It's also nice for sipping. I like it cold, but without ice. I usually store it in the freezer; the alcohol content keeps it liquid, but it does get a little bit thicker. A shot or two in a brandy snifter makes a great evening drink.
 


Posted by hoptoad (Member # 2145) on :
 
Ask HSO.
He knows stuff.
 
Posted by Beth (Member # 2192) on :
 
Mary, can you say more about absinthe? My googling tells me that the active ingredient in wormwood is thujone, often referred to as a toxin. The word "distilled" is often used in describing the process of making absinthe.
 
Posted by Beth (Member # 2192) on :
 
for example, this page on thujone toxicity:
http://www.phc.vcu.edu/Feature/oldfeature/thuj/thujone.html

"The only proven effect of thujone, however, is its toxicity to the brain."
 


Posted by MaryRobinette (Member # 1680) on :
 
I'll have to ask the big guns, namely husband and friends, but basically there's very little of the toxin in absinthe, so it's sort of like saying that tortilla chips are toxic because they have salt. You eat enough and it'll kill you, but otherwise...

http://reason.com/9905/ci.html#cf.absinthe
http://www.gumbopages.com/food/beverages/absinthe.html
 


Posted by Beth (Member # 2192) on :
 
Gotcha. Thanks.
 
Posted by mikemunsil (Member # 2109) on :
 
Unfortunately my family got out of the wine business decades ago, so I don't know as much as I should. The family sold out to Concha y Toro. I suggest a Cabernet Sauvignon cool but not chilled, and only with a hearty meal. Concha Y Toro makes a nice Cabernet called Casillero del Diablo.

E&J Gallo is a client of mine and if anyone ever needs info for a scene set in a mega-winery, I can help. I don't drink their wines, though.
 


Posted by mikemunsil (Member # 2109) on :
 
And then there's scotch. I suggest an Islay single-malt, Bunnahabhain, for example. Best drunk straight or on the rocks. It has a peaty/salty flavor.
 
Posted by MCameron (Member # 2391) on :
 
I was wondering how long it would take for mike to mention Bunnahabhain

--Mel
 


Posted by Kickle (Member # 1934) on :
 
Off the wine subject, but I spoke to a person who seemed to know the history of absinthe and he led me to believe that most of the mystic of absinthe comes from the fact that during the 19th century and before absinthe was made in copper vats lined with lead. This caused certain towns, where the stuff was produced, and absinthe to get a reputation that was not totally correct. I haven't checked out his story, but it seems possible.
On the wine subject, it can be really used to show character -like does someone prefer locally brewed beer or wine, or imported? Do they drink a certain sort of wine because it is correct or do they drink it because they like?
How do they store it, a wine rack, in the fridge or do they only buy what they need for one dinner?

[This message has been edited by Kickle (edited July 20, 2005).]
 


Posted by Spaceman (Member # 9240) on :
 
The light yellow beers are pilsners. The darker ones are probably ales or lagers. I don't drink almost at all anymore, but I had my share of college binges. Playboy magazine used to rate the party schools and while i was in college they printed a disclaimer: Note, we did not rank any schools in Wisconsin because we do not rank professionals. So,I know binges. I once was 30 minutes late to a party with 27 half-barrels and the beer was already gone. Not even a frat party.
 
Posted by yanos (Member # 1831) on :
 
If your going to mention beer you should at least look at the difference between lager and beer just to be technically correct.

There are beer afficianados just as their are those for wine. Belgian beers tend to be rated as the best and are certainly near the top of my list.

And girly drinks are called so because they are sweet like girls and not because of alcohol content.
 


Posted by LJConnally (Member # 2734) on :
 
My husband was a sommelier and tasted hundred dollar bottles of wine. He found the movie "Montavino" very informative and interesting. It goes in to detail about the "scandal" of Napa Valley and the wine industry. My husband swirls and smells wine for their "good nose" and watches how they drip down the glass for the "legs". If the lines going down when you swirl are definable and lasting, that is a good wine. You can also describe wine by the first thought of what it takes like. "Peach", "frutiy" "bubblegum" or where it was distilled "barrel" or "steel drum". If it hits you "right up front" but doesn't last. There are many sayings and phrases that you might be able to get from the movie which I didn't really relate to. He also lilkes micro-brew beers and scorns the usual brands you find in stores. He likes Dos Exis from Mexico. Hope this helps. Laurie
 
Posted by wbriggs (Member # 2267) on :
 
http://paranoia.lycaeum.org/alcohol/absinthe-faq.html

 
Posted by dee_boncci (Member # 2733) on :
 
Be sure to match your wine with the dinner entree. A bookstore like B and N will have a "chef's wine guide" you could browse through to make sure you don't have a faux pas like a red with seafood Alfredo or something. In general reds go with red meat, whites go with lighter meat, but there are exceptions.
 
Posted by electricgrandmother (Member # 2713) on :
 
quote:
Popping the cork together is supposed to be a bit of a romantic thing.
When a bottle of champagne is uncorked the sound should be "no louder than a baby's fart" (honest-to-god wine term) or you will lose the effervesence that makes champagne interesting. Shooting it across the room is a no-no.

I've also been told that doing things like shooting the cork across the room or off the ceiling is an insult to a good champagne.

[This message has been edited by electricgrandmother (edited July 20, 2005).]
 


Posted by Dandelion (Member # 2582) on :
 
I've been buying the same red wine for a few years, because I like it. It's also relatively cheap, and gets really good reviews.

This spring, I thought "since this stuff is so good (and inexpensive), the 'real' wine must be that much better." So I decided to branch out, and I took a wine-tasting class at the local community college (lesson learned the first night - when there are 10 wines on the taste list, do NOT drink all of everything that's put in front of you, especially if you're driving home). We concentrated on European wines - mostly German and French, and of that, mostly French.

We tasted some really expensive wines. And guess what - I'm still buying my same old red wine - there wasn't a single red over the eight-week period that I liked better than my trusty standby. Although I must say that I discovered that I like German wines - all of them: sweet, dry, yum. So that made the course worthwhile.

Anyway, I'm glad that MaryRobinette posted so I didn't have to get out my notes.

Lisa

[This message has been edited by Dandelion (edited July 20, 2005).]
 


Posted by Dandelion (Member # 2582) on :
 
Oh, yeah, and on beer.

quote:
Most beer seems to be $4-$6/six-pack, so you won't find so much class difference in beer.
Unless you live in an area with microbrews in which case it can go much higher than that.

I live in the Pacific Northwest - Land of the Microbrews. So I can say with authority that, yes it can go much higher than that.

Lisa


 


Posted by MaryRobinette (Member # 1680) on :
 
Hey Dandelion, I'm in Portland! Where in PNW are you?
 
Posted by Dandelion (Member # 2582) on :
 
I'm in Seattle. And I'm glad summer finally got here. I was starting to wonder..

And speaking of microbreweries, I regularly bike right past the Red Hook facility. Stacks and stacks of empty kegs outside just waiting to be filled. Of course, they're not really a microbrew any more. And they did get bought out by Anheiser.

Lisa
 


Posted by SteeleGregory (Member # 2049) on :
 
Hi Christine,

I'm sorry I didn't see this post earlier. I'm a bit of an expert on all sorts of alcoholic beverages. I've brewed many kinds of beer, wines, meads, and other various things with scary names like metheglin. No offense is meant to any of the previous posters, but just about everything said was incomplete. I think it may be too hard to just dump a bunch of alcohol facts on you, so feel free to email any specific questions you need answered to me.

At any rate, here's a few corrections. There are at least 100,000 distinct styles of beer, some are extremely expensive. Ales and lagers are both sub categories of beer. The difference is in the fermenting process, not color. Ales ferment quickly at room temperature and lagers ferment slowly at cooler temperatures. Here are some examples of the color spectrum:

Dark ales -
Stout (Guinness)
Wee Heavy
Porter

Dark Lagers -
Bock
Oktoberfest

Amber/red ales -
IPA or India Pale Ale
ESB or Extra Special Bitter

Amber/red lagers -
Standard Lager (Sam Adams and Yuengling)

Light ales -
Blonde ales
Lambics (belgian fruit beers)

Light lagers -
Pils or Pilsner (Budweiser, Miller, Coors, Rolling Rock, standard mass-produced american beer)
Hefeweisen (wheat beer)

Lagers probably have become the most popular beer in America because they are more stable than ales and have more consistent flavors. Prohibition killed the variety of American beers by driving all the small brewers out of business. When prohibition ended, scads of men went to fight in WWII and the newly re-opened breweries targetted the working women by selling very light tasting pilsners. Thus American beer was born.

"Warm" beers that the europeans drink are actually cellar temperature--about 55F--which is also a good lagering temperature and the natural temperature of caves.

-----
Wines are usually named for the grapes that their made from or the region where the grapes came from. Wines tend to get divided up by flavor (dry to sweet) and color (red to white). Sweet wines have unfermented sugars left over after fermentation. A red wine is made by leaving the grape skins in the fermentation vat to color the wine. Typically the extra tannin from the skins and the lack of excess sugars makes dry red wines more stable, so they can be aged for a number of years.

-----

quote:
I always find it interesting that "girly-drinks" tend to have more alcohol content than "Manly-Beer".

"Girly drinks" are usually sweet and mask the flavor of the alcohol. Slug back two fingers of Kentucky Bourbon neat and you'll experience a manly beverage.

-----
As far as what to drink with what... there aren't any actual rules, but dry red wines have strong flavors that compliment steak, dry whites are subtle and good with fish. Dark beers and mulled (heated and spiced) wines are nice on cold winter days. Light beer and semi-sweet wine are refreshing on warm summer days.

-----
What else? The most expensive wines aren't necessarily the best. Inexpensive local and California wines have increased in quality over the last 50 years to the point that they rival expensive imports.

Hmm... oh yes! In closing, I'd like to mention, a very dry shaken Grey Goose Vodka Martini with three anchovy stuffed olives is delicious.

 


Posted by MaryRobinette (Member # 1680) on :
 
Heathen! Martinis should only be made with gin. A vodka martini is an abomination.

[This message has been edited by MaryRobinette (edited July 21, 2005).]
 


Posted by Beth (Member # 2192) on :
 
Agreed.
 
Posted by MCameron (Member # 2391) on :
 
mmm, gin.
 
Posted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (Member # 59) on :
 
While we're at it, for information's sake, how about something on the process?

I know very little about alcoholic beverages of any kind.

I have heard that the alcoholic content of a serving of just about any kind of alcoholic beverage is roughly the same--as in a shot of whiskey has about as much alcohol as some regular amount of wine (8 ounces?) which has about as much alchohol as a can of beer (12 ounces?).

I have also heard that brandy is made from wine (distilled--meaning evaporated and recondensed?) and that vinegar is "spoiled wine" and that in order to make beer you need hops, though I don't know why.

Is hops the main ingredient of beer or is it the distinguishing ingredient--the thing that makes something a fruit beer instead of a fruit wine?

Or are wines only made from grapes and if you use other fruits it's called something else?

And so on and so forth. Even those of us who don't drink and don't ever intend to can learn some of this stuff so we use it correctly in stories. (A way of adding realism without having to add profanity? )

[This message has been edited by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (edited July 21, 2005).]
 


Posted by MCameron (Member # 2391) on :
 
Well, according to the book "Fortunes in Formulas" fermentation alone will create a maximum of about 12% alcohol, because at that point the alcohol begins to poison the yeast. So if you want a higher alcohol content you have to distill it. Brandy is indeed distilled wine.

Just among beers, the alcohol content can vary. According to this site beer can be anywhere from 3.3% alcohol (Anchor Small) to 17.5% (Sam Adams Triple Bock). So you can see, you really have to look at the alcohol content to compare different drinks.

Hops give beer a bitter flavor. Different beers use different amounts of hops. That is the extent of my knowledge on that, though.

The main ingredient of beer would generally be barley, although there are also wheat beers (and others!).

I'm highly interested in most kinds of fermentation, but I know more about bread-making than brewing.

--Mel
 


Posted by TheoPhileo (Member # 1914) on :
 
quote:
in order to make beer you need hops, though I don't know why.

Beer is made from fermented hops and barley. Generally, the more hops, the more bitter the beer will taste.
 
Posted by SteeleGregory (Member # 2049) on :
 
Alcohol content can vary quite a bit between drinks, but the guidelinesfor common drinks are:

1.5 oz liquor = 5 oz wine = 12 oz beer

That's assuming an 80 proof liquor (40% alcohol), 12-14% alcohol wine and 3-8% alcohol beer.

Brandy is indeed distilled wine. Distillation seperates alcohol from water in the wine. It's not a perfect seperation, so the resulting brandy has some of the water and flavors of the original wine. Repeated distillations can eventually seperate it all making a pure ethyl alcohol.

Alcohol is fermented from sugars anerobically. If oxygen is added to wine with active yeast, the wine can ferment again turning the alcohol into vinegar.

The main ingredient in beer is malted barley (or wheat)--that is, barley that has been allowed to germinate and then has been roasted to stop the germination. The malt sugars are what the yeast converts to alcohol.

Hops are a little green flower that grows on vines and look like a minature pine cones. They are used as a preservative in beer and add a bitter flavor to balance out the sweetness of the malt.

Technically wine is the term for fermented grapes, but it's used as a generic term for things that are fermented that don't have their own name. Dandelion wine, for example.

Rum is fermented sugar cane.
Whiskey, scotch, gin and vodka are all distilled from wheat alcohol (or mash or beer).
Gin is flavored with juniper berries.
Some Russian and Polish vodkas are made from potatoes.
Hard cider is fermented apples.
Apple jack is distilled cider. American frontiersmen used to make it by freezing cider until it was slushy and then removing the ice crystals.
Mead is fermented honey and water.
Fermented honey and grapes are called metheglin.
Honey and apples are cyser.

I don't know what else to add, but if you have more questions, ask.

-----
As for all you gin-heads, I'm surprised you didn't chastise me for shaking my drink as well. Don't you know that can bruise gin?
 


Posted by MCameron (Member # 2391) on :
 
If you're using vodka, it doesn't matter if you shake it.

I don't know why I'm jumping into this, I don't even like martinis. Just because I like gin and not vodka, I guess, and it's fun to tease vodka drinkers (my husband being one).

--Mel
 


Posted by Beth (Member # 2192) on :
 
The ones I really mock are the "martinis" - Green Apple? Hello? Chocolate Espresso? What? They can be yummy but it takes more than serving them in a martini glass to convince me they're martinis.

I kind of like the ones that are pretty much boozy Jolly Ranchers. But they're not martinis.



 


Posted by MaryRobinette (Member # 1680) on :
 
Give me a gin and tonic with Bombay Blue Saphire and I'm a happy camper--if we're talking cocktails.

Otherwise, I tend to lean toward wine, and then it depends on where I am and what's being served.

I'm also fond of hard cider. Not so fond of beer. I like the taste of a good micro-brew, like Hair-of-the-Dog or a Hefeweizen, but it always makes me feel bloated.
 


Posted by Robyn_Hood (Member # 2083) on :
 
MMMMMMmmmmm...Cider!

I don't like beer (with the possible exception of Alexander Keith's India Pale Ale) and don't much care for wine.

I go for the "girly" drinks. My favourite being the vodka paralyzer (which no bar in the US seems to know how to make).

My other drink of choice is MacIntosh apple cider by Growers. Just about any cider will do me, but Mac is tops.

As for making wine, my grandparents used to make wine out of just about anything: dandelion, rhubarb, apples, saskatoons, etc.

[This message has been edited by Robyn_Hood (edited July 22, 2005).]
 




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