Beer

[Racoon]

Our lager,

Which art in barrels,

Hallowed by they drink.

Thy will be drunk,

(I will be drunk),

At home as in the tavern.

Give us this day our foamy head,

And forgive us our spillages,

As we forgive those who spill

against us.

And lead us not into incarceration,

But deliver us from hangovers.

For thine is the beer,

The bitter and the lager,

For ever and ever,

Barmen.

 

:weather_storm:

[Jay-qu]

I recently tried a selection of Belgium Beers, very nice indeed - Stella Artios was one of my fav's :naughty:

[eric l]

Stella Artios was one of my fav's :naughty:

 

You tread on my heart, Jay-qu. Stella Artois is a Belgian beer, only in the sense that it is brewed (some would say "produced") in a Belgian brewery. This brewery has taken in a lot of local brewers, to become "Interbrew" with the slogan "Local brewers to the world". But Stella was not to be mistaken for a local brew, it has (at least for the latest half century) never been more than a good qualoity "lager". And a lot of the local breweries had to addapt their formulations in order to be more generally acceptable. In many cases they had to make their brew not only less bitter, but positively sweeter !

And now Interbrew has merged with the Brazilians to become "Inbev" and in the rationalization that followed, some of the smaller breweries that could go on producing their local brew within the Interbrew-concern have been forced to close. It may be that you'll have to hurry if you want to taste "real" Belgian beers !

[InfiniteNow]

Check this one out. I like both, but am not sure I like them together. I guess I shouldn't knock it until I've tried it. :thumbs_up

 

Beer plus milk equals 'Bilk'. 14/02/2007. ABC News Online

Great news for beer and milk lovers: A liquor shop owner in Japan's largest dairy farming region has stopped crying about local spilled milk and started making beer from it instead.

 

"We came up with the idea after hearing about surplus milk," said Chitoshi Nakahara, head of the Nakahara liquor shop on the northernmost island of Hokkaido.

 

Milk consumption has been declining steadily in Japan, and Hokkaido disposed of nearly 900 tonnes of milk last March due to over-production, according to the Japan Dairy Association.

 

Nakahara's new brew, "Bilk" - a combination of "milk" and "beer" - is about 30 per cent milk.

 

It also contains hops, and the production process does not differ much from that of regular beer, he said.

 

His shop started selling Bilk, which apart from a slight milky scent looks and tastes like ordinary beer, on February 1 after spending about six months developing the product with a local brewer.

 

-Reuters

 

Or, listen to a story from NPR at the following:

NPR : It's Milk. It's Beer. It's 'Bilk'

 

 

Cheers. :milk::lightning

[Jay-qu]

I drunk to much of it today :S

[Michaelangelica]

The cane Toads days are numbered!

 

Cane toads kick off bounty war

A north Queensland publican is reportedly offering a new incentive for

capturing the region's worst pest, a beer for a bag of cane toads.

(26/02/2007) Cane toads kick off bounty war - 26/02/2007

[Jay-qu]

Im going to Quessnsland :)

 

sounds like a challenge!

[Michaelangelica]

Does anyone in Oz know where I can buy a largish, 10K maybe more, kilo of whole hops fairly cheaply?

It seems most of the hop growers are pelitising their hops prior to sale.

Probably easier to ship that way.

[Jay-qu]

dont know Michael.. perhaps a specialised brewing shop could help you out, what does pelitising actually mean?

 

are you brewing your own beer :cup:

[eric l]

I think it refers to what is known as "pelletising". It is the transformation of a very loose product (like dried hops) into pellets, using some binder and pressure.

Dried hops would have a bulk density well below 100 kg/m³ (depending on a number of parameters). The bulk density of pelletised hops would be 10 times higher.

A 20 ton truck could transport 20 tonnes of pelletised hops, but - because of the volume - just about 2 tonnes of unpelletised dry hops.

But you would need a binder that is not toxic, leaves no smell or taste or colour and oes not interfere with things like foam, or mouthfeel. Sometimes caramel (= roasted sugar) is used, but that is not exactly exempt of smell, taste or colour. So you would have to adept your formula for compensating all that.

[Michaelangelica]

Thanks all I am actually going to use the hops to make a fragrant, herbal sleep pillow mix.

 

And

If that admission isn't bad enough!:D

look at this!

What is happening on this planet!

GREEN BEER!!:phones:

Peak Energy

Sunday, May 06, 2007

Green Beer

 

It seems to be beer week here at Peak Energy - today's installment is a story on a green brewer in Colorado that uses energy efficient brewing kettles and a microbial fuel cell for generating energy from waste (as per the Fosters story recently).

 

At the New Belgium Brewery in Fort Collins, Colo., it's time to raise a glass for beer brewed with a conscience. Kim Jordan is co-founder of New Belgium. When she and her husband, Jeff, first started brewing beer in their basement back in 1991, they set a few ground rules. "Having fun, brewing world class beer, promoting beer culture and being environment stewards," Kim says, recounting the rules.

 

Sixteen years and 300 employees later, New Belgium is now the nation's third largest mid-sized brewery, and its corporate soul is still very much intact. "Success here is about more than just the bottom line," Kim says. "It's also about the 'Three R's:'" reduce, reuse, recycle.

 

The brew kettles at New Belgium use 65 percent less energy than a standard brew kettle, spent grain goes to a local cattle farmer, and, perhaps most surprising, the brewery turns waste water into energy. "We have bacteria that are doing the 'cleaning" of the waste water,' Brandon Weaver says. "They're consuming the pollutants — giving off a bio-product which is methane-rich gas." The methane gas is then used to produce 15 percent of the brewery's electricity needs. The rest comes from wind. New Belgium saves $3,000 a month on electricity bills, while reducing carbon dioxide emissions by eight million pounds a year.

 

The single largest ingredient in beer is water. And as part of its commitment to conservation, New Belgium uses 50 percent less than the industry average. The brewery also uses desks made from old FedEx tubes, the building is constructed from reclaimed timber, and solar tubes light the warehouse.

[Michaelangelica]

You are not going to believe this.

 

Free reputation for the wittiest comeback

 

BEER HELPS SCIENTISTS FIND LANDMINES (News in Science, 8/5/07)

Biotechnologists have genetically engineered brewer's yeast to glow green in

response to an ingredient found in landmines.

 

News in Science - Beer helps scientists find landmines - 08/05/2007

[Michaelangelica]

Funny how these quirky 'beer' things keep popping up, I am not even looking for them

 

Beer becomes bait for fruitfly

A cold beer one tropical evening has led to the production of fruitfly

baits from brewery waste!

This week in Hanoi, a new yeast bait production facility was officially launched by the Australian Ambassador to Vietnam, Bill Tweddell.

Beer becomes bait for fruitfly. 11 May 2007. Rural Online. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

[Michaelangelica]

Without beer there would be no civilisation, well, not as we know it, Jim.

Ale's Well with the World: Scientific American

 

"Beer is the basis of modern static civ*ilization," began Bamforth, Anheuser-Busch Endowed Professor of Brewing Science at the University of California, Davis.

"Because before beer was discovered, people used to wander around and follow goats from place to place.

And then they realized that this grain [barley] could be grown and sprouted and made into a bread and crumbled and converted into a liquid which gave a nice, warm, cozy feeling.

So gone were the days that they followed goats around. They stayed put while the grain grew and while the beer was brewed. And they made villages out of their tents. And those villages became towns, and those towns became cities.

And so here we are in New York, thanks to beer." Another syllogism ended his address: "He who drinks beer sleeps well. He who sleeps well cannot sin. He who does not sin goes to heaven. The logic is impeccable."

[Michaelangelica]

Green beer for Japanese brewer

One of Japan's largest brewers wants Australian barley growers to become greener.

Sapporo Breweries, Japan's third largest beer maker, has asked

its Australian suppliers of malting barley to reduce carbon emissions

and cut back on fertiliser and chemicals.

Green beer for Japanese brewer. 16 May 2007. Rural Online. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Sort of links up with Terra preta doesn't it?

[Michaelangelica]

Ah, beer. The cause of and the solution to all of life's problems. - Homer Simpson

 

This is fast becoming a serious thread which was not the intention.

 

Turning cellulose int alcohol is a major international topic of research

I just read a wonderful quirky bit of science that a bacteria to turn cellulose into alcohol had been found in ELEPHANT POO! (Sorry can find the link now)

(Well you would wouldn't you EP is BIG)

I was very amused by this.

It reminded me of the scientist in the great South African film

"The Gods Must Be Crazy" one of the top ten funniest movies of all time.

The "hero's" 'job' it to researches elephant Poo. Trying to impress the girl with this occupation is well nigh impossible!

The going is definitely uphill (But it's OK to watch. He gets the girl in the end. ( I never watch movies where this doesn't happen.)

Now I found this about New Zealand

Homer is right, as usual. Diversa, a leader in finding and 'developing' enzymes, has teamed up with New Zealand Crown Research Institutes Scion (forest research institute) and AgResearch (pastoral research institute) to figure out a way to turn trees (or cellulose/tree waste) into fuel. Fermentation of cellulose is harder than it looks, but advances out of this program could have a tremendous impact on the world's agricultural landscape.

 

Like beer, fuel ethanol can be produced by fermenting sugars- a slow process. At the end of the slow process the ethanol makes a 'wine' which then needs to be extracted (with energy) to be useful as a fuel. Cellulose further complicates matters by not really being a sugar in the first place. Grain crops, like corn or wheat, which have lots of natural sugars (well..starch-but close enough) are too energy intensive to grow. Robert Rapier's blog does a good job of explaining why ethanol production from grain crops is not a good idea (thanks GreenEngineer!)- which leaves us cellulose (and other alternative energy sources).

A Biofuel Nation? Diversa and New Zealand Will Find Out (TreeHugger)

[Queso]

There's this german beer called

OPTIMATOR

that I've veen drinking

playin; the blues

all night

love it.