Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Different apples = different cider.

In origin, it was like most booze probably just a result of the need to preserve foodstuffs.

Cursory Google suggests the original dates back to Roman Britain, when the natives would ferment Crab Apples. But it’s thought that you’d just use whichever apples you had to hand. The implication being your goal was either Make Dizzyade, or Preserve As Many Crops As Possible, rather than some gimp with a man-bun trying to be “artisan”.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Different apples = different cider.

In origin, it was like most booze probably just a result of the need to preserve foodstuffs.

Cursory Google suggests the original dates back to Roman Britain, when the natives would ferment Crab Apples. But it’s thought that you’d just use whichever apples you had to hand. The implication being your goal was either Make Dizzyade, or Preserve As Many Crops As Possible, rather than some gimp with a man-bun trying to be “artisan”.

Most of human history has been a struggle to find sufficient calories. Alcohol offered a two-fer: calories plus a buzz.

And if you think about it 'strong drink' was even better, since it could clean wounds! It also prevents illness. My grandfather had at least two stout cocktails each day, and famously never got sick, living to a ripe old age.

I seem to be cut from the same cloth. A daily dose of what could fairly be called antiseptic has kept throat infections at bay for longer than I can remember. Some weeks ago I got a mild sinus infection and I was thrown for a loop - I hadn't been sick since 2019!

It's not for everyone, but seems to work for me.

I'll take either a IPA or Lager.

But more often then not I'm just having a ice cold glass of watah.

Have booked Friday off, so gonna slope to the pub Thursday night for some beers.

They usually have three or four on the pumps. And as we’re in the colder months, I’m hopeful for maltier fare, as I’m not a big fan of Hoppy Beers, as too Hoppy and it tastes like soap to me. Which is a recognise quirk of human taste buds. Like Coriander.

 13thWarrior wrote:
I'll take either a IPA or Lager.

But more often then not I'm just having a ice cold glass of watah.

Some of my squadron-mates found themselves in Nigeria for...reasons. They were thirsty, and kept asking for water, but no one knew what it was. Finally, they spotted a bottle of the stuff, pointed at it and said that was what they needed.

"Oh! Watah!" And they got as much as they desired.

The joys of the American "r".

Overnight lows are below freezing here, and I'm dipping my toes into the warm, rewarding waters of brandy.

One does not simply drink brandy; it has to be savored. Slowly.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
In origin, it was like most booze probably just a result of the need to preserve foodstuffs.

Cursory Google suggests the original dates back to Roman Britain, when the natives would ferment Crab Apples. But it’s thought that you’d just use whichever apples you had to hand. The implication being your goal was either Make Dizzyade, or Preserve As Many Crops As Possible, rather than some gimp with a man-bun trying to be “artisan”.

Historically, one of the big reasons for distilling cider- and distillation in general- was transportation. Hauling cider to market or for delivery would be a lot easier if you could reduce its volume by a factor of three or four. In the American colonies, applejack was a common distilled spirit. You'd take your apple harvest in the fall, ferment it over the course of a few weeks in late fall/early winter, and then leave it outside in sub-freezing winter weather. The water content freezes into ice and can be skimmed off, while the alcohol remains. Barrel it up and you're all set.

In colonial America it was then typical to take your distilled spirit and mix it with water, citrus, and sugar, rather than drinking it neat. In ancient Rome, wine was diluted with two to four parts water, and drinking wine straight was considered a barbarian practice. In industrial Europe and the Americas, small beer clocked in at a measly 1-3% alcohol.

Really, it's the practice of producing and serving alcohol at 'full strength' that is a relatively modern trend. The primary historical purpose of booze was to concentrate precious calories into a shelf-stable form, and from there diverging into low-alcohol drinks suitable for hydration and high-alcohol drinks ideal for transport that would typically be diluted before serving. Though that didn't stop people in the 1700s-1800s from spending every day piss drunk, until the temperance movement came along.

Anyways, I enjoy pretty much any spirit and do a fair bit of homebrew. My passion project for the last couple of years has been making my own syrups and infusions to replicate classic tiki cocktails. For this Thanksgiving, though, I'm making a bowl of Philadelphia fish house punch for the family.

Commissar von Toussaint wrote:

 13thWarrior wrote:
I'll take either a IPA or Lager.

But more often then not I'm just having a ice cold glass of watah.

Some of my squadron-mates found themselves in Nigeria for...reasons. They were thirsty, and kept asking for water, but no one knew what it was. Finally, they spotted a bottle of the stuff, pointed at it and said that was what they needed.

"Oh! Watah!" And they got as much as they desired.

The joys of the American "r".

Overnight lows are below freezing here, and I'm dipping my toes into the warm, rewarding waters of brandy.

One does not simply drink brandy; it has to be savored. Slowly.

I’ve never developed an appreciation for Spirits myself. I’ll have a Jack and Coke, sure (pref Tennessee Honey and Diet Coke. Don’t you laugh at me!) but neat just isn’t my bag.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 catbarf wrote:

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
In origin, it was like most booze probably just a result of the need to preserve foodstuffs.

Cursory Google suggests the original dates back to Roman Britain, when the natives would ferment Crab Apples. But it’s thought that you’d just use whichever apples you had to hand. The implication being your goal was either Make Dizzyade, or Preserve As Many Crops As Possible, rather than some gimp with a man-bun trying to be “artisan”.

Historically, one of the big reasons for distilling cider- and distillation in general- was transportation. Hauling cider to market or for delivery would be a lot easier if you could reduce its volume by a factor of three or four. In the American colonies, applejack was a common distilled spirit. You'd take your apple harvest in the fall, ferment it over the course of a few weeks in late fall/early winter, and then leave it outside in sub-freezing winter weather. The water content freezes into ice and can be skimmed off, while the alcohol remains. Barrel it up and you're all set.

In colonial America it was then typical to take your distilled spirit and mix it with water, citrus, and sugar, rather than drinking it neat. In ancient Rome, wine was diluted with two to four parts water, and drinking wine straight was considered a barbarian practice. In industrial Europe and the Americas, small beer clocked in at a measly 1-3% alcohol.

Really, it's the practice of producing and serving alcohol at 'full strength' that is a relatively modern trend. The primary historical purpose of booze was to concentrate precious calories into a shelf-stable form, and from there diverging into low-alcohol drinks suitable for hydration and high-alcohol drinks ideal for transport that would typically be diluted before serving. Though that didn't stop people in the 1700s-1800s from spending every day piss drunk, until the temperance movement came along.

Anyways, I enjoy pretty much any spirit and do a fair bit of homebrew. My passion project for the last couple of years has been making my own syrups and infusions to replicate classic tiki cocktails. For this Thanksgiving, though, I'm making a bowl of Philadelphia fish house punch for the family.

Depends. In the UK? We’d historically make Wreck The Hoose Juice for the sake of getting plastered. Gin by the pint! Whisky without any maturation, made in Stills hidden away on a mountainside.

But I have learned recently that people did drink fresh water in the olden days. Sure it was risky, but that risk dramatically shifted depending where exactly you were. Pre-Industrial era, streams were pretty clean out in the sticks, as there wasn’t a great deal pollute them. Towns and Cities of course Small Beer would be likely, because nobody likes squirting from both ends at the same time

 catbarf wrote:

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
In origin, it was like most booze probably just a result of the need to preserve foodstuffs.

Cursory Google suggests the original dates back to Roman Britain, when the natives would ferment Crab Apples. But it’s thought that you’d just use whichever apples you had to hand. The implication being your goal was either Make Dizzyade, or Preserve As Many Crops As Possible, rather than some gimp with a man-bun trying to be “artisan”.

Historically, one of the big reasons for distilling cider- and distillation in general- was transportation. Hauling cider to market or for delivery would be a lot easier if you could reduce its volume by a factor of three or four. In the American colonies, applejack was a common distilled spirit. You'd take your apple harvest in the fall, ferment it over the course of a few weeks in late fall/early winter, and then leave it outside in sub-freezing winter weather. The water content freezes into ice and can be skimmed off, while the alcohol remains. Barrel it up and you're all set.

In colonial America it was then typical to take your distilled spirit and mix it with water, citrus, and sugar, rather than drinking it neat. In ancient Rome, wine was diluted with two to four parts water, and drinking wine straight was considered a barbarian practice. In industrial Europe and the Americas, small beer clocked in at a measly 1-3% alcohol.

Really, it's the practice of producing and serving alcohol at 'full strength' that is a relatively modern trend. The primary historical purpose of booze was to concentrate precious calories into a shelf-stable form, and from there diverging into low-alcohol drinks suitable for hydration and high-alcohol drinks ideal for transport that would typically be diluted before serving. Though that didn't stop people in the 1700s-1800s from spending every day piss drunk, until the temperance movement came along.

Anyways, I enjoy pretty much any spirit and do a fair bit of homebrew. My passion project for the last couple of years has been making my own syrups and infusions to replicate classic tiki cocktails. For this Thanksgiving, though, I'm making a bowl of Philadelphia fish house punch for the family.

Ah, Applejack, aka Jersey Lightning. Not many know of it these days.

Your story is, incidentally, basically the underlying logic behind the events of how Brandy was accidentally invented. The idea was to distill out the water content from wine for shipping and then add the water back in at the destination in order to transport more of it in one go while reducing the tax burden on the end good, but after it was stored in wooden casks and aged a bit in transit, it was discovered that the quality of the liquor improved considerably over the original distilled wine before it was casked, but also that you couldn't just add water back into it to get wine again because the distillation process fundamentally altered the core flavors of it and the resulting end product was completely unlike what it started out as. Turned out that people really liked brandy though, so it became its own product.

 catbarf wrote:

In colonial America it was then typical to take your distilled spirit and mix it with water, citrus, and sugar, rather than drinking it neat. In ancient Rome, wine was diluted with two to four parts water, and drinking wine straight was considered a barbarian practice. In industrial Europe and the Americas, small beer clocked in at a measly 1-3% alcohol.

I think practices varied considerably. The summers at the Straits of Mackinac were one long party for more than a century as the furs rolled in during the spring and met up with the trade goods. Liquor was in serious demand, and when the British took over, they did the usual English Paternal thing and told everyone to Cut That Out, and practice Clean Living, and the Indians offered to massacre them on the spot unless they turned over the brandy casks.

(The Indians actually did massacre them in 1763 with complete impunity. After the rebellion was put down, the British sent out a new garrison and found the instigator still living in the neighborhood. Because he was a powerful and influential man, they left him alone, and it become customary for him to pay a call on each new commander when he arrived, you know, to check him out.)

The US Army had a regular ration for whiskey, which was naturally stored in barrels. By the time of the Civil War, the old stock was excellent. The new stock was pretty rough.

Military Special Bourbon is (depending on who you ask) either a rare delicacy or a good antiseptic/paint thinner. I've got a couple of half gallons on hand for either case. Can't be too prepared these days.

For me, it's the drink of choice during the prohibition era: Canadian Club

Tried “Shore Leave” by Brew Dog last night.

Didn’t particularly enjoy it. It’s far from undrinkable, just not malty enough for my palette.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
For me, it's the drink of choice during the prohibition era: Canadian Club

I endorse this. CanClub is a very satisfactory whiskey and in fact we keep it on hand for medicinal purposes. It is perfect to soothe a tummy or to use to clear up a sore throat.

Living in Michigan, we imported it by the ton, and several bootlegger vehicles have been verified along the bottom of the Detroit River.

Along with lots of lots of bottles thrown overboard when the Coasties showed up.

Commissar von Toussaint wrote:
... or to use to clear up a sore throat.

I have a sore throat right now, and it's driving me crazy.

Quick, to the liquor cabinet (not really... it's just one part of a shelf in my kitchen pantry! ).

Thanks for the tip!

Used to work for a Spanish food and wine distributer about 15 years ago and learnt a fair bit about Spanish wine, but more importantly Spanish beer.

If the option is available, Alhambra 1925. If you read a description of it, it sounds like most other beers, but it is quite a dark lager. Really tasty and not obnoxious in its crafting, whilst being craft beer like.

For clarity, when I talk about obnoxious beers, I mean those that are crafted to be special/different mostly for the sake of being different as opposed to it actually improving the taste.

Tried out Staropramen 0% today and it was very pleasant. Tasted like beer, but I could drive home afterward. Sorted.

Ah ah ah!

Could drive home legally.

This is of course a joke. I may be known as something of a boozehound, but I’m not that stupid. Or reckless. Or indeed uncaring of the safety of others.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

Commissar von Toussaint wrote:
... or to use to clear up a sore throat.

I have a sore throat right now, and it's driving me crazy.

Quick, to the liquor cabinet (not really... it's just one part of a shelf in my kitchen pantry! ).

Thanks for the tip!

Glad to be of help!

I've found that a medicine cup of whiskey gargled, swished and swallowed does a serious number on sore throats. I mean, you're basically drinking antiseptic.

A very effective remedy is some Jim Beam Honey Bourbon (it uses real honey, accept no imitations) added to hot tea. Soothes, heals, and also compels a nap, which you probably need anyway.

Question for this august assembly: What is a good cream liquor? I mean besides the Irish creams.

I can only ever remember drinking Kahlua and Baileys, both of which are nice enough if you're into that sort of thing.

 Olthannon wrote:
I can only ever remember drinking Kahlua and Baileys, both of which are nice enough if you're into that sort of thing.

I was wondering if there was more exotic stuff out there. The Brits in particular seems to have unique, offbeat brands (and flavors).