Yet there must be the having of a gimmick, he thought. A thing to mark my coming, and the emergence of my Freedmenmen from obscurity into power. A dessert–for it must be that, given the severe restrictions of Arruckus’s resources-to top all desserts.
And the answer came to him in a single word. Liqueur. Beer liqueur! he thought. Great Maida’s Heater! It’s a natural!
“You’re so quiet, Assol,” Loni said. “Why?”
He smiled. “Liqueur,” he said. “Made from beer. With all this sugar around here, it cannot miss.”
“Loni,” Pall said gently. “What would you name a liqueur made from beer?”
And the girl-child paused a moment in thought-trance, then said, “Benedictdoon?”
Pall sighed. “No, my sugar baby.”
“Assol, what is this you speak of? Liqueur–from the brew of Schmai-gunug?”
…
“Then it’s so!” she gasped. “The rumors–”
“–are purest truth.” Pall said. “The liqueur is perfected. You shall be receiving samples of it in about a week, together with a money-saving coupon.”
“Pall,” said a voice. All eyes turned towards the Lady Jazzica. “Would you dispense samples of a thing that still lacks a name?”
“It has a name, Mother,” Pall said. “A name that did come to me that night in the Brewer Room.” He paused cornily dramatic, said, “I call it: Drambrewski.”
EVERY SINGLE TIME Utopias comes out, we get junk stories with that exact clickbait headline: “This beer is ILLEGAL in 14 States.” And it hangs around in junk news ads until the NEXT Utopias comes out. I’d think BoingBoing could do better than this.
Call it Barleywine and you’ll be fine. And @Scientist , I have reached 22-23% using Lalvin EC-1118 and step-feeding in my very amateur brewing experience. I suspect folks who actually have studied the art of zymugy are more than capable of getting a few steps further on. As for, “but why?” I’ve never tried it, but I suspect the answer is “to see if we can, and if so, will idiots pay throughthe nose for it?”
Quick strong beer tale. I’m originally from Scotland (settled in Taiwan now) and back there our ‘national beer’ is Tennent’s Lager. Adored by many, christened ‘cooking lager’ by others. It’s a fairly pedestrian 4% IIRC, but it had a big brother - Tennent’s Super - which came in at about 8%. It was pretty vile, more soup than beer, and was also known as “Jakey Juice” after the Scottish slang for a usually homeless alcoholic. Spot some empty tins on the street and you’d probably find someone sleeping nearby.
Anyway, my pal and I are huge fans of Suicidal Tendencies and would regularly travel to mainland Europe to see them play, even if the tour also brought them to Scotland. One trip found us traveling to Milan of all places to catch a show. We were looking for a spot for some pre-gig beers and saw a remarkable sight. A pub in a beautiful old building, with a large beer garden, surrounded by antique-looking lanterns emblazoned with the Tennent’s Super logo. WTF? This is the fashion capital of the world, what the hell is our national shame doing on display?
So we go inside, and find that not only can you order Super on tap - something we’d never witnessed back home as no self-respecting pub would touch it - but you can get it in sizes from 0.5L up to a massive tower containing 10L! 10 litres of freshly-poured Jakey Juice sitting on your table for all to share! Of course we ordered a small glass each, just to say we did it, and randomly got talking to a couple at the next bench in the beer garden. Turns out Jakey Juice is viewed as a fancy imported beer. It’s what you drink to show you have good taste, express a sophisticated, cosmopolitan vibe. This couple were on their first date, and the guy was buying his gal Jakey Juice to impress her!
Needless to say we loved this and told the story countless times on getting home. Made me love Italy and the Italians even more than ever too.
(As a postscript, the guy invited us to join him and his date at a party in the hills outside town later that evening. He was driving out there and had space in the car. We declined on account of the gig and the fact that we’d personally watched him consume enough Super to tranquilise an elephant.)
Similar experience my first time in Glasgow, back in the late 1990s. I was in a pub near the University that had “dark,” “mild,” and “light” on tap. So I had the dark and the mild, then the light. Sheepishly I brought the light back up and said “I don’t mean to be a rude American, but I think this beer has gone off.” So the barmaid poured me a light from a different tap. That was foul as well. I asked “so, what is this?” She replied “Coors Light! The students love it!”
You can buy a tall boy for 200-300 yen at a convenience store. The added vodka brings the ABV up to 9-12%. And because it’s rotgut vodka, it tastes awful.
But mixing decent beer with decent vodka on the cheap is something you can do at home or at sporting events where they don’t check your bags.
Similar to the way people treat Fosters. In foreign parts it’s seen as a standard Australian beer. Here in Oz, it’s seen as the horse piss we sell overseas
This would index relatively well into the category of ‘novelty extremes’, such as multi-million-plus Scoville Heat Unit hot sauces with names like Lucifer’s Lava or whatever. (FD: In the 90s I tried a teensy drop of super-hot sauce. Yep, it was hot… and it tasted horrible.)
I really liked Dogfish Head Higher Math Golden Strong Ale. 17% abv. Sad to find it was limited. Thick and kind of chocolatey. Needed to throw it in the freezer first though, otherwise it was like drinking warm devil’s food cake. And at 17%, you sip it and split the bottle with someone.
I’ve heard of high ABV russian beers that had added vodka, interesting to find out that it’s not just a Russian thing. Here in the US i tend to go for high ABV beers, i usually prefer 7% and above but they don’t have liquor added. I have a few really fancy Russian Stouts cellared in my fridge that are 12%-ish ABV, been saving them for either a special occasion or a really shitty day
As a fellow former drinker, I too, choose to remember my early drinking days fondly. I noticed the last time I was at Rite Aid that wine comes in cans now. huh.
I’m not sure what part of the industry you are/were in, but there are some hipster trends that have been somewhat positive. The Belgian and sour trend has been good for getting people involved in a variety of styles. But I’ve always also said that any beer that lists three ingredients/processes in the title is usually not very good. So, Imperial Honey-Chrysanthemum-Hopped Lager and Chocolate-Pecan-Double Fermented-Diamond Filtered IPA are beers to stay away from.
