what ginger is your beer
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@accalia said in what ginger is your beer:
@clatter said in What gender is your brain?:
[sic] indicates that a spelling or grammar mistake in the quoted text has been intentionally preserved.
so as the sultanatrix of swypos i should end all my posts with
[sic]
is what i'm hearing? [sic]I think [hic] is more appropriate.
As for ginger stuff, I've always been convinced "ginger beer" is that good fiery stuff that burns your mouth off, and "ginger ale" is that thing Schweppes makes that tastes nothing like ginger. And then there's also actual ginger beer, ranging from the "regular lager with ginger syrup" variety to the ones where ginger is actually involved in the fermentation process.
But we barely get either of those in Poland (fiery ginger beer, in particular, is import-only), so whatever.
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@anotherusername said in what ginger is your beer:
Difference in strength doesn't change what it is, unless you start getting down to a weak tea-like homeopathic dilution of coffee.
You're welcome to your wrong opinions. Don't expect the rest of us to share your delusions.
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@anotherusername said in what ginger is your beer:
you're still arguing about the same difference between my coffee and some people's.
It's more like the difference between black and sweetened coffee. They are both coffee (like the others are both soft drinks) but they're distinctly different as a beverage.
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@boomzilla said in what ginger is your beer:
They [sweetened and unsweetened coffee] are both coffee
Heretic.
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@anotherusername said in what ginger is your beer:
and calling Pepsi Coke would also be incorrect.
Unless you're in the South.
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@Karla Don't hurt yourself. You might need to do something similar as the couch to 5k program to safely get to full blakeyness.
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@mikehurley said in what ginger is your beer:
@Karla Don't hurt yourself. You might need to do something similar as the couch to 5k program to safely get to full blakeyness.
Yeah. I noticed. I think I pulled a muscle in my hand typing that. Better lay off the keyboard for a while until it heals up.
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Have we finished trying to prove... ah, I forget the name, the rule that says "everything is a topic of debate at some point", but whatever... yet?
The difference between ginger ale and ginger beer is a blurry one, because they both started out as a slightly fermented ginger infusion originating in Jamaica, but diverged around the 1930s (I think) when it first arrived in the US. The 'ale' name got picked up as the standard name for the sweeter, less spicy version typically found in the US, while the 'beer' name came to refer to the much spicier (and sometimes still fermented rather than force-carbed) form that remained popular in the Caribbean.
As for me, I've never made 'real' fermented ginger beer or root beer, nor any beer spiced with ginger, though I have made a ginger-lime flavored dry mead once, and made beers with other kinds of spices (e.g., coriander and bitter-orange peel for wits, cinnamon and nutmeg for holiday warmers, vanilla and chocolate for a Belgian Dark Special once), but at this point I'm way off the topic. Again.
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@anotherusername said in what ginger is your beer:
@accalia you can only say that because Coke always positively 100% tastes like Coke and Pepsi always positively 100% tastes like Pepsi. That is a distinction which doesn't exist for ginger ale.
Huh, I've never done a blind test but I'm sure I'd fail. Unless they were devoid of carbon, then it's easy. But carbonated -- naaaah. Although when I was younger and even more of a poseur than I'm now, I liked to pretend that it wasn't the case.
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@ScholRLEA said in what ginger is your beer:
As for me, I've never made 'real' fermented ginger beer or root beer, nor any beer spiced with ginger
I have... it didn't turn out as well as I'd have liked*, but it was drinkable. I should try it again... I wonder if the glass soda bottles I used are still around or if my wife recycled them.
* apple cider vinegar was not a good substitute for lemon juice...
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@accalia said in what ginger is your beer:
bourne from ignorance
sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:wtdwtdf/ignorance sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install bash
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Relevant:
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I'd recommend crown-cap beer bottles and a good wing-lever hand capper, if you don't already have one. A bench capper would be even better, but they are about five times the price. Most soda bottles (and screw-top beer bottles) aren't quite as solid as a crown-cap beer bottle, and in beer at least, a good cap seal is paramount both for good carbing and for keeping out infections; I expect that it would be even more so for ginger beer, which doesn't have hops (like almost all modern beers), or an alcohol content of 10% or higher (like wine or mead), to stave off the nasties. Infections are a serious problem even with hops and/or significant amounts C2H5OH, without them I would think you need to be really, really on top of the sanitation.
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@boomzilla that's not beer, it's Guinness. Beer is that watery horse piss that americans drink.
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@anotherusername said in what ginger is your beer:
@boomzilla that's not beer, it's Guinness. Beer is that watery horse piss that americans drink.
False and false. Jeez...you can't even enjoy a nice picture.
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@ScholRLEA I wasn't going for alcohol fermentation, so the fermentation was only a few days. The regular soda bottles I had with twist-on caps worked fine.
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I understand, but the issue of pressure still comes up, since the whole idea is to carbonate it. Still, if it worked, that's what really matters, so it's all good.
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@boomzilla but they're distinctly and noticeably different!
@ScholRLEA eh, only if they're overfermented, and I stuck them in the fridge before that happened. The caps were very tightly fitting, so I wasn't too worried about them blowing off.
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@anotherusername said in what ginger is your beer:
@boomzilla but they're distinctly and noticeably different!
Like...different types of soft drinks? See, you thought you had a point, but you didn't. You're just trying to cover up your wrongness with some sophistry in mixing up different levels of distinction.
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@boomzilla so the "completely different" argument is right for ginger beer vs. ginger ale, wrong for weak coffee vs. strong coffee, and wrong for Guinness vs. beer. Is that your position on all of this?
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@anotherusername No.
Week coffee and strong coffee are still coffee.
Ginger beer and ginger ale are quite different in ingredients.
Guinness is a kind of beer.Everyone else seems to get this, hopefully you'll catch on.
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@boomzilla said in what ginger is your beer:
Ginger beer and ginger ale are quite different in ingredients.
Citation needed.
Both are primarily spiced with ginger. Both are sweetened. Both are carbonated. Both can be carbonated either by fermentation or by adding CO2.
You could perhaps make the argument that ginger ale is a kind of ginger beer, which is why I tried to relate it to Guinness vs. beer. But that doesn't even work.
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@boomzilla said in what ginger is your beer:
It's more like the difference between black and sweetened coffee.
Or Sanka and Starbucks.
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@fbmac No Cachaça?
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@accalia said in what ginger is your beer:
coke is edible, and pepsi is liquified radioactive waste.
I don’t mind either, except I eventually worked out that Pepsi makes me need to pee a lot more than most other brands. (The local cinema has Pepsi, and I used to be unable to sit through a whole movie without needing to go to the toilet¹ until I tried another beverage instead.)
¹ You really don’t want to sit through that car-going-off-the-bridge scene in Inception with a bladder that feels like it’s about to burst.
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@anotherusername said in what ginger is your beer:
Citation needed.
Negative. You need to prove to the rest of the world why those drinks are the same.
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@kt_ said in what ginger is your beer:
@anotherusername said in what ginger is your beer:
@accalia you can only say that because Coke always positively 100% tastes like Coke and Pepsi always positively 100% tastes like Pepsi. That is a distinction which doesn't exist for ginger ale.
Huh, I've never done a blind test but I'm sure I'd fail. Unless they were devoid of carbon, then it's easy. But carbonated -- naaaah. Although when I was younger and even more of a poseur than I'm now, I liked to pretend that it wasn't the case.
Same. Maybe we Poles get better Pepsi, or worse Coke? It's like... if you really, really get into it, and if the drink is neither too fizzly nor too cold, you might kinda notice Pepsi is a little less sweet. Maybe. Or maybe not.
Same with energy drinks - those $2 a can and those $2 a gallon taste nearly exactly the same. I think only Monster is quite a lot more syrupy, others have absolutely minor differences.
Then again, I'm the kind of person who likes Diet Coke better than a can of sugar with some water, so what the fuck do I know.
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Slightly off topic but when I went to Germany I had their Coca-Cola and it was way sweeter (and better in my opinion) than the US kind.
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@Yamikuronue said in what ginger is your beer:
So now there's a distinct difference.
Nope. I've seen fermented ginger drinks being called "Ginger Ale" and ginger soft drinks being called "Ginger Beer" before, so there is no widely accepted definition of either term. This is the kind of problem trade regulations can solve, but apparently no bureaucrat has found time to write one yet. Until someone does, there are two types of drinks, both of which may be called either "Ginger Ale" or "Ginger Beer", whatever the manufacturer likes better.
Here's a helpful table which describes the status quo:
Type \ Label "Ginger Ale" "Ginger Beer" Soft drink Alcoholic drink
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@Maciejasjmj It is my understanding that, based on blind tests, the differences resulting from the idiosyncrasies of the production facilities, the temperature of serving, and the means of storage and dispensing (especially the difference in the sanitation of mixing lines in soda dispensers, which can vary enormously), and the type of container it is drunk from, often have more of an impact on flavor perception than the actual recipe. This applies to a lot of drinks, mind you, hence the perceived difference many find in canned, bottled, and draft beers (though they often are also different in recipes, as well, as not all breweries sell the same beers in different shipping containers).
This is, BTW, one reason why different types of beer, wine, and liquor often have their own traditional glassware - for example, a pilsner glass emphasizes the hop aroma and visual clarity while minimizing contact with the drinker's warm hands, while a tulip-shaped brandy snifter is designed to draw heat from the drinker's hand into the brandy, and also focus the aroma up towards the lip of the glass and hold as much of it as possible there until the drinker sniffs it.
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@boomzilla read the line immediately following the one you quoted. Now you need to explain why you think they're different.
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@Maciejasjmj said in what ginger is your beer:
you might kinda notice Pepsi is a little less sweet.
I've always thought that Pepsi was sweeter, but Coke had more of that....uh...vanilla?...flavor.
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@asdf said in what ginger is your beer:
This is the kind of "problem" trade regulations can "solve", but apparently no bureaucrat has found time to write one yet.
Thanks God for small favors, eh?
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@anotherusername said in what ginger is your beer:
@boomzilla read the line immediately following the one you quoted. Now you need to explain why you think they're different.
False.
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@boomzilla Actually, those are the kind of regulations that actually make sense. Traders and consumers need to be able to tell what a food item actually is when they hear the name. Otherwise, everyone is confused.
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@anotherusername said in what ginger is your beer:
Beer is that watery horse piss that americans drink.
Some Belgian beer is literally human piss ...
Short Version: University of Ghent made test setup at the city Festival where they turn urine into clean water. That water was used to make beer, completing the circle.
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@asdf said in what ginger is your beer:
@boomzilla Actually, those are the kind of regulations that actually make sense. Traders and consumers need to be able to tell what a food item actually is when they hear the name. Otherwise, everyone is confused.
That's fucking stupid. Sorry, but this is not a problem. No one needs to be spending money complying with nonsense like that.
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@boomzilla said in what ginger is your beer:
No one needs to be spending money complying with nonsense like that.
Spending money? No, you just need to put the "correct" label on your product so customers know what to expect.
I wasn't talking about certifications or bullshit like that, but simply defining the terms.
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@asdf said in what ginger is your beer:
No, you just need to put the "correct" label on your product so customers know what to expect.
Yes, and now someone has to check that it's right. And so on and so forth. That's how regulation compliance works.
@asdf said in what ginger is your beer:
I wasn't talking about certifications or bullshit like that, but simply defining the terms.
Unless you're saying it will never be enforced, in which case one must ask, "Then what's the point?"
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@boomzilla said in what ginger is your beer:
Yes, and now someone has to check that it's right.
I'm pretty sure there were at least a handful of people ITT who appeared to be willing to do it for free. What with them explaining how ginger beer is completely different from ginger ale, which means that a bunch of ginger ales and beers must be incorrectly labeled.
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@anotherusername said in what ginger is your beer:
which means that a bunch of ginger ales and beers must be incorrectly labeled.
Could be. Those companies are probably losing out on sales by confusing customers, so they have an incentive to get their shit together that's better than "because."
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@boomzilla well, don't tell me. Tell them.
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@boomzilla said in what ginger is your beer:
Yes, and now someone has to check that it's right. And so on and so forth. That's how regulation compliance works.
How do you think this works in practice? In the real world, nobody checks anything unless there's a complaint or unless it's time for a routine inspection. In both cases, no additional money will be spent. (If there's a routine inspection, they'll analyze the product anyway, to make sure the list of ingredients is correct.)
So: What imaginary additional costs are you talking about?
@boomzilla said in what ginger is your beer:
"Then what's the point?"
The point is that it's enforcible. Also, routine inspections are a thing that already happens.
Status quo: Customers may expect "Ginger Beer" to be fermented and not soda. They may also expect "Ginger Ale" to contain no alcohol. If a manufacturer chooses a label that doesn't meet the expectations, nothing happens.
New status: Customers' expectations are now legally required to be followed. If someone doesn't follow the conventions and lies to customers, there will be legal repercussions (fraud).
Consequence: Manufacturers will label their products correctly because they don't want to risk being closed.
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@anotherusername said in what ginger is your beer:
@boomzilla well, don't tell me. Tell them.
I rather think I am by not purchasing their product.
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@asdf said in what ginger is your beer:
So: What imaginary additional costs are you talking about?
The cost of doing something. What imaginary problem are you talking about?
@asdf said in what ginger is your beer:
Status quo: Customers may expect "Ginger Beer" to be fermented and not soda. They may also expect "Ginger Ale" to contain no alcohol. If a manufacturer chooses a label that doesn't meet the expectations, nothing happens.
There's already plenty of regulations about alcohol. Your example fails. We're talking about soft drinks.
@asdf said in what ginger is your beer:
Consequence: Manufacturers will label their products correctly because they don't want to risk being closed.
Yes! That's terrible! You're creating problems. They should want to create labels that communicate to customers so the customers will purchase the product. There's no need to get the government involved. Zero. Zip. Nada. Zilch.
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@boomzilla said in what ginger is your beer:
They should want to create labels that communicate to customers so the customers will purchase the product. There's no need to get the government involved. Zero. Zip. Nada. Zilch.
Oh, come on. So you're saying that you don't care whether I sell a yellow protein mix that melts as "Gouda"?
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@boomzilla the silent treatment? No, really, I think "hey, me and a bunch of other ppl got together and we decided that ginger beer is supposed to be spicy and less bubbly, and ur ginger beer is more like ginger ale really so could you change that plz nao? ok thx bai." would be a lot more effective.
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@asdf said in what ginger is your beer:
So you're saying that you don't care whether I sell a yellow protein mix that melts as "Gouda"?
Not particularly. Do you think it would confuse many people if you tried? What would be the point?
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@anotherusername said in what ginger is your beer:
the silent treatment?
Hey, I yelled at you a bunch. I've moved on from your non-argument to @asdf's totalitarian impulses. Much more interesting.
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@boomzilla said in what ginger is your beer:
Do you think it would confuse many people if you tried?
You make people buy something when they expected something different. You can call that good marketing, but you could also call it a sort of fraud.
@boomzilla said in what ginger is your beer:
@asdf's totalitarian impulses
How the fuck is a legally binding definition "totalitarian". Your "government regulation = devil" knee-jerk reaction is ridiculous. There is a clear benefit (customers and supermarkets both know what to expect and can rely on that information as soon as they read the product name) and the costs are negligible.
Nobody prevents people from producing or buying anything. But it's now easier for a customer to choose the correct product when they want to buy something specific.