[Sca-cooks] Canoe Beer

[Bill Fisher]

On Thu, 25 Nov 2004 12:30:43 -0500, Phlip <phlip at 99main.com> wrote:

> Influence from Our Friends in Australia, Who Stand on their Heads."American
> beer is like making love in a canoe- fucking next to water." We've picked up
> the term, and tend to use it here on Cook's List and in SCA..

Yeah, our amazing yellow beer is a result of the World War II grain rationing.
The breweries had to use less grain as a result of it, found that people drank
the beer anyway, and it cost less money to make.  When they grain rationing
was lifted, they didn't go back to using the full grain formulas.

I never understood this at all as I grew up with Yuengling and Troegs 
around my entire life.

But as these are regional beers, I can understand why the rest of the
country was
drinkin the swill it had been.  Every area I have been to has good
regional beers
so far, but most of these seem to be a recent development.

> That said, I genuinely like beer, both canoe beer and good beer. Each, for
> me, serves a different purpose. The canoe beer, given my druthers, is
> something to sip on, keeping hydrated, when I can afford it. I will often,
> on a hot day, put beer on the rocks- it's not the alcohol I'm craving, but
> the taste. When I can't, or when circumstances dictate absolute sobriety,
> which in this Puritan inspired nation, they usually do, I drink decaf coffee
> the same way. Both, for me, fill a niche that most Americans fill with pop.
> I used to be perfectly thrilled to drink 3.2 beer- had the mildly bitter
> flavor I like, with less alcohol.

What depresses me more is these canoe beers are now processed much the same
way as soda.  They are shipped as a concentrate from a central "brewery" to a 
canning station in a local area and then "rehydrated" into the fizzy
stuff in the can.

"If I wanted soda, I'd ask for soda"

> OTOH, I thoroughly enjoy drinking a good beer as well, but in far more
> limited circumstances- at the end of a good day, or as an adjunct to a good
> and appropriate meal, where I'm not in the mood for a good wine. It's like
> any other preference- some days I want chicken, or maybe hamburger, other
> days nothing but duck or filet mignon will do ;-)

I have a real Irish pub (owned and run by an irish family) down the road from
me that has the Guiness line of beers.  They had Smithwick's Ale (pronounced
Smith'ick) long before it was offically released in the States.   Good pub
food and an Irish style beer are a match for filet any day.

> And, Adamantius, there really is a place for rice beers. Granted the
> American styles aren't the best, but I've found myself enjoying ones like
> Ichiban, from Japan.

I have had some good Japanese rice beers, there was a "beers of the
world" place in Omaha, somewhere. We drank our way around Asia when
I was imprisoned there for two months this past Jan-Feb.  I don't
remember the name of the place either.

> 
> Saint Phlip,
> CoD

 
Cadoc

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