Did someone say beverargino?

[WirralBoy]

On 28/07/2023 at 18:39, Steve Bullman said:

Sparkling water for me! Not touched a drop of alcohol for 65 days now!

 

It's been a while Steve, but how have you been getting on in the last 11 months??                                   

 

[sime42]

 

Homemade ginger wine from a couple years ago. Look at the clarity. It's quite dry with a pleasing heat on the palate, and buzz on the head!

 

 

 

 

[AHPP]

How did you do it? I have some vague plan in the back corner of my brain to do it with Riddles. 

[sime42]

You're speaking in riddles, for me at least. What Riddles?

 

[AHPP]

https://brew2bottle.co.uk/products/riddles-ginger-wine-compound-smooth

 

[sime42]

I think I probably followed a recipe. Though I've a vague memory of it being a ginger beer recipe but I decided to morph it into wine part way through. I'll have a dig around tomorrow for ya.

[peds]

14 hours ago, sime42 said:

I think I probably followed a recipe. Though I've a vague memory of it being a ginger beer recipe but I decided to morph it into wine part way through. I'll have a dig around tomorrow for ya.

 

Where do we draw the line between beer and wine, when we've stepped away from grain and grape?

Simple percentage, with a cutoff of, say, 10.5%? Fizzyness? Intended quantity of drinking in a single sitting? Some particular idiosyncrasy to the creation process?

Is a flat, 12% cider actually an apple wine, or is it still cider?

Is a sparkling 9% ginger drink a strong ginger beer or a light ginger champagne? 

 

[Mark Bolam]

It’s definitely not Champagne, because the French will kill you.

[sime42]

1 hour ago, peds said:

 

Where do we draw the line between beer and wine, when we've stepped away from grain and grape?

Simple percentage, with a cutoff of, say, 10.5%? Fizzyness? Intended quantity of drinking in a single sitting? Some particular idiosyncrasy to the creation process?

Is a flat, 12% cider actually an apple wine, or is it still cider?

Is a sparkling 9% ginger drink a strong ginger beer or a light ginger champagne? 

 

 

I think we need a couple of drinks on board already before we can tackle fundamental questions like that.

 

I'm sure there is an official definition somewhere, but I don't know it. It's pretty arbitrary in practice obviously. I saw a 40% drink recently, it called itself a Beer for heavens sake.

 

 

[peds]

Well there are those freeze distillation beers that are brewed to a normal strength and then partially frozen, and the ice crystals skimmed out... leaving all the alcohol and all the flavour, until it is unpleasantly treacly and bitter... but I think straight fermentation tops out at about 20% these days, and only when using a very powerful and boring yeast that can only digest pure white sugars, not the complex blend of starches and sugars in various malts, which you can only get to 14, 15, 16%, the strongest of the unnecessarily strong Belgian-style beers. There might have been exciting developments on that front in recent years, I know there's always competition between a few of the superstar breweries in that game to brew the strongest-possible pure beer without freeze distillation. 

But not my bag really. As you say, arbitrary, and you've really got to be in a very specific mood for anything stronger than about 7% in a beer, in my opinion.