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Thread: Social Drinking
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2012-09-28, 07:26 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Central Iowa
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Re: Social Drinking
I suppose I could have been more specific.
I've had lots of Woodchuck (several varieties), I think it's passable as a pretty inoffensive option and is widely available where I've been.
Strongbow was an option in many of the stores/bars around where I went to grad school (and I've discovered that it's available on tap at least one of the bars where I am now). I like it about as much as Woodchuck, but that's not terribly hard to get.
I've had Magners a time or two.
Hmm, at least a few others. Original Sin?
The only one I can remember being in the store near me now was Woodchuck. There were other brands that I'm not familiar with. I'll do some reconnaissance here in a while.Take your best shot, everyone else does.
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2012-09-28, 07:50 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2006
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- Bristol
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Re: Social Drinking
The other thing about real cider is that, like real ale, it should be served at "room temperature" - in reality slightly below room temperature - rather than "ice cold" as many bars do. There shouldn't be any ice anywhere near them, either. Don't believe any of this "Magners - made for ice" stuff.
Of course, most of the fizzy cider tastes horrible at room temperature, which is why it's served so cold.GITP Blood Bowl Manager Cup
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2012-09-28, 07:59 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2011
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Re: Social Drinking
Around here ciders seem to be even less alcoholic than beers. I've seen a couple in the house because that's the only kind of alcohol my mum can tolerate at all and she has a little occasionally.
Jude P.
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2012-09-28, 08:17 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2007
- Location
- Central Iowa
- Gender
Re: Social Drinking
Ok, rundown of what's across the street.
3 varieties of Crispin: Crisp, Extra Dry (both of which say "over ice" on the box - I've had iced cider in a restaurant once, was very confused), and a spot on the shelf for "Browns Lane" which claims to be imported, but they were out.
3 varieties of Angry Orchard: Traditional Dry, Crisp Apple, and Apple Ginger.
2 kinds of Hornsby's: Amber Draft and Crisp Apple.
2 kinds of Woodchuck: Amber and Granny Smith (I've had these before, don't particularly care for the latter).
And a Michelob Ultra Light Cider, which I assume I'm safe in ignoring.
This being a college town, there's probably a wider variety at at least one liquor store somewhere, but I haven't made a wide search in the 2 months I've lived here.Take your best shot, everyone else does.
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2012-09-28, 08:20 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Sep 2012
- Location
- Pittsburgh, PA
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Re: Social Drinking
Sounds like I really need to get to the UK so you folks can take me on a cider tour!
As for alcohol by volume, most US commercial "beers" tend to be in the 2-3% range. An average micro/European beer will be around 5-10%, depending on style. It's not unusual to find stouts over 10, and barleywines are usually around 12-15%. Then you get into the high octane brews, Avery out of Colorado does some tasty stouts around 20%, and Dogfish Head's World Wide Stout is often around 23% (it's a seasonal brew, and varies year to year. They do a couple other high alcohol brews, but overall they're kinda hit or miss for me).
Of course, if you are used to higher ABV brews, and a friend from Poland warns you to be careful of the Polish beer, you should not laugh when you see it's 6%. That would be rude, and for people drinking Pabst, that is a fair warning!
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2012-09-28, 08:37 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2006
- Location
- Seattle, WA
- Gender
Re: Social Drinking
2-3%? Hardly. I don't know any crappy american lager that is less than 4%.
Normal
Miller 4.66% ABV
Budweiser 5.0% ABV
Light
Busch Light 4.1% ABV
Coors Light 4.2% ABV
Bud Light 4.2% ABV
Natural Light 4.2% ABV
Ice
Bud Ice 5.5% ABV
Icehouse 5.5% ABV
Ice beers are naturally higher, due to the concentrating process of ice filtering.
Do note, however, that like wine, it is very difficult to brew a beer with a higher ABV than about 13%, as the fermentation process itself is self limiting. The alcohol retards the digestion of the bacteria that produces alcohol. Higher alcohol contents can be produced through various concentrating processes such as ice filtering (freezing some of the water out) or distilling (boiling off the alcohol and collecting it), or simply the addition of other, higher concentration alcohols (obtained via distillation).
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2012-09-28, 08:57 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Sep 2012
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- Pittsburgh, PA
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Re: Social Drinking
I stand corrected! Though in my defense, I haven't had beer like that in years, though there was a surprisingly good local cheap dark lager by a purveyor of swill...Augustiner Dark by the home of Iron City. Sadly, no longer made. Either way, a far cry from, say, anything that Stone brews.
I also don't really know belgians because I don't like them (generally too hopsy for me), but I know they can get pretty stiff too.
Now I want beer....
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2012-09-28, 08:58 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2005
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2012-09-28, 09:02 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Mar 2011
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2012-09-28, 09:35 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2006
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- Bristol
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Re: Social Drinking
British "bitter" tends to be on the mild side, ABV speaking (usually about 3-4.5%); apparently this is a legacy of the Industrial Revolution. Other ales and lagers usually clock in above 4.5%. A true IPA should apparently be over 6% (it had to be brewed stronger to survive the journey) although they're now normally on a par with other beers.
If you ever see anything marketed as a "barley wine", that's a very strong beer. The strongest stuff I've had, I think, is Imperial Russian Stoat which the internet tells me is 9% but I could have sworn was 12. Maybe that's just the hangover speaking.GITP Blood Bowl Manager Cup
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2012-09-28, 10:03 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Sep 2012
- Location
- Pittsburgh, PA
- Gender
Re: Social Drinking
I've had a couple Russian Imperial Stouts that were around 12, so you might be right on that. They're sort of trendy these days in the US; lots of micros are doing them that weren't 4 years ago (I am in favor of this).
In researching, I found this: http://www.brewdog.com/product/tactical-nuclear-penguin Leave it to the Scots. Haven't had any of their stuff since it's pretty expensive here in the US, but that's pretty impressive. Countered by Schorschbrau http://www.benz-weltweit.de/derbraeu...index_eng.html who has the current record at 57%. Damn. Of course, they only made 36 bottles of the stuff, so I'm not sure how much that REALLY counts. And no exploding penguin jokes, so they definitely lose points for that.
I like my beers full bodied, stiff and whimsical!
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2012-09-29, 03:58 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jul 2010
- Location
- Brooklyn
- Gender
Re: Social Drinking
my only real experience with beer is at metal bars (and the occasional family gathering)
at metal bars the rule is, finish your beer before the next set starts, or lose it and be sad :C
this can involve some chugging, which is fun, but probably not good for you...
at 16 i'm still not sure how much to drink when, so i usualy just try to do as the people i'm talking too do
(also as a metal critic i get lots of free beers from bands)
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2012-09-29, 06:38 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2006
- Location
- Leeds, UK
- Gender
Re: Social Drinking
Ciders round here... There are a gazillion of them (slight exaggeration)
The thing with Cider in the UK is that a large amount of farms, especially doon south, make their own ciders. So you have lots of own brand scrumpy (if you're ever in the UK, there's an easy way to tell how good a farm cider is: the worse the signposting to the farm, the better the cider is likely to be ), and then you have all the different brands of ciders, and in amongst those brands you have different sorts of ciders.
Brands I can list off the top of my head would be:
Kopparberg (normal, pear, strawberry, mixed fruit...)
Magners (not sure on varieties)
Strongbow (Moose urine)
Bulmers (strawberry is better than strongbow, rest are about the same)
Merrydown (if you can find it, beautiful)
Jacobs (quite strong)
Old Rosie (Gut rot, but delicious. Very strong)
Thatchers (Quite nice)
Black Rat (Also nice)
Issue with cider, especially the stronger ones, is you normally drink it like beer (pints/half pints and out the bottle), Where cider can be up to and over twice as strong as beer.
But yes. Favourite cider I've tried was one I had at a small farm in dorset, which they sold in plastic milk bottle style containers. Was heavenly."I'm just going on motive and opportunity here and the fact that if the earth got swallowed by a black hole, I'd look suspiciously in your direction first."
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2012-09-29, 09:11 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jun 2006
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- Dinosaur Museum aw yisss.
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Re: Social Drinking
I'm a fellow disliker of beers. --Lime-- of yon forums took it upon himself to find a beer that I like in York. In the end, he found two - and I'm now pretty sure there's others out there, too. Trouble is, I liked them because they tasted kinda like cider... But anyway, I recommend that you look at fruitier beers, if you get a chance. One of them was Liefmans, a cherry beer, if you can find it.
We also found a beer that tastes like bread. Burnt bread, but still. Also the scrumpy I had stung my mouth.The Iron Avatarist Hall of Fame!
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2012-09-29, 09:47 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2007
- Location
- The Black Desert
- Gender
Re: Social Drinking
Been putting off posting in this thread for some reason. Short answer to the OP:
nope! There's no problem with that whatsoever. I'm a bit of an odd duck in that when I'm not out at a pub (usually with Playgrounders) I tend to average one alcoholic drink every couple of months. With a few exceptions. For the good of your health never play a drinking game with Dominic Deegan when the snark thread makes up the rules. It gets you through a lot of alcohol very quickly.
So when I do hang out with my mates I tend to drink a fair bit, but don't seem to noticeably act too different from when I'm sober. Usually I get a mixer or a cocktail and alternate with plain fizzy pop.
But there's certainly nothing wrong with not drinking anything alcoholic.
West Country girl here. This is very true.
White Lightning is godawful. Around here even the areas with the really bad reputations look down upon drinkers of White Lightning. Of course, said drinkers are now limited to tourists, those idiot rich kids who infest Nequay every summer and some people who have less than savoury reputations concerning the care of their families.
However, I do think that Strongbow's just about tolerable is you get Strongbow and blackcurrant. If someone else's buying it for you.
Problem with scrumpy though is that because it's easy to make you can boil your brain with it. And that everyone can make it, so there's a lot of choice around if you know where to look.
And cider is alcoholic here. You have no idea how confused I was the first time I heard an American parent telling their child that they can have cider with their lunch.
I was about eight, that child was four.
Then it took a turn for the funny as I was in a Tescos and half the people within earshot were staring at the parent as if well, they'd just offered to buy said toddler alcohol. And then the dad's face when he asked where the cider was and was pointed to the alcohol section.
The more well-known American beers are known as appallingly weak, with little more flavour than water. Then again Stella Artois is Belgian and that's known as a wife-beater.
That and Foster's is another lager/beer with a bad reputation.
And in said cider belt and the West Country in general there are so many cider producers that it's not uncommon for two pubs so close together they actually share a beer garden/smoking area to only have two types of cider in common. And they regularly stock about eight each.
I find Aspall's a little too dry personally, especially their pear cider; however, it's becoming more popular as of late.
I've not had Old Rosie in years, but it's strong as Hell if you're not used to it, so if you try that make sure pace yourself.
Speaking as the most southern Britlander itP (as far as we know) you'll find that in Cornwall most pubs have an exclusive cider - that is, one that only they and perhaps two or three other local pubs stock - that tends to be on seasonal tap.
Certainly off to top of my head I can name a good half dozen local breweries (as in within thirty miles from my house), one of which is maybe half an hour's casual walk away.
So yes, local brews for local people, although if it's popular enough it does take off some. Take Cornish Rattler. Started off at sixteen local pubs, and is now stocked in some four hundred pubs, and in several supermarket chains throughout the West Country.
This is the alcoholic anthem of the West Country. That's how important and prevalent it is.
Note too the age of the audience. We start 'em young.
Also this because you can't mention cider, the West Country and the Wurzels without this song.
Despite my knowledge of cider I'm not much of a cider drinker (in comparison), but Kopparberg is easily my favourite fruit cider.
General advice is to only have a few pints of cider thoughout the night. Two or three max. And really it's probably best to get them in half pints, but everyone knows men only drink pints.
EDIT:
If you can't tell Britain takes its drinking etiquette and experience seriously. I'm always amused by that page, especially when you compare its length to pages about things technically more important.Last edited by CurlyKitGirl; 2012-09-29 at 09:53 AM.
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2012-09-29, 10:03 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2007
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- Central Iowa
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Re: Social Drinking
Yeah, "cider" over here is more commonly an unfiltered apple juice you can get in the fall (I prefer mine directly from local orchards, although you can sometimes find something approximating it in grocery stores too). No alcohol content at all unless you let it turn, which is more likely to result in vinegar than anything drinkable. One of my favorite beverages in general when I can get it and it's much more commonly known than the hard version here, in my experience.
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2012-09-29, 10:10 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Mar 2011
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2012-09-29, 10:26 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Oct 2010
- Location
- Dallas, TX
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Re: Social Drinking
DO NOT DRINK BEER FOR ANY REASON EXCEPT THAT YOU WANT TO DO SO.
It is always acceptable to drink water, in any social situation. It is never polite to sneer at what somebody else is drinking. (Admittedly, lots of people do so anyway.)
Stick to your convictions and drink for yourself, not somebody else.
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2012-09-29, 10:31 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Apr 2006
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- Bristol
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2012-09-29, 10:36 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Mar 2011
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2012-09-29, 10:41 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Apr 2006
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- Bristol
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Re: Social Drinking
To clarify:
"Pear cider" is a recently coined marketing term to attempt to foist the otherwise fairly obscure drink Perry onto cider drinkers. This is both confusing, and annoying for those of us who have always known what perry is. It's not a cider at all; it's brewed from pears, so it's no more a "pear cider" than wine is a "grape cider".
It's also confusing because "fruit cider" is normally used to refer to a(n apple) cider that's been flavoured with fruit, like some of the Kopparbergs - strawberry cider, etc.. So a "pear cider" now can be either a perry (usually) or a cider flavoured with pears.
I don't blame the punters for it, because they'll have no idea what a perry is until it's sold to them as a pear cider, but the marketing annoys me. As an insufferably pedantic old git who increasingly misses his western homeland, I make myself unpopular by correcting the error at every opportunity, but I feel I'm fighting a losing battle.Last edited by Aedilred; 2012-09-29 at 10:43 AM.
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2012-09-29, 10:48 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Mar 2011
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2012-09-30, 09:10 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2007
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- Cippa's River Meadow
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Re: Social Drinking
You are an evil, evil woman.
*spends the next hour reading TV tropes and listening to the Wurzels, while the wife rolls her eyes in the background*
Not down here it isn't... *Begins sharpening the pitchforks and lighting the torches*Last edited by Brother Oni; 2012-09-30 at 09:12 AM.
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2012-09-30, 10:06 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2012
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- United States, New Jersey
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Re: Social Drinking
It's not rude to drink something other than beer in a beer drinking group.
It's rude for the beer drinkers to make you feel un comfortable about it.
Here is a tip. If they pressure you, ask for Guiness. (It's expensive and probably spelt wrong) When they say they don't have any, just give them a dead stare and say "I'll just have a soda then."
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2012-09-30, 10:20 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2006
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- Bristol
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Re: Social Drinking
But that way, if they do have Guinness you have to drink it. If the OP doesn't like beer, there's no way he's going to enjoy a Guinness.
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2012-09-30, 10:34 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2006
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- Raleigh NC
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Re: Social Drinking
If the OP doesn't like beer, this is true.
OTOH, if his only exposure to beer is Budweiser or Coors, Guinness may open up a whole new world to him. I know that I detested beer until I found out that there was more to beer than the mass-produced American stuff like Miller.
Respectfully,
Brian P."Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth. Sooner or later, that debt is paid."
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2012-09-30, 10:44 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jun 2004
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- Lincoln, RI
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Re: Social Drinking
I can't afford any better information in regards to alcohol than has been posted here. I will say, if someone who is drinking alcohol questions your not drinking alcohol, they're probably more concerned with their own drinking and not yours.
@ polity4life: I gotta find out if Dragonmead is available over here in the armpit of new england. The name alone makes me want to try one.
Crap! Dragonmead is the microbrewery. My bad. Maybe I should move to MI. Not just for the beer of course, the local economy has to be better than here.Last edited by nyjastul69; 2012-09-30 at 11:09 AM.
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2012-09-30, 10:52 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2007
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- The Black Desert
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Re: Social Drinking
Bathatar!
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2012-09-30, 11:32 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2006
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- Bristol
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Re: Social Drinking
Last edited by Aedilred; 2012-09-30 at 11:32 AM.
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2012-09-30, 11:48 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2007
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- Cippa's River Meadow
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Re: Social Drinking
*Stands up to sing the Westcountry anthem*
'Cos oi've got a brand new combine 'arvester and oi'll give you the key,
Come on now let's get together in perfect 'armony,
Oh I's got 20 acres and you got 43,
Now oi've got a brand new combine 'arvester and oi'll give you the key!
Edit: Anybody heard this version? I'm unsure what to make of it: on one hand, I'm disappointed that someone felt the need to improve upon perfection; the other hand is helping to pick myself off the floor from laughing too hard.Last edited by Brother Oni; 2012-09-30 at 11:50 AM.