21st century hucksterism: Budweiser’s unpasteurized beer is now available in Quebec

Posted on June 17, 2018 by Douglas Powell

From the land of 8 per cent Brador beer in my misspent teen years to unpasteurized Budweiser crap.

Musée canadien des civilisations, Artefacts = Canadian Museum of Civilization, Artefacts

Quebec has some explaining to do.

But that’s nothing new.

“Budweiser has launched a new kind of beer called Budweiser Brewery Fresh. It’s basically the same Budweiser you know and love, except with a little twist. That twist? Tank beer – the ultimate draught beer experience delivered cold, unpasteurized and free from any artificial ingredients, additives or preservatives for the purest taste. …

“Um, awesome much?”

Who writes this shit?

Clean water is a relatively new thing, so for millennia, people harnessed the power of fermentation to get rid of the nasties in water and drank beer and wine.

“Budweiser Brewery Fresh is SO beyond fresh that it needs to be consumed within two weeks. Which means that no matter what, you’ll get to taste your favourite beer literally within 14 days of its creation.”

Enablers.

Beer for breakfast: Anthony Bourdain thinks love of craft beer is dumb and a return to Trump family values

Posted on November 9, 2016 by Douglas Powell

For our American friends who have reverted to times before sanitation and are having beer for breakfast – water would kill you – Anthony Bourdain says forget the craft beer:

“I would say that the angriest critiques I get from people about shows are when I’m drinking whatever convenient cold beer is available in a particular place, and not drinking the best beer out there. You know, I haven’t made the effort to walk down the street 10 blocks to the microbrewery where they’re making some fucking Mumford and Sons IPA.”

“I like cold beer. And I like to have a good time. I don’t like to talk about beer, honestly. I don’t like to talk about wine. I like to drink beer. If you bring me a really good one, a good craft beer, I will enjoy it, and say so. But I’m not gonna analyze it.”

I’m not really into Bourdain or other celebrity chefs — if you think Trump is a low-water mark, what about the 200-year-old industry of food hucksterism and porn telling us what to consume — but I gotta agree with the beer thing.

I have an internal guffaw every time I see some hipster in Canada or Australia drinking Corona from Mexico, renowned for its drinking water quality. That’s why beer is made — to ferment all the nasty shit out of whatever water is around. It doesn’t need to be shipped halfway around the world.

You may also want to avoid the Original Brock St. Brewing Company brand Blonde Beer which has been recalled in Ontario because the cans have a tendency to swell and burst.

This recall was triggered by the company. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is conducting a food safety investigation, which may lead to the recall of other products.

Most Canadian heist ever: Guy in goalie gear robs Manitoba beer store

Posted on August 29, 2016 by Douglas Powell

I was in Brisbane.

Really.

RCMP in Manitoba are on the hunt for two people who pulled off a beer store heist in the community of Russell.

One of the suspects had a hockey stick and was apparently dressed as a goalie.

In surveillance footage from Aug. 15 posted on YouTube, the men are seen smashing a door and walking into the store to steal a bunch of beer.

Police said the one suspect may have been “a defenceman or forward in disguise as he was wearing jersey #17 — a non-traditional number for goalies.”

“Anyone with information about this theft or has played against a goalie matching this description is asked to call Russell RCMP,” the RCMP added.

In others matters Canadiana the full concert of the Aug. 20, 2016 Tragically Hip show that was broadcast around the country – and world – is now up on youtube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7H2ew1MwyQM.

I laughed, I cried, I rocked.

McKenzie brothers can explain: ‘We recently found a whole mouse in an energy drink’

Posted on March 31, 2016 by Douglas Powell

This week, Cynthia Mangione, a food laboratory specialist at the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets, and Stephanie Brock, a radiation health supervisor at the Kentucky Department for Public Health, took to Reddit to answer questions about their jobs. They spend their days “testing products imported into the US for dangerous pathogens, as well as illegal dyes, metals, antibiotics and more.” Here are the three most surprising reveals:

2) The one food safety testers avoid eating: sprouts

I have given up sprouts because of ongoing concerns with their safety. We also make sure to wash ready-to-eat veggies (despite the “triple wash” designation).

According to the Food and Drug Administration’s food safety website, sprouts — such as alfalfa, clover, radish, and mung bean sprouts — are a higher-risk food. This is because they are eaten raw and, unlike other fresh produce, need to grow in warm and humid environments — the ideal breeding grounds for dangerous bacteria such as salmonella, listeria, and E. coli. Washing them doesn’t always kill that potentially harmful bacteria.

Since 1996, there have been more than 30 outbreaks in the US associated with sprouts. In a recent analysis of food outbreaks in the US, sprouts were among the leading culprits.

3) The craziest thing they found in a food they tested…

We recently found a whole mouse in an energy drink!

Can’t really explain this one, but it’s pretty disturbing.

Poop beer from Iceland

Posted on July 19, 2014 by Douglas Powell

In this week’s do-not-miss world of beer news, it appears the Icelandic brewery Borg Brugghús has created a beer that gets its unique taste characteristics from, yes indeed, sheep dung.

The malted barley that goes into their Fenrir Nr. 26 is smoked over burning Icelandic sheep excrement for several hours, resulting in a brew that is, according to brewmaster Sturlaugur Jon Björnsson, “Þetta er í raun léttur IPA bjór með sítruslegt og ferskt bragð og lykt frá humlunum. Síðan kemur svolítið þyngri, taðreyktur fílingur í þetta en þetta gengur allt saman upp.”

For the non-Icelandic among us, that more or less translates as “It’s a lightweight IPA with fresh citrus and hop notes, then comes a bit heavier taste from the…” Well. You get the idea.

This sort of madness isn’t exactly new—witness Beer Geek Brunch Weasel beer from Denmark craft beer superstar Mikeller, which derived some of its flavor from Vietnamese ca phe chon coffee (beans harvested from civet cat poop). But, you know, it’s still not exactly mainstream.

At 4:20 on 4/20, elephant poop beer makes sense

Posted on April 20, 2013 by Douglas Powell

Sankt Gallen Brewery is using beans found in elephant poop to create Un, Kono Kuro.

Usually people talk about aftertaste when drinking beer but with Un, Kono Kuro the word afterglow is, according to guyism, much more appropriate

After downing the last drop, slowly rising from my throat and mouth was that afterglow. The combination of bitter and sweet stayed fresh and lingered in my head. It was a familiar aroma that accompanied me through the entire beer

For some time after I could still feel as if my body was saturated with that warm scent.

They’re so proud of the process that they actually put a picture of an elephant taking a dump on the label. So how does it taste? As with many seemingly ridiculous ideas, it somehow worked out well

According to one reviewer, “When I poured it into a glass the coffee-like aroma continued to build it was relaxing like an easy Sunday morning. After taking my first sip there was an initial bitterness that got washed over by a wave of sweetness. Following that, a mellow body rolled in and spread out through my mouth.

Happy 4/20.

Cheech & Chong’s History of 420 from CheechAndChong

Cheech & Chong Read the Bible from CheechAndChong

The best Canadian response: if my earpiece went in his beer, I would have bought him another

Posted on March 28, 2013 by Douglas Powell

When Boston Bruins ice hockey assistant coach Geoff Ward got frustrated during his team’s recent overtime win against the Toronto Maple Leafs, it led to an amazing chain of events.

Ward was having technical difficulties with his electronic earpiece during the NHL game and angrily unclipped the device on the sideline.

Television footage appeared to show him nonchalantly throwing the earpiece behind him over a glass partition – and it landing directly into a stunned male spectator’s beer.

“Holy crap what are the odds!?” one person commented on YouTube.

But the truth was even weirder.

What landed in the man’s drink was actually a smelling salt – accidentally thrown about five metres from the Bruin’s bench by player Tyler Seguin.

The right winger confessed to being the thrower in a short video posted on the Bruin’s website.

“It was before the third period and sometimes I use the smelling salt just to wake me up a little bit,” he said.

Seguin apologised to Ward for making it appear as though he was responsible.

But the Canadian-born assistant coach took it all in his stride.

“Let’s be straight – if it was me that was the culprit I would have definitely bought him another beer,” Ward added.

Das boot

Posted on May 16, 2012 by Douglas Powell

With Greg in Garmisch, Germany.

Doing food safety stuff.

Variation on mouse in a beer: rodent found in can of rum

Posted on June 17, 2011 by Douglas Powell

An Australian woman got a nasty surprise when she cracked open a can of rum and cola to honor her grandfather – a dead mouse.

The Northern Star newspaper has reported that Casino mother-of-four Linda Foster drank the can of Bundaberg rum only to find a mouse in the bottom of the can.

Miss Foster, 26, bought a six-pack of the drop, which she intended to drink with her family following the funeral of her grandfather, who was a life-long drinker of the product in question.

"I hardly ever drink," Miss Foster said.

"Straight away I vomited – it was disgusting, absolutely revolting."

Miss Foster said she tried repeatedly to contact the company that produced the beverage on its consumer feedback phone number, which is printed on the can, but despite leaving messages received no response.

A spokesperson for the company which produced the drink said it was "committed to the highest standards of product quality and all our products undergo rigorous quality assurance testing at every stage of the production process."

Ham knuckles with staph, oysters with noro fell 94 at French rugby cocktail party

Posted on December 31, 2010 by Douglas Powell

I thought rugby match cocktail parties only happened with cans of Brockman’s beer after the games; I have seen Invictus. It’s the way hockey players do it – especially the girls.

The Institut de Veille Sanitaire in France reports today (thanks Albert) that on Feb. 20, 2010, the Fire and Rescue Service of the Hérault district informed the Regional Health Authorities that symptoms such as stomach ache, nausea, vomiting were diagnosed among around 15 people taking part in a rugby match cocktail party.

One person was taken to the local emergency hospital service. … A total of 94 cases and 110 controls were reported among the people taking part in the cocktail party. Two successive epidemic events were identified with distinct symptoms and median incubation periods of 3.5 and 30 hours. The results of the epidemiological, biological and veterinary investigations were in favor of an intoxication of the early cases due to the ingestion of knuckle of ham pieces contaminated by Staphylococcus aureus (OR=3.75; IC=[1.91; 7.35] p=0.001) and an intoxication of late cases due to the ingestion of oyster contaminated by Norovirus (OR=32.22; IC=[7.09 ; 146.34] p<0.001). In this investigation, food and pathogens at the origin of the contamination were identified. This outbreak stresses the importance of respecting hygiene measures in collective catering and defining first management measures as soon as the results of the investigation are known.

Full report only in French, http://www.invs.sante.fr/publications/2010/Tiac/Rapport%20Tiac.pdf

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