Posts by jake

Re: K'in eejets.

"Cider is swill."

Cider is just as good as the apples that go into it. Here in the computer world we have a fitting acronym: GIGO

Re: It's probably not actually "bad".

Nice of you to paint all 350,000,000 of us with that wide brush of yours, Julz.

Beers built to be aged is a thing here in the US. It's a little known (and even less understood!) aspect of the fine art of brewing. Fashion? Perhaps. One could say the same of a fine, old Bordeaux or Madeira.

AB's "born on" date is the date it is packed. The beer is aged at the factory, and is ready to drink when it is bottled. It is built to be consumed as a young, fresh lager. The longer past that date, the older (and less fresh) the beer will taste. So it actually is helpful to the consumer ... especially if any given retailer doesn't properly rotate their stock.

Re: K'in eejets.

Here in the US, even the lowly Budweiser comes in at 5% ... I'll bet that cozy little fact has surprised a lot of people who thought they knew otherwise.

Re: Milk consumption?

"Restaurants? Whenever I dine out, my choice of beverage is beer, wine or water."

Are you really so ignorant that you think that the only place a restaurant uses milk products is as a stand-alone drink? Wow.

Re: i need to get out more

These days, "bad pints" are nearly always caused by lazy cleaning somewhere between the keg/cask and your glass. That, and methanethiol caused by light contamination after pouring.

Re: It's probably not actually "bad".

The UV causes compounds in hops to break down. One of the breakdown products is known as methyl mercaptan ... which smells exactly like skunk.

That's why some of the idiots who ship beer in clear glass recommend a wedge of lime stuffed into the neck of the bottle ... it's an attempt to mask the skunk. It's also why beer shipped in green glass often reeks of skunk. Brown glass slows the process down, and cans stop it completely.

Note that the skunking process is almost instant out in the sunshine ... take a cold glass of perfectly drinkable lager outside and sip it slowly over a couple minutes. You can taste the flavo(u)r change over that short a period of time.

Re: Pubs not open till July 4th at earliest :(

Have you started to learn the fine art of homebrewing yet? If you had started at the beginning of the lockdown/shelter in place/whatever, you'd have drinkable beer already.

Re: K'in eejets.

"It's clear where you live."

And where would that be? It's not clear to me at all.

You can still get a Growler or several filled for off-site consumption at many brew-pubs here in the US.

Re: Pasteur is turning over in his grave

Properly brewed beer doesn't need pasteurization after it's been brewed. The brewing process provides a bug-free environment for the yeasties, and the yeasties reproduce so fast that it makes the young beer inhospitable to the nasties.

Re: Unpasteurised milk

"The question is why would you?"

Because it tastes better than the plastic swill you get at Tesco?

Re: Pasteur is turning over in his grave

I wouldn't drink pasturized milk in the first place[0]. It tastes dead. Awful, awful stuff.

[0] If I drank milk. Which I don't.

Re: It's probably not actually "bad".

The woo is strong in this one ...

Re: K'in eejets.

" once you get over 5.5% or so it starts to get syrupy and headache-inducing"

Nonsense. Syrupy and headache inducing are both signs of incomplete fermentation.

"like some American IPAs"

And many British "real ales". It's hardly confined to the portion of the North American continent south of the 49th parallel.

Re: Note

It's funny how much the little Orcadians don't realise most of the fishing waters and more importantly the oil fields are *Shetland*.

It's funny how much the little Shetlandic folks don't realise most of the fishing waters and more importantly the oil fields are *The Oil and Gas Authority*.

Fortunately for the pubs ...

... I've noticed that when most people purchase several month's supply of beer, it rarely lasts weeks. Sounds like a win-win for the publicans to me.

Re: It's a variation of Tragedy of the Commons.

You are absolutely right ... I missed an o or several in the transcription.

It was more along the lines of `loooooooooooser`.

Re: Same as the Nebraska meat packing plants

Horse meat isn't inherently bad for humans. It's the bute that'll get you.

Within a week? Probably more like a minute or so.

Sadly, John, that kind of useless reference is used all the time. Even here in the hallowed halls of ElReg. You'd think that with the wide-spread availability of information online people would be able to figure out the truth ... but for some reason, folks are drawn to fantasy, rumo(u)r and inuendo with a little myth, legend and fable thrown in for spice. Especially if it supports their own pet conspiracy theories.

The widespread existence of confirmation bias may be proof that the human brain has (nearly) stopped evolving ... in fact, it might also be the reason the human brain has (nearly) stopped evolving.

Thrown in a little circular reasoning and Bob's yer Auntie.

Re: A possible explanation for sudden behaviour change.

"Alameda County are the only ones in California maintaining lockdown"

Bullshit.

Re: Einstein vs Newton? Where the hell did that come from?

Newton (1642 - 1726/27) undoubtedly read some Chaucer[0], but he did not invent the cat door. Cat doors were in use in ancient Egypt. They are useful for helping to keep rodents out of your grain stash.

[0] The Milleres Tale, line 254 & 255, late 1300s ... "An hole he fond, ful lowe up-on a bord, Ther as the cat was wont in for to crepe;"

Re: Please, dear goddess please

I'm hoping the Judge hauls the ass into court just to issue the following iconic order:

Bailiff, whack his pee pee!

Re: silly names

Define accuracy.

If I call to have my welding tank(s) "refilled"[0] and ask for acetylene, that's exactly what I'm going to get. If I were to ask for ethyne, the guy on the phone would probably tell me they don't have any. The chemist in me hates it, the welder in me asks "Who gives a fuck?" ... In this scenario, which is accurate?

There are many words we use as names for things in the English vernacular that aren't actually accurate, and yet still describe exactly what we are talking about. The so-called "Pythagorean Theorem" comes to mind (see Plimpton 322). Likewise, the Panama Hat is made in Ecuador ... and the so-called "Hundred Years War" was actually three separate conflicts totaling about 81 years over a period of 116 years. Etc.

[0] Exchanged, actually.

Re: Eggheads?

Maybe not new, but definitely not paying attention.

P'raps 'es been off searchin' fer a sparc?

Re: BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Bad troll. No cookie.

Re: Oh, I dunno ...

I wouldn't expect terrestrial life. However, I am questioning the statement that Martian brines are "unlikely to play host to anything that looks like life as we know it". I rather suspect that if any life is found, it'll look and act an awful lot like life here on Earth ... Including being oxygen, carbon, hydrogen and nitrogen based, with a sprinkle of calcium and phosphorus, a dash of potassium, sodium, sulpher and chlorine, a bit of magnesium and a small pinch of other contaminants.

Re: @Paul Johnston - Life is more tenacious than you would expect

Crisps? Shirley that should be toast ...

Re: There should be an IT Driving Test

Adding fuel to the fire ...

My Dad started reading Herb Caen's column to me every morning from the time I was born, followed by the headlines and the first couple paragraphs of the first section of the S.F. Chronicle. One morning Dad was ill and in bed. Mom was flabbergasted to discover that I had gone outside to get the paper, and was making good progress on reading Herb's column for myself. I was three.

I don't remember the events in the above paragraph, but a year or so later I do remember being irritated on the first day of kindergarten because I wasn't allowed to bring my newspaper to read.

If you are a new parent, read to your kid early and often. It's important.

Re: There should be an IT Driving Test

Yeah, he squeezed in before they changed the rules in 2016.

(I'm kind of embarrassed that I know this... I'm not fond of F1. To me it's been nothing more than a game of "follow the leader" for several decades now. Most of us outgrow follow the leader when we get to grade school ... because quite frankly it's boring as shit.)

Re: There should be an IT Driving Test

It was about 30 years ago that pieces of paper started to become meaningless in the computer/networking world. That was when learning to pass the test became more important than actually learning the subject matter.

People who think that learning by rote is the answer are a huge driving force in the anti-intellectualization of our current society.