Friday 30 December 2011

Crabs, Spices, Orange, Ginger and Beer.

Right, well, if I can, for a moment, draw everyone away from making more of a bloody mess of the comments than the troll did, perhaps we can discuss something serious.

Apologies to Pub Curmudgeon for turf-trespassing but I doubt he'd review this one anyway.

Beer.

Specifically, the most bizarre beer I think I have ever tasted. It's called Crabbie's Spiced Orange Alcoholic Ginger Beer and I know, it sounds like something concocted by a drunken maniac out of whatever was left of the flat cider, decaying fruit and Creme de Menthe at the end of a particularly virulent New Year party.

Crabbies - I think of green ginger wine.
Spiced - I'm thinking rum.
Orange - what's that blue stuff? Bols? Or is it the clear stuff? Cointreau? I've never tried either sober and didn't like them drunk so I'm not sure.
Alcoholic - well duh. That's three drinks so far, I think we can take the alcohol as read.
Ginger Beer - that's a mixer. Also known as root beer.

Now, imagine drinking something that tastes like all of them at once. A cocktail invented by Asmodeus himself when he was devising new ways to torment W.C. Fields or George Best.

It looks like beer. Well, perhaps a bit light for beer but not as light as lager. It's 4% ABV so it's about average beer strength. It smells like ginger beer and it tastes like a pint of Crabbie's Green Ginger wine that someone has diluted and then dropped a fruit bowl and a spice rack into.

The weirdest part is that it's not unpleasant. If you're expecting it to taste like beer you're going to get a hell of a shock but once you get over that it's okay.

Not one I'll buy a lot of but maybe once in a while for novelty value. I had two because they were on special offer at Morrison's but it's not one I'd buy at full price. If you like the weird and the wonderful, give it a go.

As for me, I'm off to cleanse my palate with whisky.

19 comments:

Oldrightie said...

If this a live post time, buddy, you need to get a life. Well, we both do!

Junican said...

I just happen to be still awake.
Good idea to refresh your brain/mind with a bit of alcohol and tobacco. Neither can do you much harm unless you decide to moderate. If you do, then your fate is sealed. Just like 'quiters' - you will die. Idiots!

The zealots will fail in the end. It has always been so. What is important is that these persecutors should not get away with it. Arnott et al must suffer as we have. They must be personally demonised as we have, even though we are not named. They set themselves up and they have been paid to demonise us. They, personally, must pay. But the demons in the background must pay more. That is why legal action must be taken against them. The legal action must be personal and general. Every persecutor must be araigned. They have created massive suffering for old people - shoving them outside in conditions which are not fit for pigs. They decided, and they MUST NOT be allowed to get away with it.

Arnott, Duffy, Freeman and the rest must not be allowed to get away scot free. They are lying bitches and they know it! But they are 'fronts'. Quack professors are paying them and telling them what to say, so as to avoid saying it themselves. The Quacks must also be arraigned.

The critical thing, however, is that only someone with the wealth can bring a prosecution. Having said that, it would take only one person who has suffered personal loss from a smoking ban to sue. Remember that Tobacco Control used one person to prove negligence by Tobacco Companies. The opposite must also be true - it takes only one person to prove actual loss as a result of Arnott's lies to precipitate a general claim.

Only ONE wealthy person is required to start the process  

JuliaM said...

I've so far avoided sampling any of the Crabbies product as a result of their awful adverts, but I might just give this a go. It sounds intriguing!

Smoking Hot said...

Sorry but l wouldn't drink that crabby stuff even if it was free. l'll stick to spirits

faustiesblog said...

Sounds like a delightful tipple.

However, the main ingredients of root beer are wintergreen and licorice, LI.

http://www.greydragon.org/library/brewing_root_beer.html

Traditional ginger beer is fermented from root ginger via a ginger beer "mother". The mother is a symbiotic collection of yeasts which grow as a colony with each brew. Alcohol strengths of 10%+ have been obtained.

But ginger beer can be made from all kinds of yeast combos - one I like is that from water kefir (aka Japanese water crystals). It's dead easy, quick and is very good for the digestion.

faustiesblog said...

A class action suit would do it. Unfortunately, this being the home of vampire corporations, the government is unlikely to permit we plebs the opportunity of going after their buddies.

http://www.ipe.com/news/uk-class-action-law-would-open-floodgates-for-rbs-lawsuits_41124.php

But hey, if any US citizens are harmed by the actions of these people, perhaps they can kick off a class action suit. If we can attract libel tourism, why can't the US accommodate us similarly?

Amusing Bunni said...

At least the beer was alcoholic!
Cheers!

nisakiman said...

Sounds great! I've always been a fan of (the non-alcoholic) ginger beer.

Where I am, they make a very lively local brew. When I had the bar, I had 24 or so bottles of it racked on a shelf. Didn't realise that it needed to be kept cool, and even then has a limited shelf-life. So a couple of weeks after delivery, I'm working behind the bar (fortunately just after opening, and no customers) when suddenly it's like the battle of the Somme, bloody exploding bottles, glass shrapnel flying everywhere...sheer bedlam! I'm diving for cover thinking WTF!!!! And what a sticky mess. Took me ages to clean up.

However, it does make a great Dark and Stormy (Dark Rum [preferably Woods 100] and Ginger beer).

Legiron said...

I once worked with a spoilage yeast called Brettanomyces. This thing could even grow in tonic water and produced enough gas to put the bottles under incredible pressure. One flaw in one bottle was enough to burst it, that cracked the next bottle, that went up and cracked the next... shelves of bottles went up as if someone was machine-gunning them.

Sounds like what you describe - but you wouldn't need a spoilage yeast to do it. Yours already had yeast in them!

Legiron said...

It wasn't bad, if I'm honest, but I couldn't make it a regular tipple. A bit like one of those chocolate oranges - something to have a couple of times a year.

Legiron said...

I'd always thought 'root beer' meant 'ginger beer'. Learn something new every day!

Legiron said...

Crabbie's green ginger wine is a good way to make a terrible whisky at least drinkable. If you have to dilute it, use something alcoholic ;)

Legiron said...

They have adverts? I don't think I've ever seen one.

Legiron said...

I write my scariest stuff at night, when the wind is howling ;) Somehow, sunshine and chirping birds make it hard to get in the mood.

Legiron said...

Unfortunately a challenge by ordinary people on the grounds that it has harmed us won't work - because that's exactly what it was intended to do.

Bucko TheMoose said...

Test

Bucko TheMoose said...

Oops. Didn't mean to post that, I was just checking out the log in options. Doh!

Legiron said...

I expect there'll be a few 'test' posts wile this thing settles in. One thing I've found is that I can now comment as me without going through Blogger login. Which feels a little bizarre.

Moi said...

Check out Frank D’s place (post from yesterday “Straws in the Wind” plus the comments section).  Looks as if a European-wide court action could be on the cards, brought by bar and restaurant owners who have suffered as a result of the smoking ban, using – interestingly – a business-oriented model which Frank sums up very nicely in the following day’s article.  Certainly a space worth watching …

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