Talk:Beer

I started this article from scratch here at Citizendium. --Ian Johnson 12:21, 1 August 2007 (CDT)

Original author notes

I created the Beer article as Anton Sweeney seemed to sensibly suggest it ought to be here for the CZ Write-a-Thon party. (With suitable apologies to all non-drinkers.) --Ian Johnson 12:21, 1 August 2007 (CDT)

The origin of booze

I would like to know about the origin of beer and booze generally. Did somebody just leave grain in a barrel for a long time and then decide to drink the water? Or what? --Larry Sanger 12:31, 1 August 2007 (CDT)

Some birds (even in San Francisco) apparently get drunk occasionally on fermented berries. Maybe other animals do also. Could early humans have seen, noted, and conducted scientific experiments, hehe? Hayford Peirce 14:41, 2 August 2007 (CDT)

Yep, I've heard of pigs and cattle getting drunk on overripe apples that continue to ferment in their stomachs. Hmm. Imagine the conversation. "See the way that ox falls over after eating those rotten apples?" "Yes. [pause...] I'm gonna eat some too..." I've a friend very much into craft beers and brewing - I'll ask him to contribute (or at least loan me some books) next time I see him... Anton Sweeney 18:35, 2 August 2007 (CDT)

More probably: "See the way that cow is runnin' around, jumpin' onto the bulls, kickin' her feet up into the air, lowin' softly and lovingly...." Hayford Peirce 19:09, 2 August 2007 (CDT)

I saw a documentary once that talked about a study which found that primates have a natural attraction to alcohol. They suggested that this disposition encourages the animals to search out the ripest fruit (or helps them find the fruit maybe?). I don't remember the details very well and can only tell you that it was on PBS so I'm not sure about sources but maybe somebody can find something...

By the way Hayford, my favorite bar in the town where I went to college was called "The Contented Cow." :-) The sign on the way into Northfield reads: "Cows, Colleges and Contentment."--Joe Quick (Talk) 22:18, 2 August 2007 (CDT)

Here's a newspaper article about drunky monkeys: http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20040407/news_lz1c7biology.html --Joe Quick (Talk) 15:11, 5 August 2007 (CDT)

Sports workgroup?

While I enjoy attending Thirsty Thursday's at my local minor league park as much as the next guy, I'm not sure there is any other correlation between sports and beer that warrants it being in that workgroup, so I'm going to remove it. --Todd Coles 14:10, 2 August 2007 (CDT)

Prehistoric beer!

In shocking news, us Irish may have been on the beer for quite some time. I heard an interview on the radio today about a Bronze Age method of brewing beer that's been rediscovered, after a pair of archaeologists got to thinking about potential other uses for fulacht fiadh - a horseshoe-shaped mound and associated trough, thought to be used for cooking. Information on the experiment is here. Will add some details to the article page tomorrow. Anton Sweeney 19:14, 13 August 2007 (CDT)

Article Fork?

Following the discussion of alcoholic beverages in Harold McGee's 'On Food and Cooking' (2nd. ed., p. 739ff.), I was thinking that perhaps we should restrict the discussion of beer to alcoholic beverages derived from malted barley, and have a separate article on each kind of other fermented beverage.

I realize that this is a point of terminological dispute, in general-- McGee calls the other (maize, manioc, millet, etc.) derived beverages "beer-like" brewed drinks, and in his 'Microbrewed Adventures', Charlie Papazian refers to a cassava-derived brew as "beer" (p. 223f.). My sense, though, is that the word 'beer' is most commonly used to describe malted barley-derived beverages, and that thus an encyclopedia article on it should restrict itself to describing them. This article is someone else's baby, and I don't want to step on anyone's toes. If you have any feedback, let me know.

Either way, it would be nice to have a general article covering alcoholic beverages with general information on the different kinds of alcoholic beverage. Much of the information that is currently in the beer article would fit well there, or in an article on the history of alcoholic beverages.

I've proposed forking a couple of other articles on CZ, and gotten little response. If I don't hear anything in the next week or two, I'm going to go ahead and split the article up. Please let me know if you're still working on the article, even if you don't have strong feelings on the proposed fork. That will at least let me know that I haven't broken all the rules of CZ etiquette. Thanks, Brian P. Long 19:34, 6 February 2008 (CST)