27
votes
Accepted
Strong drink at the time of St John the Baptist
The Quotation
Firstly, I shall examine the passage in the original Greek:
ἔσται γὰρ μέγας ἐνώπιον τοῦ Κυρίου, καὶ οἶνον καὶ σίκερα οὐ μὴ πίῃ, καὶ Πνεύματος Ἁγίου πλησθήσεται ἔτι ἐκ κοιλίας μητρὸς ...
9
votes
Accepted
Do wines from grafted vine stock taste different from non-grafted?
Oh... something I am a real expert at! You are mixing your context when calling vines hybrids. There are three ways you can grow grapes for fruit. 100% original "own rooted" vines, grafted vines and ...
8
votes
Accepted
When and why did wineries start diluting wine?
There are several factors at play here. If we think about how grapes were maintained hundreds or thousands of years ago, it was kind of a slapdash affair. In the beginning they probably just grabbed ...
8
votes
What is "Five Fruits" in this 1920s cocktail recipe?
Old advertisements show that it was made starting in 1900 in Portland, Maine. It consisted of a syrup made of pineapple, orange, lemon, raspberry, and strawberry juices with sugar, red food coloring, ...
7
votes
Accepted
Has Prohibition ever worked?
Prohibition was an Era in American history from 1920-1933 - and - it failed miserably. If anything, it made alcohol more popular.
Prohibition, in general, also means to prohibit something via law ...
7
votes
Strong drink at the time of St John the Baptist
There were two types of drinks back in that time. Beer and Wine. Both hardly resembled what they are today. Beer was very weak, under 4% alcohol, while wine was probably in the normal range of 12-14%. ...
7
votes
Accepted
Can wine be made from all edible fruits?
Yes, wine can pretty much be made from all edible fruit, including tomatoes. But the reason we make wine out of grapes is three fold. Sugar, tannins and acids.
Sugar. Grapes produce the highest ...
7
votes
Accepted
Is Budweiser really the most expensive beer to brew?
The answer may be in the question you asked:
it’s brewed in enormous quantities
If you look at the aggregate cost, it is indeed almost certainly the most expensive beer in the world to brew and ...
6
votes
Strong drink at the time of St John the Baptist
Surely mead, honey wine, should be considered. Okay, I had to google this one: Wiki says that residual evidence has been found in northern Chinese pottery vessels dating from 6500–7000 BC, and in ...
6
votes
What wine did people drink during the Roman empire?
You have a lot of information right out of Wikipedia when searching for Ancient Rome + wine, and too much for it to be copied or gathered here. But here is some information I also learnt from History ...
6
votes
What kind of alcoholic beverages would've been common in a 1950s-1960s USA home?
What kind of alcoholic beverages would've been common in a 1950s-1960s USA home?
As far as beer goes in 1950, the top brewer was Jos. Schlitz Brewing Co., produced 3.4 million more barrels than the ...
5
votes
Accepted
How did South Australia come to have smaller measures of beer?
In short, it's because of taxation.
In the Commonwealth of Australia's Parliamentary Debates of 1904 (p.8534), The Honourable Chris Watson (who went on to become the 3rd Prime Minister) made a ...
5
votes
Accepted
Is the saying true that drinking absinthe drives a person insane?
The answer is no; drinking traditionally prepared absinthe causes no more brain-damge or insanity than any other alcoholic beverage...
...absinthe languished in exile for nearly a century, a ...
5
votes
Accepted
What was the most common hard liquor of the Late Middle Ages?
I finally did a little digging. The Late Medieval Period is generally considered from 1300-1500. Whisky, did not become wide spread until the 1700s. The first recorded instance of Whisky production ...
5
votes
Accepted
When, where and why did the tradition of clinking glasses and saying "cheers" or "to your health" first start?
There is the usual great stuff relating to 'Toasting'. From wikipedia - which is normally correct.
I then had a quick look at snopes.com, they proclaim the following to be false:
Q: Why do people ...
5
votes
Accepted
What is a “Boston Particular?"
What is a “Boston Particular?”
First of all here is the exact quote in question:
It is almost certain that “the first Americans and Persians to interact in person” were not missionaries but “rum ...
4
votes
Accepted
Japanese beers historic evolution
What is the evolution of brewing beer in Japan?
Beer in Japan seems to have had its start in the 17th century during the Edo period when Dutch traders stationed at Dejima in Nagasaki opened a beer ...
4
votes
Accepted
What is the strongest alcoholic drink that existed during the Middle Ages in Europe?
In the History and Taxonomy of Distilled Spirits There is ample evidence that distilled spirits were available during the time period you mentioned in a variety of places. We know that that Greek ...
4
votes
Does anyone here still use bitters as medicine? Which ones do you use and for what ailments?
I usually use either Jägdbitters (a Jägermeister-like bitters sold at Aldi) or my family's version of Bärenjäger (which I prepare at home - nope, it's not bitters, but it was also used historicaly for ...
4
votes
Accepted
Who made or makes spirits from poisonous Heracleum?
This book "Reise Um Die Erde Durch Nord-Asien und Die Beiden Oceane ..., Part 1, Volume 3 By Adolph Erman", available on googleBooks, which describes a trip to Russia in 1828-30 quotes yet another ...
4
votes
Is there a modern wine that is designed to resemble Noah's wine?
These guys aren't claiming that it's Noah's wine, but they are saying they are using the same methods that they used 8000 years ago to make wine and you can buy it in the Republic of Georgia. Is ...
4
votes
Accepted
Is there a modern wine that is designed to resemble Noah's wine?
Karasì is not designed to resemble that of Noah's wine, but it may have some small characteristics of the grapes Noah used.
Karasì, is a tribute to the 6100 year wine tradition of Armenia. Aged in ...
4
votes
How did the phrase "beer me" originate?
In the opening scene of Three's Company, S07 E20 · Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow |
Apr 5, 1983, character Larry Dallas walks into the Regal Beagle and shouts to Mike the Bartender, "Beer me!"
4
votes
Carrying alcohol deep into the wood?
A bottle made of leather seems to have been commonly used, for example in Ivanhoe, by Walter Scott
"The hermit only replied by a grin; and returning to the hutch, he produced a leathern bottle, ...
3
votes
Has Prohibition ever worked?
No In Gujarat , A state of India There is prohibition since 1958 which has never worked and also created lots of illegal troubles as well as loss of taxes on booze.
Bombay State had prohibition ...
3
votes
Traditional drinks for celebrating the Feast of the Epiphany?
According to the wiki that you linked:
The earliest reference to Epiphany as a Christian feast was in A.D. 361, by Ammianus Marcellinus.
So, it would be pertinent to drink wines made from Italian ...
3
votes
Can wine be made from all edible fruits?
If they can make wine out of durian fruit, then one can make wine out of any fruit.
Most people find the taste or flavor of this fruit disgusting.
In fact durians are not allowed on the Singapore ...
3
votes
Who started pruning grape vines?
I'm assuming you want to say, "Who are the first people to domesticate grape vines?". Grapevines are not "bushes" they are technically vines. In the wild they grow up the side of trees in a forest and ...
3
votes
Who started pruning grape vines?
In your question, you write:
I know it wasn't practiced until recent (last 500 years or so)
On what basis do you know that? If you've done some prior research on the topic, it really ought to be ...
3
votes
Accepted
Why does the Saaz hop have a German name?
Why does the Saaz hop have a German name?
Along time back, the town of Žatec was part of Germany and not part of the now Czech Republic. Thus the name reflects an historical perspective rather than a ...
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