OT-Xmas Recipe-Spew Warning

Are the fractures strictly necessary? It is Christmass after all!

I guess you could change it to read break two "kegs" but then the beer drinkers would get mad.

Some days you can't win for losing-- lol

Kegs? Wash your mouth out. Tun, hogshead or barrel but never, ever "keg" - the very mention of the name conjures up images of horrendous, gaseous chemical concoctions produced by bulk industrial processes.

Hate to burst the bubble, Bruce, but there are many misinformed on the western side of the pond, and that is how it is sold. I have been here for 45 years, and am getting brainwashed. I won't tell you the problems I had in the kitchen when I first arrived here!!! They speak American!!

I DID have a good tankard ( or two) of a keg at an event on the Canadian border. It was beer from a microbrewery, and was almost to die for!!

Gillian

Don't try to tell that to American beer drinking University students. They would run you out of the county on a rail. :^))

LOl! But they aren't drinking "beer" - they are consuming a chemical concoction with more E numbers and other additives than you can shake a stick at However, no doubt the USA brewing industry has their taste buds suitably numbed by serving the stuff virtually frozen

LOL! Just don't paint *all* American-brewed beers with that brush, Bruce. I'll grant that all the mainstream offerings taste awful... my usual description isn't fit for polite company. But I've had several local microbrews that are simply heavenly. I miss "Spotted Cow" from New Glarus, WI, enormously. That is truly a nectar of the gods.

--Mickey Edmonton, AB

to reply: mickey18385 at yahoo dot com

Y'know - beer here, when normally served most of the year is likely about the same as room temperature in your perpetually frozen side of the world ;^) Room temp isn't cold enough for us Americans to keep the butter and milk out on the counter overnight.

While the large breweries - well, who knows. Kegs are metal containers that for people having a party and wanting draft beer use. The keg is filled and the partyers rent or may own a tap with pressure pump hose attached. Better beer than cases.

There are lots of small breweries in the States now, many attached to restaurants. Usually referred to as microbreweries. They're local - though some distribute - usually local region - if not only sold in their restaurant. One very local DC chain has people who want to take out buy "growlers" - glass containers that hold a few pitchers of beer - they vary in size - but I think are usualy maybe 40 oz.

We drink the really cold stuff in the hot seasons - something that never happens where you are - well, except maybe for a week in the southern part of the UK. When you have some real hot weather - try a "cold one" - you might like it!

ellice

My bias is probably a result of watching too many US-made films on TV Over here we the Campaign for Real Ale . There seems to be a resurgence in small breweries. Orkney has its own small brewery the products of which are available in the USA . Such wonderful names as "Skullsplitter" and "Dark Island".

Gee Bruce - are you an other proud member of CAMERA? I sort of am - joined one night over my second or third pint of Abbot Ale...

C

One of my favorite names from our summer's trip was "Moose Drool". It was pretty good.actually!

Gillian

Not a member of CAMRA but a staunch supporter of their ideals. Attended many happy beer festivals when we lived in Gloucestershire. Up here there is just one bar (an hotel really) on the island and I begrudge paying so much for cans of beer so I brew my own beer, albeit the quick way of using a can of wort, sugar & hot water.

Speak for yourself. This house was built in 1905 and has no insulation in the walls. It was below freezing outdoors this morning, so the kitchen was like an icebox when I went in there to feed the cats. I'm sure the milk would've done just fine on the counter last night.

Brrrrrrrr.

OTOH, in summer, when it's 112 outdoors, you could probably hard-cook the eggs by leaving them on my counter. Fruit goes from perfection to mush almost overnight from the heat.

OK - I will change this to "on average - most homes here have a room temperature that is warmer than the standard "room temperature" at which beer is served in the UK"

Have you thought about spraying insulation into your walls?

elllice

Thought about it when the neighbors had it done. She told me what it cost, and it simply wasn't cost-effective, given that we have only about

6 weeks of "winter", so there would not be huge annual fuel savings. It'd take the rest of my life to break even.

Much cheaper to just curl up with a blanket in the warmest room of the house and avoid the kitchen (which is far and away the coldest room) except when absolutely necessary.

That's the key thing - drives me crazy at the bridge club when people want to crank up the heating because they are in cotton clothing ! We live in a cold climate, wear more clothing and be healthier into the bargain argggh !

A completely understandable bias...

I'm drooling on my keyboard... Unfortunately, I don't think I can import from Oregon. But I just heard of a local microbrewery this evening, and that certainly has some possibilities....

--Mickey Edmonton, AB

to reply: mickey18385 at yahoo dot com

I'm with you, Sheena. We're up here in Edmonton, and I swear we've had

*our* heat on exactly twice this fall/winter. And we had an unusually cold November. The condo below us must have their heat set higher than 30 C!?! I come home every night to a room that warmer than 25 C almost every day! AAARRRGGG. I sincerely hate having to open the windows to get the temperature to a more comfortable range. (I really can't sleep if the temperature is warmer than 25 C; don't know why, but that's the way it is... I really didn't think this would be a problem in Alberta in the *winter*)

--Mickey Edmonton, AB

to reply: mickey18385 at yahoo dot com

Color me green (with envy). I've wanted to try brewing for a while, but for some reason it makes me nervous....

--Mickey Edmonton, AB

to reply: mickey18385 at yahoo dot com