ARRRRH! Grog From Cans Sucks!
Think I will stick with the single malt! Though I can recommend Sierra Nevada Pale Ale (in bottles mind!) for all you beer lovers.
In the mid sixties we used to drink Fosters Lager and formaldehyde was on the list of ingredients. We said that was good, in case we died from drinking our bodies would be well preserved.
One of the things that really annoyed the crap out of me when I was overseas was that there was a requirement that formaldahyde was to be used as a preservative in all imported beers although most of the local brews didn’t have to use it.
The local ones I remember doing so were Tsintao (which actually tastes better bought here than in Shanghai because formaldahyde as a preservative is discouraged here) and Singha (I generally drank Mekong and Coke when I was in Thailand).
Imported beers included the US staples, Fosters, Carlsburg (Hong Kong), and European stuff. Man, the headache that crap would give you has to be experienced to be believed!!. This forced most of us to experiment with the local brews to save our skulls which sometimes gave us a taste of something really good.
Many of the local brews didn’t have preservatives of ANY kind. Especially San Miguel from the Philippines, which also was blessed by the fact that there was a slight alcohol difference in every bottle due to inconsistant brewing. This didn’t harm the flavor but you’d be toasting along comfortably with the great taste S/M always had and a similar hit to MGD and then you’d get a really rich bottle that had 9 or 10% alcohol content that would light up yer beard.
Although you can still get most of the great flavor of San Miguels in certain liquor stores here, they are made to US standards and every bottle is the same as the last. This is not to say that they don’t beat the crap out of ol’ Buttwiper but still...I miss the original S/M’s.
As I remember, the “Ba Moui Ba” (33) beer in VietNam not only tasted like carbonated formaldehyde, but it allegedly contained a certain percentage of the preservative. Then there was “Sing Ha” (sp?) beer from Thailand which allegedly contained a certain “special ingredient” besides alcohol. In either case, if a beer had a funky taste, just dump it and try another, each bottle seemed to have a different taste and (or lack of) quality. Then there was Corona, in three unique and differing brwes, from the Phillipines, from Puerto Rico and from Mexico. Same name, different suds.
When I was at the SF base (36th MSF) in Long Hai, The Club frequently had various Australian brews, like King’s Brew, Black Swan, etc, some of which packed a wallop like a kangaroo’s kick, but I didn’t encounter Fosters until I returned to CONUS.
Anyhoo, any of this beat the crap out of the old stale US beer (in steel flat-top cans) that spent far too many days “sunbathing” in huge pallet loads in the Beer Yard next to LBJ in Long Binh. Those cans regularly exploded, and the resulting foamy spew attracted great big rats and other assorted undesirable vermin to the beeryard. Even at $2.40 per case, that stuff was tough to take…LC RP
RC - That ‘33’ was rumored to be 33% formaldehyde, which judging from the headache it gave may have been true. Between it, the beer skunked by sitting in the sun in cans as you pointed out, and the cheap Bud in cans we bought by the case in college, I have had my skull fractured many times. As a result, I absolutely will not drink a canned beer today. Maybe the analysis in the article explains why.
The only widely marketed domestic brew I care for is MGD in the long neck bottles. Not bad, but not even close to local German and Czech beers. I once drank German beer until 5:30 in the morning in a bar next to our hotel, showered, went to work, and while tired as all getout, never got a headache. Long live rheineheitsgebot!
I’m no connoisseur of beer but I’ve realized that cans or bottles works fine for me,
but draft beer gives me a headache regardless of brands.Posted by piccalo
09/19/2005 at 03:55 PM
Bacteria? What’s wrong with bacteria? In Real Ale, it’s all grist to the mill. I like to hear them scream when they hit my gastric juices.
And as they are unpasteurized, the yeast is still alive. So the beer keeps maturing in the bottle. I like ‘em dark and malty. 
Drafts for me please. Bottles if I have to. Cans never. Domestic Sam Adams is not bad at all, but I was BLESSED, blessed I tell you, to pay a visit this past week to the Dogfish Head Brewery down at the Delaware shore. Their Shelter Pale is one fine brew, and the 120 minute IPA is a kick in the palate for you hops lovers.
I had to drink a few cans of Budweiser on that trip too. It’s been quite a few years. How do you guys drink that stuff? There’s no beer in that beer!
What’s in the can besides beer?
Um, an angry yellow jacket?Posted by Annoying Little Twerp
09/19/2005 at 07:36 PM
I’m just glad I’m back to drinking everything out of glass bottles again, and that includes RC Cola, Cheerwine, Nehi Orange-Grape-Peach sodas, and root beer. Late last year we acquired a nice micro-bottlery up in Ashe County in this state. They do all the soft drinks I mentioned, and others besides, and it’s just like old times again, having soft drinks in glass bottles, made to the original recipes. They taste just as good as they did forty years ago, before all this tin-can-and-plastic crap got started.
Furthermore, you can see the yellow jackets if they happen to get in. You don’t find out when they’re on their way down your gullet, and you end up in the ER, that is, if you’re lucky....
Pros’t.
OCM - can visualize you running/hobbling away from the yellow jackets - when I read this was wondering if you are fully recovered from your surgery?????? In past years had yellow jackets or some other type off bees arising from the ground in my yard - haven’t seen any so far this year - or perhaps I just haven’t stepped on the below-ground nests!!!............... When I got back from vacation I found 2 black swallowtail butterfly larvae on the parsley in my garden..............so far no monarch larvae, but many monarch butterflies still feeding on the zinnias - took lots of pics. My garden has been certified as a “Monarch Way Station"(for the migrating monarchs) by the Monarch Watch Organization at the U. of Kansas - a privilege I must say.........will post some pics soon........
Posted by Dottie
09/20/2005 at 10:06 PM
09/19/2005 at 12:10 PM
09/19/2005 at 03:56 PM
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