BS: Drinking from the bottle

Subject: RE: BS: Drinking from the bottle
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 02 Jun 07 - 08:42 PM

Here's a story that might tend to make drinking from the bottle a bit less appealing - Tainted liquor likely killed man :

"A Kirkland man died earlier this month and a woman was blinded after drinking from a bottle of Jägermeister that police suspect was poisoned by the man's ex-girlfriend..."

Subject: RE: BS: Drinking from the bottle
From: Joe_F
Date: 01 Jun 07 - 08:58 PM

For a longish period of my life (1971-1981), I mostly drank homebrew lager. We (commune members) made it in quart bottles, and there was a layer of yeast on the bottom, so the protocol was to decant it immediately & smoothly, leaving about a centimeter of beer on the bottom, and swill that out right away at the sink, because if you let it dry you could never get it out and the bottle was ruined. However, at Twin Oaks there was one man who *liked* the yeast, so if he was within earshot, all you had to do was hold up the bottle & yell "Yeast!", and he would come running, drink out the heeltap, *and wash the bottle*. Truly a utopian community.

Subject: RE: BS: Drinking from the bottle
From: GUEST,Victor
Date: 01 Jun 07 - 06:56 PM

Drinking from a bottle is "The in Thing". Yes very trendy with the sheep who can't drive a car without their mobile at their ear. Can't go anywhere without a bottle of water in their hand or can't eat most foods because they contain E numbers.

Subject: RE: BS: Drinking from the bottle
From: PoppaGator
Date: 01 Jun 07 - 05:16 PM

Don't go out to bars much these days, but when I do, it's usually to a live-music venue with very limited seating but plenty of "dance floor" space in front of the stage.

Not that there's always that much dancing going on ~ mostly standing and staring, with a moderate amount of individual bopping in time to the music. Depending upon the popularity of the performer and subsequent size of the crowd, the floor may be roomy and thus allow plenty of free movement, or tightly packed to the point that you can barely raise a drink to your lips without being jostled.

In such circumstances, beer in the standard "longneck" bottle is the easiest drink to handle and the least likely to spill. The alternative container ~ for mixed drinks, draft beer, or wine (for those so unwilling to drink other beverages that they'll settle for the poor selection of lousy wines generally available at such outlets) ~ is not usually a glass made of glass, but a flimsy transparent plastic cup, easily mishandled, squeezed, or spilled.

The longneck bottle is even more spillproof than a can, and since you can hold it by the neck, the beer stands a chance of staying colder longer than it would in a can which you have to grip in your warm sweaty palm.

Most of the places in New Orleans presenting music worth hearing fall into the above-described category. There is a smaller number of clubs where each patron gets a seat and a bit of table space, the cover charge is higher and the music perhaps a bit quieter and more sophisticated. The glasses are indeed made of glass, and if you order bottled (or canned) beer, you'll generally be given an empty glass with your order, and thus the option to drink from the container of your choice. If they don't give you a glass at first, you can certainly ask.

Subject: RE: BS: Drinking from the bottle
From: Linda Kelly
Date: 01 Jun 07 - 04:38 PM

crisps -it was cheese and onion plain and salt and vinegar-now is sweet chilli and lemongrass, tomato ketchup, balsamic vinegar and rck salt -ho are they trying to kid?

Subject: RE: BS: Drinking from the bottle
From: Bill D
Date: 01 Jun 07 - 03:56 PM

Newcastle Brown is a C+/B- beer. I will drink it happily if there are no B(Sam Adams) to A+(Belgian Ales) stuff around. I will even drink a C-, like Courage or, in the USA, like Shiner. I will NOT usually drink a D/D- like Budweiser..'F' I reserve for spoiled/old beer.

Subject: RE: BS: Drinking from the bottle
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 01 Jun 07 - 01:54 PM

And in doing so they show (and enjoy) excellent taste.

Subject: RE: BS: Drinking from the bottle
From: Folkiedave
Date: 01 Jun 07 - 01:40 PM

Drink Newcastle Brown - people drink it? Urghhhh................

Subject: RE: BS: Drinking from the bottle
From: GUEST,meself
Date: 01 Jun 07 - 01:01 PM

When I was first going to pubs, my Old Dad always used to warn me that he would tan my hide if he discovered I was going out to pubs.

Subject: RE: BS: Drinking from the bottle
From: Maryrrf
Date: 01 Jun 07 - 09:23 AM

When I was first going to pubs , my Old Dad always used to warn me about the dangers of drinking out of wet glasses , which is why I usually carry my own tankard with me !

Subject: RE: BS: Drinking from the bottle
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 01 Jun 07 - 09:19 AM

White Shield and similar? You pour it carefully into a glass, and drink it nice and clear. Then you drink the bit with the sediment from the bottle.

"...that we could no longer get just'coffee'" In my experience all you need to do is ask for it and they'll give it to you. Even in Starbucks.

Like glasses with bottled beer. What's the problem with just indicating what you want rather than relying on telepathy and repining when that doesn't work?

Subject: RE: BS: Drinking from the bottle
From: GUEST,meself
Date: 01 Jun 07 - 08:49 AM

Think we could get a government grant? Anyone out there have a PhD.?

Subject: RE: BS: Drinking from the bottle
From: JennyO
Date: 01 Jun 07 - 08:47 AM

I think this calls for a lot more research (hic hic)......

Subject: RE: BS: Drinking from the bottle
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 01 Jun 07 - 06:26 AM

The reason for not disturbing the sediment is primarily to leave the beer clear. If you are not concerned with keeping the beer clear because, for example, you drink it from the bottle, then disturbing the sediment does not matter too much. One exception I would say is bottled conditioned beers with LOTS of sediment such as a lot of home brews are. In these cases I think the sediment you get may be too 'lumpy' to enjoy. The flavour should not be affected in either case.

Cheers (hic)

Dave

Subject: RE: BS: Drinking from the bottle
From: The Walrus
Date: 01 Jun 07 - 06:05 AM

I must confesshat I prefer to drink from a glass - but then as an underage/early drinker, the fashion (at least among those I 'hung with') was for drinking Worthington "White Shield" - not a beer to drink from the bottle.

W

Subject: RE: BS: Drinking from the bottle
From: Waddon Pete
Date: 01 Jun 07 - 06:00 AM

Hello anonybeergeek,

I have no problem with vitamin B, but I thought the idea was to pour the beer without disturbing the sediment too much? Wouldn't the actions of drinking from the bottle mitigate against this?

Best wishes,

Peter

Subject: RE: BS: Drinking from the bottle
From: GUEST,anonybeergeek
Date: 31 May 07 - 09:57 PM

Hmmmm what about bottle conditioned beer?

What about it? The main problem with the crud at the bottom is that the beer looks cloudy in your glass. No glass, no prob. Yeast sedement tastes fine and is full of vitamin B.

Subject: RE: BS: Drinking from the bottle
From: Linda Kelly
Date: 31 May 07 - 04:48 PM

it came in about the same time that we could no longer get just'coffee'-now its late cappucino machiatto expresso and when you say no just coffe they say do you mean americano and I say no I mean COFFEE

Subject: RE: BS: Drinking from the bottle
From: Waddon Pete
Date: 31 May 07 - 04:43 PM

"Any beer CAN be drunk from the bottle"

Hmmmm what about bottle conditioned beer?

Best wishes,

Peter

Subject: RE: BS: Drinking from the bottle
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 31 May 07 - 04:36 PM

Not just swimming with rats, but basically ingesting by various means, the faeces of infected rats. The commonest way to get Weills disease is to go paddling in a pond or sewer with an open wound.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Drinking from the bottle
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 31 May 07 - 12:47 PM

Weill's disease? That's what you get from going swimmimg with rats isn't it? It's better not to use canal water for cooling the bottles.

Subject: RE: BS: Drinking from the bottle
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 31 May 07 - 11:16 AM

Wonder if anyone has thought of marketing an anti-bacterial wipe specificaly for this purpose? You know the sort of thing. CanClean or BottleBollocks or some such...

Damn! There goes another money making idea I have given away:-)

D.

Subject: RE: BS: Drinking from the bottle
From: Flash Company
Date: 31 May 07 - 10:59 AM

Way back in the 70's one of my staff caght Weill's disease as a result of this habit. She was a pretty girl, and it aint a pretty disease!

FC

Subject: RE: BS: Drinking from the bottle
From: pirandello
Date: 31 May 07 - 09:59 AM

Tricky territory there Dave!

Subject: RE: BS: Drinking from the bottle
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 31 May 07 - 09:55 AM

Agree to both the above! And here's me - A Mancunian Holts mild drinker living a life of half exile in Geordieland:-(

Subject: RE: BS: Drinking from the bottle
From: pirandello
Date: 31 May 07 - 09:17 AM

Who would want to drink Newcastle Brown anyway? It's so full of chemical shite it tastes nothing like how it once did.

Subject: RE: BS: Drinking from the bottle
From: GUEST,redhorse at work
Date: 31 May 07 - 08:28 AM

So who, Dave, (outside the USA where it was once served to me in a frosted glass) would want to drink CHILLED Newcastle Brown?

nick

Subject: RE: BS: Drinking from the bottle
From: pirandello
Date: 31 May 07 - 07:39 AM

I worked in a pub where bottled beer would be stored outside in crates until it was brought into the cellar. The pub dog would happily piss all over it. So, no, I don't drink out of bottles.

Do people still have their own personal beer mugs and 'their' seat at the bar? Sad...

Subject: RE: BS: Drinking from the bottle
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 31 May 07 - 05:26 AM

They tried the trendy sized bottles with Newcastle Brown a few years back - Along with the star that changed colour when the beer was chilled. Still didn't make Newky brown trendy and never realy took off.

D.

Subject: RE: BS: Drinking from the bottle
From: skipy
Date: 31 May 07 - 05:18 AM

No it's a word!
Mouthfeel is a product's physical and chemical interaction in the mouth. It is a concept used in many areas related to the testing and evaluating of foodstuffs, such as wine-tasting and rheology. It is evaluated from initial perception on the palate, to first bite, through mastication to swallowing. In wine-tasting, for example, mouthfeel is usually used with a modifier (big, sweet, tannic, chewy, etc.) to the general sensation of the wine in the mouth.

Skipy

Subject: RE: BS: Drinking from the bottle
From: Ruth Archer
Date: 31 May 07 - 04:33 AM

Bottled real ales tend to be sold in pint-sized bottles, so they pretty much have to be poured into a glass, while the more fashionable bottled lagers and alcopops come in bottles about half that size. However, I noticed recently (at the party after the Watersons do at the RAH, actually) that they are now selling Speckled Hen in the smaller, slimmer bottles usually associated with lager - and that there were several younger people in the room drinking real ale from the bottle!

It's a good marketing idea, I have to say - though I haven't seen those bottles outside London yet, and wonder whether it's something that's being trialled there.

Subject: RE: BS: Drinking from the bottle
From: Jos
Date: 31 May 07 - 04:18 AM

In summer, if you are drinking from a can or a coloured glass bottle you can't see if there is a wasp swimming in it.

Subject: RE: BS: Drinking from the bottle
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 31 May 07 - 01:04 AM

Drinking from the bottle was the official reason given for my contracting pleurisy 23 years ago. I used to drink coke from the glass bottle because it was just easier to carry around, took longer to drink (I was very poor) and didn't go flat so quickly. When trying to diagnose what I had (and at one point I was about 30 minutes away from being sent to hospital for TB), the doctor investigated various components of my lifestyle. Seeing as how I'd been ill for 6 months with no real reason, they tested and came up with a multitude of nasty bugs and viral influences in the cellar of my local pub. Because I don't like ice cold drinks much, the bottles of coke I was drinking hadn't been refrigerated and so were veritable breeding grounds for all kinds of germs. I never drink out of a glass bottle or can now if I can help it, and I've never had pleurisy since. I'm sticking with that theory. A bottle or can may be sterile when it's filled, but the outside comes into contact with all manner of things on the way to the pub.


Here's an aside: If pubs and clubs charge so much for beer because of their 'overheads', why doesn't it cost less when you have your beer in your own tankard or out of the bottle and drink it outside? They don't have to clean the glass or provide light or heating... all they've done is store the bottle for a little while and provide an opener.

If you're given beer bottles without a glass, offer to withhold that percentage of the price that covers glass washing and service - should be the difference between what your local off-licence or supermarket charges and what the pub charges.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Drinking from the bottle
From: GUEST,anonybeergeek
Date: 30 May 07 - 09:00 PM

One other thing. When I get together with other homebrewers to compare brews, we never drink from the bottle.

Subject: RE: BS: Drinking from the bottle
From: GUEST,anonybeergeek
Date: 30 May 07 - 08:57 PM

"The "mouthfeel" - now there's a word I've never heard before! Did you just make that up?"

Nope. I've done a bit of homebrewing and beer judging. "Mouthfeel" is a term used by a number of geeky people. Mouthfeel is mostly affected by the presence of proteins and unfermented sugars in the beer.



Why do bottles seem "blue collar?" I dunno. Maybe the reason is that beer is drunk from the bottle or can in many social situations outside of a bar or pub. I've seen a lot of cases of cheap beer sitting on the tailgate of a pickup, even if most of them have been in a TV commercial. Drinking bottled beer out of a glass in my backyard or at a party can seem pretentious, or at least a little fru-fru. I don't mind looking fru-fru, especially when I'm drinking the good stuff.

Why don't pubs put out glasses? My guess is that it means less cleanup, and some groups of people don't mind.


Is fru-fru even a word? Am I spelling it right?

Subject: RE: BS: Drinking from the bottle
From: GUEST,meself
Date: 30 May 07 - 07:52 PM

"The head on some beers can actually improve the flavor and mouthfeel."

The "mouthfeel" - now there's a word I've never heard before! Did you just make that up?

Subject: RE: BS: Drinking from the bottle
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 30 May 07 - 07:42 PM

"a nice blue-collar image" But where and when did that come in? Bottled beer has always been more expensive in pubs and bars, drinking beer from a glass was surely as "blue collar" as you could get.

Subject: RE: BS: Drinking from the bottle
From: GUEST,anonybeergeek
Date: 30 May 07 - 06:26 PM

Beer with a nice nose (hoppy or malty aroma) is better from a glass, especially one with a wide mouth. The head on some beers can actually improve the flavor and mouthfeel. Anyone here ever tried Guiness?

Some beer is prettier than others. Something with a nice or interesting color can be better appreciated in a glass. A nice Bavarian Hefe-Weizen fits this description pretty nicely.

Yum.

Bottles have the advantages stated above. They're convenient, easy to carry around, and involve less clean-up. You typically drink more slowly from a bottle; you can decide whether this is an advantage. Also, your beer comes with a nice blue-collar image at no extra charge! Any beer CAN be drunk from the bottle. The less aromatic or pretty a beer is, the less reason to put it in a glass. Your typical "American light lager" doesn't suffer from being pulled straight from the longneck, IMO.

Subject: RE: BS: Drinking from the bottle
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 30 May 07 - 05:39 PM

But when did people start drinking beer out of bottles rather than glasses? It never used to happen, anmd now it's everywhere. Sort of crept up on us.

It's occurred to me to its probably a spill over from a habit picked up from drinking fizzy drinks like Coke.

Subject: RE: BS: Drinking from the bottle
From: Greg B
Date: 30 May 07 - 01:57 PM

The one that really puzzles me is the old 'Corona and lime' thing.

(For those across the pond, the Mexican lager, Corona, is traditionally
served with a lime--- and it really does taste good freezing cold
on a hot and humid day, and this from a Real Ale[tm] fan.)

Anyway, they give you the Corona with a wedge of lime stuck in
the top of the bottle. Now, you can either squeeze the lime in,
in which case you get about 2/3 of the juice down the outside
of the bottle, or shove the whole thing down the neck, in
which case you also get less lime juice AND you now have a
sort of obstruction in the neck of the bottle, which is apt
to clear at just the wrong moment, causing you to get a LOT
more beer in your mouth than expected.

You practically have to beg for a chilled pilsner glass, which
is what really makes the whole combination work just fine.

A variant is Tecate beer, which is often salted and limed,
Margarita style, but this they try and do with a can--- much
easier again with a glass.

But enough of pissners--- I feel rather strongly that, like
wine, beer deserves a proper glass to be savored properly.

This is especially so in modern establishments where a glass
somewhat warm from the wash can get an ale up to the proper
cellar temperature--- most places serve it far too cold, which
upsets the balance the maker intended, and makes it all taste like
ice-water and hops.

Subject: RE: BS: Drinking from the bottle
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 30 May 07 - 01:23 PM

Most pubs I've been in they are quite happy to fill the same glass if you ask them. You can't expect them to read your mind if you don't. And more often than not drinks are bought in rounds, and keeping the individual glasses sorted out would be impractical.

Subject: RE: BS: Drinking from the bottle
From: Waddon Pete
Date: 30 May 07 - 10:42 AM

Yes Dave,

"A used glass could contaminate the business end of the pump..."

It's that jolly old health & safety again! Did anyone see that programme about the things bar staff get up to with customers they don't like? Moral? Use your local and be a valued regular, I guess!

Best wishes,

Peter

Subject: RE: BS: Drinking from the bottle
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 30 May 07 - 10:07 AM

You can get round the pubs that will not refill a glass by sticking hold of your old glass (or having your own tankard if you want to be a real poser:-) ) and letting the bar staff give you a new glass - Only to pour the contents of it into your old one. Often confuses the hell out of the poor dears. There are good reasons for not refilling btw - Mainly because the older style beer engines have the end of the swan neck inside the liquid being poured. A used glass could contaminate the business end of the pump with any number of bacteria but considering the number of chances for that to happen in hundreds of other places I think they may be being over-cautious. Particularly with the pastuerised 'dead' beers in which no self respecting bacteria would live anyway:-)

Cheers

Dave

Subject: RE: BS: Drinking from the bottle
From: Grab
Date: 30 May 07 - 09:07 AM

Guess it depends on the beer. Bottled lager (which most of them are), you'll not tell the difference. But bottled ale tastes better to me if it's had a chance to breathe, so I prefer to pour into a glass.

Drinking straight from a bottle generally has some blue-collar cool element, I think. But there is also a practical point, which is that it's less likely to spill when you're carrying it around.

Subject: RE: BS: Drinking from the bottle
From: skipy
Date: 30 May 07 - 06:56 AM

Duh! I meant "years"
Skipy

Subject: RE: BS: Drinking from the bottle
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 30 May 07 - 06:49 AM

"many rears ago"

Indeed.

Subject: RE: BS: Drinking from the bottle
From: Bee
Date: 30 May 07 - 05:58 AM

Skipy: eww!

Subject: RE: BS: Drinking from the bottle
From: skipy
Date: 30 May 07 - 05:48 AM

I,ve drunk out of all sorts! buckets, slops tray, boots, shoes, etc.
A friend of mine (many rears ago) drank out off a set of bagpipes, result, several months in intensive care, so don't try that one!
Skipy

Subject: RE: BS: Drinking from the bottle
From: George Papavgeris
Date: 30 May 07 - 05:46 AM

Glass for me every time. Anyway, I find bottled beer too fizzy, so I want it to lose some of the fizz before I drink it; comes with learning to drink English ales, I suppose, which are only slightly fizzy.

Subject: RE: BS: Drinking from the bottle
From: Roger the Skiffler
Date: 30 May 07 - 04:45 AM

Megan's warning is right- a publican once told me:"Bottles are stored in cellars, cellars always have rats- always ask for a glass"!

RtS

Subject: RE: BS: Drinking from the bottle
From: Megan L
Date: 30 May 07 - 04:29 AM

what about wiels disease from rat peeing all over the bottles?

Subject: RE: BS: Drinking from the bottle
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 30 May 07 - 02:46 AM

My father once told me ( and he worked in pasteurisation) that when you pour it from a bottle into a glass, you're pouring it from a sterilised vessel into an unsterilised vessel.

So from that day till this, I've drunk draught beer.

Seamus

Subject: RE: BS: Drinking from the bottle
From: LadyJean
Date: 30 May 07 - 12:30 AM

I clean for a lady who has a parrot.
Recently I learned two very important things.
1. She drinks her bottled water straight out of the 1 litre bottle.
2. She lets her parrot lick the saliva off of her tongue.
I am now bringing my own beverage. I am not touching her bottled water again.

Subject: RE: BS: Drinking from the bottle
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 30 May 07 - 12:09 AM

With some draft beer, or when poured from bottle or can into a glass, it's quite noticeable that the first glass tastes differently. The glass needs to be "seasoned" so that the refill - and subsequent ones - actually will taste like it should.

Unbelievers should observe that the first fill of a fresh glass, at least with our common fluffy lager, nearly always foams significantly more than the same quantity in a refill of the same glass.

A "perfectly clean" glass usually will display this effect, and a "sanitized" glass using one of the "soap film removers" common in bars often is worse.

Unfortunately many bars in my area refuse to refill a glass, and insist on giving you a fresh one when you re-order.

At least straight from the bottle, the container is "as seasoned" as it's going to get, so there's consistency from first to last. If you get one glass and protect it with appropriate threats of violence or public disturbance, bottled/canned beer can be run through a single glass all night long, while the draft beer may all taste like soapsuds in some bars. It's probably simpler just to take it straight from the bottle - or can.

(No matter how bad it tastes, you'll get used to it if it's consistent.)

John

Subject: RE: BS: Drinking from the bottle
From: JennyO
Date: 29 May 07 - 11:23 PM

Here in Sydney it seems to vary from pub to pub, although I've noticed they don't usually give you a glass unless you ask. I tend towards drinking out of a glass when I'm in a pub, so I usually ask for one. I think it's because I like to look at what I'm drinking, the flavour seems better, and it seems more 'relaxed' - drinking from a bottle seems more 'takeaway' to me - like I am on the run or something.

However I got a surprise a few weeks ago when I was in a pub I hadn't been in before. Instead of handing me a glass as others do when I ask, they poured the entire contents of the bottle into the glass before I could stop them. That annoyed me, because like Bee, I'm a slow drinker and will only pour part of my beer into the glass at a time so that it doesn't go flat before I drink it.

In other situations, when I'm at home it's usually a glass, but when I'm at a festival sitting around with friends, I drink out of the bottle. I must admit because I don't really have a STRONG preference either way, I am a bit influenced by what people around me are doing.

What I will NOT do, is drink out of a can. I've noticed if you get a can of something in a pub, they always give you a glass. If I'm in a pub that doesn't have Guinness on tap, the next best thing is the tall can with the widget in it - bottled Guinness is evil. Those cans are meant to be poured. The widget makes it foam up and settle the same way draught Guinness does, and as the ad says - I LIKE TO WATCH!!

Subject: RE: BS: Drinking from the bottle
From: Joe_F
Date: 29 May 07 - 10:26 PM

Attitudes toward that seem to vary greatly in the U.S. A few years ago, in company at a restaurant, one of the men shocked me by sending the waiter back for another bottle because he had started pouring a bottle of beer into a glass without asking first. As for me, I am snobbish in the other direction: alcoholic beverages are (conceptually) sacred materials with an aura of danger; they demand to be drunk out of ritually ordained vessels. I have found that even in bars where a bare bottle is the default, the bartender will give me a mug if I ask. But most, these days, have something I like on tap.

The fact that many gay men prefer to drink beer out of the bottle leaves a bad taste in my mouth, so to speak, because I think of it as a holdover from the 1960s, when gay bars were run by the Mafia and not supplying a glass was a gesture of contempt for the customer.

Subject: RE: BS: Drinking from the bottle
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 29 May 07 - 09:14 PM

That's why with Newcastle Brown you pour it a little at a time and then replenish it from the bottle, rather than empty the whole thing into the glass in one go.

Subject: RE: BS: Drinking from the bottle
From: Bee
Date: 29 May 07 - 09:02 PM

I usually prefer a bottle because it takes me a very long time to drink a beer, and it goes flat faster in a glass, and I really dislike flat beer.

Subject: RE: BS: Drinking from the bottle
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 29 May 07 - 08:32 PM

Bottles were popular "'way back when" in my area but mostly disappeared when the alumin(i)um cans appeared. For a while, you could get cans or draft/draw/draugt/tap beer in a mug/glass, and most places only had one or two brands.

Running a keg still probably is a little cheaper for the establishment, but maintenance (keeping it clean) requires some "skilled labor," and with the colored water euphemistically called "beer" here it was noticed when neglected.

Probably just a local thing, but drinking from the bottle first became popular here again in the places where there's a definite difference between being able to get a glass and being able to get a clean glass. It's also more common for places to stock a few, or few dozen kinds of "yuppie beers." It's easier to stock bottles than to have more than one or two kegs hooked up, and many of the "varietal" things are easiest to get in bottles.

Now, in places where people drink from the bottle, it probably is mostly due to the practice of offering lots of different kinds of "beer" and with having your friends (and the servers) know what you're drinking ... something to do with being sure that everyone can see that you have the "refined taste" that demands "something special," and aren't drinking anything "ordinary" like what your friends have.

In the southwest/southcentral US, the intermittent popularity of Mexican beers that require addition of a lemon wedge to have any flavor at all may contribute. With the wedge forced into a long-neck, you don't get a mouth full of lemon wedge with each sip, as you would with lemon in a mug.

But someone who actually understands the greedy bastards yuppy/gen-X crowd may have more ideas about it.

John

Subject: RE: BS: Drinking from the bottle
From: Bill D
Date: 29 May 07 - 08:30 PM

I was just given a bottle of this for my birthday...It will NOT be drunk from the bottle. But the bottle will be in plain sight for others to envy...then it will go into the collection.

Subject: RE: BS: Drinking from the bottle
From: Bill D
Date: 29 May 07 - 08:18 PM

"..drink the bottle in one go."

ummm...a lot of the beer I drink is between 6% and 11% alcohol. I remember when it was 3.2% and I could DO that.....but I didn't really like beer then.

McGrath...Newcastle Brown has a nice color in a glass...maybe that's why it comes in clear bottles. Do they do it with San Smiths, too?

Subject: RE: BS: Drinking from the bottle
From: Beer
Date: 29 May 07 - 08:16 PM

What I tend to hear is "Do you want a glass with that?"
Beer (adrien)

Subject: RE: BS: Drinking from the bottle
From: Peace
Date: 29 May 07 - 08:08 PM

"The more advanced stage is to hold your thumb over the top as well."

The alternative is to drink the bottle in one go.

Subject: RE: BS: Drinking from the bottle
From: Jack Campin
Date: 29 May 07 - 08:03 PM

It's about paranoia, in case somebody puts Rohypnol or GHB in your drink.

The more advanced stage is to hold your thumb over the top as well.

Subject: RE: BS: Drinking from the bottle
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 29 May 07 - 08:00 PM

"Carry it off" - so a matter of image rather than taste...

I find it difficult getting the right amount in my mouth, drinking from a bottle. Too little and the sensation is unsatisfying, too much and you choke. And in the back of my mind there's someone warning me about the risk of broken glass when you drink milk from the bottle. Did that ever actually happen?

One beer that people don't seem to drink from the bottle is Newcastle Brown. The tradition of drinking it with a small glass and refilling it as you go appears to be hanging on.

Subject: RE: BS: Drinking from the bottle
From: SINSULL
Date: 29 May 07 - 07:52 PM

I remember a picture of Grace Kelly, beer bottle in hand. If the Princess could carry it off, why not I?

Subject: RE: BS: Drinking from the bottle
From: Bill D
Date: 29 May 07 - 07:48 PM

If you are in a pub, I suppose it makes halfway sense not to have two items on the table...and I'm sure the pub would like to wash as few glasses as possible...but at home or at a party, bottled beer is simply more easily knocked over and spilled. I prefer a mug with a handle ¹ in either case...though I know a couple of folks who prefer the bottle. Perhaps they feel it is easier to drink from the smaller apeture...*shrug*



(1)I make my own wooden mugs and have a couple of leather ones, also...as well as having a collection of nice glass & ceramic mugs.

Subject: BS: Drinking from the bottle
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 29 May 07 - 07:26 PM

It seems pretty general now, round my way anyway, that young people prefer to drink bottled beer out of the bottle. I've found that nowadays if you buy a bottled beer in a pub they don't even hand you a glass unless you ask for it.

I was wondering when this came in. And how widespread it is. And is it a matter of preferring the way it tastes or something to do with image?

I have a suspicion it probably all goes back to actors in films doing it that way, probably as part of some product placement deal.