[Stones] bronze age ale

[David Shugarts]

A couple of cultures that I know of have extremely toxic alcoholic
beverages, treated basically as moonshine liquors.

In Sierra Leone, there was a drink called omele (spelling unsure) that would
give you blue lips and then chap the skin right off your lips, depending on
how much you had drunk.  (Trust me on this.) I never learned what it was
made from.

In Ireland, there is a drink called poteen (or poitin), essentially a barley
whiskey but distilled until it has almost no discernable flavor, just a
massive toxicity (180 proof). I don't feel that a sane person drinks it. My
experience with it was to taste it, and then put it away in case an Irish
visitor appeared, already drunk enough not to care what I might offer.

Both of these rely on distilling, which might be posed as requiring
metalwork, but if the general goal is understood, it could conceivably be
done with clay vessels.

BTW, the legendary corn whiskey moonshine from the U.S. heartland, in West
Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee, is "powerful" but does not compare to
omele or poteen. (It actually tastes like something or other.)

--Dave S.
  Newtown, CT


On 8/13/07 9:53 PM, "jtg" <jtg.germainsjy at localdial.com> wrote:

> Sorry Ric,
> 
> My point was that unless you were a bronze age OCD person, you would only
> bother to pick out known dangerous plants specifically, some of the lesser
> problematicals or non-do. : ah what the hell!
> 
> Best I can see is if it made alcohol and you could see straight after a few
> days, well there MUST be GOOD herbs in it!
> 
> BTW, doesn't chewing Betel make your MOUTH go red?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> John Germain
> 
> Jersey
> British Channel Islands
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: stones-bounces at henge.org.uk [mailto:stones-bounces at henge.org.uk] On
> Behalf Of Ric
> Sent: Tuesday, August 14, 2007 2:40 AM
> To: The Stones Mailing List
> Subject: RE: [Stones] bronze age ale
> 
> could be - i think many different sorts of plants have
> been used to flavour beer - including mugwort?
> 
> i wonder if beer was the only fermented beverage or
> special drink in the British Isles, at this time,
> though?
> 
> in India there is a sacred drink called 'bhang': i
> spoke to someone who drank it once, in India, he said:
> "it makes your eyes go red" ...
> 
> http://www.geocities.com/sarabhanga/bhang.html
> 
> like drugs in general, it can also be dangerous to
> partake of this beverage: marijuana is not a legal
> substance in India, just like over here
> 
> R
> 
> 
> --- jtg <jtg.germainsjy at localdial.com> wrote:
> 
>> Rather than it's a bugger to pick all the bits of
>> Meadowsweet out when
>> you're gagging for a brew?
>> 
>> <g>
>> 
>> John Germain
>> 
>> Jersey
>> British Channel Islands
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