STRIKE A REAL BLOW AGAINST MALTERNATIVES!

Is this really Lew "Git the dag-nam Gubbmint off my back" Bryson?

So, to sum up your stand on alcohol taxes, if they run counter to your narrow self interests you're agin' 'em, but if they jibe with your narrow self interests you're for 'em?

Consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, I suppose.

Actually the correct *full* quote is "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers, and divines."

On a side note, it's interesting to read the NPRM in the FR. They use the phrase "beer, ale, porter, or stout" several times.

Nice to know our friendly regulators are using 4 words to say *almost*

Chris

Hell, that's the Republican credo, ain't it?

notbob ...a registered republican!

" ... and onto someone else's" is the standard (unspoken) end of that.

Actually, the correct quote is "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds."

I refuse to be bound by idealism; the system is here, and while I am on record as being against all excise taxes on alcohol, I see no reason to behave as if they don't exist. Malternatives suck, and their manufacturers have ducked taxes and dissembled about how they are made. So screw 'em. Your ever-so-orderly mind can't encompass a little (and it is a damned little) inconsistency over that?

Here's another quote for you: "Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself. I am large, I contain multitudes."

I guess I'm the first one in this thread to say thanks and I just sent My thoughts to the powers that be...

Best regards, Bill

Huh? I don't understand those abbreviations at all...

They use

But I DO understand those words and it (or something similar) was a quite common phrase in the brewing industry for years. (Sure, it's all "beer" technically, but in the US the word "beer" is short for "lager beer", so it's not quite so redundant.) On top of that, in many states "beer" and "ale" have legal differences (go to Texas and find all those Euro imports with stickers on them proclaiming them "ales"), so I suppose they're just covering their asses for when the brewery lawyers show up. I mean, the whole "malternative" controversy is based on the breweries stretching and bending definitions and techniques to make and sell a product.

Why would I give a rat's ass? So people like to drink shitty malternatives. If they go away, they'll switch to shitty beer. It's not like droves of people are going to turn from their beloved Smirnoff Ice and run into the arms of Hop Devil.

No, but unless you have very good beer stores where you live, it's a shelf-space issue. Good beer gets knocked off the limited retail shelf space by crap malternatives/alcopop.

-- Joel Plutchak | Boneyard Union of Zymurgical Zealots

"I don't like beer. I tried it once and thought it was terrible." - Overheard at a restaurant

Across Europe, the issue of malternatives is different : most countries are coming out with heavy taxes on premixed beverages containing spirits... and good old US-market recipes are on the way... French Beer consumer group ATPUB has already reported to the French Authorities one case of a malternative (Interbrew's Boomerang) being sold as "beer". This kind of confusion could really hurt beer in the long run, as future taxes could be applied to both beer and malternatives... :o((

Do they mean to imply that ales, porters and stouts are not beers?

My girlfriend really doesn't like beer or wine that much. But when she drinks the Smirnoff Ice she drinks a lot of it, and it kinda loosens her up a bit. She likes to pour it on me and lick it off. So, I am all for "malternatives" or else I would have a very sober girlfriend. I mean, I don't have to drink it. It tastes like Sprite anyways. (I still feel foolish purchasing it in the store though. I always have to have some thick, manly Stout to go with it.)

Hmmm... you sound like the perfect couple to try the new Smirnoff fruit flavored malternative, now in test-marketing.

We've taken the sweet taste of dates

And combined it with the spicy mustard-y richness of rape seed

try new SMIRNOFF DATE-RAPE today!