As fans of the late Bruce Chatwin know, many strange and terrible things happen In Patagonia.
Now I learn that the place is responsible for LAGER as well. The Irish Times the other day [hat tip to my buddy The Choirboy for sending me the link] carried a scientific detective story about the search for the origins of the yeast strain that is essential to lager making. Researchers believe that it comes from galls found on the beech trees of Patagonia, and must have migrated to Europe around 500 years ago - yet another element of the momentous Columbian Exchange. Live and learn.
The brewing process was perfected in Bavaria, but it wasn't until Germans imported their know-how to China around the turn of the last century that a technique was developed for removing so much of the alcohol from the beer that it becomes effectively a soft drink.
4 comments:
it becomes effectively a soft drink
Ha -- well said!
You have experience of Chinese beer, JES??
And... nice to see you over here, on 'the dark side', for once!
Actually, I'd read this not as a comment on Chinese lagers in particular but on maybe 80% of the lagers commercially produced, at least in the US. When global warming's effects really kick in and droughts become the norm, I don't know what Anheuser-Busch, Miller, et al. are going to do for water.
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