Well, of course, if we're looking for a way to say "herbal beer" I have a radical proposal for that, too.
And your German profs were right, because some gruit did have hops in it.
It's a partial loss for me as well. Eating fresh basil leaves is like eating grass, but the smell of bacon came back today. Using the vacuum cleaner still doesn't smell of anything.
The thing is that "gruit" still means what it originally meant. It's just had another meaning partly tacked on top, with some misunderstandings built in. And that new meaning is not that widely accepted. So I think there's still hope.
When it comes to beer/ale the ship sailed a century ago.
That's very 19th century of you.
Today's dinner was the first meaningful meal since Thursday lunch. My sense of smell is not what it was, but far better than it was at lunchtime today. Huge relief that at last there is progress.
Yes, around 1350 "beer" started to mean hopped beer, of the kind that was imported from the continent. "Ale" was already the word for English beer, which was unhopped. Some places that distinction lasted into the 19th century.
But as you say it's not really used that way any more.
Yeah, that always did sound like someone who wasn't used to bitter drinks.
The original Czech is "Beer English sweet without hops brewed". Translating that is going to need a few words.
Just had the first few cases of “uh, I think I can smell something?” Still very faint, but perhaps, maybe, just possibly the sense of smell is returning.
Sure. On the other hand, do we need a specific word for "unhopped beer"? That seems completely unnecessary.
If we do need a word, is it necessary to use one that confuses people?
Lots of different beers used gruit, and some of them even included hops.
So describing unhopped beer or gruit starting from the flavour is not really possible. There were so many different flavours. Which is another reason why a specific term for this is weird.
My concern is mainly that "gruit" and "unhopped beer" are two different things. Calling all unhopped beer "gruit" gives people really strange and distorted ideas about the history of beer, and about what gruit was.
But your point also applies: gruit was not a style of beer, nor any specific taste.
Yeah, I guess that explains why "imperial stout" (5 syllables) never caught on.
Thinking about gruit and was struck by an idea. If people want to say "unhopped beer," perhaps they could call it "unhopped beer," instead of "gruit"?
Seeing as "gruit" was a taxation method, I mean.
Let's try it! Maybe it will catch on.
Judging by how hard it is for me right now to measure the extent to which my smell is affected I'm not going to argue with that.
Thanks! Trying to not let it scare me, but ... yes, it is.
That sounds really strange, though, because supposedly covid affects only the olfactory nerve, which should leave sweet/umami untouched.
My experience is I still have full access to sweet/bitter/etc. What's gone is aroma.
I decided to do the ultimate test: try a stjørdalsøl. (An infected one, to not waste beer.) Result: yeah, I can taste it. It gets through, but it's very, very muted.
Had this once before, and it took about 72 hours for the sense of taste to come back. (To be precise it was the sense of smell. Sweet, sour, salty, bitter, umami etc I can pick up just fine.) Hoping it will be the same this time, or I have a huge problem.
It's like watching a movie where the sound is turned so far down, and the image so faint, you can just vaguely guess at what's going on.
The loss of sensory impression is difficult to grasp even while it's happening. I keep trying things expecting to taste them only to find that, nope, can't.
... I was frying chicken when it struck me: "shouldn't this smell good?" Smelled some sliced onion, soy sauce, chopped garlic. No smell at all.
Covid anosmia.
About 24 hours later it's beginning to come back, slowly. I can tell this beer is phenolic, just barely. Faint grain taste to the pils.
Saturday I wasn't feeling great, but went skiing anyway. Really sunny and nice, everyone we met was smiling. I was just annoyed. "Why are these assholes smiling?" I knew something was wrong, but went skiing anyway.
Came down with the worst cold I've ever had. Then, on Thursday ...
Mastodon is there, and entirely decentralized. No single owner.
Not as slick as Bluesky, but safe from future acquisitions.
Bit more than that. Turns out Europe was able to replace US as a partner for Ukraine. Many doubted that was possible -- turns out it was.
Cost did not increase much, though. Mainly it was divided differently.
No idea why you say it's increasing. US support has been zero for 12 months.
Same in Norwegian: “hekseskudd”.
It feels like you’ve been shot in the back by a witch, too.
Russland har bygd egne shahed-fabrikker nå. Vet ikke om de fortsatt får leveranser fra Iran.
Ellers veldig fint å ikke bruke det russiske navnet på Kyiv. Påstanden om at Kyiv egentlig er Kiev er jo selve krigens årsak.
Ze heter Volodymyr. Vladimir er den russiske formen av navnet hans.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... comparison of commercially available #Saccharomyces #mead yeasts.
Our new preprint w/ @balintnemeth.bsky.social and colleagues compares 13 mead #yeast strains for their phenotype, genome, and presents data on metabolites in experimental mead fermentations.
He is actually a distant relative. Roughly fourth degree cousin.
Lutra I think comes from #5 Hornindal, which is top-harvested. But Lutra is a single strain, so I’m not sure it really matters a lot. Look at how it behaves. If it forms a floating porridge and looks like it wants to be harvested from the top, do that. If not, just do whatever looks easier.
Anyway, I've known of this guy for decades, and last night he came to my talk because he happened to see an ad for it, and recognized the family name. Got a nice long chat with him, which was very pleasant.
