Epic Fail?

[jrandom]

Cos it's less poisonous than non-organic beer?

You don't get it, do you?

'Organic' has a precise meaning in chemistry. It means compounds containing carbon.

Ethanol contains carbon.

Therefore it is impossible to have an inorganic alcoholic beverage.

Y'dig?

[Lucy]

You don't get it, do you?

'Organic' has a precise meaning in chemistry. It means compounds containing carbon.

Ethanol contains carbon.

Therefore it is impossible to have an inorganic alcoholic beverage.

Y'dig?

Yeah I do get it, but I'm not talking about the meanings of words in chemistry connotations.

I'm talking about beer.

I love beer.

[Ixion]

Potassium metabisulfate isn't, though. K2S2O5. Apparently it's used as a sterilising agent. Charming, eh? You're drinking, like, bleach.

Nope, pot metabisulphate is inorganic, sure nuff. Almost all low alcohol drinks need some sort of mould killer to kill of residual or opportunistic mould and yeasts. Other wise your beer would go all yeasty and mouldy.

Bet you EVERY brewer (including home brewers) uses pot meta or something very similar to sterilise casks and brewing vessels.

Organic and natural doesn't necessarily mean good. Rotten food is certainly organic ,and highly natural. But I'd rather not partake, unless it's cheese (or botrytis wine I guess).

[jrandom]

I'm talking about beer.

I love beer.

Then have another, and damned be him that first cries, "'snot real stuff!"



Sorry. I'll get me coat.

[Forest]

Cos it's less poisonous than non-organic beer?

Everything is poisonous - if the dosage is high enough!

[Lucy]

Everything is poisonous - if the dosage is high enough!

True love isn't. Mmmmmm beer.

That's like saying "everything is organic if you break it down enough"

Can we get back to just drinking beer now please...?

[Swoop]

The typical additives can include:

Propylene glycol alginate
Acetolactatedecarboxylase (ALDC)
Amyloglucosidase
Betaglucanases
Arabinoxylanases
Papain
Potassium metabisulfite
Food colouring

What??
No Melamine???

[Mikkel]

True love isn't. Mmmmmm beer.

Too much love will kill you.

That's like saying "everything is organic if you break it down enough"

That's the thing though - everything is INorganic if you break it down enough.
Carbon in and off itself is not organic. Carbon chains, with hydrogen, hydroxide, etc groups attached, are what organic chemistry is all about.

Again, this is why the term "organic seasalt" is so bloody hilarious. There's absolutely nothing organic about salts like sodium hydroxide.

[vifferman]

... everything is INorganic if you break it down enough.
Carbon in and off itself is not organic. Carbon chains, with hydrogen, hydroxide, etc groups attached, are what organic chemistry is all about.

Again, this is why the term "organic seasalt" is so bloody hilarious. There's absolutely nothing organic about salts like sodium hydroxide.

Yeah, it was an unfortunate term for the greenies to appropriate.
But... that's not actually what I meant by the original post. It's not so much about ethanol being an organic solvent as about the association organic producers want you to make (Organic=Pure/good/Healthy/Natural) and the fact that ethanol is poisonous and unhealthy. Not quite so bad as say, organic rat poison, but the same sorta thing...

[Mikkel]

Yeah, it was an unfortunate term for the greenies to appropriate.
But... that's not actually what I meant by the original post. It's not so much about ethanol being an organic solvent as about the association organic producers want you to make (Organic=Pure/good/Healthy/Natural) and the fact that ethanol is poisonous and unhealthy. Not quite so bad as say, organic rat poison, but the same sorta thing...

Oh, I saw your point quite a while back... But as we all know, all good things in life are actually bad for you:

Alcohol
Red meat
Sex
Speeding
Drugs
...

Doesn't mean we shun the good things that are bad for us eh? Life's gotta be worth living too.

When it comes to alcohol I don't care that the ethanol is a weak neurotoxin with potentially severe long-term effects - the ethanol is to a large degree the reason I drink it.
I do however care about what other shit is put in there - mainly because I dislike hangovers... a lot. The purer the spirit is the less other stuff there is to cause your system any grief. This is why I usually drink good quality vodka or rum straight when I want to get drunk. I love my whisky and cognac, but some of the compounds are too hangover inducing to make me want to consume a lot of it - besides good quality whisky and especially cognac is quite a bit dearer than a good rum or vodka.
From that perspective - if organic does indeed mean purer - I don't mind an organic label on my beer. However, labelling something as organic is usually just bullshit - and sometimes, like with the salts, a blatant lie.