Quaff The Raven

Describing pilsner to an American is like describing pizza to a Chicagoan…or so I was going to start this article. That was until I started my research and realized a few things. First, what we poor American souls know as pilsner really isn’t, and second, I’m not a huge fan of what I’ll call ‘classic pilsner’. I won’t spend long hashing out what makes a beer a pilsner, as I covered most of it in ‘Or lagers…’.

At its heart, a pilsner is a lager beer that has its origins in the city of Pilsen, in what was originally Bohemia. The residents of Pilsen, having learned of the lagering process from travelers, decided to try the bottom-fermenting methods on their local brews. Classic pilsners (those not mass-produced in the states) have a strong hop flavor (hence my distaste for them). When beer making came to America, many brewers took to calling their stuff pilsner, even though they got rid of most of the hop flavor. Needless to say, the two pilsners are now step-children of the same process, but hardly siblings.

With the beer out of the way, I thought I’d mention a couple of articles I’ve seen around. It’s been a while since I did a news round-up! There was a study that came out recently that suggested that children who see R-rated movies are more likely do engage in under-aged drinking. So Freddy really is going to kill you, especially if you’re a kid with lenient parents. Of course, I must mention that the study isn’t suggesting that the movies are causing the drinking, not entirely anyway. The authors went on to imply that most of the effects were from lax parenting, but also cited exposure to adult themes (like drinking and drug use) as causes for becoming familiar with lady drink at a young age.

Now, it’s no secret that I stand with the group of people who advocate a drinking age of 18. The arguments of joining the armed forces, voting, entering into contracts, and the like indicate to me an illogical double standard in keeping adults from imbibing. There’s also the notion that parents are relying more and more on the government to raise their children, which bugs me too. I did read about a law in Georgia (I think) which explicitly says that parents can serve alcohol to their underage kids at home. Odd to feel hope coming out of Georgia.

I suppose I’ve probably done enough social commentary for now, and probably insulted a few Georgians in the process. No insult intended, really, I have friends out there (or at least I *used* to).

Caw!