DNA-bothering eggheads brew beer you were literally born to like London-based Meantime Brewing Company, acquired a year ago by Belgian beverage multinational Anheuser-Busch InBev, wants to sell you beer tuned to your taste. To do so, the company plans to direct willing customers to genetic testing service 23andMe – the Silicon Valley personal genomics biz that's slowly emerging from its …
The fact Budweiser and especially Bud Light sells considerably should tell you people like F'n close to water (that's what Sex on the Beach is, after all). Also remember, most of America is hotter than most of Europe, so their preference for alcohol content will be different due to the climate (lagers sell a lot better than ales in hotter climates).
The fact the craft beer industry is thriving in America should also tell you it's not the end of the beer world there, either.
"For 25 grand you could just buy a hell of a lot of beers and see which one you like the taste of."
or spend a lot of evenings at a local 'craft beer' cafe tasting the many microbrews they have available. As I recall, one such place in my area used to have 100 different beers available, and even had a card you could fill out to indicate which ones you've already tried...
> or spend a lot of evenings at a local 'craft beer' cafe tasting the many microbrews they have available.
Could do, but won't. The majority of 'craft beers' in the UK taste the same - astringent elderflower. Few have been established for long, so they just put in a lot of American hops and flood the pub market with it cheaply because they have no reputation on which to sell it. Then they go off to wax their beards.
The point of beer is to go the the pub and talk bollocks about life, people falling off scaffolding, love, music, engineering, stupid shit we've done that day - anything other than beer.
Oh, and I already have a prize-winning beer tuned to my genetics - my father founded a microbrewery over 30 years ago, with a view to making the beer he wanted to drink. And we only allow the best pubs to buy it from us.
Personally, I can't stand beer, but I do like rum and Coca-Cola... the drink as well as the song.
But if this service were extended to comestibles other than beer, I might well be interested in learning more about myself. Particularly, although I know I can't stand cheddar, I'd like to find out if there were varieties of cheese, a nutritious food high in protein, that I might actually enjoy.
Is that proper cave aged Cheddar from er.... Somerset or that rubber crap that is sold in the USA using the Cheddar label?
I an enjoying a delightful 'Tomme de Savior' at the moment. I bought it from the farmer in the mountains near Annecy a couple of weeks ago. It can take the roof off your mouth if you even make a cheese sarni with it. Small shavings only.
There are many cheeses made on farms in both the UK and France that are simply wonderful. If you are in the UK, then find out where/when your local farmers market is. There may well be a local cheese maker selling there wares at such an event.
When I lived in the UK, Sainsbury's would occasionally get in wedges of Mimolette, a very hard orange French cheese with a weird pitted rind.
Roll on a few years, and I moved to France, specifically in Ch'ti country, just outside Lille, which is the part of France where they *make* Mimolette, so I can get it any time I want it, in various ages and everything. Turns out that Sainsbury's only ever got in the "Ex Vieille" version.
Particularly, although I know I can't stand cheddar, I'd like to find out if there were varieties of cheese, a nutritious food high in protein, that I might actually enjoy.
The answer is practically anything.
I also cannot stand the low-grade plastic waste they call "cheddar" in North America (although there are some Quebec-produced cheddard which are quite edible; unfortunately, they tend to be sold for an equivalent volume of dollar bills, tightly packed). At the same time, I cannot have enough real cheese of almost any other variety - from mozarella to limoges, and everything in between.
If you happen to live in Canada (outside of Quebec), you should also keep in mind that Canadian food safety regulations require all cheeses to be pasteurized (quelle horreur!), which completely destroys both the taste and the texture of the cheese, in addition to giving it that distinct plasticy sheen. In most large cities, you can usually find a place which will sell you unpausterized cheese - either imported or made in Quebec (the latter usually more expensive), but supermarket chains tend to follow the rules and ruin the cheese.
Unfortunately, with enough exposure, you can actually condition people to like the supermarket psuedo-cheddar. Which explains a lot about Canadian cuisine (again, outside of Quebec and the immediately adjacent areas).
I remember a few very decent cheese outlets in the Ottawa market area. Long live those emigres who bring the good parts of their native culture! I personally liked the Italian cheeses and hams in some trattoria style store best, but there was also an adequately smelly fromagerie with French specialties.
Now in my new home in Asia, life is a bit harder. But they are trying hard and the beer is getting better by the year. Some good cheese can be found online for outrageous amounts of money, but then it won't really go with the Kim hi.
Avoid the coke if you can - sugars will make your hangover far worse. If you must have a sweeter taste (and yeah, bitter is an acquired taste) try vodka and apple juice.
Bitters take time to get used to, but it's a healthy palette to have. You'll find yourself snacking in high protein foodstuffs like nuts or cheese, instead of chocolate.
Try the Antipodes.
They have two varieties of cheese Tasty and Sharp.
Tasmanian blue cheeses are among the best cheeses I've ever tried, and come in several subtly different varieties. They are not exactly hard to find, even in supermarkets.
For all their faults, aussies do know how to eat well.
"Tasmanian blue cheeses are among the best cheeses I've ever tried"
Not so long ago, a neighbour shared the last of her cheese that had won Best of Show at the Sydney Royal with her friends. It was a Roquefort-style sheep's milk cheese. My preference is for Camembert or Brie but this was mind-blowingly good!
"French Judge Herve Mons said he was impressed by the overall quality of Australian blue cheese on display, and by [her] cheese in particular."
Yes, we do know how to eat well, though this was not so when we arrived in the 1960s. We have a lot to thank the Greeks, Italians, Germans, Poles, Vietnamese etc for. It has been a privilege to live in a successful multicultural society. Sadly most of our politicians are doing their best to create a somewhat more divided society. So it goes...
"Try the Antipodes.They have two varieties of cheese Tasty and Sharp."
Lying cunt!
Joe and Tonia make the best cheeses I have ever tasted. Joe's family has been making cheese since the 14thC.
Using coke as your mixer is the surefire way of destroying any of the flavour nuances the distillers and blenders work very hard to get into their spirits. Ok for the cheap, rough-as-guts rum, but anything half decent should be drunk with Dry Ginger, or in the case of Diplometico or Kraken, nothing but a cube of ice.
You "might well be interested in learning more about yourself" - but would that interest really inspire you to spend $31k?
I'm up for trying a beer, if someone who knows me thinks I might like it. But seriously, that's a lot of money to spend on checking out someone else's hunch.
"2,100 pints at a pint a day (for health benefits) is over 5 and a half years. So what is the shelf life going to be?"Depends. Most commercial beers are pasteurised and contain "preservatives". Their shelf-life is less than 12 months. Some beer I made somewhat more than 5 years ago is still drinking fine, but then I don't pasteurise or add "preservatives" (other than hops).
One beer tuned to me - so what am I supposed to do when my friends come around ?
Also, the thought of drinking one beer type for the rest of my life sounds awful given that there are so many different beers out there. If you've not tried it yet, then take a look at the Beer Hawk, they send you different beers each time you order so you never try the same beer twice (unless you want to)
I wonder how they would approach a beer festival ?
... 12 hectolitres (about 2,100 Imperial pints or 2,500 US pints)...
2,100 Imperial pints is a bit more than 2,500 US pints ... it's about 2,625 ...
In fact 12 hectolitres is real 2,116.7 pints, or 2,640.8 short pints.
I'm not sure what that is in swimming pools ....
[Icon ... obviously ...]
As others have suggested the main requirement is that nobody else likes it so it is mine all mine.
Although having paid all that money I would feel obliged to drink it all (I hate waste) there would come a point where I would be bleating thinking "Thank $Deity only another 10 pallet loads to go (hic).
Maybe they are looking to isolate genes based on the region of the world you are from. You could determine whether one would be predisposed to potato, rice, tomato etc...
Though realistically it's a turd in a science sandwich with a side of bollocks.
Everyone knows only the finest of beers have been tramp sock filtrated and I'm offering it for the bargain sum of 1 million dollars for 28 pints.
This thread is a perfect pub conversation (except for lacking alcohol, crisps, and ogling the barmaid). It's got science, beer, rum, coke, cheese, taste, Douglas Adams, religion, a quote from Aliens and someone saying that twins have different tastes so genetics bunkum. (As the father of twins, I can testify you have a point).
Shame it's a Monday morning.
Like many things your taste and preferences for beer changes as you experience it. When I was a kid sneaking a sip of my dads beer I decided I'd prefer to drink shandy as it was nicer. As I got older and going to the pub I drank what my dad and his mates drank, ales*. I went to university and everyone drank lager but didn't enjoy it and stuck with beer as that is what I was used to, I then moved onto stout and apart from the odd real ale nothing but stout for years.
Then a double epiphany, I discovered Belgian beer and moved to a town with a few pubs that sold well looked after real ales and non-stouts were back on the menu, happy days. For many years the idea of having a single beer in the fridge or drinking the same beer in the pub seems a waste, sure I could drink Leffe/Chimay/Duvel till it came out of my ears (though Duvel is likely to come out somewhere else first) I would not want to every day**.
I'm sure you could theoretically also find a food that matched you genetically, but would you even want to eat the same thing over and over again? What you'd prefer depends on circumstance, on a summers day in the garden I like my own home brewed strawberry wheat beer, at winter like the xmas beer from sam smiths, on a friday after work I like a few stouts, Saturday few selections of good ales and the rest of the week a variety of home brews and supermarket purchases.
* My dad now prefers wine and lager :-(
** Responsible drinking and all that.
I can brew 50 pints for about £20 ingredients (I make my own candy sugar) or 15-30 pints for a shop kit for £15. That works out, for the first case at £1000 for 2000 pints, a saving of £24000!
If I assume that it takes me 1 hour to brew and 1 hour to bottle each batch and charge £30 an hour for my labour I break even at £24000 for my time (ignoring taxes, I'm sure brewing beer is a tax deductible acivity). But brewing is a hobby, if it wasn’t buying 200 bottles of beer is a lot cheaper. Even on sites like beerhawk that charge well over treble for stuff you can get in the supermarket
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