Scottish Paint Stripper

[Adrian Caspersz]

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Brewmeister-Snake-Venom-Fortified-Beer/dp/B071KQ2VZ4

"Do not exceed 35ml in one sitting"

--
Adrian C

[Tease'n'Seize]

Adrian Caspersz wrote:

> https://www.amazon.co.uk/Brewmeister-Snake-Venom-Fortified-Beer/dp/B071KQ2VZ4

Is it actually brewed to that strength, or do they just tip ethanol in?
The molisher's website has little to say on the matter

<https://www.brewmeister.co.uk>

[John Williamson]

The label shown in the advert linked to says ingredients are Ethanol and
beer, in that order, which basically makes it a type of alcopop.

So I'd guess the latter.

They also says that they recommend no more than 35ml per session, but
seal the bottle it with a crown cork, which won't be resealable, so
presumably, the second and subsequent days suffer from evaporative losses.

--
Tciao for Now!

John.

[Pancho]

On 25/07/2022 09:34, Tease'n'Seize wrote:

67.5% by volume. Obviously, they tip ethanol in. AIUI ethanol kills
yeast, so you can never brew beyond a certain strength.


At £55 quid a bottle you would be better off buying something like

<https://www.thewhiskyexchange.com/p/34119>

And mixing it 70% with a beer of your choice.

[Ahem A Rivet's Shot]

On Mon, 25 Jul 2022 09:54:26 +0100
Pancho <Pancho...@proton.me> wrote:

> 67.5% by volume. Obviously, they tip ethanol in. AIUI ethanol kills

That's not beer that's flavoured alcohol.

> yeast, so you can never brew beyond a certain strength.

Perhaps they could freeze distil it instead but pouring alcohol in
is the easy way.

> At £55 quid a bottle you would be better off buying something like

Lbooyd rip off.

--
Steve O'Hara-Smith
Odds and Ends at http://www.sohara.org/

[Nicholas D. Richards]

In article <jk73k2...@mid.individual.net>, John Williamson <johnwilli
am...@btinternet.com> on Mon, 25 Jul 2022 at 09:46:54 awoke Nicholas
from his slumbers and wrote

You could sit down with 8 of your mates and their dogs and finish it,
discussing the quality of the malt, hops and brewmeister's skill in
melding together the ingredients. Have I tried it? Hic jacet
0sterc@tcher
--
0sterc@tcher -

"Oů sont les neiges d'antan?"

[Peter]

Pancho <Pancho...@proton.me> wrote in
news:tbllo2$14ele$1...@dont-email.me:

...or a bockle of meths.

--
Peter
-----

[Richard Robinson]

Adrian Caspersz said:
> https://www.amazon.co.uk/Brewmeister-Snake-Venom-Fortified-Beer/dp/B071KQ2VZ4
>
> "Do not exceed 35ml in one sitting"

Good grief. 67.5%. Whisk(e)y's (usually) 40%, yes ?


--
Richard Robinson
"The whole plan hinged upon the natural curiosity of potatoes" - S. Lem

My email address is at http://qualmograph.org.uk/contact.html

[Nicholas D. Richards]

In article <XnsAEDF753527...@88.198.57.247>, Peter
<mys...@prune.org.uk> on Mon, 25 Jul 2022 at 10:31:26 awoke Nicholas

from his slumbers and wrote

>Pancho <Pancho...@proton.me> wrote in
>news:tbllo2$14ele$1...@dont-email.me:
>
>> On 25/07/2022 09:34, Tease'n'Seize wrote:
>>> Adrian Caspersz wrote:
>>>
>>>> https://www.amazon.co.uk/Brewmeister-Snake-Venom-Fortified-Beer/dp/B0
>>>> 71KQ2VZ4
>>>>
>>>
>>> Is it actually brewed to that strength, or do they just tip ethanol
>>> in? The molisher's website has little to say on the matter
>>>
>>> <https://www.brewmeister.co.uk>
>>>
>>
>> 67.5% by volume. Obviously, they tip ethanol in. AIUI ethanol kills
>> yeast, so you can never brew beyond a certain strength.
>>
>>

>> At ÂĢ55 quid a bottle you would be better off buying something like

>>
>> <https://www.thewhiskyexchange.com/p/34119>
>>
>> And mixing it 70% with a beer of your choice.
>
>...or a bockle of meths.
>

Blindingly obvious?
--
0sterc@tcher -

"Oų sont les neiges d'antan?"

[Richard Robinson]

Pancho said:
> On 25/07/2022 09:34, Tease'n'Seize wrote:
>> Adrian Caspersz wrote:
>>
>>> https://www.amazon.co.uk/Brewmeister-Snake-Venom-Fortified-Beer/dp/B071KQ2VZ4
>>>
>>
>> Is it actually brewed to that strength, or do they just tip ethanol in?
>> The molisher's website has little to say on the matter
>>
>> <https://www.brewmeister.co.uk>
>>
>
> 67.5% by volume. Obviously, they tip ethanol in. AIUI ethanol kills
> yeast, so you can never brew beyond a certain strength.

Yes; details depend on particular strains. I worked the French grape
harvest for a couple of years, picking the big muscats (among others),
of which the local variety went up to 21. I remarked to Quelq'un Qui
Savait Les Choses Com Ça ("excuse my French" if nec., it was a long time
ago) that I hadn't realised yeast would go so far, asking was it
fortified ? They said no, it really was just fermentation, using the
wild bloom on the grapeskins for yeast.

>
> At £55 quid a bottle you would be better off buying something like
>
><https://www.thewhiskyexchange.com/p/34119>
>
> And mixing it 70% with a beer of your choice.

[Richard Robinson]

It might cummin handhi if you were into fortified drinks of any sort.
If you need so little it might even be cheap ? (Not a big interest, CBA
with pbzcnengvir fubccvat)

[John Williamson]

On 25/07/2022 12:21, Richard Robinson wrote:

> It might cummin handhi if you were into fortified drinks of any sort.
> If you need so little it might even be cheap ? (Not a big interest, CBA
> with pbzcnengvir fubccvat)
>
>

At the advertised price and recommended dosage, it's nearly seven quid a
pop.

[Tease'n'Seize]

Richard Robinson wrote:

> Pancho said:
>
>> 67.5% by volume. Obviously, they tip ethanol in. AIUI ethanol kills
>> yeast, so you can never brew beyond a certain strength.
>
> Yes; details depend on particular strains. I worked the French grape
> harvest for a couple of years, picking the big muscats (among others),
> of which the local variety went up to 21. I remarked to Quelq'un Qui
> Savait Les Choses Com Ça ("excuse my French" if nec., it was a long time
> ago) that I hadn't realised yeast would go so far, asking was it
> fortified ? They said no, it really was just fermentation, using the
> wild bloom on the grapeskins for yeast.

Is tactical nuclear penguin also fortified?

[RustyHinge]

On 25/07/2022 09:34, Tease'n'Seize wrote:

'Fortified' means spirit added later.

--
Rusty Hinge
To err is human. To really foul things up requires a computer and the BOFH.

[Ahem A Rivet's Shot]

On Mon, 25 Jul 2022 06:00:19 -0500
Richard Robinson <rich...@privacy.net> wrote:

> Adrian Caspersz said:
> > https://www.amazon.co.uk/Brewmeister-Snake-Venom-Fortified-Beer/dp/B071KQ2VZ4
> >
> > "Do not exceed 35ml in one sitting"
>
> Good grief. 67.5%. Whisk(e)y's (usually) 40%, yes ?

Yep, that's about the strength of the paint stripper we used to
call Polish Spirit on the rare occasions it was seen.

[Nicholas D. Richards]

In article <FLqdnVfi4cE95EP_...@brightview.co.uk>, Richard
Robinson <rich...@privacy.net> on Mon, 25 Jul 2022 at 06:08:16 awoke

Nicholas from his slumbers and wrote

>Pancho said:
>> On 25/07/2022 09:34, Tease'n'Seize wrote:
>>> Adrian Caspersz wrote:
>>>
>>>> https://www.amazon.co.uk/Brewmeister-Snake-Venom-Fortified-
>Beer/dp/B071KQ2VZ4
>>>>
>>>
>>> Is it actually brewed to that strength, or do they just tip ethanol in?
>>> The molisher's website has little to say on the matter
>>>
>>> <https://www.brewmeister.co.uk>
>>>
>>
>> 67.5% by volume. Obviously, they tip ethanol in. AIUI ethanol kills
>> yeast, so you can never brew beyond a certain strength.
>
>Yes; details depend on particular strains. I worked the French grape
>harvest for a couple of years, picking the big muscats (among others),
>of which the local variety went up to 21. I remarked to Quelq'un Qui
>Savait Les Choses Com Ça ("excuse my French" if nec., it was a long time
>ago) that I hadn't realised yeast would go so far, asking was it
>fortified ? They said no, it really was just fermentation, using the
>wild bloom on the grapeskins for yeast.

The wild yeasts stops working at anywhere between 10% and 15%, depending
upon the varieties naturally present on the natural grape skins, the pH
and the sugar content in the must and other environmental factors.
Higher levels of alcohol by volume up to about 20% can be achieved by
adding a cultured yeast such as Saccharomyces Cerevisiae.

Fortified wines like Port and Sherry have their fermentation stopped at
some point depending upon on the desired sweetness of the finished
product. The stop is achieved by adding 'brandy'. The quotes is because
the 'brandy' bears little resemblance to your VSOP.
>
>>
>> At Ł55 quid a bottle you would be better off buying something like

>>
>><https://www.thewhiskyexchange.com/p/34119>
>>
>> And mixing it 70% with a beer of your choice.
>
>

--

0sterc@tcher -

"Oů sont les neiges d'antan?"

[maus]

On 2022-07-25, Richard Robinson <rich...@privacy.net> wrote:
> Pancho said:
>> On 25/07/2022 09:34, Tease'n'Seize wrote:
>>> Adrian Caspersz wrote:
>>>
>>>> https://www.amazon.co.uk/Brewmeister-Snake-Venom-Fortified-Beer/dp/B071KQ2VZ4
>>>>
>>>
>>> Is it actually brewed to that strength, or do they just tip ethanol in?
>>> The molisher's website has little to say on the matter
>>>
>>> <https://www.brewmeister.co.uk>
>>>
>>
>> 67.5% by volume. Obviously, they tip ethanol in. AIUI ethanol kills
>> yeast, so you can never brew beyond a certain strength.
>
> Yes; details depend on particular strains. I worked the French grape
> harvest for a couple of years, picking the big muscats (among others),
> of which the local variety went up to 21. I remarked to Quelq'un Qui
> Savait Les Choses Com Ça ("excuse my French" if nec., it was a long time
> ago) that I hadn't realised yeast would go so far, asking was it
> fortified ? They said no, it really was just fermentation, using the
> wild bloom on the grapeskins for yeast.

Germany also, stuff depending on bloom to fermenting, Hocken* something.
Used to be very expensive. I ran into it in local aldi, and it turned
out to be sickingly sweet.

>
>>
>> At £55 quid a bottle you would be better off buying something like
>>
>><https://www.thewhiskyexchange.com/p/34119>
>>
>> And mixing it 70% with a beer of your choice.
>
>


--

grey...@mail.com
"Are you sure that you can live on your investments after retirement?
If not, send us all your money."

[Richard Robinson]

No, it relies on mobile weaponry.

Ahem. I don't know, I've never investigated it. Might remember to check
the ingrediments if inSanesbury's have one next time I'm in.


Which reminds me, Yippee ! I've been testing covid+ for the last 3 weeks
solid (asymptomatic, I'm relieved to say) and came up clear yesterday.
So I don't have to feel guilty about a quick-as-possible masked-up dive
into the shops any longer.

inSanesbury's favourite from that point of view. More room to dodge
people than most, and reassuringly BFO ventilation system on display up
in the roof. It's a shame, the one I've most seen the need to avoid is
the 70s-survival organichippyminimaltransportwholefoodcoop that I'd most
prefer to give my foodzbarl to.

[RustyHinge]

On 25/07/2022 13:11, Nicholas D. Richards wrote:

> Fortified wines like Port and Sherry have their fermentation stopped at
> some point depending upon on the desired sweetness of the finished
> product. The stop is achieved by adding 'brandy'. The quotes is because
> the 'brandy' bears little resemblance to your VSOP.

Grappa?

[RustyHinge]

On 25/07/2022 12:33, Ahem A Rivet's Shot wrote:
> On Mon, 25 Jul 2022 06:00:19 -0500
> Richard Robinson <rich...@privacy.net> wrote:
>
>> Adrian Caspersz said:
>>> https://www.amazon.co.uk/Brewmeister-Snake-Venom-Fortified-Beer/dp/B071KQ2VZ4
>>>
>>> "Do not exceed 35ml in one sitting"
>>
>> Good grief. 67.5%. Whisk(e)y's (usually) 40%, yes ?
>
> Yep, that's about the strength of the paint stripper we used to
> call Polish Spirit on the rare occasions it was seen.

When I jbexrq in Gamages' Wine Dept there was Polish Pure Spirit which
was *strong* - I don't unforget the %, but getting on towards pure
ethanol. It came in 50 cl bockles IIRC.

[Richard Robinson]

Ahem A Rivet's Shot said:
> On Mon, 25 Jul 2022 06:00:19 -0500
> Richard Robinson <rich...@privacy.net> wrote:
>
>> Adrian Caspersz said:
>> > https://www.amazon.co.uk/Brewmeister-Snake-Venom-Fortified-Beer/dp/B071KQ2VZ4
>> >
>> > "Do not exceed 35ml in one sitting"
>>
>> Good grief. 67.5%. Whisk(e)y's (usually) 40%, yes ?
>
> Yep, that's about the strength of the paint stripper we used to
> call Polish Spirit on the rare occasions it was seen.

I unforget, that used to be a common recommendation in home-brew books.
100 proof ? pure ?


Along a similar line of things blending into very different things ... I
made a big mistake a couple of weeks ago. A tray of little red peppers
from a market-stall; I assumed without thinking that they would be a
miniature version of the innocuous "sweet" variety, and proceeded to
take the seeds out of one and stick half of it into my mouth. When I
recoverd, I looked at some pictures, courtesy of the web. Scotch bonnet,
I think. Do not do this unless you know what you're doing. (1/2 hour
after I'd spat the thing out as fast as I could, my eyes started
stinging pretty painfully, one of them swelled up halfclosed. [1]

Which led me to a List ... it's by no means the most extreme,
said to go up to about 100k units, there's one that goes up to 2million.
Which led to more they-don't-call-it-the-web-for-nothing - peppers stop
at the same number that CS gas is said to start from.

[1] I don't really Do demos (apart from my country starting wars on
trum^bushHblaired-up grounds, and so on. Particularly of the teargas sort.
It was _way_ more extreme than anything I'd ever met before.

[Richard Robinson]

*shrug* The cave-jbexre I was talking with said, nothing else. I have no
independ*e*nt knowledge.

[Nicholas D. Richards]

In article <tbm4a3$181c1$1...@dont-email.me>, RustyHinge <rusty.hinge@fooba
r.girolle.co.uk> on Mon, 25 Jul 2022 at 14:02:57 awoke Nicholas from
his slumbers and wrote

>On 25/07/2022 12:33, Ahem A Rivet's Shot wrote:
>> On Mon, 25 Jul 2022 06:00:19 -0500
>> Richard Robinson <rich...@privacy.net> wrote:
>>
>>> Adrian Caspersz said:
>>>> https://www.amazon.co.uk/Brewmeister-Snake-Venom-Fortified-
>Beer/dp/B071KQ2VZ4
>>>>
>>>> "Do not exceed 35ml in one sitting"
>>>
>>> Good grief. 67.5%. Whisk(e)y's (usually) 40%, yes ?
>>
>> Yep, that's about the strength of the paint stripper we used to
>> call Polish Spirit on the rare occasions it was seen.
>
>
>When I jbexrq in Gamages' Wine Dept there was Polish Pure Spirit which
>was *strong* - I don't unforget the %, but getting on towards pure
>ethanol. It came in 50 cl bockles IIRC.
>

A Polish fiend used to add it to Vimto Cordial (before Vimto started
reducing the sugar and adding sweateners*, ugh). Not to my taste.

*They still call it 'original' Vimto even though it is nothing like and
disgusting. I have stopped drinking Vimto because of this.

[Nicholas D. Richards]

In article <tbm3ua$17sh4$1...@dont-email.me>, RustyHinge <rusty.hinge@fooba
r.girolle.co.uk> on Mon, 25 Jul 2022 at 13:56:41 awoke Nicholas from
his slumbers and wrote

>On 25/07/2022 13:11, Nicholas D. Richards wrote:
>
>> Fortified wines like Port and Sherry have their fermentation stopped at
>> some point depending upon on the desired sweetness of the finished
>> product. The stop is achieved by adding 'brandy'. The quotes is because
>> the 'brandy' bears little resemblance to your VSOP.
>
>Grappa?
>

Doubt it, grappa has a quite distinctive taste (grape stalks, grape pips
etc) which would rather spoil the taste of port. Do not get me wrong, I
like grappa.

The Portuguese call it aguardente vínica which can also be aged to make
aguardente velha which translates as 'old burning water'. Aguardente is
described as a spirit with no or neutral taste.

I have tasted port after it has been freshly put in the barrel to be
aged and it burns. How the port house tasters can tell that this
freshly barrelled port is good enough for a vintage I do not know.
--
0sterc@tcher -

"Où sont les neiges d'antan?"

[Sam Plusnet]

On 25-Jul-22 12:37, RustyHinge wrote:
> On 25/07/2022 09:34, Tease'n'Seize wrote:
>> Adrian Caspersz wrote:
>>
>>> https://www.amazon.co.uk/Brewmeister-Snake-Venom-Fortified-Beer/dp/B071KQ2VZ4
>>>
>>
>> Is it actually brewed to that strength, or do they just tip ethanol in?
>> The molisher's website has little to say on the matter
>>
>> <https://www.brewmeister.co.uk>
>
> 'Fortified' means spirit added later.

Yes. It's difficult to crenelate a bottle of wine.

--
Sam Plusnet

[Sam Plusnet]

On 25-Jul-22 12:00, Richard Robinson wrote:
> Adrian Caspersz said:
>> https://www.amazon.co.uk/Brewmeister-Snake-Venom-Fortified-Beer/dp/B071KQ2VZ4
>>
>> "Do not exceed 35ml in one sitting"
>
> Good grief. 67.5%. Whisk(e)y's (usually) 40%, yes ?

Even Navy rum is/was only 54.5%.


--
Sam Plusnet

[Pancho]

On 25/07/2022 10:10, Ahem A Rivet's Shot wrote:
> On Mon, 25 Jul 2022 09:54:26 +0100
> Pancho <Pancho...@proton.me> wrote:
>
>> 67.5% by volume. Obviously, they tip ethanol in. AIUI ethanol kills
>
> That's not beer that's flavoured alcohol.
>
>> yeast, so you can never brew beyond a certain strength.
>
> Perhaps they could freeze distil it instead but pouring alcohol in
> is the easy way.
>

When I was young and poor, I used to brew my own beer. I tried freeze
distilling, it made a sickly, syrupy type of drink. I can't remember if
I every made or drank enough to know if it was strongly alcoholic, all I
can remember is that it tasted disgusting.

[Ahem A Rivet's Shot]

On Mon, 25 Jul 2022 08:16:43 -0500

Richard Robinson <rich...@privacy.net> wrote:

> Ahem A Rivet's Shot said:
> > On Mon, 25 Jul 2022 06:00:19 -0500
> > Richard Robinson <rich...@privacy.net> wrote:
> >
> >> Adrian Caspersz said:
> >> > https://www.amazon.co.uk/Brewmeister-Snake-Venom-Fortified-Beer/dp/B071KQ2VZ4
> >> >
> >> > "Do not exceed 35ml in one sitting"
> >>
> >> Good grief. 67.5%. Whisk(e)y's (usually) 40%, yes ?
> >
> > Yep, that's about the strength of the paint stripper we used to
> > call Polish Spirit on the rare occasions it was seen.
>
> I unforget, that used to be a common recommendation in home-brew books.
> 100 proof ? pure ?

The stuff we saw was 140 proof, it dehydrated the throat
aggressively.

[maus]

I think that in the old days, it was over 90%. Old grogham got famous by
adding water.

[maus]

Applejack, popular in New England, easily copied by putting cider in a
very flexible container in the frig.

[Peter]

Ahem A Rivet's Shot <ste...@eircom.net> wrote in
news:20220725194128.8971...@eircom.net:

When I jbexed in a lab, often late into the small hours, I'd put a shot of
absolute alcohol into my coffee before cycling home. I found it helped.

Drinking it neat, the taste was uninteresting. Maybe because there were no
congeners, or maybe it just anesthetised the palate.

--
Peter
-----

[Richard Robinson]

Especially if you want to drink the contents.

[Richard Robinson]

Ahem A Rivet's Shot said:
> On Mon, 25 Jul 2022 08:16:43 -0500
> Richard Robinson <rich...@privacy.net> wrote:
>
>> Ahem A Rivet's Shot said:
>> > On Mon, 25 Jul 2022 06:00:19 -0500
>> > Richard Robinson <rich...@privacy.net> wrote:
>> >
>> >> Adrian Caspersz said:
>> >> > https://www.amazon.co.uk/Brewmeister-Snake-Venom-Fortified-Beer/dp/B071KQ2VZ4
>> >> >
>> >> > "Do not exceed 35ml in one sitting"
>> >>
>> >> Good grief. 67.5%. Whisk(e)y's (usually) 40%, yes ?
>> >
>> > Yep, that's about the strength of the paint stripper we used to
>> > call Polish Spirit on the rare occasions it was seen.
>>
>> I unforget, that used to be a common recommendation in home-brew books.
>> 100 proof ? pure ?
>
> The stuff we saw was 140 proof, it dehydrated the throat
> aggressively.

I bet. I had a bottle of 100proof whisky once, it was a v. noticeable
effect by then.

[Nicholas D. Richards]

In article <xjBDK.644109$JVi.1...@fx17.iad>, Sam Plusnet
<n...@home.com> on Mon, 25 Jul 2022 at 19:30:53 awoke Nicholas from his
slumbers and wrote

For some reason that made me think of Sgt. Speakman VC.
--
0sterc@tcher -

"Oů sont les neiges d'antan?"

[Mike Spencer]

Peter <mys...@prune.org.uk> writes:

> When I jbexed in a lab, often late into the small hours, I'd put a
> shot of absolute alcohol into my coffee before cycling home. I found
> it helped.

When I were a chemical person 1.3 kilofortnights ago, it was said
around the lab that this was a Bad Idea. Azeotropic water/alcohol is
around 96%. Absolute alcohol is produced by adding benzene. The last
water is eliminated aafter further distillation but traces of benzene
remain to converse with you liver.

> Drinking it neat, the taste was uninteresting. Maybe because there
> were no congeners, or maybe it just anesthetised the palate.


--

Mike Spencer Nova Scotia, Canada

[RustyHinge]

With beer, the procedure is *don't*. Generally, any sugar and most
flavours come out with the liquid.

OK procedure for cider and many 'country wines'.

[RustyHinge]

On 25/07/2022 15:34, Nicholas D. Richards wrote:

> *They still call it 'original' Vimto even though it is nothing like and
> disgusting. I have stopped drinking Vimto because of this.

+1

[RustyHinge]

On 25/07/2022 21:40, Richard Robinson wrote:
> Ahem A Rivet's Shot said:
>> On Mon, 25 Jul 2022 08:16:43 -0500
>> Richard Robinson <rich...@privacy.net> wrote:
>>
>>> Ahem A Rivet's Shot said:
>>>> On Mon, 25 Jul 2022 06:00:19 -0500
>>>> Richard Robinson <rich...@privacy.net> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Adrian Caspersz said:
>>>>>> https://www.amazon.co.uk/Brewmeister-Snake-Venom-Fortified-Beer/dp/B071KQ2VZ4
>>>>>>
>>>>>> "Do not exceed 35ml in one sitting"
>>>>>
>>>>> Good grief. 67.5%. Whisk(e)y's (usually) 40%, yes ?
>>>>
>>>> Yep, that's about the strength of the paint stripper we used to
>>>> call Polish Spirit on the rare occasions it was seen.
>>>
>>> I unforget, that used to be a common recommendation in home-brew books.
>>> 100 proof ? pure ?
>>
>> The stuff we saw was 140 proof, it dehydrated the throat
>> aggressively.
>
> I bet. I had a bottle of 100proof whisky once, it was a v. noticeable
> effect by then.

It should be unforgotten that 100 proof means means 'proof', which is
that concentration of alcohol which, when added to a pile of gnupowder
is sufficiently strong to ignite the powder before it stops burning.

It does not mean pure alcohol.

[RustyHinge]

On 25/07/2022 20:27, maus wrote:
> On 2022-07-25, Sam Plusnet <n...@home.com> wrote:
>> On 25-Jul-22 12:00, Richard Robinson wrote:
>>> Adrian Caspersz said:
>>>> https://www.amazon.co.uk/Brewmeister-Snake-Venom-Fortified-Beer/dp/B071KQ2VZ4
>>>>
>>>> "Do not exceed 35ml in one sitting"
>>>
>>> Good grief. 67.5%. Whisk(e)y's (usually) 40%, yes ?
>>
>> Even Navy rum is/was only 54.5%.
>>
>>
>
> I think that in the old days, it was over 90%. Old grogham got famous by
> adding water.

Complicated - Old Grogham was so-called because of the material of his
coat, and 'grog' was watered rum.

Admiral Vernon, IIRC.

[maus]

A word means what I say it means.

Some ol guy in the us that owned a magazine

the above about `proof' is correct.

[Peter]

Mike Spencer <m...@bogus.nodomain.nowhere> wrote in
news:874jz4u...@bogus.nodomain.nowhere:

>
> Peter <mys...@prune.org.uk> writes:
>
>> When I jbexed in a lab, often late into the small hours, I'd put a
>> shot of absolute alcohol into my coffee before cycling home. I found
>> it helped.
>
> When I were a chemical person 1.3 kilofortnights ago, it was said
> around the lab that this was a Bad Idea. Azeotropic water/alcohol is
> around 96%. Absolute alcohol is produced by adding benzene. The last
> water is eliminated aafter further distillation but traces of benzene
> remain to converse with you liver.

Ours was pure to analytical standards, which meant 99%. I was aware of the
possibility of benzene but not that bothered in those amounts. Tasted OK in
coffee.

--
Peter
-----

[Richard Robinson]

I think Iremember trying it with the dregs of Jngarl'f Cnegl ahzore. I
daresay it wouldn't be a suprise to learn that it wasn't worth the
trouble, however little that was.

[Richard Robinson]

Which is why I asked "100 proof ? pure ?", yes.

[Bernard Peek]

On 2022-07-25, Mike Spencer <m...@bogus.nodomain.nowhere> wrote:
>
> Peter <mys...@prune.org.uk> writes:
>
>> When I jbexed in a lab, often late into the small hours, I'd put a
>> shot of absolute alcohol into my coffee before cycling home. I found
>> it helped.
>
> When I were a chemical person 1.3 kilofortnights ago, it was said
> around the lab that this was a Bad Idea. Azeotropic water/alcohol is
> around 96%. Absolute alcohol is produced by adding benzene. The last
> water is eliminated aafter further distillation but traces of benzene
> remain to converse with you liver.

There are many different grades of 'pure' alcohol. Some have benzene in,
some don't. An alternative way of getting rid of the water was to add
metallic calcium. All you needed to do after that was filter it. I was
supervising production of 'flavour-grade' alcohol that starts with
notionally pure ethanol and distils it. We made it in 10,000 litre batches.

Every so often someone from the plant would turn up with a pint of
distillate. I took my 0.1 microlitre sample and disposed of the rest.

>
>> Drinking it neat, the taste was uninteresting. Maybe because there
>> were no congeners, or maybe it just anesthetised the palate.

I thought it tated like vodka. I don't drink vodka. But at the time I had
access to the flavour reference-library so could have pretty much whatever
took my fancy at the time,


--
Bernard Peek
b...@shrdlu.com

[Bernard Peek]

On 2022-07-26, RustyHinge <rusty...@foobar.girolle.co.uk> wrote:

Middle-leftpondia uses the same word but with a slighly different meaning.
100 proof there means 50% alcohol. It's 57.5% in the UK.

>
> It does not mean pure alcohol.
>


--

Bernard Peek
b...@shrdlu.com

[RustyHinge]

No

[Tone]

On 26/07/2022 11:22, Richard Robinson wrote:

'Proof' is approx. 1.75x the ABV, thus Pussers* Rum as issued neat to
the RN Senior ranks at 54.6ABV was about 95.5 Proof.

*Speel chucker wants to change this to 'Pissers'

Tone (ex AA1)

[Sam Plusnet]

"The Press of the time nicknamed him the 'beerbottle' VC, something he
disliked for fear that it suggested he and his colleagues drank beer
while on duty; the beer was in fact used to cool gun barrels."

Of course soldiers wouldn't dream of drinking "beer - gun barrels for
the cooling of".

--
Sam Plusnet

[Richard Robinson]

But, let me guess, the required quantity was ever so very slightly more
than half a bottle ?

[Nicholas D. Richards]

In article <asXDK.43447$8f2....@fx38.iad>, Sam Plusnet <n...@home.com>
on Tue, 26 Jul 2022 at 20:41:58 awoke Nicholas from his slumbers and

wrote
>On 25-Jul-22 23:02, Nicholas D. Richards wrote:
>> In article <xjBDK.644109$JVi.1...@fx17.iad>, Sam Plusnet
>> <n...@home.com> on Mon, 25 Jul 2022 at 19:30:53 awoke Nicholas from his
>> slumbers and wrote
>>> On 25-Jul-22 12:37, RustyHinge wrote:
>>>> On 25/07/2022 09:34, Tease'n'Seize wrote:
>>>>> Adrian Caspersz wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> https://www.amazon.co.uk/Brewmeister-Snake-Venom-Fortified-
>>> Beer/dp/B071KQ2VZ4
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Is it actually brewed to that strength, or do they just tip ethanol in?
>>>>> The molisher's website has little to say on the matter
>>>>>
>>>>> <https://www.brewmeister.co.uk>
>>>>
>>>> 'Fortified' means spirit added later.
>>>
>>> Yes. It's difficult to crenelate a bottle of wine.
>>>
>> For some reason that made me think of Sgt. Speakman VC.
>
>"The Press of the time nicknamed him the 'beerbottle' VC, something he
>disliked for fear that it suggested he and his colleagues drank beer
>while on duty; the beer was in fact used to cool gun barrels."
>
>Of course soldiers wouldn't dream of drinking "beer - gun barrels for
>the cooling of".
>

Beer - soldiers for the pissing of
Piss - gun barrels for the cooling of

[Richard Robinson]

Assertions of organic recycling policies - for the making of

[Nicholas D. Richards]

In article <XqWdnb7is_uUyH3_...@brightview.co.uk>, Richard
Robinson <rich...@privacy.net> on Tue, 26 Jul 2022 at 15:56:41 awoke

If we are not careful we will be Naming the Parts.

[Julian Macassey]

On Tue, 26 Jul 2022 21:31:41 +0100, Nicholas D. Richards <nich...@salmiron.com> wrote:
> In article <asXDK.43447$8f2....@fx38.iad>, Sam Plusnet <n...@home.com>
>>>>

>>> For some reason that made me think of Sgt. Speakman VC.
>>
>>"The Press of the time nicknamed him the 'beerbottle' VC, something he
>>disliked for fear that it suggested he and his colleagues drank beer
>>while on duty; the beer was in fact used to cool gun barrels."
>>
>>Of course soldiers wouldn't dream of drinking "beer - gun barrels for
>>the cooling of".
>>
> Beer - soldiers for the pissing of
> Piss - gun barrels for the cooling of

I recall reading about a soldier in teh desert during
WWII, he had managed to procure a bottle of beer and had set on a
wall at night to cool off. Who said the Brits like warm beer? A
German plane flew over on a strafing run and hit the bottle of
beer.

As for piss, a colleague told me about being a soldier in
the Korean war, it was so cold that the action of his M1 would
freeze, so in order to able to shoot back, he had to piss on his
rifle.

--
The internet was a virtual commons, but it got privatized and
that's why we're all on twitter and Facebook now. - @togethercomrade

[Mike Fleming]

On 25/07/2022 12:30, John Williamson wrote:
> On 25/07/2022 12:21, Richard Robinson wrote:
>
>> It might cummin handhi if you were into fortified drinks of any sort.
>> If you need so little it might even be cheap ? (Not a big interest, CBA
>> with pbzcnengvir fubccvat)
>>
>>
> At the advertised price and recommended dosage, it's nearly seven quid a
> pop.

Much more economical to go for something off
https://www.masterofmalt.com/country/polish-spirit/ - the first one is
1.5 times the volume, 1.5 times the strength, and < 60% of the price.

[Mike Fleming]

On 25/07/2022 12:08, Richard Robinson wrote:

> Pancho said:
>> On 25/07/2022 09:34, Tease'n'Seize wrote:
>>> Adrian Caspersz wrote:
>>>
>>>> https://www.amazon.co.uk/Brewmeister-Snake-Venom-Fortified-Beer/dp/B071KQ2VZ4
>>>>
>>>
>>> Is it actually brewed to that strength, or do they just tip ethanol in?
>>> The molisher's website has little to say on the matter
>>>
>>> <https://www.brewmeister.co.uk>
>>>
>>

>> 67.5% by volume. Obviously, they tip ethanol in. AIUI ethanol kills

>> yeast, so you can never brew beyond a certain strength.
>

> Yes; details depend on particular strains. I worked the French grape
> harvest for a couple of years, picking the big muscats (among others),
> of which the local variety went up to 21. I remarked to Quelq'un Qui
> Savait Les Choses Com Ça ("excuse my French" if nec., it was a long time
> ago) that I hadn't realised yeast would go so far, asking was it
> fortified ? They said no, it really was just fermentation, using the
> wild bloom on the grapeskins for yeast.

That's impressive. For home winemaking you can get yeasts that go to
around 15% (champagne yeasts IIRC).

[John Williamson]

I was referring to the "beer". Sixty-five GBZU per bottle of 8 anna bit
tots.

--
Tciao for Now!

John.

[Mike Fleming]

On 26/07/2022 23:55, Julian Macassey wrote:
>
> I recall reading about a soldier in teh desert during
> WWII, he had managed to procure a bottle of beer and had set on a
> wall at night to cool off. Who said the Brits like warm beer? A
> German plane flew over on a strafing run and hit the bottle of
> beer.

That's impressively low flying.

[Mike Fleming]

On 25/07/2022 12:33, Ahem A Rivet's Shot wrote:
> On Mon, 25 Jul 2022 06:00:19 -0500
> Richard Robinson <rich...@privacy.net> wrote:
>
>> Adrian Caspersz said:
>>> https://www.amazon.co.uk/Brewmeister-Snake-Venom-Fortified-Beer/dp/B071KQ2VZ4
>>>
>>> "Do not exceed 35ml in one sitting"
>>
>> Good grief. 67.5%. Whisk(e)y's (usually) 40%, yes ?
>
> Yep, that's about the strength of the paint stripper we used to
> call Polish Spirit on the rare occasions it was seen.

We had Polish Pure Spirit behind the bar at the hall of residence that I
was in, in That London. Haven't had it since. Not sure if there was much
difference between it and the formaldehyde that the dog and cat
carcasses were kept in at my college.

[Mike Fleming]

On 25/07/2022 14:16, Richard Robinson wrote:
>
> Along a similar line of things blending into very different things ... I
> made a big mistake a couple of weeks ago. A tray of little red peppers
> from a market-stall; I assumed without thinking that they would be a
> miniature version of the innocuous "sweet" variety, and proceeded to
> take the seeds out of one and stick half of it into my mouth. When I
> recoverd, I looked at some pictures, courtesy of the web. Scotch bonnet,
> I think. Do not do this unless you know what you're doing. (1/2 hour
> after I'd spat the thing out as fast as I could, my eyes started
> stinging pretty painfully, one of them swelled up halfclosed. [1]
>
> Which led me to a List ... it's by no means the most extreme,
> said to go up to about 100k units, there's one that goes up to 2million.
> Which led to more they-don't-call-it-the-web-for-nothing - peppers stop
> at the same number that CS gas is said to start from.

The Scoville scale?

Decades ago I was at a party at a friend's house. Said friend (Mick)
grew chilis. Another friend (Sol) said he liked chilis and was offered
one by Mick, who warned him about the strength. "Oh, that's fine" said
Sol and put the entire small pepper into his mouth. It was like one of
those old cartoons where steam starts coming out of the character's
ears. It took him a fair while to recover from that.

[RustyHinge]

On 27/07/2022 11:43, Mike Fleming wrote:

> We had Polish Pure Spirit behind the bar at the hall of residence that I
> was in, in That London. Haven't had it since. Not sure if there was much
> difference between it and the formaldehyde that the dog and cat
> carcasses were kept in at my college.

Polish Pure Spirit is infinitely more potable than formaldehyde. Except
under overindulgency circumstances, P.P.S. won't kill you...

[Richard Robinson]

If it was deliberate.

[Richard Robinson]

Yes, that's why I enquired when I noticed it on a label[1], I'd thought
it stopped somewhere around there.

[1] We were a team, some of whom got disgruntled when we were told we'd
have to jbex on Sunday because it looked like it might rain; thought
they ought to have Rights tsod stand on (they didn't). François the
dead-nice chef d'equipe gave us a few bottles to mollify them. Wouldn't
have had them any other way, because zbarl. Muscat de Rivesaltes.

[Richard Robinson]

Mike Fleming said:
> On 25/07/2022 14:16, Richard Robinson wrote:
>>
>> Along a similar line of things blending into very different things ... I
>> made a big mistake a couple of weeks ago. A tray of little red peppers
>> from a market-stall; I assumed without thinking that they would be a
>> miniature version of the innocuous "sweet" variety, and proceeded to
>> take the seeds out of one and stick half of it into my mouth. When I
>> recoverd, I looked at some pictures, courtesy of the web. Scotch bonnet,
>> I think. Do not do this unless you know what you're doing. (1/2 hour
>> after I'd spat the thing out as fast as I could, my eyes started
>> stinging pretty painfully, one of them swelled up halfclosed. [1]
>>
>> Which led me to a List ... it's by no means the most extreme,
>> said to go up to about 100k units, there's one that goes up to 2million.
>> Which led to more they-don't-call-it-the-web-for-nothing - peppers stop
>> at the same number that CS gas is said to start from.
>
> The Scoville scale?

Dat's der fluffything.

> Decades ago I was at a party at a friend's house. Said friend (Mick)
> grew chilis. Another friend (Sol) said he liked chilis and was offered
> one by Mick, who warned him about the strength. "Oh, that's fine" said
> Sol and put the entire small pepper into his mouth. It was like one of
> those old cartoons where steam starts coming out of the character's
> ears. It took him a fair while to recover from that.

Yes. it'd be sort of cartoonish, if only it didn't hurt so much.

[Ahem A Rivet's Shot]

On Wed, 27 Jul 2022 11:52:49 +0100
Mike Fleming <mi...@tauzero.co.uk> wrote:

> Decades ago I was at a party at a friend's house. Said friend (Mick)
> grew chilis. Another friend (Sol) said he liked chilis and was offered
> one by Mick, who warned him about the strength. "Oh, that's fine" said
> Sol and put the entire small pepper into his mouth. It was like one of
> those old cartoons where steam starts coming out of the character's
> ears. It took him a fair while to recover from that.

I have seen a simla thing when I was a stewed ant. We were enjoying
a game of cards late one night when a fiend came in very drunk and carrying
a fire extinguisher, it transpired that he had been on a spree of letting
the things off around the college. The last thing I wanted was for him to
let one off in my room, so I fed him a chilli which he cheerfully chomped
seeds and all. There was no steam, but I've never seen anyone turn so many
colours, I had thought most of them apocryphal. It wasn't long before he
bolted to the toilet (half a flight down the stairs) and occupied it for
several hours making strange groaning noises while we returned to our
interrupted game.

When he recovered he had the college proctors to face and a fine to
pay - they had a standard fine per extinguisher!

--
Steve O'Hara-Smith
Odds and Ends at http://www.sohara.org/

[Nicholas D. Richards]

In article <b_2dnSrGJ70gvnz_...@brightview.co.uk>, Richard
Robinson <rich...@privacy.net> on Wed, 27 Jul 2022 at 06:38:37 awoke

Nicholas from his slumbers and wrote

I have never understood chilli in food.

A chef exquisitely spices a dish which would taste wonderful before
he/she throws in the chillies and then you cannot taste anything because
your taste buds have been burnt away for the next 48 hours.

Sheer masochism/sadism.

[Richard Robinson]

Richard Robinson said:
>
> Rights tsod stand on

Aargh. I really should do something about the way this table's a bit too
high, I'm spending troo much time coirrectiong typos. Ahem.

[Richard Robinson]

Nicholas D. Richards said:
>>
>>> Decades ago I was at a party at a friend's house. Said friend (Mick)
>>> grew chilis. Another friend (Sol) said he liked chilis and was offered
>>> one by Mick, who warned him about the strength. "Oh, that's fine" said
>>> Sol and put the entire small pepper into his mouth. It was like one of
>>> those old cartoons where steam starts coming out of the character's
>>> ears. It took him a fair while to recover from that.
>>
>>Yes. it'd be sort of cartoonish, if only it didn't hurt so much.
>>
> I have never understood chilli in food.
>
> A chef exquisitely spices a dish which would taste wonderful before
> he/she throws in the chillies and then you cannot taste anything because
> your taste buds have been burnt away for the next 48 hours.

They're Doing It Wrong ?

In ways that the taster regards as Right, it's an enhancement.

There's an intermittent market stall [1] that used to do a green sauce -
"Sour mango and jalapeño"[2] which - if I tasted a drop straight from
the bottle was pretty hot, but if I dripped a few drops onto a meal, the
heat seemed to blend in & became a sort of pleasant background warmth,
all I was aware of tasting was the sharp flavour.

[1] Sudden enlightenment ! That's where occasional tables go in their
time off.

[2] I thnk. The long green sharp one[2a]

[2a] taste-wise.

> Sheer masochism/sadism.

Macho posing, with many stories about how they don't always succeed in
impressing even themselves. *shrug* some people aren't a good idea to go
for a curry with, that's all.

[Richard Robinson]

I've never been so unlucky/careless asto have seen one in action, and
will confess to the occasional speculation that it might be a reallly
impressive water pistol. But only in the way that ICBA to arrange a
situation where it'd be ok to find out.

[John Williamson]

On 27/07/2022 13:49, Richard Robinson wrote:

> I've never been so unlucky/careless asto have seen one in action, and
> will confess to the occasional speculation that it might be a reallly
> impressive water pistol. But only in the way that ICBA to arrange a
> situation where it'd be ok to find out.
>

We had a demonstration at work a while back, in the carp ark.

Impressively noisy and messy, but, as the guy said, they only last long
enough for you and maybe a few others to get to the fire exit. Most of
the ones you see in public places are foam or powder, and the results
are a swine to clean up.

Carbon dioxide ones are handy for crowd control at rowdy gigs. Loud and
an impressive white cloud, but no damage to people or their clothing.
Just watch where you hold it, as frostbite is not nice. They can also
put out the amp when it starts releasing the magic smoke.

[maus]

I have read of hillclimbers in the lake district that sometimes can look
down into passing aircraft cockpits.


--
grey...@mail.com
"Are you sure that you can live on your investments after retirement?
If not, send us all your money."

[maus]

On 2022-07-27, RustyHinge <rusty...@foobar.girolle.co.uk> wrote:
> On 27/07/2022 11:43, Mike Fleming wrote:
>
>> We had Polish Pure Spirit behind the bar at the hall of residence that I
>> was in, in That London. Haven't had it since. Not sure if there was much
>> difference between it and the formaldehyde that the dog and cat
>> carcasses were kept in at my college.
>
> Polish Pure Spirit is infinitely more potable than formaldehyde. Except
> under overindulgency circumstances, P.P.S. won't kill you...
>

Marketed as?

I read that a Russian from a landowning family, before the revolution,
returned to the ancestral estate to reinvigorate it. He gave up after
not meeting one completely sober man any day.

Good vodka is easily imbibed, and so a killer. Some of the women that
are available on social `dating' sites have buried husbands before
entering the shadow world. Or so I am told.

[John Williamson]

On 27/07/2022 15:00, maus wrote:
> On 2022-07-27, Mike Fleming <mi...@tauzero.co.uk> wrote:
>> On 26/07/2022 23:55, Julian Macassey wrote:
>>>
>>> I recall reading about a soldier in teh desert during
>>> WWII, he had managed to procure a bottle of beer and had set on a
>>> wall at night to cool off. Who said the Brits like warm beer? A
>>> German plane flew over on a strafing run and hit the bottle of
>>> beer.
>>
>> That's impressively low flying.
>
> I have read of hillclimbers in the lake district that sometimes can look
> down into passing aircraft cockpits.
>
>

I've done that from a hill in Wales,as the Herc seemed to fly over the
local town.

[RustyHinge]

On 27/07/2022 13:32, Richard Robinson wrote:
> Richard Robinson said:
>>
>> Rights tsod stand on
>
> Aargh. I really should do something about the way this table's a bit too
> high, I'm spending troo much time coirrectiong typos. Ahem.

~Or not correcting them...

[RustyHinge]

On 27/07/2022 12:27, Richard Robinson wrote:
> Mike Fleming said:
>> On 26/07/2022 23:55, Julian Macassey wrote:
>>>
>>> I recall reading about a soldier in teh desert during
>>> WWII, he had managed to procure a bottle of beer and had set on a
>>> wall at night to cool off. Who said the Brits like warm beer? A
>>> German plane flew over on a strafing run and hit the bottle of
>>> beer.
>>
>> That's impressively low flying.
>
> If it was deliberate.

Can't unforget who it was, but a fighter pilot shot down was preparing
to crash-land (during WWII) and a German ack-ack battery opened up on
him. Miffed as this wasn't kosher behaviour (!) the pilot fired a long
burst as he approached.

Picked up by ground forces he was led to the offending ack-ack gnu, the
barrel of which had split like a peeled bananananana, killing the gnu crew.

Pilot was expecting to get beaten-up at best, and was rather surprised
at his captors' merriment.

[Richard Robinson]

Oh yes. A couple of springs in the early '80s, I had jbex up The Hill
around Sutherland (taxbreaks for commercial forestry), and (I think
various) airforces used to use the area for practising low-level stuff;
you're halfway up a hillside and see 'em way down there in the valley.

Afterburners. I heard rumours that they thought it was fun to sneak up
on a bunch of people as unobtrusively as can be done and then go
fullthrottle right where we'd be most suprised. Wake up and smell the
fumes.

I may have mentioned this before ... front page of IIRC Inverness
Press&Journal c.1983, 2 articles. One concerned a peat fire caused by
the mysteriously inexplicable breakage of the bottom cable from a set of
power lines between some pair of pylons or other, mentioning
mysteriously inexplicable chunks of perspex. The second article
concerned the forced landing of an RAF thing caused by a mysteriously
inexplicable broken windscreen. I don't remember either of them offering
any suggestion that these events could possibly be related, apart
from the juxtaposition.

[Richard Robinson]

RustyHinge said:
> On 27/07/2022 13:32, Richard Robinson wrote:
>> Richard Robinson said:
>>>
>>> Rights tsod stand on
>>
>> Aargh. I really should do something about the way this table's a bit too
>> high, I'm spending troo much time coirrectiong typos. Ahem.
>
> ~Or not correcting them...

Retained for illustrative porpoises.

And I hope they enjoy them.

[RustyHinge]

On 27/07/2022 15:00, maus wrote:

> On 2022-07-27, Mike Fleming <mi...@tauzero.co.uk> wrote:
>> On 26/07/2022 23:55, Julian Macassey wrote:
>>>
>>> I recall reading about a soldier in teh desert during
>>> WWII, he had managed to procure a bottle of beer and had set on a
>>> wall at night to cool off. Who said the Brits like warm beer? A
>>> German plane flew over on a strafing run and hit the bottle of
>>> beer.
>>
>> That's impressively low flying.
>
> I have read of hillclimbers in the lake district that sometimes can look
> down into passing aircraft cockpits.

I was at the summit of a mountain on the west coast of the Isle of Lewis
- Mealaisbhal IIRC with a party of Scouts when the Stornoway plane* flew
by - so far below us that it looked like a Dinky toy.

* Can't unforget its name: turbo-prop hairyliner, prolly Vickers Viscount.

[RustyHinge]

On 27/07/2022 13:49, Richard Robinson wrote:

I've used one for real - several of times. Was in a Jbexf fire brigade -
metallurgical company - and as a result the civvy brigade often
insu^h^h^h^consulted us as to the best way to tackle some fires in
commercial vehicles.

The commonest fires were in 'The Titanium'. Titanium is difficult to
extinguish - it burns if you dunk a flaming lump of it into a bucket of
water...

We had a *FO BIG* Coventry Climax pump to feed hoses - our best one
needed someone quite substantial to hold it steady, and woe betide
anyone nearby if its holder let go.

[RustyHinge]

On 27/07/2022 14:34, John Williamson wrote:

/fire extinguishers/

> Carbon dioxide ones are handy for crowd control at rowdy gigs. Loud and
> an impressive white cloud, but no damage to people or their clothing.

Just don't try it. Fast-moving crystals of carbon-dioxide can puncture
skin and freeze flesh, and are rather painful.

> Just watch where you hold it, as frostbite is not nice. They can also
> put out the amp when it starts releasing the magic smoke.

The can also put out the cat.

[Richard Robinson]

RustyHinge said:
>
> * Can't unforget its name: turbo-prop hairyliner, prolly Vickers Viscount.

Frank's Glasses, they say "Vicar's Discount".

[Andrew Marshall]

On 27/07/2022 16:02, RustyHinge wrote:
> Can't unforget who it was, but a fighter pilot shot down was preparing
> to crash-land (during WWII) and a German ack-ack battery opened up on
> him. Miffed as this wasn't kosher behaviour (!) the pilot fired a long
> burst as he approached.
>
> Picked up by ground forces he was led to the offending ack-ack gnu, the
> barrel of which had split like a peeled bananananana, killing the gnu crew.
>
> Pilot was expecting to get beaten-up at best, and was rather surprised
> at his captors' merriment.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Stanford_Tuck

--
Regards,
Andrew.

[RustyHinge]

On 27/07/2022 13:10, Nicholas D. Richards wrote:

> I have never understood chilli in food.
>
> A chef exquisitely spices a dish which would taste wonderful before
> he/she throws in the chillies and then you cannot taste anything because
> your taste buds have been burnt away for the next 48 hours.
>
> Sheer masochism/sadism.

Chillies add a lot of flavour, but you has to suffer to enjoy it.

Mny year sago I often bought chillis in an Indian food shop in Barking.
One day, the proprietor, one Rai Singh asked what I did with 'all those
chillis'.

Aunt Issipating my reply he challenged me: "I bet you can't eat one, raw!"

"I bet I can!"

"Go on then. If you can I won't charge you for them!"

(Big deal! 1s. 6d. - thass 7½p for the info for any youngsters)

I begn to nosh one. "Stop it! Stop it! I can't watch you! I couldn't do
that!"

I finished the boodly thing: it wasn't going to hurt any more if I
finised it, which I did. I goove I earned those four ounces of jalapinos.

[RustyHinge]

On 27/07/2022 15:05, maus wrote:

>> Polish Pure Spirit is infinitely more potable than formaldehyde. Except
>> under overindulgency circumstances, P.P.S. won't kill you...
>>
> Marketed as?

Polish Pure Spirit(TM)

[Ahem A Rivet's Shot]

On Wed, 27 Jul 2022 14:34:11 +0100
John Williamson <johnwil...@btinternet.com> wrote:

> Impressively noisy and messy, but, as the guy said, they only last long
> enough for you and maybe a few others to get to the fire exit. Most of
> the ones you see in public places are foam or powder, and the results
> are a swine to clean up.

This was the back end of the 70s - they were water.

[RustyHinge]

Puts me in mind of Capt Eric "Winkle" Jones who once flew a Seafire up
or down the Firth of Forth and did a loop under and round each span. RAF
and civvy police spent ages trying to trace the pilot of a Spitfire -
none was supposed to be in the vicinity at the time.

[Nicholas D. Richards]

In article <jkcvuk...@mid.individual.net>, John Williamson
<johnwil...@btinternet.com> on Wed, 27 Jul 2022 at 15:21:06 awoke

Nicholas from his slumbers and wrote

I have done that hanging off a cliff on Tryfan, in North Wales. By that
I mean I was hanging off a cliff, not the aircraft hanging of a cliff.
Looked almost vertically downwards into the cockpit of a Buccaneer(?).
This was in the middle 1960's when a lot of the ground attack role was
carried out without computer assistance.

The first time it came as a bit(!) of a shock, you did not hear them
coming until they were upon, rather below, you.

[Don Stockbauer]

That's about what corn costs here in hated Merca - Buccaneer .

The Firth of Forth - has anyone here written a sonnet on/to it ? What about using it to write some astronomy software?

[maus]

On 2022-07-27, RustyHinge <rusty...@foobar.girolle.co.uk> wrote:

> On 27/07/2022 12:27, Richard Robinson wrote:
>> Mike Fleming said:
>>> On 26/07/2022 23:55, Julian Macassey wrote:
>>>>
>>>> I recall reading about a soldier in teh desert during
>>>> WWII, he had managed to procure a bottle of beer and had set on a
>>>> wall at night to cool off. Who said the Brits like warm beer? A
>>>> German plane flew over on a strafing run and hit the bottle of
>>>> beer.
>>>
>>> That's impressively low flying.
>>
>> If it was deliberate.
>
> Can't unforget who it was, but a fighter pilot shot down was preparing
> to crash-land (during WWII) and a German ack-ack battery opened up on
> him. Miffed as this wasn't kosher behaviour (!) the pilot fired a long
> burst as he approached.

Ack-ack was seen as a soft posting, until the end the war, when the
crews were reassigned to resist the Russians, and replaced by children.
Or so I was told. I would think a lot of people in Germany now would
think of General Yorke's walk through the snow in 1814.

( I found no reference to that pivotal event in Google)

Surely the Germans are wondering if they backed losers up to this.

>
> Picked up by ground forces he was led to the offending ack-ack gnu, the
> barrel of which had split like a peeled bananananana, killing the gnu crew.
>
> Pilot was expecting to get beaten-up at best, and was rather surprised
> at his captors' merriment.
>


--

[Sam Plusnet]

Thanks for that.
I noted the following:

"Tuck had an extraordinary piece of ill-fortune when he intercepted a
German bomber heading towards Cardiff. He fired at extreme range in poor
light, causing it to jettison its bombs in open countryside instead of
on the city. The last of its stick of bombs caught one corner of an army
training camp and killed one soldier. The soldier was the husband of
Tuck's sister."

--
Sam Plusnet

[Don Stockbauer]

Y'all sure tell some good Human Folly Il stories.

[Sam Plusnet]

On 27-Jul-22 17:34, Ahem A Rivet's Shot wrote:
> On Wed, 27 Jul 2022 14:34:11 +0100
> John Williamson <johnwil...@btinternet.com> wrote:
>
>> Impressively noisy and messy, but, as the guy said, they only last long
>> enough for you and maybe a few others to get to the fire exit. Most of
>> the ones you see in public places are foam or powder, and the results
>> are a swine to clean up.
>
> This was the back end of the 70s - they were water.
>

One of them funny conical red things? A MiniMax?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sM97c8ZI4Uw

--
Sam Plusnet

[Mike Fleming]

On 27/07/2022 11:15, John Williamson wrote:
> On 27/07/2022 10:52, Mike Fleming wrote:
>> On 25/07/2022 12:30, John Williamson wrote:
>
>>> At the advertised price and recommended dosage, it's nearly seven quid
>>> a pop.
>>
>> Much more economical to go for something off
>> https://www.masterofmalt.com/country/polish-spirit/ - the first one is
>> 1.5 times the volume, 1.5 times the strength, and < 60% of the price.
>
> I was referring to the "beer". Sixty-five GBZU per bottle of 8 anna bit
> tots.

Just add the Polish Pure Spirit to a decent beer.

[Ahem A Rivet's Shot]

On Wed, 27 Jul 2022 21:57:45 +0100
Sam Plusnet <n...@home.com> wrote:

> On 27-Jul-22 17:34, Ahem A Rivet's Shot wrote:
> > On Wed, 27 Jul 2022 14:34:11 +0100
> > John Williamson <johnwil...@btinternet.com> wrote:
> >
> >> Impressively noisy and messy, but, as the guy said, they only last long
> >> enough for you and maybe a few others to get to the fire exit. Most of
> >> the ones you see in public places are foam or powder, and the results
> >> are a swine to clean up.
> >
> > This was the back end of the 70s - they were water.
> >
> One of them funny conical red things? A MiniMax?

Nah bog standard red cylinder like this:

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_extinguisher#/media/File:FireExtinguisherABC.jpg>

[Thomas Prufer]

On Wed, 27 Jul 2022 10:53:59 +0100, Mike Fleming <mi...@tauzero.co.uk> wrote:

>That's impressive. For home winemaking you can get yeasts that go to
>around 15% (champagne yeasts IIRC).

For home distilling, there's "turbo yeasts" that go well above 20%.

ISTR one that did 20% in 24 48?) hours, and 24% in a few days. For distilling,
as the mash is reportedly nasty -- and as distilling may be illicit, speed is a
benefit, less time for the mash to be found, more turnover, etc.


Thomas Prufer

[RustyHinge]

Here in Blighty, AIUI, distilling is no longer illegal unless you sell,
or intend to sell the product. Or create a fl^hic!^oo^hic!^d of the stuff?

[maus]

On 2022-07-28, RustyHinge <rusty...@foobar.girolle.co.uk> wrote:
> On 28/07/2022 07:34, Thomas Prufer wrote:
>> On Wed, 27 Jul 2022 10:53:59 +0100, Mike Fleming <mi...@tauzero.co.uk> wrote:
>>
>>> That's impressive. For home winemaking you can get yeasts that go to
>>> around 15% (champagne yeasts IIRC).
>>
>> For home distilling, there's "turbo yeasts" that go well above 20%.
>>
>> ISTR one that did 20% in 24 48?) hours, and 24% in a few days. For distilling,
>> as the mash is reportedly nasty -- and as distilling may be illicit, speed is a
>> benefit, less time for the mash to be found, more turnover, etc.
>
> Here in Blighty, AIUI, distilling is no longer illegal unless you sell,
> or intend to sell the product. Or create a fl^hic!^oo^hic!^d of the stuff?
>

The smell of the distilling is a problem. Doing it in a town beside a
Bengali chipper may be a solution.

[RustyHinge]

On 27/07/2022 20:28, maus wrote:

> Ack-ack was seen as a soft posting, until the end the war, when the
> crews were reassigned to resist the Russians, and replaced by children.
> Or so I was told. I would think a lot of people in Germany now would
> think of General Yorke's walk through the snow in 1814.

Ack-ack came under the Royal Artillery in UK and was preferable to
infantry fighting, but by no stretch of the imagination a soft option
until perhaps the last six munce of the whoar, when Germany relied
increasingly on the V1 (largely shot down by RAF and Ack-Ack)* and a bit
later the V2, against which there was no defence except the RAF bombing
their silos with Tallboys.

What had been a soft option was that after being evacuated from close to
Dunkirk said stepfather-to-be was posted for a while to the Faroes,
where they waved at (and shot at) the weekly Luftwaffe reconnaissance
plane, whose pilot (allegedly) waved back.

* in 1944/5 I was at bawdy fpubby at Seaford on the South Downs and my
stepfather-to-be (biological father RAF aircrew, decd.) was O.C. of an
ack-ack battery near Newhaven. On a walk with the class on the Downs, we
saw a slightly uneven line of puffs of smerk, then a big orange flash,
then we heard the Bofors open-up in Newhaven - *boomf!* - *boomf!* -
*boomf!* - *boomf!* - *boomf!* - *boomf!* - *boomf!* - then from over
the Channel from the direction of the puffs of smerk - crump! - crump! -
crump! - *BOOOOM!!!* <sotto voce> several of more crumps!, and finally,
a noise like distant rolling thunder as the sound of the detonation was
reflected from the coast of la France.

'Twas one of Herr Schickelgruber's V1s (AKA 'doodle-bug').

Also saw one tipped into the sea by what must have been a USAF Typhoon.

[maus]

On 2022-07-28, RustyHinge <rusty...@foobar.girolle.co.uk> wrote:

> On 27/07/2022 20:28, maus wrote:
>
> Ack-ack came under the Royal Artillery in UK and was preferable to
> infantry fighting, but by no stretch of the imagination a soft option
> until perhaps the last six munce of the whoar, when Germany relied
> increasingly on the V1 (largely shot down by RAF and Ack-Ack)* and a bit
> later the V2, against which there was no defence except the RAF bombing
> their silos with Tallboys.
>
> What had been a soft option was that after being evacuated from close to
> Dunkirk said stepfather-to-be was posted for a while to the Faroes,
> where they waved at (and shot at) the weekly Luftwaffe reconnaissance
> plane, whose pilot (allegedly) waved back.

Several of those Luftwaffe crews were killed when they approached the
coast of Kerry after incredibly long and boring flights, and collided
with Mt. Brandon. Buried in the German war dead cemetarey in Glencree,
in county Wicklow

>
> * in 1944/5 I was at bawdy fpubby at Seaford on the South Downs and my
> stepfather-to-be (biological father RAF aircrew, decd.) was O.C. of an
> ack-ack battery near Newhaven. On a walk with the class on the Downs, we
> saw a slightly uneven line of puffs of smerk, then a big orange flash,
> then we heard the Bofors open-up in Newhaven - *boomf!* - *boomf!* -
> *boomf!* - *boomf!* - *boomf!* - *boomf!* - *boomf!* - then from over
> the Channel from the direction of the puffs of smerk - crump! - crump! -
> crump! - *BOOOOM!!!* <sotto voce> several of more crumps!, and finally,
> a noise like distant rolling thunder as the sound of the detonation was
> reflected from the coast of la France.

The whole V1 and V2 assaults on Britain were incredibly stupid. They
only created resentment in Britain, and destroyed nothing worthwhile.
Then war is stupid anyway.

>
> 'Twas one of Herr Schickelgruber's V1s (AKA 'doodle-bug').
>
> Also saw one tipped into the sea by what must have been a USAF Typhoon.

There was a story that it was the only thing the Typhoon was good for.

[Mike Fleming]

On 28/07/2022 07:50, RustyHinge wrote:
> On 28/07/2022 07:34, Thomas Prufer wrote:
>> On Wed, 27 Jul 2022 10:53:59 +0100, Mike Fleming <mi...@tauzero.co.uk>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> That's impressive. For home winemaking you can get yeasts that go to
>>> around 15% (champagne yeasts IIRC).
>>
>> For home distilling, there's "turbo yeasts" that go well above 20%.
>>
>> ISTR one that did 20% in 24 48?) hours, and 24% in a few days. For
>> distilling,
>> as the mash is reportedly nasty -- and as distilling may be illicit,
>> speed is a
>> benefit, less time for the mash to be found, more turnover, etc.
>
> Here in Blighty, AIUI, distilling is no longer illegal unless you sell,
> or intend to sell the product. Or create a fl^hic!^oo^hic!^d of the stuff?

I thought it was legal but regardless of whether you sell it, you have
to [1] pay the duty on it.

[1] In the same way as you have to obey speed limits and attend archery
practice.

[Tone]

On 27/07/2022 18:02, RustyHinge wrote:
>
> Puts me in mind of Capt Eric "Winkle" Jones who once flew a Seafire up
> or down the Firth of Forth and did a loop under and round each span. RAF
> and civvy police spent ages trying to trace the pilot of a Spitfire -
> none was supposed to be in the vicinity at the time.

I think one means https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Brown_(pilot)
your rustiness.

He was my CO at Lossiemouth in 1968. Still flew Buccaneers at age 49.
Amazing pilot. Still has the record for flying more types than anyone
else, mostly on test flights. Also carried out first deck landings of
new naval aircraft types and has by far, more deck landings and
take-offs than anyone else.

Called 'Winkle' because of his small stature, that he reckoned saved his
life a few times in crash landings, when he was able to curl up low in
the cockpit!

Tone