Is this the World's weirdest booze?

[Tapioca Dextrin]

Appaerently, femented horse's (or at least mare's) milk is a popular drink in Mongolia.

Two questions

Is this the weirdest thing ever?

How can you ferment milk anyway? I didn't think it had any carbohydrates in it.

[Nanook of the North Shore]

Is it the weirdest thing ever? Nah.
And it certainly does have carbohydrates in it, assuming its like cow's milk. Lactose is a carbohydrate and an intergral part of milk. Ever heard the term lactose-intolerant? Thats what it refers to.

[Fyodor]

I've tasted the stuff. I don't know how it's made but, when offered a bowl to drink, I was quite nervous. I chugged it fast and it wasn't too bad. Just like drinking milk with a sort of yogurt-like zing to it.

[hansel]

My boss is Japanese; the last time his secretary went back to Japan, he requested that she bring him a bottle of traditional Okinawan liquor, which is some kind of fermented rice wine.

The catch is that there's a three foot poisonous snake in the bottle, coiled from the bottom up so that it's head floats in the middle, just below the neck of the bottle. The bottle may be refilled three times; that's as long as the snake's "potency" lasts.

It tastes like shit.

[Chronos]

Hmm, sort of like tequila, for Real Men. I don't suppose that you care about the taste, when you can brag it's got a viper in it.

[Popillia]

Yea the snake drink really sucks! I spent a year in Okinawa and my landlord offered me some. It is impolite to not accept it so I drank it down. Just about one of the nastiest things I've ever had pass my lips.

[Sofa King]

Many cultures still know that saliva is quite good at converting vegetable matter into simple sugars--an essential ingredient for fermentation. Therefore many "primitive" alcoholic beverages are composed largely of spit. Paiwari, the Budweiser of certain Amazon tribes, is one example.

The Masai enjoy a mixture of milk and cow's blood. Other cultures enjoy drinking coffee from beans that have passed through the digestive tract of small mammals. Still others enjoy drinking the ashes of their loved ones. Revoltingly (to some), some cultures enjoy drinking chemical concoctions which are intended to emulate naturaliy flavored beverages, but in fact are almost wholly of human manufacture--to the point where even the sweetener is a simulacrum of natural sugars.

Scary, ain't it?

[TheThill]

I think I'll pass on all of that, including (especially?) the last.

[TheThill]

On second thought, I think I'd rather keep to the chemicals and skip the rest.

[labdude]

good one sofa king. we often think of others as wierd, withoutthinking of how they percive us.

[labradorian]

Seal wine.

[Dystopos]

Lanted Ale is ale flavoured with a dash of stale urine. Double-lanted Ale is ale flavoured with more than a dash of it.

For more on the uses of human urine, see the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy article (http://www.h2g2.com/A302851).

[HorseloverFat]

There's tons of drinks made from strange things that some culture probably finds disgusting, but nothing is as weird as the pousse cafe. This is a multilayered and multicolored drink made by carefully pouring the heaviest liquor at the bottom and working your way up. It may not be made out of strange ingrediants but it is weird looking and mixing 6 or 7 different liquors can't be terribly tasty. Photo here:

http://www25.cs.kobe-u.ac.jp/~hiroo/cocktail/poussecafe.html

[tomas]

I have no first hand knowledge of this, but I read on the 'net of a practice at the "hippest" of gay parties. A male subjects bladder is emptied with a catheter and then filled with red wine. He then visits the guests and is a human decanter. Now that is pretty wierd but you must admit it is imaginative.

[BugZap]

Originally posted by Colin Wilkinson
Appaerently, femented horse's (or at least mare's) milk is a popular drink in Mongolia.

Two questions

Is this the weirdest thing ever?

How can you ferment milk anyway? I didn't think it had any carbohydrates in it.

How can you ferment milk?

You miss the simple chemistry.
For fermentation to occur, requires only three things;
sugar, water, and yeast.
Milk, even from an animal that you would least expect, contains much sugar.
Milk sugar + water + yeast / time = fermentation, which produces,,,, alcohol.

The quantity of alcohol produced, will rise by volume, as more sugar is present.
Like vonnegut said, yeast eat sugar and shit alcohol.
Untill they die.

Carbohydrates have nothing to do with it.

[jayron 32]

tomas spread the following misinformation:
I have no first hand knowledge of this, but I read on the 'net of a practice at the "hippest" of gay
parties. A male subjects bladder is emptied with a catheter and then filled with red wine. He then
visits the guests and is a human decanter. Now that is pretty wierd but you must admit it is
imaginative.

I highly doubt the veracity of this information. This is for several very good reasons:

1) A pure alcoholic beverage in your bladder would be at best be quite irritating, and at worst would be VERY dangerous.

2) Catheters? Are you joking? Someone gets a hold of medical equipment and uses it to pump wine into someones bladder? C'mon. Who would do that.

3) This sort of thing follows the basic pattern of gay-bashing sexual deviency people try to spread. "I heard somewhere that there are gay people who..." is how these sorts of things always start. a) No one has ever gerbiled. Ever. b) No one has ever felched. Ever. c) No one has ever put wine into a man's bladder for the purpose of dispensing it from his penis. Ever. This sort of crap seems to be the standard way people stigmatize homosexuals and homosexuality. It's saying that people who are gay must also be open to any sort of sexual deviency one could dream up. Thus we have all of these crazy stories of rectally inserting small pets and bizzare dietary practices all in the name of showing how truly perverse homosexuals can be. No one ever stops to consider the fact that NONE of this stuff shows any sign of being REMOTELY sexually gratifying. Think before you repeat something of this nature. Please (and this is directed at everyone) stop spreading this hurtful message and deliberate misinformation.

[jayron 32]

Milk sugar + water + yeast / time = fermentation, which produces,,,, alcohol. Not necesarily. About 1/2 the time sugar+water+yeast/time = vinegar, another possible fermentation product. Ask anyone who has tried to homebrew cider.

Also,

Carbohydrates have nothing to do with it.

Um, sugars ARE carbohydrates. Even a good chemist like Vonnegut could tell you that (he has his bachelors degree in chemistry from Cornell)

[Tapioca Dextrin]

Lactose ..... thanks. I guess I've forgotten all the chemistry I ever knew. Apologies about the spelling in the original posting - too much pickled snake juice I guess.

[Mustapha]

I believe toad wine is quite popular in SE Asia, so much so that they're running out of the little toads to make it.

[pulykamell]

OK, here's my bid for weirdest beer ever.

I just got back from Moscow and I had this beer which was
proud to be flavored with, wait for it... "almonds and basil."

I love almonds. I love basil. I love beer. There is no need for a menage-a-trois between these three ingredients. It is absolutely disgusting.

[DougC]

- - - I think the gay guy/red wine bit is mostly imaginative. Not my crowd, but I understand that while fluid comes out of there rather easily, but because of the way the plumbing is set up it's much more difficult to get any back in. Not that someone hasn't probably tried.
- Wierd drinks I might try: I just saw an ad somewhere for "the world's only potato vodka". I heard about the "black" vodka a couple years back but haven't found it anywhere: they say it turns your puke and shit black (Goth vodka?).
- There was the guy touring with the Jim Rose Circus, who would drink the -uh, I don't know what it was, really- some kinda liquer, I thinks- and he would regurgitate it into a bucket and invite members of the audience to drink it, which many would. As to if they puked it up again, I dunno. He could also get it to squirt out of his nostrils, too. - Yum! - MC

[pulykamell]

It's possible that you saw an ad for "the world's only potato vodka," but I would highly doubt that claim, as potatoes were, at one time at least, quite commonly used to make vodka. Russia still has potato vodka, but much more common is the typical stuff made from grains.

[DocCathode]

I have a friend who lives in California and either
claims to be or is a werewolf depending on your view
of the world. He's probably second only to Cecil in his
knowledge of bizzare and useless facts. According to him,
there is a drink made with spiders. From anyone else, I wouldn't believe it.

On the subject of black feces, I cite the Preacher special Good Old Boys. Garth Ennis shows vast knowledge of alcohol in his writing. When a character states that too much moonshine produces " a big, black, man eating turd." Ennis is likely speaking from experience

[DougC]

- Blak Sheeeet : moonshine might do it, I dunno. What I'm talking about was a jet black vodka that was being sold in Europe (it was a Brit magazine I read about it in). The vodka had something "completely organic" in it to color it black: you couldn't see through a quarter-inch of the stuff. The name reflectd the color but I forget what it was called. - MC

[manhattan]

Originally posted by HorseloverFat
... but nothing is as weird as the pousse cafe. This is a multilayered and multicolored drink made by carefully pouring the heaviest liquor at the bottom and working your way up.

http://www25.cs.kobe-u.ac.jp/~hiroo/cocktail/poussecafe.html

OK, who wants to install the Japanese character set and go read that page. I need to know how to make this!

[Chronos]

Quoth jayron 32:
b) No one has ever felched. Ever.Um, SqrlCub might debate that... According to him, it's a "very intimate activity"... I'm not sure if he's ever claimed to do it himself, though. I would also tend to doubt that he's engaging in deliberate gay-bashing.
I'll admit that you're right about the gerbils (Uncle Cecil says so), and I'd never heard of the wine thing before. As to your statement that,
No one ever stops to consider the fact that NONE of this stuff shows any sign of being REMOTELY sexually gratifying.you'd be surprised what some folks find gratifying. Besides, maybe they don't do it for gratification, maybe it's just for the novelty of it.

[PRISM02]

I've heard of the wine thing also, at least up to the point of filling their bladders with the stuff through catheters. These were not homosexuals either. I warned them about:
A: Infection of the bladder. (It is sterile to the person.)
B: After A, potential infection of the Kidneys.
C: Improper catheterization -- which must be sterile -- can give one a urethral infection.
D: Improper catheterization can RIP the urethral lining and cause all sorts of interesting problems.
E: The alcohol content of the wine, unfiltered by kidneys and liver, could irritate the lining of the bladder.

They ignored me.
Perverts.
Some did it, claiming they could get a buzz off of the wine that way. (It's much more fun to drink it.)
I won't go into the wine enemas they played with.
These people, of course, are masochists.

[tomas]

Come on Jayron, it was not my intention to bash anyone. I'm sorry if I stepped on anyone's toes here. Why is it that you haven't replied in response to Prism02 and defended the masochists? Being politically correct is a constant vigil and a bit too tiring for me, but feel free to carry the torch.

[Mr. Cynical]

What about that Rain Forest tribe of people that chews up some kind of plant, and spits it back into a bowl where it ferments?

Is that the same group of people who literally drink their brew untill they projectile vomit? I swear, I've SEEN this in Nat'l Geographic.

[SpoilerVirgin]

manhattan

This page has a good description (in English) of how to make a PousseCafe:

http://www.cocktail.com/misscocktail/PousseCafe.htm

There are a lot of cool recipes (with some interesting color variations) here:

http://www.cocktail.com/season/August1699.htm

[yabob]

For an amusing opinion of pousse cafe's plus a long list of liquers in order of density:

http://hotwired.lycos.com/cocktail/97/15/alchemist.html

[manhattan]

Thanks, all. I guess my suspicions were correct; I'm going to have to start hanging at a better class of bar if I'm going to try one of those things. I've never heard of half those ingredients.

[rjk]

Just another quibble: sugar+water+yeast+time does not make vinegar. The vinegar comes from alcohol-eating bacteria, so they have to be in the mix somewhere.

See http://www.vinegar.at/info2.html for a pretty good description, or http://winemakermag.com/99winter/feature.htm for a detailed recipe.

[Johanna]

As for naming the most revolting drink in the world, I can easily top all you blokes.

In Madagascar the highland tribes have . . . shall we say, unusual funerary customs. They put the dear departed one's corpse out in the sun on an inclined trough. The body fluids trickle out and are collected in a bucket. And they drink it in honor of the deceased.

Beat that if you can.

[PRISM02]

No, I don't think I can.

I think I'll go barf now.