Oh, those wacky pulquerias!
When will they come into the 90’s and realize inebriation and debauch should not be an exclusively male arena? I’m calling Pat Ireland.
[[Oh, those wacky pulquerias!
When will they come into the 90’s and realize inebriation and debauch should not be an exclusively male arena? I’m calling Pat Ireland.]]
Hey, I just said they didn’t let women into the pulquerias. I didn’t say they didn’t offer it to me to drink.
I suppose revelry in the kitchen with the help is better than nothing. 
[ul][li]Nope, I’m pretty sure pulque is fermented, not distilled. I suppose some stuff is fermented before and later on also distilled[/ul][/li]
All alcohol is, by definition, fermented. The distinction you’re looking for is the following:
[ul][li]Distilled – made like “hard” liquor.[/li]
[li]Brewed – made like beer or ale.[/ul][/li]
You may now resume.
[[All alcohol is, by definition, fermented. The distinction you’re looking for is the following:
Distilled – made like “hard” liquor.
Brewed – made like beer or ale.
You may now resume.]]
And where does wine fit into this? Just testing. You may now resume.
Jill
Ethyl alcohol in beverages can be, and is, produced from nearly any fruit or grain. Traditionally it has been made from whatever was available as a local surplus - wheat or potatos in Europe, rice in Asia, and agave in Central America. In its most simple process, mashed and mixed with water, the solution will ferment due to the presence of local yeast varieties on the outside of the main ingredient.
The yeast consumes the starch and / or sugars from the m.i. and produces alcohol as a waste product, continuing to do so until it runs out of food, is stopped by the brewer adding alcohol or sulfates to the mix, or by being poisoned by the alcohol it’s producing. Apparently this maxes out at ~14-16% for fruit juices and rice, but is lower for grains, probably due to their lower sugar content. From the sound of things, agave is more like grain in this regard. Home brews without the benefit of precise temperature control and ingredient purity tend to max out at the lower end of a 3-10% range of alcohol content, so I’d guess we’d find pulque somewhere around that. I’ve heard that the agave has trace amounts of the more entertaining byproducts produced by the mescaline cactus varieties, so I wonder if pulque might provide an experience from more than just the alcohol content. I’ve never had the opportunity to try it though - any comments from those who have?
For hard alcohol take the mash created above and condense the alcohol. This can be done by heating the liquid and cooling the vapors - alcohol boils at a lower temperature than water. Also called pot distillation, this is the most common method. Alternately you can chill the liquid and scoop out the water-based ice that forms, alcohol having a lower freezing point than water. Or you can use a vacuum for a similar effect. At this point you’ve got a vodka-like hooch that can be pretty high in alcohol but probably will be a bit harsh-tasting. Turning this into whiskey, brandy etc. is a longer story.
Making alcohol using a vacuum - before someone else makes fun of my awkward phrasing there, by that I meant low air pressure, not an Electrolux.
Damn. I should have changed the dustbag before I tried that, too. This tastes awful.
Concerning the non-distilled drinks, the Chinese purified(?) or bred(?) a yeast that produces into the ~20% ethanol range before poisoning itself - BUT - I think they brew their higher-proof stuff with grains, not fruits.
Could just as easily be wrong…anyone find more info.?
I read in some gardening or cooking magazine about Mezcal. They said that the agave plants are allowed to form flower stalks. As soon as the stalks get to a certain height, they are cut off, and the plant then swells up because the water isnt going to the stalk anymore. They cut the leaves off, and then roast the core of the plant (i think they called it a pina because it looked kinda like a pineapple. This core would be roasted, then mashed by a stone wheel turned by a burro :). The juice would be collected and fermented, then distilled. Any truth to this?
I do know i don’t like mezcal much. The type I had (Called “Gusano Rojo” and yes, it had a worm) tasted smokey with a flowery taste to it. Anyway i have found those hard liquors dont burn me like they do others. And i dont even drink either…
Nothing like a truly spirited discussion…<<snicker>> 
Typer
Jill writes:
Great. I’ve got one person disputing me on the basis of something she saw on TV, and you giving me grief due to research you did while getting tanked with a bunch of guys whose names you can’t remember. Next I’ll have people arguing with me based on stuff channeled to them by aliens. Whoa! Wait! That’s already happened … see Return of the Straight Dope, p. 77. So please excuse if I’ve been tardy in replying.
Mescal at one time was the generic name for Mexican brandies, and was commonly understood to mean any product of the agave plant. In fairly recent times mescal was defined by the Mexican government as a certain subset of agave distillates made mostly in the region around Oaxaca. So, broadly speaking, tequila is type of mescal, but legally tequila and mescal are now separate products. I was careless in saying mescal was “popularly understood” to mean stuff from Oaxaca; should have said “legally understood.”
The press accounts I have seen say he started the worm thing in 1950, but he founded the company in 1942 so perhaps he just introduced it to the mass market in 1950.
No argument. That’s what I thought I said.
That’s OK, hon, I’ll take it. The only thing worse than eating the worm is watching somebody else eat it.
Some days you eat the worm, some days it eats you.
BTW, one of my frequent flyer pals tells me you can’t get tequila (not even in one of those teeny bottles) when you travel on Delta Airlines – he says a flight attendant told him it was a corporate decision made by Delta because “tequila makes people crazy.” Anybody heard about this?
your humble TubaDiva
why yes, I WILL have another . . . no salt this time.
It’s an interesting theory, but in my case people called me crazy long before I met Senor Tequila.
Has anyone here ever eaten those tequila suckers with the worm in it? :). I remember seeing these at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, and everyone being too scared to buy one because of the worm in it :).
Not me, but my dad ate the one I bought for him.
And I videotaped him doing it.
And the mike picked up the grisly crunching sound made as he nibbled at the still-embedded worm with truly excellent, almost stomach-turning fidelity.
This post comes almost 3 months after the last one but I just found this message board and I have a question that I hope someone will read and answer for me.
I was recently given a bottle of Mezcal which says gusano rojo. It is from Qaxaca. It is unopened but there isn’t a worm in the bottle although there is a small amount of tiny particles of something floating around in it. Could it be that the worm rotted and disintegrated?
Ew. I’d put that bottle on the shelf and keep it for its novelty value only.
Hell, JillGat, I think he ought to drink it. Think of the buzz he’ll get. Besides it can’t be harmful; tequila will sterilize anything.
Just following the thread about pulque. Although I didn’t drink much when I did, most of the people here in Mexico say pulque has a real “punch”… Maybe it does not have too much alcohol, but most of the people say the effects of pulque and the hang-over are much worst than those of any other beverage. Could it be because of other substances? The general idea here is that this is caused by pulque being a sweet beverage. And by those who have drunk it, it is thick and driveling… is that the word for it?