Better still, let the organizers decide if they want smoking at the Oktoberfest.
Posted on 09/16/2010 11:53:05 AM PDT by a fool in paradise
Bavarian beer purveyors concerned about a smelly Oktoberfest are hoping bacteria can make the experience more enjoyable. They plan to pour a solution of live bacteria on the floors of Munich's beer tents, in an effort to knock out the inevitable festival smells usually covered up by a fog of cigarette smoke.
Voters in Bavaria passed a statewide smoking ban in July, and it took effect last month. Oktoberfest gets an exception through 2011, but organizers want to conduct a test run during the festival’s 200th anniversary, which starts next week.
Its ill effects aside, cigarette smoke is a pretty effective cover for the putrid smells that accompany boozy revelry — think rotting food scraps, stale beer and, of course, the porta-potty zone. Without a haze of smoke, beer tent organizers fear customers will forgo ordering steins full of the world’s best märzen.
As Der Spiegel reports, three beer tent owners plan to pour a solution with special bacteria into the floorboards and aisles between tables and toilets. The bacteria, called “Elbomex,” is sold as a soil additive, the newspaper reports. Its manufacturer also promotes the bacteria’s ability to cover up foul smells found in wastewater treatment facilities, stables and compost piles, Der Spiegel says. All that remains is a faint scent of soil.
Ricky Steinberg, who owns the famous brewery Hofbräu, already tried it out and said it seems to work. Still, beer-tent owners are fearing the worst: “You hear from nightclub owners that the smell has gotten very bad,” Steinberg told Munich's Merkur newspaper.
Other than Hofbräu, Oktoberfest organizers were keeping mum on which tents were using the bacteria. Apparently, festivalgoers will be able to smell for themselves.
They banned the cigarettes. Why not ban the beer as well?
Isn’t banning smoking in beer tents sort of like banning fornicating in whorehouses?
I worry about the development and deployment of bacterias for uses such as these. I know it may sound like chicken little, but who know how they can evolve and what they do once evolved. Eventually, the beer will dry up and then what will they eat. Same with the oil-eating bacteria.
Better still, let the organizers decide if they want smoking at the Oktoberfest.
What could go wrong with releasing "friendly bacteria?
Shades of "I Am Legend"...
Technically they banned the smell of the cigarette so they should ban the smell of the Beer
Maybe they can just serve Vodka at the Oktoberfest...yes, that will work...oh wait, still have that large group of people odor thingy and that vomit thingy.
This post is useless without pictures of German Frualiens!
:>O
That is why I drink 20 beers a day.
;)
The role of evolution would most likely degrade the traits the bacteria were designed for, once the selective pressure that developed the traits is removed.
It is as if you took some wild horses, bred them to be race horses, then released them into the wild so you could see some really fast ‘wild’ horses. And then you were worried about the faster horses ‘taking over’. Not going to happen. The wild horses that stayed wild are adapted to the wild and will thrive in the wild much more than horses adapted to the race track.
I knew there was some biological thingy in there that I don’t understand.
mmmmm I would forget about the beer
There is no such thing as a free lunch. Any “improvement” comes at a price.
I mentioned race horses. There is no doubt that those suckers are FAST, but in order to be fast they have taken on a host of traits that are (other than contributing to being fast) detrimental. Their skin is so thin (to keep from overheating) that if often cracks like paper. Their legs are so long and thin (for speed) that they are much more prone to breaking.
The selective breeding (evolution) of race horses didn't make a superior horse, just a faster horse (that is less able to survive in the wild).
Similarly, developing bacterial strains in the lab will not make a superior bacteria, just one that eats oil or bad smells (that is less able to survive in the wild).
Voters in Bavaria passed a statewide smoking ban in July, and it took effect last month. Oktoberfest gets an exception through 2011, but organizers want to conduct a test run during the festival's 200th anniversary, which starts next week. Its ill effects aside, cigarette smoke is a pretty effective cover for the putrid smells that accompany boozy revelry -- think rotting food scraps, stale beer and, of course, the porta-potty zone. Without a haze of smoke, beer tent organizers fear customers will forgo ordering steins full of the world's best märzen.
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