Posted on 05/01/2016 6:12:45 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Venezuela's largest privately-owned beer company has stopped producing beer after running out of malted barley (or, more specifically, running out of foreign currency with which to buy malted barley).
The company, Empresas Polar, stopped production yesterday—it warned last week that it would run out of malted barley by then.
Polar is putting "your drunk uncle's favorite political forecast to the test," Francisco Toro of the Caracas Chronicles wrote. "You know the one I'm talking about, right? That one uncle of yours who gets drunk at every family gathering and starts to rant about how the only way we're going to get people mad enough to take to the streets and overthrow the government is if the beer runs out? Well, here you have it Tio."
Polar says it's been warning the country for a year about the need for sufficient access to foreign currency "to keep making products demanded by Venezuelans."
Beer now joins a long list of products and food that there have been shortages of in socialist Venezuela since the price of oil went down and the country's government did nothing to loosen its grip on the economy.
In Venezuela, there have been shortages of: Batteries, beef, birth control pills, bleach, brass, bread, breast implants, butter, cheese, chicken, chocolate, clothes iron, coffee, coffins, condensed milk, condoms, corn oil, deodorant, detergents, diapers, eggs, fabric softeners, fish, flour, French fries, fruits, gauze, hops, ice cream, insecticide, jams, juice, lentils, margarine, Marie biscuits, makeup, mayonnaise, medical gloves, milk, mouthwash, mustard, napkins, oatmeal, olives, pan de jamón, pasta, peas, pork, powdered milk, raisins, razors, rice, sanitary napkins, sacramental bread, sardines, satin, shampoo, shoes, skim milk, soap, sodas, sugar, sunflower oil, tires, toilet paper, toothbrushes, toothpaste, varnish, vegetables, water, wine, and more.
Venezuela is just another in a long line of foolish governments trying to be a Utopian state. If they cannot even produce beer then they deserve to run out of toilet paper as well. Hey, that already happened!
Poor saps. When will they become a free-market Capitalist country again?
Tell me it isn’t so! I don’t like beer but I liked Polar. Maybe because it was the only cold thing available but it sure tasted good. I’ve had cold Polar in the most back in the jungle hamlet that only had a generator for 8 hours a day. I liked Polar so much I thought about a distributorship if I could get it to the US. Best beer I ever tasted.
A little something I learned a while back: one packet bread yeast (wine yeast best) in a half gallon of good grape juice minus a cup or so as it foams plus 2 days time=potable alcohol. It tastes funky but makes ya smile! I figured it out years back when the company was on hiatus, money was tight, and they say ya can’t buy alcohol on food stamps. But nobody said you couldn’t buy the components! Sure beat the hell outta nothing’ to drink! Down time is boring...
Revolution time again?
Or just another military takeover, again?
It’s fascinating, in a macabre sort of way, to see socialism play out to the end.
Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to ANY people. Proverbs 14:34
Say buddy, can you spare a tank for a half dozen rolls of TP?
Se acabo la cerveza Polar?!? Nooooooooo!!!!!!!
Yeah, that works, but a couple refinements for you:
- add a cup or two of sugar. More sugar=more alcohol once it is done fermenting.
- put a large balloon (or UN-lubricated condom) over the top of the grape juice bottle. This prevents spillage, and gives you an indicator as to when the fermentation is finished. The balloon will inflate with carbon dioxide as the juice ferments, then the balloon will deflate once the fermentation is over.
- Pour the end result through a coffee filter to get rid of the yeast sludge that is left over, that will help a lot with the flavor.
Excellent advice. That U.N. condom also acts as an air lock, preventing bacteria and other contaminants from entering, which leads to a bad fermentation. Hydrogen sulfide is one of the byproducts of a bad ferment. Very toxic (and smelly).
Well the USSR never ran out of Vodka ,so Venezuela must be farther down the road to total peace than the USSR ever achieved
I’m sure the Mendozas aren’t short of anything. They are good socialists.
Humans were enthusiastic replicators long before such niceties were invented. Regression is inevitable...
How do I know? I can point you to a dorm room with grape juice stains on the ceiling... '-)
See the United States and heroin, meth, etc.
Now, go out and about and look around at all our new neighbors.
It's going to be our story too.
Maybe they can use Zimbabwe dollars. I hear they’re more valuable.
I see pitchforks and torches in the future there.
I've used all the tricks except for laying out to buy airlocks--put the lids on just loose enough to vent slow but keep any nosy gnats out. Found out accidentally by keeping the fermenting jug[s] in ye bathroom no gnats are attracted. Probably because they're all dead for some odd reason.
Also, leaving some airspace USUALLY [heh] means it won't fizz over if yer lucky, but I put my started jug in a basin bowl just to be safe.
I've also used white sugar, brown sugar or honey--whatever's in the kitchen to get things going, but good Welch's grape juice in the jug does have enough sugar to turn out ok. Welch's frozen concentrate needs some extra sugar/whatever added, though.
It's fun makin' your own potables. One of these days I want to try making some small-batch hi-power stuff, if you get my drift... [Any tips on such a subject would be welcome.]
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