Free Republic

I'm making some cheap wine. When I say cheap I mean one step above Pruno. Right now I'm just getting down the basics, collecting equipment and experimenting with different concoctions. My first try was apple juice, sugar and bread yeast which actually came out quite well. I have 2 bottles of it sitting in the fridge now waiting until my 5 litre box of Blush runs out before I start drinking it. The main reason I chose apple juice first was for the 128 ounce bottle. Now that it's done I'm using the bottle to make other wines 64 ounces...

A new display proposed for the Florida Capitol rotunda may leave you asking if the devil made them do it. After the state agreed to allow a private Christian group to put up a nativity scene and a private group to put up a Festivus pole made up of empty beer cans; more groups are applying to put their own displays in the rotunda. The latest filings for a Capitol display are from the Satanic Temple and from the Tallahassee Atheists, according to the News Service of Florida. The Satanic Temple hasn’t said what it would put on display in...

TALLAHASSEE —A nearly 6-foot-tall "Festivus" pole made from empty beer cans will be put up in the Florida Capitol this week as a not-so-subtle protest to the recent placement of a Christmas nativity scene. The mock monument will be erected most likely on Wednesday in the same first-floor rotunda as a nativity scene depicting the birth of Jesus Christ put up last week by the Florida Prayer Network. "I still chuckle, I literally can't believe there will be a pile of Pabst Blue Ribbon cans in the state rotunda," said Chaz Stevens, a Deerfield Beach resident who applied to the...

DEERFIELD BEACH, Fla.,- This year, a Nativity scene in Deerfield Beach, Fla., features a "Festivus pole" made of Pabst Blue Ribbon beer cans, as well as a Menorah. The pole, a reference to the Dec. 23 atheist "holiday" that became a pop culture hit after being featured in a "Seinfeld" episode, was installed Thursday by activist blogger Chaz Stevens, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reported. Stevens said he had been trying to get the city to remove the Nativity scene for five years, and this year he decided to ask for space to express his own beliefs. "It's just 23...

NORTH CHARLESTON, SC - A North Charleston woman is in jail after police say she stabbed her husband with a ceramic squirrel. According to the police report, Helen Ann Williams attacked her husband on Christmas Day after he failed to bring beer back to the house. Police said they were dispatched to the home and found the victim with a large amount of blood on his face. When police asked Williams what happened to her husband, she first said that he fell and cut himself, but then told officers more. Williams said her common-law spouse went to a store to...

Logo of the International Trappist Association International Trappist Association & Standards In 1997, eight Trappist abbeys—six from Belgium (Orval, Chimay, Westvleteren, Rochefort, Westmalle and Achel), one from the Netherlands (Koningshoeven) and one from Germany (Mariawald) – founded the International Trappist Association (ITA) to prevent non-Trappist commercial companies from abusing the Trappist name. This private association created a logo that is assigned to goods (cheese, beer, wine, etc.) that respect precise production criteria. For the beers, these criteria are the following: The beer must be brewed within the walls of a Trappist abbey, by or under control of Trappist monks.The...

Full Title: Did Beer create modern society? Ancient man developed agriculture to brew alcohol and not to bake bread, claims scientist Some scientists claim beer - not bread - is the reason early man adopted a society based on farming around 10,000 years ago, a key moment in our evolution. The cultivation of grain saw the transition away from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle and a widely-accepted theory is that the crops were used to bake bread, but experts claim it was the prospect of a brew that drove the desire to settle down and start a farm.

The domestication of wild grains has played a major role in human evolution, facilitating the transition from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to one based on agriculture. You might think that the grains were used for bread, which today represents a basic staple. But some scientists argue that it wasn’t bread that motivated our ancestors to start grain farming. It was beer. Man, they say, chose pints over pastry. Beer has plenty to recommend it over bread. First, and most obviously, it is pleasant to drink. “Beer had all the same nutrients as bread, and it had one additional advantage,” argues Solomon...

It sounds like the beginning of a joke, but a guy walked into a Miami-area convenience store with quite a surprise in the box. A clerk at the Santa Ana Market in Allapattah was approached by customer Fernando Caignet Aguilera, 64, to buy some beer recently. “I just picked it up here,” Aguilera said of the alligator. “I seen it here in the grass and I tied it up.” When the subject of payment was brought up, the customer offered up a live alligator. “I went into the store to try to exchange it for a beer,” Aguilera told CBS4′s...

If there is one thing that eggnog lovers and eggnog haters have in common, it’s this: you HAVE to try it homemade. It’s an entirely new culinary creation once that yellow carton is removed. Once a nog-hater myself, I was hooked after one swig of the homemade version. This stuff is delicious. When you make this from scratch, you get the true impact: this is a glass of drinkable boozed-up ice cream. With a ingredient list like “cream, milk, eggs, sugar, booze,” there really isn’t anything not to fall in love with. As long as take the ten minutes and...

Michigan has the strongest restrictions on branded barware in the nation and the Legislature is considering whether it should turn those administrative rules into law. When politicians are voting on a bill that would forbid bars and restaurants from receiving products with brand logos on them, it is easy to understand the cynicism of politics. How many people in the state really care whether pint glasses and napkins have promotional items printed on them? Legislators in Lansing are considering a slew of bills (notably: House Bills 4709, 4710, 4711, 4046 and 4257 and Senate Bills 505, 650 and 651) that...

Gav and Dan find an interesting way to destroy their bev bottles while showing off some cool science. Follow Gav on Twitter - https://twitter.com/GavinFree Follow Dan on Twitter - https://twitter.com/DanielGruchy Beer Bottle Cavitation at 2500fps - The Slow Mo Guys

A man has had to have emergency surgery to reattach his lip after a woman bit it off during a fight at Germany's annual beer festival Oktoberfest. Video has emerged of the savage fight which shows the woman - appropriately wearing costume devil's horns - clamping her jaws around the bottom lip of the her victim. He is seen desperately trying to pull his head away as his onlookers attempt to disentangle the pair.

The way the Tsimane tribe of the northern Amazon host beer drinking events offers important clues about the nature of their society, say anthropologists The indigenous Tsimane hunter-gatherers of the northern Amazon are probably the best studied native community in the world. About ten years ago, a team of US researchers began a decade-long research program to better understand the way these people develop, evolve and socialise as part of a unique farmer-forrager community . The so-called Tsimane Health and Life History Project has thrown up some fascinating insights into the hunter-gatherer lifestyle. Last year, for example, the team revealed...

With a slew of bills, the Michigan Senate is moving slightly in the direction of more freedom for beer drinkers. But, with the backing of some Michigan brewers, the Legislature also voted to codify ridiculous rules that try to pick winners and losers in the marketplace. At the same time the Michigan Liquor Control Commission was working to repeal some Prohibition Era rules, the Senate voted to put them into law. Bars and restaurants in the state are not allowed to have glasses or napkins with logos on them and if Senate Bill 505 passes the House alcohol manufacturers, sellers...

Every year, Ashley's restaurant in Westland holds a Belgian Beer Festival that highlights more than 60 different Belgian drafts. Ashley's owner Jeff More says that due to state laws and regulations that date back to the Prohibition Era, he pays twice for glasses with Belgian logos on them and can only use the glasses for the 11 days of the festival. More said the kegs are shipped with the special glasses to beer distributors in Michigan and the price includes the cost of the glasses. But because of an archaic state law, Ashley's also has to pay the distributor for...

In an attempt to combat dwindling attendance levels and add new members to their shrinking congregations, some churches in the U.S. are starting to think outside the box -- by embracing the bottle. Church-in-a-pub is a Forth Worth, Texas congregation that enjoys craft beer with Sunday evening services. The meetings are described as "salvation and everlasting life with really good beer." Church-in-a-pub is unique, but not alone in its quest to combine spirituality with suds. Beer-serving, religion-focused events now exist in New York, Atlanta, Boston and New York thanks to a group called Theology-on-Tap, and in Allendale, Michigan, members of...

We did the heavy lifting for you, sampling nearly a dozen pumpkin and fall beers. Whether in soups, lattes, candles or cookies, pumpkin is here. And before we get into Thanksgiving or Christmas, let's pause and raise a glass. ‘Tis the season for pumpkin beer, y’all. We sampled nearly a dozen pumpkin brews and ciders to help you choose which one (or three) to bring to that fall party. (Protip: Total Wine sells them individually so you can build your own six-pack.) We sampled both pumpkin beers and fall seasonals since we know not everyone wants Jack (o'-lantern) in his...

COLUMBUS, Ga., - A Georgia man said he went back into his burning home to save his beer after making sure his family was safe. Walter Serpit, who walks with a cane, made sure the six adults and two children who live in the home made it outside safely. He then went back in to get his beer, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. "I told them to get the kids out and everything, and me myself, being an alcoholic, I was trying to get my beer out," Serpit said. "I went back into the house like a dummy and the door...

<p>Six adults and two young children were inside watching television when the room began filling with smoke. After the children were rescued and everyone made it outside safely, Walter Serpit told WVTM television that he went back inside to retrieve his beer.</p>