What was in that grog? Scientists analyze ancient Nordic drink

[The Brain]

Great Boo's up.

[celedhring]

I always have a beer/glass of wine when having a social lunch (aka, not eating my sandwich alone) with workmates or whoever. Heck, one of the companies I worked for provided beer/wine/cider for free at the office lounge alongside non-alcoholic beverages. People are expected to know their limits.

[merithyn]

People are expected to know their limits.

That's un-American!

[DGuller]

I always have a beer/glass of wine when having a social lunch (aka, not eating my sandwich alone) with workmates or whoever. Heck, one of the companies I worked for provided beer/wine/cider for free at the office lounge alongside non-alcoholic beverages. People are expected to know their limits.

Here we are expected to know that our limit is zero. 

[Valmy]

I always have a beer/glass of wine when having a social lunch (aka, not eating my sandwich alone) with workmates or whoever. Heck, one of the companies I worked for provided beer/wine/cider for free at the office lounge alongside non-alcoholic beverages. People are expected to know their limits.

Here we are expected to know that our limit is zero. 

How un-Ukrainian.

[grumbler]

But agents to add a bitter element were common.  The Franks had hops (for instance), and if they were growing them I would think they used them.  Adding something to add to the bitterness would be perfectly natural.  Given that there is no recipe, but only residue, the whole question is moot anyway - analysis will always be imperfect in this respect.

If Dogfish Head or derspiess were to make the argument that the hops were added to replace another, unusable, bittering agent, then adding the hops wouldn't be an issue.  That's not the case, though.  We don't know why DH added the hops, and spicey's argument is that the drink would taste bad without hops (of course, he also argues that one could detect the hops in the taste, but I don't expect perfectly consistent arguments  ).  The issue of imperfect analysis is valid to the extent that DH shouldn't really be claiming that they are re-creating a drink to which they lack a recipe, but I think that everyone in the discussion (and the story) is assuming that the analysis is good enough to re-create the brew.  The point is that even perfect analysis wouldn't show hops in the ancient recipe, which by itself makes the "re-creation" something of a fraud.

[derspiess]

Again-- if you really want to know the answer, by all means ask them. 

If they were making a batch for a bunch of history professors to try, that would be one thing.  Otherwise, you're just being way too nitpicky.

[merithyn]

But agents to add a bitter element were common.  The Franks had hops (for instance), and if they were growing them I would think they used them.  Adding something to add to the bitterness would be perfectly natural.  Given that there is no recipe, but only residue, the whole question is moot anyway - analysis will always be imperfect in this respect.

If Dogfish Head or derspiess were to make the argument that the hops were added to replace another, unusable, bittering agent, then adding the hops wouldn't be an issue.  That's not the case, though. 

No, but I did. 

We don't know why DH added the hops, and spicey's argument is that the drink would taste bad without hops (of course, he also argues that one could detect the hops in the taste, but I don't expect perfectly consistent arguments  ).  The issue of imperfect analysis is valid to the extent that DH shouldn't really be claiming that they are re-creating a drink to which they lack a recipe, but I think that everyone in the discussion (and the story) is assuming that the analysis is good enough to re-create the brew.  The point is that even perfect analysis wouldn't show hops in the ancient recipe, which by itself makes the "re-creation" something of a fraud.

It would be a fraud if the hops weren't mentioned. Since they were, it's simply a stylistic change from one understanding of the ancient recipe.

[Barrister]

The small town firm I worked at not only had a well-stocked beer fridge for after work, but the senior lawyers would routinely have a beer for lunch (as long as you weren't in court in the afternoon).

No way that'd fly at the Crown's office.

[derspiess]

The small town firm I worked at not only had a well-stocked beer fridge for after work, but the senior lawyers would routinely have a beer for lunch (as long as you weren't in court in the afternoon).

No way that'd fly at the Crown's office.

Scotch, then? 

[Savonarola]

The small town firm I worked at not only had a well-stocked beer fridge for after work, but the senior lawyers would routinely have a beer for lunch (as long as you weren't in court in the afternoon).

No way that'd fly at the Crown's office.

Scotch, then? 

Crown Royal, they're expected to obey cultural content laws.

[fhdz]

People are expected to know their limits.

Off switch? What's that?

[Grey Fox]

Before we were bought out by Evil Corporate America, my workplace held weekly Wine tasting on Friday Lunch times.