Beer: Ice Cream

You knew this was going to happen someday, some brewery out there will set up long term strategic plans and invest in beer + ice cream research. The day has come, but it was all an accident. Someone poured beer by an ice cream maker by accident and they veered the beer into exactly where it was destined to go - the ice cream maker.

Now a company based in Georgia, Frozen Pints can be found in local beerfests. Hopefully they will make their rounds before the next summer!

Via OC weekly

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Beer Vinegar - Recipe Experiment

Photo credit: MDA2008

 Beer Vinegar Recipe

• 1/2 gallon good, wheaty or malty beer
• vinegar mother (optional)

1. Put your beer in your container.  Give it a good whisk to aerate it and release some of the gas. Let it sit out and open for six hours or so.
2. Add the mother if you’re using one. Or do as Jonathon does and let the natural bacteria and flora of your kitchen or basement settle in for a good time.
3. Cover the opening with a handkerchief, cheesecloth, anything that will let air in and keep bugs and debris out.  Date the jar. Give it a taste in three months and see how you did.

Choose a good beer and make sure that the alcohol can breathe.  You need a big jar with a big open lid to let the air flow, covered it with light cloth to let air in and keep fruit flies out.  Best to keep it in the dark and cool is good, though Jonathan keeps his everyday vinegars at home right near the heat of the stove.  Bacteria thrive at 100˚ to 110˚F. Jonathon says you could probably make vinegar using Bud Lite, but that it wouldn’t be worth the effort. Use a good beer with lots of complexity, especially wheaty and malty beers. Bacteria, simple themselves, thrive on complexity.

Recipe via Ruhlman

More details about making vinegar at home.
I'm not sure if the 'look' of vinegar mother is scarier or the idea of natural bacteria in your basement settle in...I think I will go with the mother. Check back in a few weeks!

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Beer vs. Bugs Round 1

I for one, cannot stand the sight of creepy crawlers of any kind. There's no need to see close-up photos of them on the monitor, right?

Beer vs. Slugs
Slugs are amongst the messiest of pests, and they also tend to feast on garden plants. So a swift solution to dispense with these slimy creatures can be most welcome.

Simply place a shallow dish of beer in a strategic place to divert the slugs from their normal route or burry a jar of beer into the ground. They will be naturally attracted to this giant pool of ale overnight, and sparing you the gory details – they will no longer be a problem in the morning.

Beer vs. Cockroaches
Cockroaches are another breed of unwelcome house guest that will happily turn up and drink your beer or breed and multiply in your kitchen.

You will need an empty jam jar with a rounded inside lip. Place a small piece of bread soaked in beer at the bottom of the jar. Then coat the inner lip with Vaseline or whatever sticky lip gloss you happen to have to hand, vaseline works best though apparently. The idea is that the cockroaches get attracted to the beer, feast on it, and then the combination of the Vaseline and rounded lip makes it impossible for them to escape.

Beer vs. Flies
Make a fly trap. Pour beer into a glass or plastic jar so it is 1 inch deep. Place a plastic bag over the jar and push the center down so that it goes inside the jar, akin to a funnel. Poke a pencil tip-sized hole into the center of the bag and secure the plastic to the outside of the jar with a rubber band. Fruit flies will smell the beer and enter the trap but won't be able to get out. Place the trap in an area away from children.

Beer vs. Moths
This is possibly one of the more unusual baits. It’s certainly inventive, and apparently even used by moth hunters, who don’t intend to kill the moths but to use them for their studies.

Mix stale beer with sugar, molasses, black treacle and rum. Rum? Yes, rum! I never said this was a cheap solution to a pest problem. Some variations include adding black kiwis or black bananas. When using fruit, you can leave it in a jar until it ferments (begins to smell) and turns sticky. Without the fruit, you simply boil down the mixture until it gets sticky. Either method then suggests you paint the sticky mixture on some wood (like a tree or a fencepost) and wait to see how many moths you attract.

Via Rentokil and eHow

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