The Deadly Brew: The Beer That Claimed Lives

Also: Pop the Cork: Exploring Sparkling Wines with Robin Shreeves
Cocktail Recipes
How This Unique Liqueur is Taking the World by Storm

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hi everyone, and welcome to this week's episode of Beverage Chronicles.
I'm your host, Gary Monterroso, and we hope everyone is
having a good week. Beverage Chronicles, as you know if
you've been listening, is a show that presents information and
interviews on all kinds of beverages beer, wine, cocktails, spirits, coffee,

(00:33):
even soda. And later on in this episode, Robin Shreeves,
our wine reporter, will be with us. I want to
start today with an interesting story. I think that happened
quite a few years ago. This was a disastrous beer
recall that resulted in twenty fatalities. It goes back a
few years. Even some of the weirdest recalls in the

(00:57):
US history might not stack up against the Dow beer
incident from the nineteen sixties. William Dale was a person
who started his brewery in eighteen sixty one in Montreal,
and for a while it was the top selling beer
in Quebec. But that fame didn't stick around forever as

(01:21):
drinkers were scared off after at least twenty Dow fans
lost their lives. These deaths didn't happen all at once.
They occurred over a brief period in the mid nineteen
sixties in Quebec City. The victims were all very heavy drinkers,
downing about a dozen dow ales daily, which is around

(01:44):
eight quarts now. The fatalities were linked to high levels
of cobalt sulfate that were added and mixed into the beer.
This was done to stabilize the foam and to keep
it from disappearing too quickly. Too much of this inorganic
compound can throw off a person citric acid cycle an

(02:07):
aerobic cellular respiration, so those who passed away after drinking
the beer suffered from cardiomyopathy, which is a heart condition
that makes it tough for the heart to pump blood
throughout the body. It was believed that the dow ale
had significant amounts of cobalt sulfate, and when you factor

(02:30):
in the alarming volume of beer the victims consumed, it
could have contributed to their deaths. While cobalt sulfate isn't
a common reason for food recalls, it's an additive that
can be risky if not used in the right amounts.
Many brands strive to bounce back after a major recall

(02:51):
like the one in Quebec City, but Tao had a
hard time regaining its former popularity. Adding cobalt sulfate, as
I said to beer, was not unusual, and it was
added to stabilize the foam. However, Dow Breweries added it
in higher quantities to tackle issues with foam when poured

(03:13):
into dirty glasses. After the deaths, Dow Breweries attempted to
fix the problem by dumping the remaining tainted ale. Unfortunately
for them, this move didn't play out very well, as
instead of being seen as a fresh start, consumers remained
firm in their dislike for the brand despite the inventory issues.

(03:36):
In the fact that the cobalt sulfe incidents were limited
to the Quebec City Brewery area, not near the Montreal facility,
the public remained understandably cautious about the beer. Instead of
making a resurgence, Doo's popularity kept declining, turning it into
a budget beer the consumers opted for only when they

(03:59):
wanted to see save money. After years of being a
leading brand, in decades of being the last resort for many,
Now Brewery's destiny was determined when the company stopped all
production in nineteen ninety two. Wow some story, Huh, let's
go to a happier note. And here's Robin Shreeves.

Speaker 2 (04:21):
I'm in Pennsylvania's Brandywine Valley with winemaker Andrew yinst of
Grace Winery, and we're going to talk about sparkling wine.
The holidays are coming up and we think about sparkling
wine for toasts, for New Year's Eve, for holiday dinners,
but a lot of times you think about champagne and prosecco.

(04:43):
And we're going to talk about why you should be
looking closer to home for the sparkling wines that you
serve with these special occasions. Andrew, what sparkling wines do
you produce at Grace?

Speaker 3 (04:52):
Yeah, we have two different sparkling wines. The first one
is what we call our couve. It is a one
hundred percent no blanc that is carbonated, is light, is crisp,
it is fruity, is easy to drink. And then we
have a traditional method sparkling. This is more reminiscent to

(05:13):
the champagne style, is a little bit more of a
nutty characteristic and earthy characteristic while still providing some of that.
There's apple notes, of citrus notes, stone fruit, and a
little bit of a bread flavor. That you get with champagne.

Speaker 2 (05:30):
So what's the difference between the sparkling wines that you
produce here in Pennsylvania and those that come from Champagne
in France or the Venetta in Italy where prosecco is made.

Speaker 3 (05:42):
Yeah, for us, you know, it's really fascinating because we
are just getting into this, so we have a lot
to learn and a long way to go before we
really hone in on just the perfect style. What I
can say is that we are a little bit warmer,
so we our fruit can tip be a little bit
more like a stone fruit style versus more of the

(06:04):
citric characteristic that you may get get with champagne. We
also add a small portion of adult blanc for acidity
purposes with our traditional method. So with that adds you
little unique flavor, a great variety that's definitely not grown
over in Champagne and is very popular here in Pennsylvania.

Speaker 2 (06:26):
Why do you think that sparkling wine lovers or anybody
who wants to pop open a special bottle and see
that big phis come out, why should they reach for
something local as opposed to what they're really used to
from champagne or prosecco. Just because that's what everyone says
you should be drinking. Why should they be going to
their local wineries.

Speaker 3 (06:46):
Yeah, I mean, I mean we can speak from a
larger socioeconomic thing where support local and support local agriculture
more honed into your own personal experiences. Is you're going
to get something unique. You're going to get something that
you may not get off the store shelves. You're going
to you know, the one thing that I find fascinating

(07:06):
about this area is that we're all in this experimentation phase.
So what you're going to get from Grace Winery or
some of my friends in the industry that are around
us is different, and we're playing around with different fruit,
We're playing with around with different styles. So with that,
you're going to find something really unique that's unique to you,

(07:27):
unique to us, unique to the larger wine world. So
I definitely recommend trying us out.

Speaker 2 (07:32):
Okay, and you said different styles, different grapes. Does that
mean lesser quality, No, definitely not.

Speaker 3 (07:38):
I mean we the hours I spend on this sparkling
wine and the nights I spend looking up at my
ceiling half awake, trying to hone this in and make
sure that comes out as well as I possibly can
can attest to that.

Speaker 2 (07:54):
Okay, great, thanks And just one last question, what is
your favorite sparkling wine pairing?

Speaker 3 (07:59):
Oh, favorites sparkling wine pairing. You know, the great thing
about sparkling is you can really run the gamut with this.
You can go something a little heavier. If you want
to start right in the morning, you can get an
eggs benedict would go great with it all the way
till dinner, where you can get a nice smoked salmon.
I would definitely recommend. And honestly, and I'm not sure

(08:22):
what I'm going to eat at any restaurant, but I
know I want a glass of wine. My first thing
to do is go with sparkling because I know it's
so versatile and can go with a lot of different options.

Speaker 2 (08:32):
All right, thank you very much, appreciate it.

Speaker 3 (08:35):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (08:36):
One thing that we like to do here in Beverage
Chronicles is present new products to you when we find
them and we're impressed by them. And that's the case
right now. I came up with recently found a beverage
that I really enjoyed. I want to give some information
to you. Now you guys have known me. Listen to

(08:57):
the show. You know, I'm a beer drinker. I love beer,
drinking beer, my goodness, since I can remember, and even
before that. If you look at my book called Artists
and Beer, there's a picture of me sipping on foam
Age two. But I also enjoy bourbon cocktails occasionally a wine.
But again, I found a coffee liqueur that I really enjoyed. Now,

(09:18):
when you think of coffee liqueurs, there's one that probably
comes to mind, and that would be Khalua. Now, Khalua
is the world's best selling coffee lookqueur, and it's available
around the world, and it's great and I love it.
But I found one that I enjoy quite a bit
as well, and it's called State Line Coffee Lookur, which

(09:39):
is made in Wisconsin, and I'm looking at some of
the product information about it right now. They use locally
roasted coffee, organic grains from Wisconsin's Driftless region, and pure
cane sugar. Now I'm certainly not here to say one
is better than another, but I'm again trying to present

(10:01):
options for you. Kalua, for example, uses one Arabica beans
from Vera, Cruz. State Line uses it's called kinkin Brazilian
coffee brew cold brew coffee, I should say for Madison, Wisconsin.
Khalua is described as sweet, smooth with hints of vanilla

(10:24):
and caramel. State Line was described as rich, velvety, dark
chocolate like balanced sweetness and bitterness, A little bit less
sweet and more robust and complex than Kalua, which is
probably more dessert like. Clue is made with as I mentioned, coffee, sugar, cane, spirit, vanilla,

(10:44):
and caramel. It's arrested eight weeks before bottling. State Line
uses neutral grained spirit, cane, sugar, and cold brewed coffee,
only three ingredients, no additives. State Line I found is
really good for sipping over or in elevated cocktails, and
it's small batch, as I mentioned, won several awards. The

(11:08):
alcohol content I know Kalua is about I believe sixteen
to twenty percent ABV, depending on the market, and I
don't have state Lines numbers, but I would expect it
to be similar. And I would say, you know, if
you like Kalua and you want a reliable, sweet, mixable drink,
coluis to drink to go to. And if you want

(11:29):
to try something a little bolder with a craft forward
Liqueur and a gourmet edge. Take a look at Stateline
Now Stateline, I know you can buy it online at
Stateline Distillery dot com. That is the website Stateline Distillery
dot com, and I have several recipes using Stateline Coffee Liqueur.

(11:52):
If you go to our Beverage Chronicles dot com website
and send me a message, I'd be happy to forward
some recipes to you as provided to me by state Line.
My birthday was on October twenty sixth, and just for

(12:15):
the heck of it, I decided to mess around with
a cocktail. And again, you guys know that that's not
really me. But I went online looking for some recipes
and I found one that looked kind of different and unique.
I figured, what the heck, let's try it. And it
came out pretty well. I kind of enjoyed it. I'm
gonna explain to you what I did. I made something
called a cherry bourbon lemonade. It had a balance between

(12:38):
sweet and tart and also strong. The bourbon paired nicely
and I used Woodford reserve. The bourbons paired nicely with
the lemonade and the cherry. I used some cherry syrup
that added that fruity flavor, served it over ice, and
garnished it with a Maraschino cherry and added a little
lemon wedge. So it looks good. And you know they
say you eat and drink with your eyes, So I

(12:58):
used a rocks or a high ball glass, and I
think that works best for this kind of cocktail. Used
a barspoon to stir the ingredients even leave make sure
I have a well balanced flavor, and the ice, of course,
keeps the drill the drink chilled without excessive dilution. So
here's what I did. I used two ounces of lemonade,

(13:19):
two ounces of the Woodford reserved bourbon. Obviously, you could
try any bourbon your favorite, half ounce of cherry syrup,
and I use Maraskiino cherries for garnish and a wedge
of fresh lemon for garnish. Filled the glass with ice
cubes and poured in the two ounces of lemonade, the
two ounces of bourbon, half ounce of cherry syrup. Stirred it,

(13:39):
garnished and it was delicious. It was a home run.
I really enjoyed that, so something I'm going to try again. Now.
If you want even a fresher taste, you can use
homemade lemonade with freshly squeezed lemon juice, and you could
also opt for honey or simple syrup. Okay, and that's
it for this week's episode of Beverage Chronicles. We really

(14:02):
again want to thank you for your loyal following of
the show. Our listener numbers keep going up. We're reaching
close to two hundred thousand listeners a week. We are
so impressed. I want to say hi to our fans,
our listeners, especially in the Wisconsin Michigan area, thank you
so much for listening to us. We're also picked up.

(14:24):
We've also picked up stations in Tennessee, New York City,
just added Wilmington, Delaware, and I'm talking to another station.
We may actually expand to another one as well shortly.
And we're we're in the overseas market forty eight countries. Also,
the podcast version of Beverage Chronicles exists on all your
popular platforms. So until next week, I am Gary Montroso

(14:48):
stay well everyone, and again thanks for listening. See you again.