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I Invented Baileys (2017)

irishtimes.com

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Re: I Invented Baileys (2017)

#91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uhm, what about Guinness? The guinness brewery has been around a lot longer than 1950. Also, are you claiming there was no such thing as an Irish pub before 1980? Again, uhm, no.

I draw your attention to the word "almost" in my comment, and its neighbour "entirely", which it modifies. The brewery may date to the 1850s. As a widely-known name, popularity trailed the records book published by the same concern, largely beginning in the 1960s: https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=Guiness+%2A&ye...

The popularity of the Book of Records probably doesn't have much relation to sales or awareness of the Guinness drinks. Guinness Extra considerably predates the 1850s: Guinness has been a big manufacturing operation and a big brand for a long time. (However Guinness Draught, being a keg beer, is naturally from the 1950s, though it's the successor of Guinness' cask beer.) Several other European beer brands have histories going back to at least the late C19: Heineken, Carlsberg, Paulaner, ... Several of the famous Italian amaros like Fernet-Branca and Campari are solidly second half of C19; so is Angostura. Chartreuse is considerably older. Several Scottish whisky distilleries have quite long histories of continuous production, though of course the current international fame of Scottish single malts is relatively recent. Bacardi was distributed outside Cuba since at least the 1930s.

Re: I Invented Baileys (2017)

#92

The mass-market alcohol industry is almost entirely based on branding and bulk ingredents. (A considerable fraction of the so-called top-shelf market is as well.) I'd had some exposure to that through a former life, though this classic comment of Animats drilled home just how sordid the whole thing is, through Frank-Lin distillers, who buy bulk grain alcohol by the tankerful, delivered to their own private railroad s…

New cocktail: "The Full Package": Take Baileys. Muddle with Salt & Heroin. Serve over Cocaine, Mint to taste.

What. Have. I. Done?!!!

Re: I Invented Baileys (2017)

#93
post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I draw your attention to the word "almost" in my comment, and its neighbour "entirely", which it modifies. The brewery may date to the 1850s. As a widely-known name, popularity trailed the records book published by the same concern, largely beginning in the 1960s: https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=Guiness+%2A&ye...

The popularity of the Book of Records probably doesn't have much relation to sales or awareness of the Guinness drinks. Guinness Extra considerably predates the 1850s: Guinness has been a big manufacturing operation and a big brand for a long time. (However Guinness Draught, being a keg beer, is naturally from the 1950s, though it's the successor of Guinness' cask beer.) Several other European beer brands have histor…

That isn't the argument I'm making. I'm simply showing the prevalence of the ngrams "Guiness" (capialised) and "Guiness *" (same, followed by any other word).

"Guiness Book" clearly trends in print before any reference to a beverage, in the US-English corpus.

If you have a complaint, it's with Google Books and its ngram viewer.

Re: I Invented Baileys (2017)

#95
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pringles are not chips. They are mathematically precise reifications of idealized perfection. It has nothing to do with potatoes and binders, those are only incidental. It's all about the libidinal act of destroying perfect objects with your mouth. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oral_stage

I want to read the books you are reading.

To bring it full circle, the guy who invented the Pringles machine is a famous author (Gene Wolfe)

Re: I Invented Baileys (2017)

#96

That was a supprisingly engaging article. Here's some comments from 4 years ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15430653

Check out this one on the creation of Grey Goose and the invention of the super premium category. Great story on luxury branding https://nymag.com/nymetro/news/bizfinance/biz/features/10816...

Re: I Invented Baileys (2017)

#97
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Putting on my pedantic home brewer cap: The 16% number seems a bit low. I believe there are champagne yeasts that will ferment up to 18%, and specialized "turbo" yeasts designed for fermenting high-abv washes for distilling will go up to 20%.

I can absolutely agree on the turbo yeast part. I have fermented some apples with turbo yeast and they were able to bring it up to about 21% (but with added sugar).

I just tested a turbo yeast sugar wash I have and it's sitting at exactly 21%

Re: I Invented Baileys (2017)

#98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve never really thought about it, but I guess an “Irish Car Bomb” doesn’t exist on the eastern side of the Atlantic: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Car_Bomb

American here. I did a semester abroad in Ireland, and one particularly clueless fellow in our group of students made the mistake of ordering one of these in an (actual) Irish pub. He was firmly asked to leave - and lucky that was all. I imagine he wasn't the first uninformed tourist to make this request. Years later, I likened it to ordering a "9/11" in Manhattan, although it's not a perfect analogy.

Ordering one in Britain is possibly closer¹, and a bartender I used to live with said clueless, young, American tourists would try this every few months.

They were usually dealt with by referring them to history section of their Lonely Planet.

¹ Several car/truck bombings with considerable property damage, although usually limited casualties.

Re: I Invented Baileys (2017)

#99
post #79

This job just seems so alien to me. How do you get a job where major corporations just task you with things like “Come up with a new product for us. Something Irish themed. Alcoholic.“ And all you have to deliver is a basic concept? Someone else figures out all the logistics and how to deliver at scale? How much do they pay for that? (Oh £3000 per the article. Still, in 1973 money, for a few hours work, not bad)

That's like 18000 today, still cheap for the amount of work put in.

Re: I Invented Baileys (2017)

#100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can absolutely agree on the turbo yeast part. I have fermented some apples with turbo yeast and they were able to bring it up to about 21% (but with added sugar).

I just tested a turbo yeast sugar wash I have and it's sitting at exactly 21%

Dare I ask why you happen to have turbo yeast sugar wash lying around?
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