Johnnie wrote on Mar 29^th, 2017 at 9:05pm:


Correct which is why it's such a big problem today. Alcohol has only been readily available to the Aboriginal people for the last 40 odd years. They haven't had thousands of years of social drinking like the rest of the world.

You are getting boring Sprint. Stay at irrelevant is my advice.

Yeah, would just a bit more food cause nomads to abandon their nomadic ways? Bread instead of hunting for meat?

We will never know, of course, but like I said, the idea that the nomads settled down to look after their patches of land growing grain (ancient varieties of wheat, oats and barley I guess) to ensure that beer could be brewed is at least arguable. I am a bit of a history buff, love seeing the interplay of technology, laws, economics and changing public tastes.

Like beer and ale.

Vikings drank øl, ale.

In England the Church kept control of the herbs used to brew ale: yarrow, tansy, bog myrtle etc etc. Then hops were brought from the continent and ale became beer until eventually nobody used herbs and all used hops and it was called ale again.

In the early 1800s lager brewing was developed on the continent and ale was beer fermented in open fermenters at room temperature and lagers were fermented at low temperature in closed fermenters.

Most drinkers of lagers (XXXX, VB and other so–called beers) would not like a real lager.

Me, I prefer ales: bit more fullbodied than an equivalent lager, more complex, better aroma.

India Pale Ale was the impetus behind the development of the iconic lager, Pilsner. IPA, the iconic ale, was only produced for 20 or 30 years. Lesser beers called bitters replaced IPA.

Stout and Porter, unless specifically identified ad lager, are ales, ales where the grist, the mix of grains, contained dark grains. Coopers Extra Stout contains chocolate and roasted malts giving the ale its color.

London Porter was made until the early 1900s. At that time a 14yo housemaid would receive 8 pints of porter a day as part of her wages. She would have needed it, 14 hour days were common. Similarly, navvies working on big construction projects like canals and later the railways were given a fair bit of beer.

These days where we all drive cars light beers are big business. Ironically, light beers are all malt beers brewed (boiled) with good hops. These beers are then fermented, pasteurised, filtered to remove the yeast—and drowned in water. Pity, they would be fine beers before being way diluted.

Gnads wrote on Mar 31^st, 2017 at 1:23pm:


Around 50 then, until the 1967 referendum every state had their own laws for aboriginal people and each one prohibited the sale of alcohol to Aboriginals. It wasn't until the 60s that this ban was lifted.

WA and the NT in 1964, SA in 1967, QLD 1965

This right to buy and consume alcohol remained a legal eater then practical right until the 70s.