Food /butterbeer in wizarding world

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 76445

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "junediamanti"
<june.diamanti at b...> wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Buttercup <cathio2002 at y...> 
> wrote:
> > 
> > And what about butterbeer--letting kids drink an
> > alcoholic drink at such a young age is a good way to
> > start their lives of alcoholism. Imagine what Winky's
> > liver looks like. 
> > 
> > =====
> > Buttercup
> 
> I think Butterbeer might be more like either ginger beer (which is a 
> non-alcoholic - or virtually anyway) old fashioned english soft 
> drink, or perhaps like a drink called shandy ...edited...
> I don't think there is any heavy duty alcohol in Butterbeer or we 
> would surely have seen some drunkeness scenes (or being tipsy).  
> Maybe house elves just don't have the head for drinking it and get 
> drunk very easily.
> 
> June


bboy_mn:
I've touched on this before, I've done some research into beverages in
the UK bacause in one of my stories, Harry and Ron have a Ginger Beer
(ginger ale in the US) company (Harry Potter's Wizard's Brew - All
Natural Amazingly Stronge Ginger Beer). 

In the UK, beverages are allowed to have 0.5% alcohol and are still
classified as a soft drink. That means to get the alcohol of one
normal beer/ale, you would have to drink about a dozen of these soft
drinks. The expense alone would make it prohibative to try and get
drunk on a soft drink like this.

Many years ago, 'fizz' was not injected into soft drinks by a
carbonation machine, it was a natural by-product of the fermentation
process. Yes, even soft drinks were fermented. And, any fermentation
process does produce a trace of alcohol. But the way, the fizz and
foam you get from fermentation is much finer and thicker than you get
with injected carbonation.

So, if we assume that Butterbeer is 'fizzy' and the 'beer' part of the
 name would imply this, and if we assume it is produce in by the old
fashioned natural fermentation process, then it could have a trace of
alcohol. 

Given the tiny bodies of house-elves and how close to the surface
their emotions are, it seems reasonable that even a trace of alcohol
could have a strong effect on them.

Just passing it along.

bboy_mn