OOP - It's Butterbeer time!

[beldasnoop]

No: HPFGUIDX 66039

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, digger <altered.earth at n...> 
wrote:

> 
> ButterBEER must have beer as an ingredient! It must also have an 
low 
> alcohol content for canon to make sense, maybe 2%.
> 
> In medieval times BUTTERED ALE was a popular drink. Ale (beer 
brewed 
> without any hops) was heated together with with butter, cinnamon, 
and 
> sugar. I think this is basically what Butterbeer is.

That's possible, but I don't think butterbeer *has* to be alcoholic 
(however mildly) just because it's got "beer" in its name. Root beer, 
birch beer and ginger beer are all non-alcoholic.  Also, I always 
thought it was non-alcoholic, but that house-elves just had weird 
chemistry so that they got drunk on it. That kind of thing has 
happened in other sci-fi/fantasy-type stories. That's just my 
thought, though. It could just be very mildly alcoholic, also.  

Whatever it is in the book, however, I would imagine that if some 
company or other starts producing it as a product tie-in, it would 
most likely be non-alcoholic so the kiddies would be able to drink 
it.  After all, kids make up a large percentage of the Harry Potter 
audience, so IMO they shouldn't be left out, and the manufacturer 
would probably make more money by making it available to the widest 
possible audience. I imagine it as a kind of butterscotch flavored 
soda, as has been suggested before. Grown-ups who want their 
butterbeer with a "kick" to it could just add a shot of their 
favorite liquor.  

Michelle (beldasnoop)