Butterbeer (was: Two Words - Magic Wand was Re:Hagrid's parents)

[huntergreen_3]

No: HPFGUIDX 110596

Caesian's last word:
>>And what the heck is Butterbeer?<<

HunterGreen:
I respectfully have 'no comment' on Hagrid's parents (although it is 
something I wondered about). However, I have wondered about 
butterbeer myself, or I did when I first read the books. Fortunately 
there are enough people onlist who know more about beverage making 
than I do. After a fun trip into the archives I found a butterbeer 
thread starting with:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/51715

In the thread Steve (b_boymn) wrote:
>>any beverage that is fremented is going to contain some alcohol.
In Britian you are allowed to have 0.5% in a beverage, and you can
still consider it a soft drink and sell it with out restriction.<<

And Jim Ferer added:
>>I also have brewed root beer by old fashioned natural processes. 
The carbonation is added by a second fermentation (in the case of 
beer) or a small amount of yeast added for a slight "first" 
fermentation; that's how drinks got fizzy before CO2 was injected 
into them. If butterbeer was made that way, there would be a slight 
alcohol content, insignificant to humans.<<

I suppose then, that Butterbeer is a butterscotch flavored soft-drink 
with a tiny amount of alcohol in it. Sort of makes me wonder what it 
would taste like (although I'd guess you'd have to be under a certain 
age to appreciate it, I'd probably choke from the sugar).