Butterbeer (Was: Re: Spoilers?? Where are They)

[Ken Hutchinson]

No: HPFGUIDX 171680

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Goddlefrood" <gav_fiji at ...> wrote:
>
> > Lauren:
> 
> > That reminds me: What is butterbeer? I know they allow the kids 
> > to drink it but then when some refer to Winky getting drunk on it 
> > this made me wonder about it.
> 
> Goddlefrood:
> > 
> On the question of why it affects Winky as it does, and she's 
> never to be cured of her addiction, alas, I would suppose that 
> as well as having a different kind of magic House Elves have a 
> different kind of sobriety. In other words, butterbeer affects 
> elves in a quite differing way to how the same innocuous drink 
> affects wizards and witches.
> 

> Bart:

> In any case, I have seen hints (such as Lupin's comments when giving
Harry
> butterbeer in POA, or the description of butterbeer having an effect
on house
> elves which was different quantitatively rather than qualitatively
from humans
> in regard to Winky) that butterbeer is similar; it has some alcohol
(or maybe
> some potion similar to Star Trek's synthehol), but not enough to be even
> noticeable to human children, at least over a certain age, similarly
to the
> sangria soda. In other words, a bottle of butterbeer will have as
much effect on
> a 12 year old as a sip of regular beer.

Ken:

Somehow, somewhere I got the impression that it is a mildly alcoholic
drink although initially I assumed it was like non-alcoholic like root
beer. Even a mild alcohol content would be more intoxicating for a
small creature like an elf and the notion that they might have a
different metabolism certainly applies too, one doesn't even have to
suppose that it has anything to do with magic. It is standard science
fiction convention #7 that alien creatures will either a) use
intoxicants that would be deadly poison to humans or b) get four
sheets to the wind on substances that have no such affect on humans.
You can't have a good ET story without that, your readers expect it.

Of course these differences among species are common in the real
world, the catnip example is a good one involving an intoxicant. I
used to sit and eat half a pound of grapes at a time with my American
Eskimo dog, one for me, one for her, one for me, .... She didn't get
drunk on them but we eventually heard that grapes (and raisins) can be
quite toxic to some dogs and breeds so we stopped giving her grapes
years ago. Luckily, at age 14 she is still with us and still begging
for treats. It is totally plausible that butterbeer, whatever it is,
would intoxicate elves and not the Hogwarts students.

Ken