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Free Beer That's Free as in Speech
darkonc writes "The CBC has notes and an interview with Dane Rasmus Nielsen who decided to reduce the confusion between 'free as in speech' and 'free as in beer' by making a beer free -- in speech. The result is Vores Oel, an open source beer. The CBC site includes the recipe for the beer which is made with Guarana beans, and gives it a bit of a caffeine-like hit. The danish site downloads include the label for the beer (which is also Open Source)."
Wired had the same story a couple of days ago. Their article is a bit longer and with a bit more background.
And other drinks over at the Cat's Meow 3 lots of beer related stuff. Of course it will cost you some money to brew a batch, but hey it could be worth it.
I do not vouch for specific recipies there, as I haven't done any brewing in years.
Erlang Developer and podcaster
Here is the GNU definition:
``Free software'' is a matter of liberty, not price. To understand the concept, you should think of ``free'' as in ``free speech,'' not as in ``free beer.'' Free software is a matter of the users' freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the software. More precisely, it refers to four kinds of freedom, for the users of the software:
* The freedom to run the program, for any purpose (freedom 0).
* The freedom to study how the program works, and adapt it to your needs (freedom 1). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
* The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor (freedom 2).
* The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits (freedom 3). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html
The process of brewing beer is easy, but not quite THAT easy.
:)
A good introduction to brewing is How To Brew by John Palmer. The entire 1st edition of the book is available on the web for free at the URL above. (Perhaps predictably, it's free as in beer, not as in speech
Uh-oh ... I hope "Vores øl" doesn't get in trouble for this (but then again, it's not like this is the US, so there is hope).
The thing is, a few years ago one of the two major Danish beer labels had a series of commercials in which "Vores øl" was the signature. They might not see this site as such a "free speech" win, though I hope they'll let it pass without raising a fuss.
"Good news, everyone!"
This recipe is terrible. The most glaring error is they don't specify the type of yeast. Is this an Ale or a Lager? There's a big difference beween the two. Given the room temperature fermenting, you'd assume an Ale, but some Lager yeasts can ferment at room temperature too. Among those two major yeast types there's a huge difference among the various strains that produces very different end products.
The recipe calls for armoma hops and bitter hops. The only difference between the two is the length of the boil. Bitter hops are boiled on the order of 30 minutes, Aroma hops are boiled on the order of 5 minutes. But no boil times are specified at all. The boiling time of hops impacts the hop level of the beer, which has a major impacts on the flavor of the beer.
If this recipe were code, it wouldn't compile. You'd have to guess at the yeast type and boil times for the hops. The massive 85 liter batch size isn't terribly usefull either. Most homebrewers do 5-6 gallon batches.
AccountKiller
It's called sake.
I don't know that there are special names for corn beer, or millet beer, or amaranth beer. Then, of course, root beer and birch beer are really beer if you really brew them. Recipes are available on the net, as they are for barley beer, so I'm at something of a loss to explain what this story is all about.
Me, I generally just go straight for the cognac, but I'd have to move to France to make it myself.
There's always wild grape rotgut.
KFG
And since you already mentioned it: adding Guarana also makes this beer not adhere to the Deitsche Reinheitsgebot (German Purity Law) for beer, which AFAIK is a requirement for selling a beverage under that name in Germany (the law limits the ingedients to hops, malt, yeast and water). So, they probably could distribute their source under some open source license, but I do not think any commercial verndor will pick this up anytime soon and sell it pre-compiled in Germany...
Creative Commons liscenses allows "open sourcing" just about any IP you want: music, visual arts, writing... it's just a license that you have to print the license and the recipie if you want to distribute the beer.
I'll never make that mistake again, reading the experts' opinions. - Feynman
Coffee beans are also a natural source of caffeine, (as are tea leaves), and they have a huge adavntage over guarana, as they don't taste like dirt.
/. dup., or if I saw it somewhere else.
I'm pretty sure I read the original article some months ago, btw - don't know if it's a
What a long, strange trip it's been.
In the US anyway, and probably in other countries with similar intellectual property laws, recipes are not covered by copyright.
Why do you think Coca-Cola keeps their recipes under strict secrecy?
So brew away -- and feel free to ignore the licensing restrictions of the CC license, at least for the recipe.
Recipes can get legal protection through being "trade secrets", though. This recipe doesn't have that restriction, so it's a lot freer than any other beer I can think of.
It's a non issue. Beer is not cola. In countries with beer culture (Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, the UK to some extent, types of recipe were often originally linked to towns, to abbeys etc.
The basic recipes have been in the public domain for centuries, and you are not held back in any way from making a beer similar to wellknown brand beers.
There are lots of micro-breweries that sell beer, and recipes are easy to come by. It is also not very hard to make a beer that is better than the commercial ones. It is just hard to market it and make a profit. Compare with orange juice: everyone can make good fresh orange juice, but the knowledge will not make you rich.
The secret to making wine, liquor, bread, and cheese is also in the public domain. This "free-as-in-speech beer" thing is mildly funny, but I don't want to be bored with free-as-in-speech bread or free-as-in-speech cheese.
There are a few beers that dominate the world market, but that is only because of shelf space and brand recognition, not closed source recipes or technology lock-in or whatever.
Having seen the recipe, I don't think this beer is worth trying btw.
"No significant progress has been made in this topic."
.
Um, how about pasteurization and cold filtering? Guiness' bubbles that go down for a smooth creamy beer? Oh yeah, lagers that aren't super bitter too . .
And your link didn't mention the beer thing. Try wikipedia. It mentions a lot that's happened since hops were added.
Actualy it looks like a pretty good commie recipe, it has plenty of malt to give the brew plenty of body and head; a blend of both bitter and armoma hops to give the beer both taste and bouquet.
After trying the reciept as is i'd probably decide to cut back the bitter Tetnang hops a bit to balance it to my personal preferences better.
If any of my fellow americans would like to by your hand at brewing I can assure you that with a trials, you'll be making a brew that is far better, and better personalized than anything you'll see made by the big conglomerates. The hardest part for use is actualy collecting enough bottle of the proper type; our Modern Screw on lids bottles suck ass for home brewing.
One word of warnning is home brew produces prdigious amounts of very good beer at modest cost, so in order to consume it fast enough to try the modifications to the reciepes, you'll need friends and have to actually scocialize in person.
Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
there it is: http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/01/ 13/1642234&tid=222
if there's one thing that sticks in my memory... it's beer. :-)
--- Caffeine is directly responsible for some of my greatest ideas, and some of my most embarrassing moments...
Pizza is far superior served as a cold breakfast -- especially when you dip the crust in your chocolate milk.
My breakfast of champions,
-l
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"The history of beer in north america was changed dramatically by prohibition. During that period, they were brewing awful stuff, and serving it very very green. What was discovered, if you chill the beer till it's 'cold', folks liked it better. ...beer (ice cold), will numb many of the tastebuds..."
Ah Bologna. Cold beer in the US dates back at least to the mid 1800's where they used ice houses, especially in the hot west to keep beer cold through the summer. It was hot and it was dusty. And the townsfolk wanted something cold to drink. Plain and simple.
Here's an interesting beer history link for all the European beer snobs: http://www.beerhistory.com/library/holdings/raley_ timetable.shtml
If you scroll down to modern history, it states:
In the mid-19th Century (1850's) German immigrant brewers introduced cold maturation lagers to the US (Anheuser-Busch, Miller, Coors, Stroh, Schlitz, and Pabst roots begin here).
The modern era of brewing in the US began in the late 1800's with commercial refrigeration (1860), automatic bottling, pasteurization (1876), and railroad distribution.
Cold beer is just part of the American culture. There is something about reaching in a cooler after a hard day of work and grabbing a can or bottle that has been sitting in ice for hours. Even in the winter time the beer comes out of the car and goes in a snow bank for deep chilling before serving. And we like it that way!