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Ale To the Chief: White House Releases Beer Recipe
wiredmikey writes "Sam Kass, White House Assistant Chef and the Senior Policy Advisor for Healthy Food Initiatives, after much buzz, today released the recipe for White House Honey Ale and White House Honey Porter, two brews made right on site at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. According to Kass, the White House Honey Brown Ale is the first alcohol brewed or distilled on the White House grounds, as far as they know. "George Washington brewed beer and distilled whiskey at Mount Vernon and Thomas Jefferson made wine but there's no evidence that any beer has been brewed in the White House. (Although we do know there was some drinking during prohibition)," Kass wrote in a blog post. The recipe can be found here along with a short video 'Inside The White House Beer Brewing' which shows the brewing in process. Your tax dollars hard at work yet again!"
Taste the freedom
According to the blog post, Pres. Obama bought the equipment himself, and the staff works on it in their spare time. Now, the video and the blog are taxpayer funded, so there's that. But after seeing that recipe - totally worth it.
Never underestimate the potential of Human stupidity. -Heinlein
The brewing equipment and expenses were paid for by the Obamas personally. The same for all White House meals (I mean the POTUS family's personal consumption, I don't know about state dinners and such): their cost is paid from the POTUS salary. The POTUS is paid pretty well by most people's standards so s/he can afford it.
See: Reuters, "Taxpayers are not footing the bill for the beer, as both the cost of the equipment and the cost of brewing the beer is paid for by the Obamas personally, the official said."
Yeah, well, compared to the wars, prohibition, TSA, etc., it's money well spent.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
This would be a great time for the two candidates to sit down over a beer and talk... oh. Wait. He's a Morman. Oh well. I guess he can drink weak tea. Wait. Sorry. Can't have that either. Caffeine. I guess there's always caffeine free diet Pepsi.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
For those who bitch about this, if the president spent his money collecting stamps or collecting guitars I doubt you would you beat him up over it. But maybe you would: Oh sure he does or doesn't do XYZ, but he buys a Fender amp? You're evil Mr President; what a scumbag. Forget about it. So brewing beer, good for him. There are many people in America who like to brew their own beer. There's nothing wrong with it and nothing wrong with the president doing it on his own time either.
-- I ignore anonymous replies to my comments and postings.
As far as hobbies go this one is pretty cool and even a bit nerdy. I've always wanted to brew my own beer, or make my own tequila and I don't even drink.
We like to complain about which stories get posted, and which don't... butI think we can all agree - this qualifies as stuff that matters.
#DeleteChrome
> Your tax dollars hard at work yet again!"
If they are going to serve beer in the Whitehouse it's much cheaper to brew it themselves then to buy it. About 30 cents for a 750 mil bottle holding the equivalent of two cans. They also don't have to pay the extortionate government sales tax on alcohol. Hey hang on...
http://taxfoundation.org:81/article/state-sales-gasoline-cigarette-and-alcohol-tax-rates-state-2000-2010
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homebrewing
If home-made beer and wine are just fine in this day and age, why does distilling your own whiskey for your own use get you time in the federal prison system? I just want my "Awesome-Swill-From-Dawsonville" party-liquor each New Years without worrying about the BATFE...
Obama promised a surge into Afghanistan. He promised an eventual pullout from Iraq, and it looks like he's following through - on Bush's schedule.
Congress shut down Obama's attempts to close Gitmo and forbade him from using any federal funds to do just about anything with it. While I wish he'd tried harder, he did attempt it. I'd be more concerned about the continued NSA wiretapping.
The President is not a dictator. People tend to radically overestimate how much the President can really do.
And yes, the same is true for Bush. Bush couldn't have gone to war without Congress. He couldn't have passed the Patriot Act without Congress. He couldn't have passed No Child Left Behind without Congress. He couldn't have racked up massive deficits without Congress. Heck, even today, virtually our entire deficit (that comes from government policy and not the recession) comes from the Bush tax cuts Congress (including Paul Ryan) passed and the wars.
Dang Slashdot without an edit button. I meant to include this link:
http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/data-chart-center/US-Economy/PublishingImages/20120229_EssentialEcon9.jpg
It shows the sources of the current budget deficits. Keep in mind Paul Ryan, famed serious "fiscal conservative," voted for every single thing in green.
Oh, give it a rest. You've been reciting the same Obama-bashing crap over and over for 4 years now, we've all heard it a dozen times. This conversation is about beer.
you are missing the point.
it seems he's calling indirect attention to the mormon guy who is running as his opponent.
how many people can relate to those who are 100.0% against alcohol drinking?
seems a smart move on obama's part. and I kind of agree: I don't trust anyone who takes a prohibitionist view on what most of us think is perfectly fine behavior!
--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
Where there are no burning issues at hand, human interest stories are a good tactic to keep a candidate in the news or at least in Twitterverse. Expect to learn more trivial, but harmless stuff like these "brewed" by the campaign strategists who work behind the scenes.
Somehow this only convinces me that come November a new occupant will fill that hopefully not empty Chair at the Oval Office.
Good beer, though, that's something we can all agree on. Well except Mitt Romney. Mormons aren't allowed to have beer. Or coffee. How you're supposed to go about having 5 wives without coffee is beyond me. I'm pretty sure you can't get through 4 years of a presidency without dropping the F bomb at least a couple times, as well, so good luck with that, Mormon-boy. Maybe collecting dildos and leaving them in random places around the White House would help.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
All of the extract and pellets make this a real beginners brew. They should really step up to all grain brewing. Much better flavor.
I love Jesus, except for his foreign policy.
... if the president spent his money collecting stamps or collecting guitars I doubt you would you beat him up over it.
Are you kidding? This President has been condemned as "elitist" for his choice of condiments.
Somehow I don't think you're ever going to be President.
Seriously? Dood can't brew beer in his spare time without it being politically motivated?
Timing might be politically motivated for releasing the recipe, but I highly doubt the beer is.
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The leetist and best president ever!
Jimmy Carter, 39th President of the United States, signed the bill, H.R. 1337, into law in October 1978 legalizing home brewing. Bill 1337, can't make this stuff up folks. :-)
There is or can be built a machine that can simulate any physical object. -Church-Turing principle
Swedish Vin & Sprit was also built with tax money.
It served us good but was sold in 2008 to Pernod Ricard (for 55 billion SEK = 8.31 billion USD with todays exchange rate, actually Wikipedia says 5.6 billion euro so I guess the SEK value was someones conversion.)
Their most well known brand is/was likely Absolut.
Alcohol drinking Muslims. Is that true radicalism or an oxymoron?
The mind conceives, the body achieves, the spirit manifests.
"i'm a hip cool new President. I use Blackberries and Twitter and Reddit and I brew my own beer. I'm just like all you young impressionable voters. Hey, look, we're open-sourcing the White House website! Open source is cool, right? Hey, who wants some free stuff? Young people like free stuff, right? How about healthcare? You guys don't understand any of it so have some for free. Naw, I promise, it's just as good as the other stuff. And nevermind who's paying, you guys don't make enough yet to worry about that..."
Still waiting for President Obama to show up to a convention wearing Converses and empty Rayban frames while he gives a speech ironically.
how many people can relate to those who are 100.0% against alcohol drinking?
Man, they believe Jesus visited the Americas, and when they die they'll get to (literally) fucking populate a planet (if they're the chosen ones)... And not drinking beer is the "weird" part? Uhm. I would have point out the Christians believe in Sky Wizards and Magic Zombies, but the Mormons do too. Mormon = Xenu + Jesus (where you get to be Xenu). For the record, I'm not picking on Mormans or other religious folk. I take all religions as seriously as any other; Take Greek Mythology for example: Where's the candidate for Athena? Aphrodite? Ah, Now there's a candidate I could really get behind.
They do actually...
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/06/23/secret-life-white-house-bees
My -1 Troll is actually a +1 funny. And my -1 flame is actually a +1 insightfull.
If you go to philly, you can go to the "bar" where the revolution was "planned." at this location, you can get the beer recipies that were brewed by washington, jefferson, adams, and franklin (washingtons was the best IMO - franklins tasted like pine needles)
have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
Just don't ask about Gitmo
Are they brewing beer at Gitmo as well? (is waterboarding just "soaking the malts"?)
Mmmm beerboarding.
The President is an expensive office. There is a shit ton of money spent on keeping the person in it safe, happy, connected, getting them where they need to go, and so on. The cost of brewing some beer wouldn't even stack up to the salary of a single Secret Service agent, never mind the cost of running something like Air Force One.
There is no real way around it either. Security costs are going to be extremely high because the President is a very high profile target. So you need good security keeping them safe. Some might argue that a lot of the pomp and circumstance should be cut out which would save a bunch but then you have to remember that the President is not just the head of government but also the chief of state, they are the head diplomat. All that pomp and circumstance plays a very useful role in international relations.
So frankly they can charge the cost of brewing beer to the taxpayers, I don't mind at all. It is an expensive office to maintain and there really isn't any other way it can be so long as the US maintains its place of prominence among nations.