(01-18-2019 03:28 PM)JRsec Wrote:  

(01-18-2019 11:54 AM)Brookes Owl Wrote:  

(01-17-2019 11:29 PM)JRsec Wrote:  

(01-17-2019 11:12 PM)olliebaba Wrote:  I just heard that California wines have been found to have Round Up pesticide in their bottles. How much truth is there to this story? I have four bottles of California wines and I wonder if this is true.

I wouldn't worry too much about that. Most any brand of corn (unless you grew it yourself) will have a level of the chemicals from roundup in it. Add that to the pesticides you get on apple skins and you'll have a whole toxic thing going on that will one day enable you to respond to the TV lawyers.

It's for all of us who didn't have the privilege of working in the shipyards in WWII.

This is where we have to talk about detection limits vs allowable limits. Laboratories are improving their ability to detect chemicals in smaller and smaller quantities. At the same time, EPA (and many states) set limits for concentrations of contaminants than can cause illness or injury. Sometimes these two limits are related (there are chemicals which are only considered safe at "non detect"), but often they are not.

The contaminant of concern in Roundup is glyphosate. It was found in 100% of CA wines tested, but keep in mind they tested only 10 wines. More importantly, the levels of glyphosate encountered were quite low - from <1 to 19 parts per billion (ppb). For perspective, EPA has set limits on glyphosate in drinking water of 700 ppb, and they've set limits for all kinds of food that are MUCH higher than what was detected in wine. Bananas can have 200 ppb; carrots 5,000 ppb. Yes, the EPA makes mistakes all the time, but I do this for a living and in my experience they are vastly more likely to make a mistake on the conservative side.

tl;dr... Just because a chemical can be detected doesn't mean it's harmful.

The corn levels are significant. Carrots are an interesting vegetable. When I want to detox an area for a garden I plant carrots there for 3 years. Then I grind up those carrots and put them in the trash, not my mulch pile. Carrots are a cleanser for contaminants in the soil. Three good crops of carrots will essentially rid a garden plot of hazards in the soil.

The problem with your legal limits Brookes is that most contaminates are cumulative for your diet. You may only get 19ppb in that California wine but when you add that to the carrots from a corporate farm that you eat in your dinner salad, add them to the drinking water and to the pesticides on corporat tomatoes, and to the chemicals sprayed on your apples the cumulative toxic levels add up quickly and sometimes the mix of them is worse than just any one contaminant.

So, having legal limits for 1 item is essentially a cover for industries that refuse to clean up their act.

In the 1970's the country went through a jogging phase. The standard bad joke was that the jogging fools (thinking Forest Gump level of running here) that chided your chunky butt, were the ones dropping like flies. Fat in the body is used to isolate toxins that the liver can't process efficiently. When the jogging craze hit there were folks dropping a quick 20 to 30 pounds over a relatively short span of time like a year or less and the stored toxins were unleashed hitting the body in higher doses than when they were consumed. Coronaries and other health issues peaked in a relatively young age group.

Until a person's whole diet is analyzed we don't have a real grasp on why health risks are spiking or what the cumulative affect of toxins really are.

30 years ago Pancreatic cancer was 1 in about 5 million cancer cases. It's much higher now. Monsanto was behind the production of genetically altered seeds back in the late 70's and early 80's. The modifications were to make crops less digestible and therefore less palatable to insects. I never found it inconsequential that about 5 years after that Tums and Rolaids starting being replaced in epic quantities by acid reducing drugs. The rise of Prevacid, Prilosec, and Nexium rose considerably and were very profitable to Big Pharma. If crops are less digestible to insects are they any more digestible to us? No. When the body can't break something down it pumps more acid.

The rise in Crohn's disease, celiac disease, bloating, and other digestive tract issues also corresponds to the genetic modifications. Does that prove a correlation? No. But raises some profound questions that many major companies won't want to explore.

When I garden I don't use any pesticides, try to use mulch to condition the soil as opposed to too much phosphate, and just realize that a % will go to the bugs. When I'm eating out of my garden my need for acid reflux drugs drops way off. Hmm?

Your anecdotes and conspiracy theories, while interesting, are hardly data but I don't want to derail any further a thread that is otherwise very enjoyable. I'd be happy to contribute to a separate thread on contamination and its impacts on agriculture.

(01-18-2019 02:23 PM)fsquid Wrote:  

(01-18-2019 02:09 PM)ArmyBlazer Wrote:  

(01-18-2019 01:05 PM)Claw Wrote:  

(01-17-2019 06:59 PM)ArmyBlazer Wrote:  I got a bottle of Knob Creek Small Batch as a gift recently. Good stuff. My go to is normally Basil Hayden’s.

Basil Hayden is really nice.

Bourbon is my preferred liquor, but I don’t claim to be a bourbon expert. My only criteria is that I don’t want to have to mix it with anything. So Basil Hayden’s is perfect for me. It’s got good flavor, and a bit of a bite, but it isn’t overwhelming at all. It’s a good end of the day, sipping drink.

we want to talk about "soy boys", you mix bourbon with anything you are a soy boy.

bull****. Plenty of fantastic cocktails out there made with bourbon. Boulevardier has been my go-to for a while. Black Manhattan also is great.

And for those of you who get all worked up about ice or water in whiskey you should try it once or twice. You'll notice that the cold and/or dilution will change the character of the spirit in a lot of interesting ways. Ethanol in high proof spirits can really be overwhelming. Drinking spirits exclusively neat is not manly, but it is a good way to miss out on some really enjoyable imbibing.

(01-18-2019 06:30 PM)Brookes Owl Wrote:  

(01-18-2019 02:23 PM)fsquid Wrote:  

(01-18-2019 02:09 PM)ArmyBlazer Wrote:  

(01-18-2019 01:05 PM)Claw Wrote:  

(01-17-2019 06:59 PM)ArmyBlazer Wrote:  I got a bottle of Knob Creek Small Batch as a gift recently. Good stuff. My go to is normally Basil Hayden’s.

Basil Hayden is really nice.

Bourbon is my preferred liquor, but I don’t claim to be a bourbon expert. My only criteria is that I don’t want to have to mix it with anything. So Basil Hayden’s is perfect for me. It’s got good flavor, and a bit of a bite, but it isn’t overwhelming at all. It’s a good end of the day, sipping drink.

we want to talk about "soy boys", you mix bourbon with anything you are a soy boy.

bull****. Plenty of fantastic cocktails out there made with bourbon. Boulevardier has been my go-to for a while. Black Manhattan also is great.

And for those of you who get all worked up about ice or water in whiskey you should try it once or twice. You'll notice that the cold and/or dilution will change the character of the spirit in a lot of interesting ways. Ethanol in high proof spirits can really be overwhelming. Drinking spirits exclusively neat is not manly, but it is a good way to miss out on some really enjoyable imbibing.

Well with Vodka, you can just put it in the frig. No dilution needed.

(01-18-2019 06:30 PM)Brookes Owl Wrote:  

(01-18-2019 02:23 PM)fsquid Wrote:  

(01-18-2019 02:09 PM)ArmyBlazer Wrote:  

(01-18-2019 01:05 PM)Claw Wrote:  

(01-17-2019 06:59 PM)ArmyBlazer Wrote:  I got a bottle of Knob Creek Small Batch as a gift recently. Good stuff. My go to is normally Basil Hayden’s.

Basil Hayden is really nice.

Bourbon is my preferred liquor, but I don’t claim to be a bourbon expert. My only criteria is that I don’t want to have to mix it with anything. So Basil Hayden’s is perfect for me. It’s got good flavor, and a bit of a bite, but it isn’t overwhelming at all. It’s a good end of the day, sipping drink.

we want to talk about "soy boys", you mix bourbon with anything you are a soy boy.

bull****. Plenty of fantastic cocktails out there made with bourbon. Boulevardier has been my go-to for a while. Black Manhattan also is great.

And for those of you who get all worked up about ice or water in whiskey you should try it once or twice. You'll notice that the cold and/or dilution will change the character of the spirit in a lot of interesting ways. Ethanol in high proof spirits can really be overwhelming. Drinking spirits exclusively neat is not manly, but it is a good way to miss out on some really enjoyable imbibing.

I agree - especially if you have something above 100 proof. I have a bottle of WT Rare Breed at 112 proof. Not much taste except alcohol if you DON'T drink it on the rocks or add some water. One of the more recent times I was drinking the Rare Breed I accidentally put a little more ice in than I normally do and let it sit a little longer than normal. I swear it developed a big time smokey flavor that I'll admit was off-putting due to it being so unexpected. Almost like phenol found in the Islay and Orkney scotches. Water will allow more flavors to come out that you normally won't detect if you drink it neat.