KSL Televion in Salt Lake City recently ran a story on a product called Spike Your Juice. They promoted the story saying things like, (I'm paraphrasing) "a product that turns ordinary Juice into alcohol?" then they would show video of shocked parents alarmed that such a thing could possibly exist.As I'm watching the promo I looked to Mrs. Mikey and said."it's gotta be yeast, right?" And it was. The controversial substance was a simple package of dry yeast.
Basic fermentation is a mind boggling simple process. If your going run a story that's supposed aim is to benefit parents and children, while teaching the said viewers the very process your aim is to protect them from, I think that you've sent a very conflicted message.
In a state where alcohol is the equivalent of "liquid Evil", you'd think an arm of the LDS church (KSL) would be more responsible. An Epic fail.
I won't drone on about the content of the story because I've posted it for you and you can judge it's merits for yourselves. Watch it. Is KSL just trying to create controversy where none exists or was this a good informative story.
I Guess what really burns my ass is that some overly righteous political zealot will run with it and try to pass some bizarre legislation to back their neo-prohibitionist agenda next legislative session. What are your thoughts?
Discussion is already underway in the forum.
Video Courtesy of KSL.com
11 comments:
Like I said in the message board, next thing you know you'll need to be 21 to get bakers yeast.
Also, I was over at the beer nut last night picking up my grain bill for brew night and they were very busy. Apparently there were many phone calls and several people in there looking for the "Spike" stuff. When I was there a guy came in and was saying "It can't be yeast alone... It's acid or something that makes Alcohol right?" And the poor beer nut people were saying, "No I assure you, yeast makes alcohol... trust us." It was hilarious.
I haven't watched the video yet. No streaming at the office, but judging from the TV spots I saw the other night it seemed to really be going for the parental shock and outrage factor. They had the state official announcing that they had no authority to regulate this product. Several parents seemed stunned that something like this existed. From the spots I assume that the distributor must be dropping pallets of this off in front of schools, playgrounds and churches.
When I listened to the hearings leading up to the home brew legislation I was stunned at the almost criminal lack of information on the part of many legislators. It seemed as though the act of learning about the process would taint those tasked with legislating it. Echoing what you've stated Mikey my fear is that this will unleash an ignorance fueled backlash. "See what happens when we legalize home brewing? They've made something targeting our kids now!"
KSL does this crap all the time, like when they announced their hard hitting "undercover investigation" of a "gambling operation" in Midvale or something that was really just one of those places in a strip mall where you play the video games or bingo or something. It's just to get the Mormons riled up.
I was interviewed for this story weeks ago. The reporter asked me if I had ever heard of this and I replied that I hadn't. Without giving it much thought, I dismissed it. Yesterday, the day after the story was run, we had a few customers come into The Beer Nut to inquire about this. I guess if we really wanted to make a quick buck, we could sell this crap to every Tom, Dick, and Harry that wanted a relatively quick buzz. I am not going to entertain this idea. It is the same reason we don't sell Mr. Beer here. We aim to teach people the proper way to ferment beer and wine for maximum quality. It is a hobby after all.
Yeah, a real hard-hitting investigation. Yeast makes alcohol- holy smokes! BTW, I bet this guy who sells this get rich. Damn, why didn't I think of doing this.
This is even worse than their recent stories on spice.
"BTW, I bet this guy who sells this get rich. Damn, why didn't I think of doing this."
I was kind of thinking the same thing. Put cheap sugar and yeast in a box, market it as "It'll fuck you up!", and charge an 8 million percent markup.
What causes me more fear is the fact that there is talk about further raising taxes on alcohol thinking that this would help raise more money and decrease alcohol related disease and abuse. The fact is high fructose corn syrup causes far more problems with obesity and diabetes than alcohol disease but they never bring up taxing soda, hmmmm wonder why?
What they don't get is more people will travel over the boarder to import, people will drink less therefore reduce tax collection and decrease growth and jobs. Short term gains with long term losses.
If talks start to garner support we need to band together to fight the man!
Brewers, pro and am, shall bind together and fight Uncommon Sense. BTW, Hey, kids, go to the supermarket and look fr vanilla extract...got t b 21 though ...ksl did a story bout kava kava while back..they forgot t mention white LDS r the biggest ABusers, not the cultural partakers like their Polynesian brethren.
I don't think there will be any new legislation come from this. Sure, Waddups may get his panties in a twist over it, but since they passed the bill that finally allowed home brewing a few years ago, it would be too difficult to get around all that to keep juice from being turned to bad-tasting wine.
This is exactly what I told my wife. This stupid story will lead to trouble for home brewers.
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