Ale To the Chief: White House Releases Beer Recipe 340
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!"
tax dollars are not involved (Score:5, Insightful)
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 [reuters.com], "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."
Your tax dollars hard at work yet again! (Score:3, Insightful)
Yeah, well, compared to the wars, prohibition, TSA, etc., it's money well spent.
Re:tax dollars are not involved (Score:4, Insightful)
Guy literally has the most stressful job on the planet.
I think we should at least pay for his dinners.
FINALLY, Slashdot! (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:Just don't ask about Gitmo (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:Yep, its election time (Score:5, Insightful)
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!
Re:Yep, its election time (Score:2, Insightful)
"Look at me, i drink beer just like joe sixpack. Vote for me"
disgusting pandering.
Close. The two elections before last were "Look at me, I'm an ignorant fool just like joe-bob sixpack. Vote for me"
This time it's "Look at me, I'm enjoy a good microbrewed ale like any normal, thinking person would. Vote for me"
Re:Tax dollars? Not so much (Score:5, Insightful)
I'd rather my tax dollars went to beer breweing anyway. It's either that or some military money pit facade.
Now, if we can just get .... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Yep, its election time (Score:4, Insightful)
Still waiting for President Obama to show up to a convention wearing Converses and empty Rayban frames while he gives a speech ironically.
Re:Yep, its election time (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
Re:Hey! (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh, spare us. After eight years of liberals calling Bush every name in the book and inventing a few new ones too, you have the gall to blame Republicans for condemning liberalism? Who do you think you're trying to fool, besides yourself?
False equivalence. [wikipedia.org] Bush didn't have people demanding to see his birth certificate, and then denying its legitimacy once they saw it. Bush didn't have a congress whose Democratic members vowed to make him a one-term president by any means necessary. Bush didn't have a senate whose Democratic members filibustered more (by a huge factor) than any other senate in history. Bush didn't inherit a financial crisis created by his predecessor (quite the opposite in fact.) I could go on but what's the point.
Nor should anyone care (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:Tax dollars? Not so much (Score:1, Insightful)
I'd rather my tax dollars went to beer breweing anyway. It's either that or some military money pit facade.
A minor issue, but that's a very dangerous, false (and common) dichotomy.
Unless this is literally coming out of the military budget, any such expense comes out of the additional money that will be borrowed somewhere. Without a zero-sum budget, there are no balancing trade-offs forcing spending less on B because we spent more on A.
Still, you'd have to admit that blowing trillions of dollars on unnecessary wars against people who pose very little credible military threat, while ignoring the true aggressors for years because finding them was a bit difficult is more of a problem than spending taxpayer dollars videoing Obama's personal brew kit. No?
Re:Beer & Wine Are Just Fine... (Score:3, Insightful)
Actually, it's pretty hard to brew beer or mead that can actually hurt you. Usually the mistakes just end up tasting like shit.
Re:Obama consisgtently drinking beer ... (Score:2, Insightful)