Monkey piss!
Ok. So, for those of you who might not know, and for everybody’s enjoyment, I will tell a quick story, that has some education to it.
So I have this beer. It’s not home made, and yes I do brew my own, just not currently… But it’s a dark ale, that is, as it is referred to as, on lees. This basically means that it is natural and unfiltered - ergo - on yeast(lees). There are advantages to this, by the way, one meaning hat it will age and condition well, like a fine wine.
Well, to keep it short, as I had intended, which is hard for me (I am a writer after all), you need to pour it into a glass - unless you are a “cloudy beer enthusiast, ie: the sour taste from the yeast you enjoy, and then you need to gently mix before pouring to spread the yeast evenly - btw it’s the same sour flavour you taste in sourdough bread<see, I can’t keep anything short…>
”OK!” I’m sure you’re yelling…
So! I took this bottle, and wasn’t even thinking about it -I just fuckin’ pour this shit out of the bottle - the last third at that, being a small glass and a big bottle - completely no thinking. I grab the bottle roughly, mix all the yeast into it, pour it into the glass, and fucking chug. BLEH! Nothin’ to do with “cloudy beer”, which I don’t mind… But, ALL THE YEAST AT ONCE!
UGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Fucking GROSS!
OK! So why exactly the title, and what was the referred to lesson?
Well, the term monkey piss comes from traditional notions, that you pour most of the bottle out gently, as to not disturb the settled yeast. The bottom dribbles would be horrible. The concept evolved into what today we refer to as - “monkey piss.”
PS:
Another advantage is a much higher achievable alcohol strength. This shit, as example, is at 12%. As high as most wines. Aprox. as high as you can get, without distillation - or extreme luck and a hardy yeast that might survive to 18/20%! It was likely 8-10% when bottled.
