kenny
03-24-2011, 04:35 PM
It’s a bit like catching a sasquatch, only to find a zipper running up its furry back.
The disappointment is of a depth reserved for the day Elvis is finally proven dead, or when scientists announce the Shroud of Turin is a dirty bath towel, dating back to 1820.
Brace yourselves, lovers of legend, lore and barley-malted liquor. We have bad news.
The Saddledome’s mythical lager, feared for its ability to inebriate and spoken about in hushed tones as “Heroin Beer”, appears to be nothing more than ordinary draft.
Splutter as you will, and deny as you might, but the Sun decided to cut to the core of one of Calgary’s most enduring legends, and actually have Heroin Beer tested.
After nearly 28 years of rumour about the strength of beer at the Dome, we sought the truth.
It meant smuggling the suds out of the arena, avoiding the watchful eye of security, and then taking the sealed container to a local laboratory for analysis.
Specifically, we asked Exova laboratory in Calgary to determine the alcohol content of the Heroin Beer, to prove or quash the decades-old rumour that the lager is somehow more powerful than ordinary beer.
The results came back a week later, and the answer is very ordinary: 4.9% alcohol.
In other words, almost exactly where it should be, given the Saddledome’s long standing claim that the beer is plain Molson-supplied beer, with an alcohol content of 5%, give-or-take a small margin of error.
“Of course — I’m not surprised at all,” said Mark Vaillant, vice-president of Food & Beverage for the Calgary Flames, which operates the NHL arena.
“Heroin Beer is one of those myths people like to perpetuate.
“Say something enough, and you’ll start to believe it.”
And believe it the fans do. From hockey forums like Calgarypuck.com to word-of-mouth anecdotes among Saddledome regulars, the beer is both revered and respected.
“I’m your average guy in his 30s, and I can drink three or four pints watching the hockey game in a pub, and not feel drunk,” said James Callsen.
“But I drink three or four Heroin Beer over the course of a game at the Saddledome, and I am annihilated — it feels like the equivalent to six or seven regular beers.”
Callsen works at X92.9, a Calgary radio station that has done much to spread the fame of the fabled elixir.
Darren Ollinger, a season ticket holder and another of the station’s voices, once went so far as to do a live report on Heroin Beer from the Saddledome, with one on-air phone call for each beer consumed.
He ended up an incoherent, slobbering mess.
“I’ve done so much Heroin Beer that I try to stay away from it now — it doesn’t make sense that three beers out of can will make you feel good, but drink three heroin beers and you’re seeing things,” said Ollinger.
“It’s a dirty drunk, if that makes sense — you end up pie-eyed wasted, and I’m pretty good at drinking.”
With seasoned beer aficionados in such awe, the truth about the beer’s alcohol content is bound to be controversial: Conspiracy theories and legends rarely die by one lab test alone.
Indeed, if high alcohol content was the most popular theory, it wasn’t the only one — everything from intoxicating gas to dirty beer lines has been cited as a possible source of the brutal buzz.
But the Saddledome denies all. Beverage boss Vaillant says he’s heard all the theories and rumours about the beer, and there’s nothing to it.
“We use standard beer gas, which is the same no matter where you go, and the people saying it’s dirty lines are not right either — they’re cleaned on a regular basis,” said Vaillant.
“There are approved methods of how the beer is pushed through the lines, and we stick to that.”
Calgary Flames officials, though, refused to let the Sun inside to have a look at the system, which apparently involves pumping draft up from a bus-sized beer cooler somewhere in the basement.
If they hoped to kill the Heroin Beer rumour, refusing to show the evidence will likely do the opposite for those clinging to a conspiracy of keg-sized proportions.
Still, Flames boss Ken King was at least willing to give his take on the legend — in the past, team officials have declined to discuss what they downplay as a silly rumour.
“From a formal perspective, I can say there is no difference between that beer and any other,” said King.
King suspects the long climb to the nosebleed section, where a rowdier breed of fan is often found, started the whole Heroin Beer legend.
“We believe the phenomenon is exclusive to the third level,” said King, tongue firmly in cheek.
“People come here — and it’s possible they’ve already had a beer or two before they arrive — then they run up the stairs, and are all dizzy and out of breath, and they quickly buy one of our beers and drink it.
“Then they can’t figure out why the Saddeldome beer seems so strong.”
King is kidding, but the Flames’president may not be far off from the truth.
Roger Mittag is Canada’s leading beer expert, lecturing on the subject as a professor at Humber College’s School of Hospitality in Ontario.
Mittag is the kind of guy you’d want on the stand if a beer ever came up at a trial, and he’s quick to suggest Heroin Beer could be a mixture of excitement and missed meals.
“You’re in an environment that encourages you to drink quickly — and if you drink on an empty stomach, you’re going to end up light headed pretty quickly,” said Mittag.
“If you don’t have food, there’s nothing to absorb the alcohol other than your bloodstream, and you’re going to get intoxicated faster.
“I think that’s a viable theory.”
With Saddledome games starting at 7 p.m., it’s not uncommon to miss dinner in the rush to reach your seats, so empty stomach and excitement could be the answer.
But not so fast, says Mittag.
He’s heard the rumour about the Saddledome’s beer from as far away as Ontario, and he suspects there may be an extra ingredient causing the buzz.
It’s not alcohol — the Sun’s test proves that.
But Mittag says the wrong balance of gas in the service lines could make what alcohol there is much faster acting.
The clue is foamy beer — and the Saddledome’s suds do sport a distinctive froth.
“If it’s foamy, the beer is over-carbonated, and carbonation robs the body of oxygen,” said Mittag.
“Beer with higher levels of CO2 is going to get you drunk a lot faster.”
Could it be that the truth behind the Heroin Beer legend isn’t how drunk you get, but how quickly you get drunk?
One thing’s for sure — there are plenty of Flames fans willing to test the theory.
[email protected]
http://www.calgarysun.com/news/columnists/michael_platt/2011/03/24/17733981.html
The disappointment is of a depth reserved for the day Elvis is finally proven dead, or when scientists announce the Shroud of Turin is a dirty bath towel, dating back to 1820.
Brace yourselves, lovers of legend, lore and barley-malted liquor. We have bad news.
The Saddledome’s mythical lager, feared for its ability to inebriate and spoken about in hushed tones as “Heroin Beer”, appears to be nothing more than ordinary draft.
Splutter as you will, and deny as you might, but the Sun decided to cut to the core of one of Calgary’s most enduring legends, and actually have Heroin Beer tested.
After nearly 28 years of rumour about the strength of beer at the Dome, we sought the truth.
It meant smuggling the suds out of the arena, avoiding the watchful eye of security, and then taking the sealed container to a local laboratory for analysis.
Specifically, we asked Exova laboratory in Calgary to determine the alcohol content of the Heroin Beer, to prove or quash the decades-old rumour that the lager is somehow more powerful than ordinary beer.
The results came back a week later, and the answer is very ordinary: 4.9% alcohol.
In other words, almost exactly where it should be, given the Saddledome’s long standing claim that the beer is plain Molson-supplied beer, with an alcohol content of 5%, give-or-take a small margin of error.
“Of course — I’m not surprised at all,” said Mark Vaillant, vice-president of Food & Beverage for the Calgary Flames, which operates the NHL arena.
“Heroin Beer is one of those myths people like to perpetuate.
“Say something enough, and you’ll start to believe it.”
And believe it the fans do. From hockey forums like Calgarypuck.com to word-of-mouth anecdotes among Saddledome regulars, the beer is both revered and respected.
“I’m your average guy in his 30s, and I can drink three or four pints watching the hockey game in a pub, and not feel drunk,” said James Callsen.
“But I drink three or four Heroin Beer over the course of a game at the Saddledome, and I am annihilated — it feels like the equivalent to six or seven regular beers.”
Callsen works at X92.9, a Calgary radio station that has done much to spread the fame of the fabled elixir.
Darren Ollinger, a season ticket holder and another of the station’s voices, once went so far as to do a live report on Heroin Beer from the Saddledome, with one on-air phone call for each beer consumed.
He ended up an incoherent, slobbering mess.
“I’ve done so much Heroin Beer that I try to stay away from it now — it doesn’t make sense that three beers out of can will make you feel good, but drink three heroin beers and you’re seeing things,” said Ollinger.
“It’s a dirty drunk, if that makes sense — you end up pie-eyed wasted, and I’m pretty good at drinking.”
With seasoned beer aficionados in such awe, the truth about the beer’s alcohol content is bound to be controversial: Conspiracy theories and legends rarely die by one lab test alone.
Indeed, if high alcohol content was the most popular theory, it wasn’t the only one — everything from intoxicating gas to dirty beer lines has been cited as a possible source of the brutal buzz.
But the Saddledome denies all. Beverage boss Vaillant says he’s heard all the theories and rumours about the beer, and there’s nothing to it.
“We use standard beer gas, which is the same no matter where you go, and the people saying it’s dirty lines are not right either — they’re cleaned on a regular basis,” said Vaillant.
“There are approved methods of how the beer is pushed through the lines, and we stick to that.”
Calgary Flames officials, though, refused to let the Sun inside to have a look at the system, which apparently involves pumping draft up from a bus-sized beer cooler somewhere in the basement.
If they hoped to kill the Heroin Beer rumour, refusing to show the evidence will likely do the opposite for those clinging to a conspiracy of keg-sized proportions.
Still, Flames boss Ken King was at least willing to give his take on the legend — in the past, team officials have declined to discuss what they downplay as a silly rumour.
“From a formal perspective, I can say there is no difference between that beer and any other,” said King.
King suspects the long climb to the nosebleed section, where a rowdier breed of fan is often found, started the whole Heroin Beer legend.
“We believe the phenomenon is exclusive to the third level,” said King, tongue firmly in cheek.
“People come here — and it’s possible they’ve already had a beer or two before they arrive — then they run up the stairs, and are all dizzy and out of breath, and they quickly buy one of our beers and drink it.
“Then they can’t figure out why the Saddeldome beer seems so strong.”
King is kidding, but the Flames’president may not be far off from the truth.
Roger Mittag is Canada’s leading beer expert, lecturing on the subject as a professor at Humber College’s School of Hospitality in Ontario.
Mittag is the kind of guy you’d want on the stand if a beer ever came up at a trial, and he’s quick to suggest Heroin Beer could be a mixture of excitement and missed meals.
“You’re in an environment that encourages you to drink quickly — and if you drink on an empty stomach, you’re going to end up light headed pretty quickly,” said Mittag.
“If you don’t have food, there’s nothing to absorb the alcohol other than your bloodstream, and you’re going to get intoxicated faster.
“I think that’s a viable theory.”
With Saddledome games starting at 7 p.m., it’s not uncommon to miss dinner in the rush to reach your seats, so empty stomach and excitement could be the answer.
But not so fast, says Mittag.
He’s heard the rumour about the Saddledome’s beer from as far away as Ontario, and he suspects there may be an extra ingredient causing the buzz.
It’s not alcohol — the Sun’s test proves that.
But Mittag says the wrong balance of gas in the service lines could make what alcohol there is much faster acting.
The clue is foamy beer — and the Saddledome’s suds do sport a distinctive froth.
“If it’s foamy, the beer is over-carbonated, and carbonation robs the body of oxygen,” said Mittag.
“Beer with higher levels of CO2 is going to get you drunk a lot faster.”
Could it be that the truth behind the Heroin Beer legend isn’t how drunk you get, but how quickly you get drunk?
One thing’s for sure — there are plenty of Flames fans willing to test the theory.
[email protected]
http://www.calgarysun.com/news/columnists/michael_platt/2011/03/24/17733981.html