Daniel and drinking: looking for help

[fignewton]

I'm turning to my f-list, and anyone else who might wander by, for some help.

I'm working on the next installment of Canon vs. Fanon, which includes Daniel's fondness for chocolate/candy and alcohol. I'm having a little trouble with my research, and I hope that some of you out there might be able to clarify things for me.

I know very little about alcoholic drinks. Aside from the occasional half-glass of semi-dry or dry wine, I don't drink; my husband drinks even less, so he's no help, either. :) I know nothing about beer, American or otherwise. I can't tell the difference between light beers or dark ones or imports or whatever else is different about them. I have this vague idea that canned beer is less classy than bottled beer, but I don’t know where I got that assumption, or whether or not it's true.

I know even less about hard liquor, whether it's whiskey, vodka, tequila, scotch, rum, or whatever else might exist out there. I've never stepped foot in a bar, so I don't know how to identify the glasses or drinks in any given scene to determine what the characters are drinking.

Can anyone help me? I've already gotten some nice info out of princessofg regarding Upgrades, although I have to admit that I don’t actually know what a pilsner is. :) But to be really thorough, it would be ideal if I knew exactly what the characters are drinking. Since fanon makes various assertions regarding imports and microbrews – which, as I've said, mean absolutely nothing to me – it would be enormously helpful if all you knowledgeable people out there could tell me precisely what kinds of beer, liquors, and other alcoholic drinks are consumed by Daniel, or in Daniel's company, or by other members of SG-1.

As far as I can tell, the episodes in question are as follows (reference to one small S9 spoiler from Ethon):

COTG. Beer at Jack's. Can anyone tell from the shape of the bottle or the label what brand they're drinking?

Upgrades. Daniel drinks beer – princessofg identifies it as dark beer – and the others are drinking something else – pilsner? – and Jack has a shot of something a little stronger. Any more clarification?

2010. They drink champage at the ceremony and there are used wineglasses at the dinner table. I'll touch on Teal'c in the actual post.

Absolute Power. Daniel opens champagne. Anyone know which label costs $2,000 per bottle?

Threads/Moebius. Teal'c and Daniel carry a cooler between them as they join Sam and Jack on the little dock of the fishless/fish-filled pond by the cabin and Daniel pulls out two beers. Can't see a label, but maybe someone with better resolution can spot it.

Season Nine Spoiler! Ethon. Mitchell offers Daniel a beer (in a can) in the closing scene. Which brand? Can anyone tell? Is there a difference in quality/snobbishness/taste between bottled and canned beer?

Besides that, Jack offers Daniel a Budweiser in Shades of Grey; they're drinking Guiness in Lost City; and he's bringing Heinekin into the house in the opening teaser of Citizen Joe. Jack is, apparently, not very particular. Can someone who drinks beer explain the differences between the brands, if any? (Some of this info is from the transcripts at Gatenoise, BTW.) And what brand was Jack pouring in Fire and Water when he flashed back on Daniel's "death"?

While I intend to touch upon them in the final post, drinks offered off-world, whether or not Daniel drinks them, don't offer any indication towards preference, as the team usually isn't in a position to do anything other than accept or decline. On a similar note, I'll expand on the problems inherent on relying on episodes like 2010, Upgrades and Absolute Power for absolute canon.

Thanks to all of you in advance! :)

Comments

[princessofg.livejournal.com]

Okay, I do know quite a bit about this subject of alcohol (is that good or bad?), so i'm happy to help.

First of all, canned vs bottled beer: Some people claim beer tastes better out of glass and will not buy cans. For the USA market, almost every conceivable brand is available in cans mostly because of all the drinking that's done at lakes, or at concerts, where broken glass is TEH BAD. All American beers are available in both glass and aluminum; no diff there. Imported beers that want to be consumed by the masses come in cans as well. But it is true that glass is better as far as keeping it tasting right.

(Guiness: I always get the drink and the record book's spelling confused, and I am not turning to any resource books just now because I'm squeezing this comment in while the kids are at the neighbors, so don't hold me to this, but I thought the drink had two n's? Stout is a beerlike drink from the UK and Ireland that is thick and bitter tasting, so Jack is right. It does make a great substitute for food. And Daniel was apparently drinking it during Lost City, yes?)

Pilsner and lager are the lighter, golden colored styles of beers that Americans are most familiar with.

There are many kinds of dark beer (more brown or caramel colored) that range from bitter to sweet but are more thick and chewy tasting than USA beer. In general the Germans and Brits think our beer is weak and watery, and they're right, compared to theirs. Except for the local microbrewery beers....

Europeans drink beer at much warmer temps than the US folks tend to.

Heineken seems to be one beer Jack does certainly buy and drink; it's a German beer designed for American tastes, IMHO. It's dry and crisp and best very cold. It comes in green bottles with short necks.

(It's fanon that Jack likes watery American beer and Daniel has to educate him. OTOH, perhaps they started out that way in Children of the Gods and by the time of Lost City Daniel had turned Jack on to Guinness and other dark beers. Who knows! It's a reasonable extrapolation. The beer bottles in COTG were dark brown longnecks, so they weren't Heineken, but they could be many other things. I don't remember seeing the label.)

In Upgrades, Daniel's beer in the glasses on the table at O'Malley's is clearly darker than Jack and Sam's. Jack also has a shot glass in front of him, which would typically be whiskey of some kind, to go along with his beer.

In the ep where Kinsey invades Jack's living room, Kinsey pours out the last drops of Jack's scotch whiskey, which is clearly Dewar's, a very typical, nothing special, but certainly classy and respectable Scotch. It's not exotic but it's not lowbrow either.

I can't tell what beer they are drinking in either the end of Moebius or in Fire and Water or Children of the Gods. I'll have to look again.

As far as Absolute Power, there are a few truly pretentious kinds of French or probably even California champagne that could cost $2,000 a bottle, but I don't know the brands without researching it. Champagne is not somethign I know much about.

Hope that's a good beginning.

(Fanon often has Daniel drinking red wine, but i don't think we've ever seen that in canon even one time.)

Thanks again for doing this.

[aurora-novarum.livejournal.com]

The drink and the record book are the same thing! I didn't realize it until someone pointed me to the web page when Stargate entered the records.

Guinness the beer company sponsors the world records. That's why it's Guinness's Book of World Records! LOL.

Oh, topic. LOL. I agree. In canon, I don't recall Daniel ever drinking wine either. And

(But then I tend to think Daniel doesn't really like beer. I've had this discussion with others before and I think he drinks it socially but it's not his preference...but that's a discussion for your NEXT post.)

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

Yep, will get to this. And the infamous line from Shades of Grey. Next post, really!

Are you serious about the sponsorship thing? That disappoints me, somehow. Makes it less respectful.

Daniel does drink wine in 2010. Which is a topic of its own as to whether it counts as canon. :)

[aurora-novarum.livejournal.com]

http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/corporate/about_us.aspx

"In 1951, Sir Hugh Beaver, then the managing director of the Guinness Brewery, went on a shooting party and became involved in an argument. Which was the fastest game bird in Europe – the golden plover or the grouse? He realized then that a book supplying the answers to this sort of question might prove popular. He was right!"

[aurora-novarum.livejournal.com]

Oh, and no I don't know what's the fastest game bird in Europe. You can look that up. LOL

(Although now I'm thinking about air speed velocity of an unladen swallow...carrying coconuts...)

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

As if I needed more confimation about how totally insane this world is.

Thanks for this little tidbit. :)

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

Excellent! This is exactly the kind of info I need, both in regards to the beer and the Scotch.

That fanon thing is exactly why I need this info. I like your backing and filling to make it reasonable, there. :)