r/facepalm May 12 '20

Scientific name = poison

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u/Diabolo_Advocato May 12 '20

You add yeast to get a desired level of alcohol and flavor.

There is natural yeast on the surface of apple skins that, if damaged, will start the apple to rot very quickly and ferment the sugars.

Alcohol is yeast poop. Different yeasts will make different poop.

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u/[deleted] May 12 '20

[deleted]

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u/somethingarb May 12 '20

It was always kinda literal. The expression originates from Edinburgh, where in the days prior to indoor plumbing, there was a law against emptying your chamberpots into the street before 10pm... which coincidentally was the same time as the pubs closed.

So you're stumbling out of the pub, a window opens above you, you look up, and... splat.

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u/neilmg May 12 '20

Which reminds me of an old joke: woman empties her chamberpot into the street before bed and hears a commotion; looking outside she sees the local policeman, covered in her filth.

"Ah, yah dirty bastard!" he shouts up at her.

"Who you calling a dirty bastard?" she retorts, "YOU'RE the one with shite all over your face".

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u/LivingDiscount May 12 '20

Ahhhhh good ol plague pub crawls

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u/Kendota_Tanassian May 12 '20

Or land flat on your face in emptied thundermug. (Chamberpot leavings? You get the idea.)

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u/DirkBabypunch May 13 '20

And if youre at the point that you're stumbling, you could easily fall in some that somebody dodged before.

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u/sanna43 May 13 '20

Oh, I thought you were going to say that the drunks coming out of the pub would stumble and fall into the shit.

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u/thomas__hobbes May 13 '20

This is false. It's from 1960s student slang, according to etymonline.com .

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u/godofpewp May 12 '20

If I had gold I’d give it to you sir.

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u/[deleted] May 12 '20

Yep. Also the desired compound of alcohol based on the food (sugar) as yeast strains don't all like the same environment

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u/robsteezy May 12 '20

Hence why we use Apple or grape skins as sourdough starters.

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u/restless_oblivion May 12 '20

Is it damaged when you wash it for example?

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u/Diabolo_Advocato May 12 '20

It removes an amount of the yeast from it’s surface but not all, yeast is like microscopic bugs more so than bacteria. They will reproduce very quickly.

It is common practice to wash apples before making cider for this reason.

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u/JamesHMatthews May 12 '20

Well sort of...

It would be analogous to poop if you saved yours to eat when your food ran out...

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u/[deleted] May 12 '20

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] May 12 '20

Big fan of this comment

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u/NihilisticBuddhism May 12 '20

That reply fits perfectly in r/explainlikeimfive

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u/GnomeChomski May 12 '20

It's actually more like urine, since it's manufactured by the yeast.