... in the end. And it is spreading. I still haven't figured out how to barter for gasoline or air tickets, but I bet sooner or later I'll find someone willing to do that!

Of course, currency was such a terrific invention because it eliminated that issue.

But a barter site that worked like e-bay would be interesting. I think that an airline ticket to heads of lettuce ratio would settle out pretty quickly, given data collection.

It would be an interesting question to solve.

[x] Any (D) in the general. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.

I forget any details at all (was too busy being jealous of somebody who can make even one trade for something of greater value, a skill I lack) but he started with a common metal paper clip. Traded that for, I dunno, a ball of string. Then traded the string for...you get the picture. Never ripped anybody off, both parties always satisfied that they had swapped something they needed less for something they needed more.

But the items kept getting of higher and higher monetary value. It may have taken a few dozen trades or it may have taken a hundred, but he started out with a paper clip and wound up with either a house or a car or something of similar value, all without a centavo in currency changing hands.

Also never heard what the IRS thought of the matter...

Of course what I started out here on this thread to ask is, what the hell is a Guaraná bean and why would anyone put beans of any sort in one's beer? Yuck.

(still want my Mr. Beer back, cuz it's easy and doesn't take up much space.)

Because it’s important to pass on hard-earned knowledge.

There are lots of important aspects, but three are critical. The one that is always reinforced is cleanliness and sterility of your equipment. Another, which is mentioned but not IMO firmly enough, is making sure you wait for primary fermentation to finish before bottling, and don’t add more priming sugar than the recipe calls for.

What happens if the in-bottle fermentation isn’t as much as you’d like? The beer will be a little flat; big deal, drink it faster. What happens if the fermentation is too vigorous? The bottles explode. Broken glass and beer everywhere, and once they start exploding you can’t get near them for several days because you don’t know how many more will go off or when.

The third point that no one ever tells you about is to store the freshly bottled beer somewhere with an easily washable floor and walls, just in case the bottles do start exploding. A basement shower is good, the back corner of a barn is better. The floor of a hall closet, it turns out, is not a good place.

Never mind the little bits of glass and the dry cleaner cost for coats and sweaters; what really causes trouble is the still-fermenting beer soaking into the carpet, from whence a steadily more pestilential odor will not completely evaporate for weeks and weeks and endless weeks, regardless of how many times you steam clean.

“It’s either me or the beer-making” is not something you ever want to hear; difficult choices are always best avoided.

right now i'm picturing you in a grey and aproned governess' getup, with a finger wagging in the air. ;-)

or you might get spanked.