[HN Gopher] The Battle to Bottle Palm Wine (2021)
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       The Battle to Bottle Palm Wine (2021)
        
       Author : prmph
       Score  : 9 points
       Date   : 2025-05-10 14:05 UTC (3 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.atlasobscura.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.atlasobscura.com)
        
       | jollyllama wrote:
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nipah_virus_infection#Preventi...
        
         | xnx wrote:
         | > 50% to 75% of those infected die
         | 
         | Whoa
        
         | howard941 wrote:
         | What is it about bats that makes them vectors for so many
         | maladies? EDITED to remove spurious ref to rodents
        
           | neaden wrote:
           | A big thing is that Bats have a really weird metabolism,
           | during their day it can dip down to 50 Fahrenheit and then go
           | up to 104 F at night when they are active. This can mean they
           | end up carrying a lot of diseases but not dying/showing
           | symptoms of them. They also have very strong DNA repair
           | compared to other mammals. Then in addition many bats are
           | very social and sleep in big groups, which means the disease
           | can spread throughout the bat population.
           | 
           | Edit: Finally and relevantly they can come in close contact
           | with people by coming into our homes, or people going into
           | theirs. This can let the disease cross over.
        
             | thaumasiotes wrote:
             | > Bats have a really weird metabolism, during their day it
             | can dip down to 50 Fahrenheit and then go up to 104 F at
             | night when they are active. This can mean they end up
             | carrying a lot of diseases but not dying/showing symptoms
             | of them.
             | 
             | What is the connection between these two ideas?
        
       | system7rocks wrote:
       | I am very intrigued as local, culturally specific
       | wines/beers/fermentation speak so much to our creativity and
       | community as human beings.
       | 
       | But thanks for the heads up about Nipah Virus! Wow!
        
       | decimalenough wrote:
       | Not mentioned is one more part of the battle: toddy is considered
       | a low-class drink for rowdy workers, and tightly regulated
       | accordingly. This guy has been battling Singaporean bureaucracy
       | for six years now just to be allowed to import it from
       | neighboring Malaysia:
       | 
       | https://www.ricemedia.co/one-mans-quest-to-revive-toddy-the-...
        
       | Our_Benefactors wrote:
       | What's the average ABV of palm wine?
        
       | a_t48 wrote:
       | Ever since seeing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6skjbVDVEg4 my
       | wife has been trying to find a way of importing it to make the
       | dish herself
        
       | dluan wrote:
       | This story is from 2021 so I wonder how those startups are faring
       | now. For a while molecular alcohol was the hot thing, with
       | startups like Endless West raising a lot of VC to try and
       | shortcut aging.
        
       | comrade1234 wrote:
       | I used to travel to India a lot and would have this when staying
       | with friends in Hyderabad, flies and all. My friend would send
       | one of his servants out in the morning to buy it for us. The way
       | he explained it - someone would climb the palm tree in the
       | evening, make cuts in a place where the liquid would leak out and
       | pool, then there would be fermentation overnight (bacterial, not
       | yeast), and then they collect it on the morning.
       | 
       | It reminded me of a drink here in Switzerland made during grape
       | harvest and also bacterial fermentation. Also sour cider in the
       | babe region but that's much more sophisticated.
       | 
       | This palm juice alcohol is very primitive and probably something
       | monkeys drank.
        
         | comrade1234 wrote:
         | Basque region, not bape region.
        
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       (page generated 2025-05-13 23:01 UTC)