Boy Dies From Drinking Homebrew Ouzo

[beersatan]

Note than it seems none of his friends saw the danger signs and did not know what to do as "her brother and others put Daryl into a car after he had passed out at the party and drove him to her parents' house where they called an ambulance." They may not have saved him whatever they did but it makes me wonder if better first aid will be an outcome of this sad event.

Everyone has jumped onto this story but I'm wondering is news.com.au real??
Jessica BEVERIDGE said, "her brother and others put Daryl into a car" and drove after all this? Was he drinking ALL of the alcohol? I'm not happy that someone has died but man...
Maybe that Corey kid should start up a franchise business like Jim's mowing to organize proper out of control parties.

Maybe the government should tackle the media to stop stories like these getting to the public to upset parents and homebrewers alike. A story like this probably won't even register on the likely candidates for a similar occurence and if anything promote it.

Very sad in many ways...

 

[spog]

Dont kids die from petrol sniffing and that only costs $1.60 a litre?!

Man it is too sad and too stupid!! Andy said it well but left one thing out government education. Really the main point is education from every quarter. I cant believe that the kids egging him on thought it was a good thinkg and for that they are all responsible but why did they not realise it was a stupid thing why did know one step in and stop it?? Education. Why was there a party (underage) with alcohol and no parent surpervision.

I disagree with the alcpop tax because it is not going to stop binge drinking or irresponsible drinking I think the only thing that may make an impact is education on all fronts. Real TV commercials, real education at a school level, real education aimed at parents (how did he think it was a good idea, why didnt he know it wasnt) to make sure they get the message and pass it on to their kids.

Yes if we take away alcohol from society then we will never have this happen again and then if we take cars away we will not suffer road fatalities either but that is not an answer as we all know. The answer is education starting at home, aimed at the family and reinforced by schools and government. It doesnt help when you have football heros crashing their car and being three times over the limit nor your so called mates egging you on at a party all in the name of a bit of fun.

The worst part of it with the alcopop tax is how much of that money collected is actually going to really truly and honestly go into education regarding the dangers of binge drinking?

heaps of kids have now been educated because of this sad act of stupidity,you/me/we can go on and on about educating kids about the dangers out there but people will binge drink,drink drive,speed,play silly buggers with guns et c.
but someone will always end up a statistic.....sadly........cheers.....spog.....

 

[schooey]

Maybe the government should tackle the media to stop stories like these getting to the public to upset parents and homebrewers alike. A story like this probably won't even register on the likely candidates for a similar occurence and if anything promote it.

I agree, it's bloody sad... my kids aren't of that age yet, and I really hope that when they are that as parents my wife and I have equipped them with the right tools to deal with this kind of scenario. I always ask where the hell were the parents?

On the media thing though, I think its maybe a good thing to let them get as much milage as they can from it... If some of the ones that will learn from someone else's mistakes are listening, thats a good thing. Sadly it takes peer pressure for someone to die, but also seeing a peer die to make you realise that you aren't bullet proof. If others see it and shrug it off, I guess that's just natural selection at work.

 

[mwd]

I wonder if there will be ouzo at his wake.

Only If he was of Greek heritage then bring on the Raki

 

[Parks]

I dont fear this being the end of the homebrew at all.
its always been illegal to brew over 15% ?? right?

Homebrewing beer is completely different to homebrewing spirits.

As far as I was aware it doesn't matter the percentage, it is simply illegal to distill spirits or own a still over 5L (of which they classify as a water purifier / essential essence maker).

I believe that is because you can make any percentage alchohol you want with a still, but moreso because the government makes so much money on the tax they don't want you to do it...

 

[Parks]

I must admit in my reading the article I didn't find one reference in regard to 'where did they get the spirit' etc - it was more about 'he had a bottle, then drank another one...'

Maybe they're keeping the witch hunt under wraps so they can catch the 'evil-homebrewer' red handed...

 

[Weizguy]

I wonder if there will be ouzo at his wake.

You guys are missing the point here.
A life has been lost.
A testament has been made to Darwin's theory of survival of the fittest, where the lesser fit are eliminated.
The boy didn't have the common sense to stop himself. His time was up. It might have happened last weekend, but he's probably come close before, and it would have happened eventually, but soon.

No disrespect to the life of this boy, but it was time for him to go.

Now drop this topic and get back to beer.

Seth

 

[mwd]

A sad fact of life. The country is just full of idiots. Just seems to be brought to our attention more every day.

And the majority of idiots blame some other idiot.

Shame they cannot take responsibilty for their own actions.

Agree get back to the beer. Leave all the idiots to self destruction.

But this stupidity usually ends up affecting all other sensible people like it or not.

 

[Brewtus]

I believe that is because you can make any percentage alcohol you want with a still, but moreso because the government makes so much money on the tax they don't want you to do it...

I think it might be a left over from the attempt to undermine the NSW Rum Corp, the fore-fathers of the NSW Police. The Governor at the time opened Govt owned breweries and made making rum without a license illegal.

 

[BenH]

I have heard of people making so-called home-made ouzo by purchasing large bottles of liquorice or aniseed flavouring essence and then adding a quantity of sugar solution to bring it to a palatable state. Some flavouring essences are actually quite high in ethanol content (as much as 30%). The essences are able to be purchased by under-age people, and are often cheaper than booze as they aren't sold or taxed as an alcoholic beverage.

Erm, yep. Guilty, your honour.

I vaguely remember one night where I had too much of the stuff, plus some of the folks red wine. Painted the side of the shed and the lounge room floor, and the hangover lasted 2 days.

Lesson learned. I still find the smell of ouzo and sambuca churns my stomach!

 

[sponge]

Well say it was just 2 bottles of standard strength ouzo... thats a little over 40 standard drinks if im not mistaken


and 40 drinks in ahhh... what, 10 minutes?? Plus the drinks hed already been having

so at least 45 drinks in lets say, an hour or two

hardly able to put any blame on homebrew...

 

[gerald]

Unfortunately I have been in crowds like this myself and to Daryl's friends he will die a hero. Not one of them will put the connection together that they helped him to die by egging him on. "Oh I didn't hold the bottle for him" but peer pressure is a very powerful tool. It the eyes of these young people It will always be some body else's fault and I fear the end of home brew as we know it if the Government and Media pick it as the scape goat.

I dont know about you but ive had some scary incidents with some friends of mine getting too drunk and no one treats them like a hero and everyone feels responsible afterwards knowing we could have stopped them or slowed them down etc... Even now, being over the legal age my friends and i will always look out for each other at parties and when we are out in town. When i was 15, if any of my friends had got that drunk then we would have helped them out and made sure they were ok and definitly not have glorified the stupid decisions they made.

A kid i knew and went to highschool with recently died, he was 4 years bellow me and always seemed a little troubled. I travelled to south africa with him 3 years ago and so i guess i knew him better than some other. I found out recently he killed himself and even though i know i probably couldnt have done anything having not seen him in 20+ months, i felt somewhat guilty. If the kids who were pressuring him dont feel any guilt then they are complete *ucktards and one day, they will feel remorse because they know they contributed to a young mans death.

maybe i just hang with people who have a consciouns

 

[trevc]

My first experience with alcohol was sculling around 4-5 shots of my parents Sambuca in one glass. I wasn't sick, but realised very quickly that the stuff was basically poison.

My parents were disappointed because I had been sneaky and essentially stolen from them, not because I was drinking. From that point on they slowly introduced me to beer and wine. They taught me how to drink responsibly.

I'm not sure of Australian laws, but in Canada minors can drink or order any alcohol if they're with their parents/legal guardians.

 

[geoffi]

I'm not sure of Australian laws, but in Canada minors can drink or order any alcohol if they're with their parents/legal guardians.

Ordering an alcoholic drink for your child at a restaurant in Australia might land you in the slammer.

Funny thing is, I spent a couple of years in Canada as a young'n. My fanatically teetotal parents always held up Canada as a shining light of temperance compared to bacchanalian Australia. When I went back there some years ago, I was moderately surprised to find that alcoholic beverages were actually sold...and consumed! The horror!

 

[PostModern]

You guys are missing the point here.
A life has been lost.
A testament has been made to Darwin's theory of survival of the fittest, where the lesser fit are eliminated.
The boy didn't have the common sense to stop himself. His time was up. It might have happened last weekend, but he's probably come close before, and it would have happened eventually, but soon.

No disrespect to the life of this boy, but it was time for him to go.

Now drop this topic and get back to beer.

Seth

I agree with this. It is too late for this unfortunate youngster. All that we can do is take care of our own, so that they can have the opportunity to live long enough to spawn themselves.

I think it might be a left over from the attempt to undermine the NSW Rum Corp, the fore-fathers of the NSW Police. The Governor at the time opened Govt owned breweries and made making rum without a license illegal.

The Rum Rebellion had nothing to do with Rum. Bligh was basically an idiot (as shown by his previous command on the HMS Bounty). Macarthur enlisted support from the disgruntled New South Wales Corp and arrested Bligh and took over the colony to prevent a rebellion of the masses which would have led to a total mess. Rum had not been used as a currency in Sydney for 8-9 years. No-one at the time thought the rebellion was about Rum. It was just Bligh's feeble clutch at power.

In fact, it was not even called the Rum Rebellion until 1855 when that term was coined by a temperance freak Quaker historian. Sure there was some use of Rum as a currency, but it was all over well before the rebellion. The effects of the 19th Century temperance freaks is still being felt in our country's alcohol policy and in the public view of this historical event.

 

[Millet Man]

Ordering an alcoholic drink for your child at a restaurant in Australia might land you in the slammer.

Everywhere except Victoria where it is quite legal.

Cheers, Andrew

 

[barry2]

This fellow survived but for how long ?
From ABC news today

A motorist stopped by Bulgarian police after a minor traffic accident admitted he had drunk 20 litres of beer - and promptly passed out, local television reported.

The man had a blood alcohol reading more than double the level usually considered lethal.

The 25-year-old driver, who was not named, registered 0.851 blood alcohol content.

Bulgaria's legal limit is 0.05 percent, and 0.40 is often fatal.

Bulgarian police have upped the number of road checks this summer following a series of serious accidents.

Over 1,000 people were killed in road accidents in 2007 in Bulgaria, which has a population of 7.7 million.

- AFP

 

[reviled]

Everywhere except Victoria where it is quite legal.

Cheers, Andrew

Its legal in NZ too B)

 

[DiscoStu]

It's a tragedy for a 15 year old to die this way but it doesn't change the fact that it was his own actions that led to his early demise. A 15 year old should know right from wrong, should know that drinking 2 bottles of spirits could do serious harm.

Regardless of whether is was home made liquor or purchased he was still breaking the law by drinking it. Changing any current laws would not have prevented this from happening.

But in a society where people generally won't accept responsibility for their own actions there will need to be someone to blame, that could well be the homebrew industry if the media decides to make an issue out of it.

Given our collective goverments seem determined to legislate to society's lowest common demoninator we should remember that homebrewing has only been legal since 72, Rudd could reverse this if it's politically beneficial.

 

[PostModern]

But in a society where people generally won't accept responsibility for their own actions there will need to be someone to blame, that could well be the homebrew industry if the media decides to make an issue out of it.

Given our collective goverments seem determined to legislate to society's lowest common demoninator we should remember that homebrewing has only been legal since 72, Rudd could reverse this if it's politically beneficial.

Ouzo is a spirit. It is distilled. Home distilling is illegal and this sort of thing will help to make it remain so. Some illegally distilling can't and won't make one iota of difference to the legality of making beer and wine at home.