Mountain Dew is slang for moonshine

Your targets this week:

1+ out of 9: Well done, you beat us!
4+ out of 9: We'd have won with you on our team!

The attendees
1) The statistician
2) The doctor
3) The gasman

The ones that got away

Question 4

1) What is the main fermenting ingredient in moonshine?
2) What is 'palcohol'?
3) According to Reinheitsgebot (Germany beer purity law), what are the only 3 ingredients permitted in beer?
4) Identify the house from the Dune series from its emblem.
5) If Hitler's Germany was the Third Reich, what was the First Reich?
6) In 394AD Emperor Theodosius I banned what for not being Christian?
7) Name the Japanese biological research centre in the Second World War notorious for its experiments on humans.
8) What term describes the rivalry between the British and Russian Empires for supremacy in central Asia during the 19th century?
9) The contras is a label given to the various rebel groups that were active from 1979 to the early 1990s in opposition to the government of which country?

The answers

1) Corn
2) Powdered alcohol
3) Water, hops and barley
4) Atreides
5) The Holy Roman Empire
6) The Olympic Games
7) Unit 731
8) The Great Game
9) Nicaragua

Our excuses

1) We'll admit to not being experts in moonshine, and went with the rather hopeful (and vague) 'grain'.
2) Neither of us had heard of this, and so instead we were torn between it being slang for 'prison alcohol' or 'when you drink your friend's booze'. We opted for the latter (since we knew the term pruno existed for the former), and I maintain both are better (albeit admittedly incorrect) answers.
3) We managed water and hops, but went straight to yeast rather than barley for the third.
4) The doctor narrowed it down to Atreides and Harkonnen, eventually opting for the wrong answer thinking "I associate them more with the colour red, and it sounds a bit like 'hawk'".
5) Not a bad little question, we supposed that the Weimar Republic might have been considered the Second Reich, leaving the era of the Kaisers to be the First.
6) We didn't have much time to get creative here, leaving us with gladiatorial combat as a fairly uninspired (and obvious) guess.
7) Little to say here other than that judging by the bar's reaction we weren't the only team to be unfamiliar with this.
8) More than a touch embarrassing to drop a British history question in a North American quiz, but neither of us could bring this to mind (and only vaguely recognized the answer when it was revealed).
9) The doctor was aware the 'contra affair' involved both Nicaragua and Iran, and while on retrospect we should have known this quiz well enough to go for the more obscure option, both the gasman and I had heard of the Iran link but not the other.

How did you do? Would you have beaten us (1 or more correct)? Would you have helped us win (4 or more correct)? Let the world know with the poll below, then read on for my alternative questions (loosely) inspired by this week's Ones That Got Away!


My alternative questions

Question phwoar

1) The name of which English brand of cider, discontinued in 2009 after becoming synonymous with under-age drinking and anti-social behaviour, is also a slang term for moonshine?
2) The name of which US brand of powdered drink mix features in a figure of speech describing someone who holds an unquestioned belief? The phrase originally referred to the 1978 Jonestown Massacre where some 900 people drank a different brand of (poisoned) fruit mix.
3) Originally a celebration of a royal wedding in 1810, and most associated with rather a lot of beer, which German city hosts the 'original' Oktoberfest?
4) Real name Gordon Sumner, which musician (pictured) played Feyd-Rautha in the 1984 movie adaption of Dune?
5) Germany's first Chancellor, who supposedly made the prediction "One day the great European War will come out of some damned foolish thing in the Balkans"?
6) Potentially problematic for some Adidas-sponsored athletes, which Greek goddess of victory has featured on the obverse of medals for the last three Summer Olympic Games?
7) The choice of name 'Zyklon' for a trainer was definitely problematic for which English sportswear brand in 2002?
8) Though usually attributed to British officer Arthur Conolly, the term 'The Great Game' was popularized in the novel Kim by which Indian-born English author?
9) Nicaragua shares a border with two countries. One is Honduras, what's the other? (As a 'fun' hint, it has the same number of letters in its name as Nicaragua.)

The answers

1) White Lightning
2) Kool-Aid
3) Munich
4) Sting
5) (Otto von) Bismarck
6) Nike
7) Umbro
8) Rudyard Kipling
9) Costa Rica

How did you do on my alternative questions? Have another poll!

Tweet