The dairy farmers of Hokkaido, Japan, didn't waste time crying over spilled milk. Faced with a huge surplus, they sold the excess moo juice to local brewery Abashiri Beer, which turned it into low-malt beer containing one-third milk. It went on sale Feb. 1.
So far, so good.
The name of the product: not so good.
It's "Bilk."
Let's ask Mr. Merriam and Mr. Webster what they think:
Main Entry: 1bilk
Pronunciation: 'bilk
Function: transitive verb
Etymology: perhaps alteration of 2balk
1 : to block the free development of : FRUSTRATE <fate bilks their hopes>
2 a : to cheat out of something valuable : DEFRAUD b : to evade payment of or to <bilks his creditors>
3 : to slip away from <bilked her pursuers>
Perhaps the good folks at Abashiri had heard of the soy beverage Silk, coined from "soy" and "milk," and decided to follow the leader.
Or perhaps they just didn't have a clue.
Well, better than "Meer", I guess.
That's what you milk meercats to get, anyway.
Posted by: Mark Gunnion | February 15, 2007 at 03:00 PM
Hmmmm... you can't call it m + ale = male either. or brew combined with milk comes out gross as "brilk" or "mew". Lager doesn't change to "mager" very well. So I would go with the satisfying flavor of "Moo-juice" --- that's what Grampa always called milk and it IS juiced up a bit, I suppose.
Posted by: Rusty LaGrange | February 16, 2007 at 08:34 AM
I got it!! Call it "Moosky" -- the utterly smooth taste of your favorite brewsky with a milk base.
Posted by: Rusty LaGrange | February 16, 2007 at 08:39 AM
In a weird way I actually like the name. Sure it is a little ungainly and ugly sounding - but the whole concept fits that description. I could envision an ad campaign (albeit a tricky one to pull off) that takes advantage of the English connotations in a sly way. Not sure that's the image they're going for, but it's out there.
Get your nutrients at the brew pub!
Posted by: Tate Linden | February 20, 2007 at 08:50 AM