Avodah Zarah, Daf Samekh Het, Part 6
Introduction
This short piece offers halakhic rulings on the issue of imparts a bad flavor.
אמר רבא הלכתא נותן טעם לפגם מותר ועכברא בשיכרא לא ידענא מאי טעמא דרב אי משום דקסבר נותן טעם לפגם אסור ולית הלכתא כוותיה אי משום דקסבר נותן טעם לפגם מותר ועכברא בשיכרא אשבוחי משבח
Rava said: The halakhah is that when it imparts a bad flavor it is permitted, but in the case of the mouse that fell into beer I do not know what Rav s reasoning was. Was it because he held that when it imparts a bad flavor it is prohibited and the halakhah does not follow him, or because he held that when it imparts a bad flavor it is permitted but a mouse in the beer causes an improvement [to the flavor]!
Rava knows that when a forbidden substance imparts a bad flavor, the mixture is permitted. But he does not really know if the halakhah follows Rav, that if a mouse falls into beer, the beer is prohibited. It could be that Rav prohibited the beer because he holds that when a substance imparts a bad flavor, the mixture is prohibited. In this case, since we do not hold like Rav, the beer would be permitted (would you drink it?). Alternatively, Rav might hold that the dead mouse improves the taste of the beer. If this is true, we would have to prohibit the beer.
I should conclude that as many of you know, I am a great beer lover and have dabbled in home brewing. I have indeed heard stories of rodents getting into kegs where they drown in their drunkenness. I would not want to know if the homebrewers throw away their precious brew!