The Explosion

Here I sit reeking of beer.

On weekends I take anywhere from 30 to 90 minutes to tend to my newly acquired beer making hobby. Today was “bottling day” for batch three.

I spent time this morning cleaning and sanitizing bottles and sanitizing anything that would come into contact with the beer. (hoses, filler, tanks)

This afternoon I planned to stand over the sink, watch PGA Golf, and fill and cap bottles. This is actually fun for me.

About bottle 7 I heard a creaking sound as I capped. Suddenly the bottle shattered from the stress and 12 ounces beer flew everywhere. Half was on me and the rest equally scattered around the small kitchen in the guest house.

At this point I couldn’t stop but only triage the situation. I felt like the crew on Apollo 13.

Everything was flowing and I had a system going. I tiptoed around beer and broken glass as I grabbed a towel and began moping with my foot while I continued to fill bottles.

God forbid if a single friggin germ gets in this beer. Everything I read says contamination is the single biggest cause of beer problems. So how could I stop? I already have two weeks and about two hours in this batch, and it tastes so good now.

Plus Gigi will kill me if I stink up the guest house with stale beer. My hobby will be forbidden.

Eventually I got it cleaned up and everything put away but I do stink of stale beer.

Well I’m off to the barn to clean horse pooh and then a shower.

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