Stuff

Slept really well last night, for the first time in weeks. I attribute it to finally achieving maintenance levels of Claritin, rediscovering Chlor-Trimaton (oh baby, I’m sorry, I’ll never stray again, you’re the only one that works for me), and also to swapping out the filters on our Holmes air-filter thingys. I don’t know how much they actually do, but the filters *do* get crusty and vile with all sorts of crap from the air … so I’ll take it.

Wasted about 2 hours yesterday trying to fill a 5lb CO2 cylinder, so that I can keg some beer. I started off with the paintball store I’ve seen (it was closed), went to Dick’s and Sports Authority (able to sell in ounces, not pounds), tried a liquor store (duhhhhhh, what?), and a construction equipment rental place (nope, no CO2!). Growing tired of people looking at me like I was from freakin’ Mars, I went out near the speedway. Found a company named “Arrow Gas,” that does everything except CO2, and then finally located Airgas. They totally do what I’m looking to get done, but they close at 4:30, and I got there at 4:40. Gah! Fortunately, they’re open on Saturdays.

The plan is to take my batch of Imperial Stout that’s already in bottles and keg it. The bottle conditioning totally failed for some reason. This means that there’s no carbonation whatsoever. Flat beer is un-fun beer which I’m loathe to share with friends. So, I plan to sterilize the outside of the bottles, and gently pour them into the keg, and then force-carbonate. If it fails, I lose nothing, since the beer is mostly undrinkable anyway. If I succeed … I’ve created a batch out of failure. Plus, I get to make all my dumb-ass mistakes on a batch that’s already a lost cause.

The Carrot Wine is in bottles. I got 7 grolsch bottles (16oz each, I think) out of it. Along the way I was just stunningly frustrated by a series of preventable mishaps and mistakes, including a busted siphon starter, and tubing that was almost but not quite the right size. Initial tasting indicates that this will be a sweet, tart, and very odd drink. I plan to let it sit until at least Christmas before trying it again.

The Wine is happily fermenting in its bucket. I’m going insane from not messing with it. I think that I’ll probably get a white juice today and actually kill off the native flora and start it in a controlled manner. Control freak? Only when it comes to cooking.

The other plan for the day is to go to the People’s Power Co-Op and see the biggest wind turbine in RI. There will apparently be folk music and picnic food. Maybe we’ll make friends.

In other news, I’m more than a little disturbed by the recent contaminated spinach scare. Recall, if you will, that it was just such an E. Coli scare on low grade beef that led me down the road to becoming vegetarian. Turns out that the national “organic” food distribution system is just as vulnerable to single-point contamination as the beef industry.