Ornery Bastard

Thats my new nickname for Gromit...

Between the constant handling with care, the special equipment required and the fussing, brewing beer at home is kind of like taking care of a small child.

Hear me out...

This past Saturday, after taking the cherry witbier home (which, by the way, was straped in the backseat with a seatbelt!) we brought it in the house and placed it next to our other fermenting brew.  They were getting along nicely and we decided to pack it in for the night.

Early the next morning, it was discovered that Gromit had a bad night.  The convo went something like this (mind you, this is 630am on a Sunday morning)

D: "Did you hear that?"

Lo (ready to jump out the front window to avoid intruders, or take them on with a nearby nine iron): "Hear what?!"

D: "that noise..."

Lo (still petrified and confused as hell): "no?"

D (gets up, walks into the other room): "Lo, you have to come see this!"

Lo (begrudgingly getting out of bed while 1/2 asleep): *grumble-something unintelligible-grumble*

D: "The beer is about to explode"

Ok, now you have my full attention.  And he wasn't wrong.  The top of the fermenting bucket had puffed up like a potato chip bag on an airplane and the airlock was fun of sandy-brown, yeasty foam.  The air attempting to escape was making a faint whistling/hissing noise.

(If I learned anything that day, it's that I need to get my hearing checked.)

Gromit!  You Ornery Bastard!

D proceeded to haul the bucket into the shower, and release the pressure from the airlock.  I'm happy to say (although its not very entertaining), no major explosion occured.  The airlock was rinsed out, and placed back on top of the lid.  I actually took pictures of this, but I was so sleepy that they came out blurry =/

So this beer, got us out of bed at (for me) an ungodly hour on a Sunday morning.  The airlock also needed to be constantly changed throughout the day, because it kept filling up with foam.

So reconsider my point...brewing beer certainly has parallels to taking care of a baby!

I'm happy to report that since that day of constant attention, Gromit is now acting normally.  Transfer to second fermentation along with the exciting addition of black cherry concentrate to come this weekend.

Only if he behaves