'The Big Stash'

The Big Stash


I came home from the hospital five years ago.
My house looked strange, like no one had lived there in a long time.
I opened my five gallon buckets of LME and saw that they were covered with white mold.
I had 6 SIX! 22 oz bottles of ale left after my 'friends' ,
{who had keys to my house}
had drank my brewery dry.
If I ever needed a beer it was then.
Even the disability judge was told by his secretary:
'He'll just spend it all on beer!"
The judge looked at me with a big smile,
{he was ex military and had horses too}
"After all the crap Jack has been through
I imagine he needs a drink."

The roofing business went to hell after 9-11 and there still is basically no money.
I built up and run my old trapline and hunt hog.
Built up the knife shop and started making knives for sale.
I stay home all the time to save on gas,
write short storys on 33 subjects that are dear to my heart.
I grow my own vegetables, raise poultry and play my accordian.
Make knives, cut my own hair and brew my own beer.

For five years I have suffered abject poverty and deep sadness.
My horse, old Dolly, died.
I rode Dolly 26 miles in one day, bareback.
She just got old and died.
My last remaining hound from my great pack,
old Ranger, died too.
Both my girlfriends dumped me.

When reracking...
I would drink a gallon so that their is only 4 gallons to rerack to the secondary.
Bottling... another gallon so there is only 3 gallons to bottle.
Then I drink it all up before it even gets carbonated.
It is a viscious degenerative cycle poverty is,
that if I have any ale at all,
it's never as good as it could have been.

Life has been hard and unfair.
But ... things are getting better.

Today I was bottling some 'DME with S-04 yeast,' {'8 Lb Hammer'}
and as I picked up four bottles out of the milk crate and placed them on their shelf in the brewery, I had a feeling of 'wellness.'
I looked up at 112 full, green 12 oz bottles.
And down at 20 gallons in primarys and secondarys.
About 65 Lbs of DME is on hand and knives are selling well so that every month I can buy another 55 Lbs. 55 Lbs will brew 7 batches of 8 Lb hammer.
Thats 35 Gallons and I can only drink 30!
So, slowly but surely,
I am at getting ahead.

My new hound Sandymay is my best friend, and a good walker hound.
{She loves to ride in the truck,}
{and we are in love.}
I now am brewing ale faster than I can drink it.
Of a 5 gallon batch,
50, bottles go on the shelf in the brewery rather than 30.
The brewery is filling fast!
Soon I will be drinking ale that had been in the bottles 3-4-5 months

Life is good.

J. Winters Knife
http://jacksknifeshop.tripod.com/


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