It is a quiet and dull Saturday afternoon and I found myself poking around some of my favorite brewing internet stops. I am dreaming of what’s left of 2015 and what can I make of it for myself as a brewer. I am way off my normal batch frequency and it saddens me.

I have to make use of my great setup in the back yard working out of the basement before the year is out.

I currently have ingredients for 3 batches of beer which include a couple of experimental things for more blog fodder as well as an Oktoberfest-ish beer that’s just for drinking.

My ambition has been thwarted by some plumbing troubles in the house. When I moved my brew system last fall, I knew water supply was going to be an issue. The one sillcock behind the house is buried in bushes and it leaks badly. It needs to be repacked or replaced.

As I was ramping up to brew one night, I discovered it was leaking from behind the siding.  When I checked inside the house, the carpet in the basement was all wet.

I luckily found a shut off up in the ceiling. The piping was all hidden behind some walls. When I opened up the wall, I found that a copper elbow had completely failed.

What I learned later was that it had probably been leaking a little for quite some time. If you are following along and doing the math, you can figure out that water behind a basement wall for a prolonged amount of time equals mold!

So for the past few weeks, rather than brewing, I’ve been ripping out sheet rock, replacing the sillcock (now with a nice frost free one!), and replumbing the water.

The good news is I have water restored. Now I just need to find the time to brew in-between finishing up the sheet rock and repainting the basement wall.

I hope to get a bevy of brews done before winter really settles in and slows things down a bit. We are having a huge family party this year at Christmas and I am determined to have 4 fresh beers on just for that event.

I’ve got two months to pull it off so I’m hoping to brew something hoppy, something dark, something light, and something special for that event. Stay tuned.

Busy and not brewing.
BREW ON!