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It actually arrived in December last year… It sat in the neighbour, “Chicken Man Dave’s” shed for the past 2.5 months while I’ve worked out how to Dad.
While on that subject, hats off to anyone out there that’s ever had a child.
Asher McDonald was born, 21st November 2017 at a stunning 4.93kg and 60cm.
If you don’t know about babies, that’s massive! Both he and Lexi got through the birth without a hitch and have done well over the past 3 months… aside from the no sleeping thing. Which I’m not a fan of.
If you’d asked me on 20th November how the next couple of months would play out, I’d have said:
“Mate, we’ll have the shed polished off within a month and brewing our first batch by the end of January, get your taste buds ready”.
But, what actually happened was I spent 3 months in a fog, wondering how anyone that’s ever had a baby has ever achieved anything. This shit is hard!
That being said, Lexi and I are gradually working this whole parenting caper out to a point where we could get back up to Bucketty with a couple of builder mates and finished off the shed renovation and make it weather tight.
Looks pretty sweet if you ask me.
A quick loan of another neighbours trailer and the brute strength of 6 blokes to lower the 800kg rig onto the ground, had us wheeling the stainless steel into its new home, constructed of colourbond and tree trunks.
I gotta love this community. 2.5 months storage and the use of 2 forklifts only cost me 2 cases of Tooheys New (I know… Tooheys New… I’ll need to convert them).
Now, to the subject of the coveted brewing equipment.
If I could summarise the experience of opening the plywood crate using only 2 characters, it would look a bit like this….
Here’s what sucked:
🙁 The plate chiller shifted during transport and came loose, bending one of the connection pipes.
🙁 The brewhouse and system were full of water, which turned black from mould.
🙁 The stainless steel basket (to lift the grain), rusted in parts due to the oxidisation effect of being in contact with other rusting metal while it sat in water for months.
🙁 The welding quality isn’t the best, with a few joins rupturing during transport.
🙁 There’s no power outlet! You’d think there would be a plug somewhere to turn it on, however you’d be wrong.
However… I like to think of myself as a schooner-half-full kinda guy. So on the flip side:
🙂 We should be able to fix everything
🙂 We’re one step closer to making beer!
Being late on a Sunday arvo, and without the ability connect power and test it, we had no choice but to close the door and lock up until I could get in contact with Alice, the delightful sales rep in China.
We’re due to harvest the surviving hops next week, stay tuned for an in-depth guide on how not to grow hops on my next update.
