Charlottesville Area Masters of Real Ale

This reminds me of a similar experience back when I bottled a brew.  I stored all my bottles in our storage shed.  One night I was bottling and went out to gather up 50 or so bottles. They were all stored in a large box, all in six pack carriers.  As I started fishing through, I began to smell something and thought that it was some dead animal in the woods.  I had been drinking some homebrew at the time and wasn't really thinking about dead animals (just getting my beer in some bottles), and lifted a six pack to place in my stack for cleaning.  The smell overwhelmed and I almost threw up.  I knew that I had to at least figure out what the circumstance was. 

So I began lifting each bottle and inspecting with a flashlight.  One bottle looked as if it was half filled with rice.  I was like, "How did this rice get into my bottle?"  I jiggled the rice around and . . . the rice began to crawl, wriggle, squirm.  Not rice, maggots.  That was when I saw the fluffy, gray pile of hair at the bottom of the bottle.  Holy mother of Christ.  Where is Benny Lava when you need him for confidence and support? 

A mouse had crawled into one of my beer bottles and could not get back out.  It had turned into liquid mouse.  I wound up throwing all of the bottles in that shed away.  Mice can carry diseases that you just don't want around your homebrew, especailly if your kids are going to be drinking it (just kidding).  Glass is sometimes micro-etched where bad bugs can get into the micro-groves of the glass, especially at the bottom, and without proper physical scrubbing, cannot be disinfected. 

And now you all know why I keg my beer.  It is as simple as that.  Plus you just can't beat draft beer.  Sometimes there are other forces of nature working in our favor.  Perhaps that night someone or something was watching out for my best interests.  I have always been a philosophical person, but moreso after that night.  I noticed myself studying the stars more.  For me, if it wasn't for that mouse that thought he could find shelter in one of my beer bottles, I would not have been able to drill a hole through the top of a perfectly good refridgerator.  Here's to liquid mice!  I need a homebrew . . .

*ugh*

Anyone want to trade a 5-gallon micro-etched carboy?

My lord.  Thank you for that oh-so-vivid imagery Doc M.  Okay, I'm convinced.  Sorry Christopher, I think you'd better toss (or recycle?) the carboy.  

WOW, Doc.  Liquid mouse . . . I think I hear the name of a new ABS brew kit right there!

it must be in the Alaskan bootleggers guide next to how to make a still from a wrecked car

Yeah, I threw out all of the bottles, but I kept that one liquid mouse bottle and filled it with barleywine homebrew.  I am letting it age.  Should be good in about 10 years. Every once in a while I give it a good shake to stir up the sediment.

Can you say "yum?"

I think I would have been tempted to cap it and save it as a reminder.


NAH! I would have chucked it! (but not before taking a torch and gas to those little &*#%$ers!)

I suspect that having to deal with dirty diapers has increased your tolerance for nasty things. Three years ago, that carboy would have been on the tree lawn in a second.

Dirty diapers are a walk in the park for me, I use a vent mask.  Now I am getting back at the little *&*^*&^s

I trapped one, and have a stentch in my storage shed.  I think this is a result of the Decon I put in there.  Now I just have to get my dogs to help me find where the body or bodies are located.  No more liquid mouse. The benefits of kegging go way beyond off flavors in the beer.