I have been cleaning for 5 hours and then I had a beer. No, I wasn’t cleaning at home. I have cleaned 12 kegs, which is much more fun than cleaning house. After all, at the end of all this cleaning is some drinking. And the CO2 gas is lots of fun. It makes a really good whooshing sound. It gives you a feeling of power and it is slightly dangerous. That is why I like it. Not at all like housework which tends to deplete you. This energizes you. And the knee squats to hook and unhook the clamps are very aerobic, a regular gym workout without any sweaty bodies around you. And then you get a shower, or two, which is very economical and a good use of recycled resources. Of course, the brewery outfit is au couture – a pink and purple handmade wool hat, a green and brown sweater from a garage sale, a down vest from my Mother that I always hated and makes me look fat but is very practical when you want to be warm but need your arms free and waterproof and the coup de grace, some waterproof pants from cross-country skiing which I haven’t worn since the cross-country skiing incident when my husband and I went to the mountains for a four-day mountain cross-country ski retreat and I realized that I was too afraid to go downhill, which of course was the whole course. Downhill and downhill and more downhill. It was, needless to say, a disastrous four days with lots of stranger rescues. Anyway, back to keg cleaning, which is how brewing started back in 10,000 BC or so with lots of domestic loving care and lots of cleaning of vessels and rinsing and soaping and more rinsing because brewing is all about cleaning and a little brewing and then cleaning because you don’t want any unwelcome beasties in your beer. Tomorrow we fill our sparkling kegs with beer and then we brew again.
Brewing from a Woman’s Perspective-Episode 3