Diary of a Distiller

It's been a long week for me since I last wrote in my journal and Tales of the Cocktail beat me silly. I had a great time but got laryngitis and a cold, and my camera was acting up on me for a while, so I have only a few photos out of hundreds that I took. Finally, my travels home were a complete disaster. A half day trip turned into a multi-day epic. I was pulled off several planes because they broke down, had numerous ones rescheduled, sat on runways for hours, and didn't get anything to eat for 40 hours; just a few glasses of water. (The last is probably not a bad thing, in N'awlins overeating great food is easy.) There were a few times I wish I had Dorothy's ruby slippers because I wanted to be home sooo bad.

Follow up:

There is absolutely nothing worse than having to travel when ill, and then get rescheduled. Last time this happened I was quite ill after returning to the US from a voyage around the world. I got stuck in a blizzard and it took several days to get home, all the while shivering in unheated airports. I ended up losing my hearing for several weeks and so sick i was in bed for three months. Well, at least this trip wasn't as horrific; just maddening.
Usually I'm quite happy to receive lots of goodies at events, although it is starting to get a bit more difficult to impress me. Well, Tales of the Cocktail certainly did! Sadly, I got sooo much schwag that I had to give most of it away or leave it for housekeeping at the hotel. The above photo is less than one days worth of stuff! By the way, there is a difference between swag and schwag, and what I got was a nice mix of the two.
I kept the Plymouth Gin tips clock, the cool tiki cocktail stirrers, a bunch of nice notebooks and cocktail books, cocktail kits, and the dozen Riedel crystal spirits glasses; which were a nuisance to get home but much appreciated.
When I got back the winery was chugging along. The welder had come by and installed braces for several of the pieces of brewing equipment, so now they are much sturdier and can easily be moved around with a fork-lift. Also Mike and Jody had installed more of the water cooling system for the fermenters and stills. I also found out that we are getting a welding system so we can do our own welding from now on. I'm looking forward to learning how to weld from Mike, (He's a really handy guy!) so I can get all kinds of creative in building things for the brewery and distillery.
Gallery: Diary of a Distiller: Chapter Ten - There's no place like home

The past few days have been focused on bottling. I have tried to help, but while I have felt fine in the mornings and able to work the bottling line, by 1pm the bug I caught catches up to me and I feel like I got rolled over by a runaway fermenting tank. So then I have had to go home and sleep the rest of the day. I hope I get over this cold soon, I'm tired of sounding like a frog, and getting drastic death threats from Jody if he catches it from me. At least he promised that he would make it quick and I wouldn't suffer, since I am suffering enough as it is. I brought in five rib-eye steaks that I had left over from a week ago that I had vacuum sealed and frozen, and threw them into the winery deep freeze and told the guys to help themselves. Remarkably, Jody's threats immediately turned into good wishes for my health. Hmmm.... I have to remember that for the future. ;-)> Have a good weekend folks.