Aged Barrel
The garden is doing what gardens do in early May. The lettuce, spinach, and peas Jen planted are trying to bust through the soil while we work to remove any little grass bits that are trying to make a go of the nutrient-dense soil we've tilled into the back yard. She is also tending to the seedlings growing on the front porch, and we are letting them grow for a couple more weeks out there before we even think of transplanting to the garden.
Last weekend we hauled a giant oak bourbon barrel up from the basement. Jen's brother James had brought it to the house five or six years ago when I was still brewing beer. The intent was to make a few batches of strong ale, fill the barrel, and let it age in the charred oak barrel for a few months before bottling and enjoying whatever came out of it. I brewed beer in batches of five gallons, so this barrel would have taken ten batches to fill. At around $45-$50 a batch, this experiment would have cost close to $500. Not worth the risk. I also never had enough equipment to brew this much at a time, either. So the barrel sat in the basement, in the room where I stored the beer bottles, the fermenting vessels, along with our canned items. That is until last week when we hauled it upstairs into the garage. Nailed the metal bands in place as they had loosened up over time. Then I pulled out my circular saw and cut it in half. Now we have two giant planters in between our trees to grow beans and cucumbers when the time is right. Who knows what charred aged bourbon flavors these planters might pass on to the veggies... Wait, I know, that not how this works.
Last weekend we hauled a giant oak bourbon barrel up from the basement. Jen's brother James had brought it to the house five or six years ago when I was still brewing beer. The intent was to make a few batches of strong ale, fill the barrel, and let it age in the charred oak barrel for a few months before bottling and enjoying whatever came out of it. I brewed beer in batches of five gallons, so this barrel would have taken ten batches to fill. At around $45-$50 a batch, this experiment would have cost close to $500. Not worth the risk. I also never had enough equipment to brew this much at a time, either. So the barrel sat in the basement, in the room where I stored the beer bottles, the fermenting vessels, along with our canned items. That is until last week when we hauled it upstairs into the garage. Nailed the metal bands in place as they had loosened up over time. Then I pulled out my circular saw and cut it in half. Now we have two giant planters in between our trees to grow beans and cucumbers when the time is right. Who knows what charred aged bourbon flavors these planters might pass on to the veggies... Wait, I know, that not how this works.
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