The Week From Hell, Bring on 2022

[FatManDancing]

On Friday Jan 1 I tried to deworm and give flea treatment to one of my cats. I ended up poisoning her and fortunately after $480 of emergency vets at 5am she is gonna be fine

Sunday I had a minor car accident, my fault

Monday I did damage to some of the tools of my trade. It meant I could not complete the job and lost money

Wednesday I did minor damage to a clients property. As much as that sucked they were at least cool about it, almost happy. retirees and it gave the guy a project to do

Which brings us to today. First the good news. I stripped my first gen of MacRum and 50l of gen 2 is bubbling away nicely

I really like rye whiskey and today was my first attempt at making it and i wanted to do it all grain. I ordered 7 kg of rye and asked for the HBS to mill. They did not

I ended up using the blender and basically made flour. Should be fine though as all I have is a nylon bag and a T500 boiler

After 60 mins mashing I checked conversion with iodine and has happy enough to pull the grain bag only to find it getting lighter the more I pulled it out of the kettle. I had burned a hole in the bag with light scorching

Fuck It !! This shit is gonna be whiskey. It took ages to strain and seperate the grain from the mash but I did the best I could and it is now bubbling away

I used 5 kg of Crisp rye malt and 2 kg of Black Forest rye malt and got 1055. Added DME to get to 1065

[RC Al]

Hang in there man, glad kitty is ok

Sounds like a good salvage job on the wash, well done :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[dans.brew]

Usually things go in 3s... in your case you've broken that rule!
Seriously though.. hope things turn for the better. It sucks when your going through one of those phases. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[Wellsy]

Hang in there fat man.
The cat survived which is fantastic which is the motto for the year mate, even if we think we are dieing we will survive :)"

with the attitude you have " fuck it this shit is gunna be whiskey " you are a natural born distiller :laughing-rolling:

Things will get better I promise, and if they dont you are at least going to have a nice drop to help ease the pain

bring on the second fortnight of 2021

[FatManDancing]

Thanks RC and Wellsy. That little girl cat of mine has been through the fire several times but continues to show me resilience and a stubborn perseverance to life that I truly find inspiring

Dan, that was the running joke at work. On Mon morning I had only racked up two fuck ups and everybody was wondering when and how I would biff it again

Kinda disappointed my first ever attempt at all grain was not a smooth success. Theoretical knowledge will never trump practical experience. I biffed it but learned a lot and will try again

Still wondering what kind of whiskey I made

[Wellsy]

And the answer is “fatman fusion” whiskey :laughing-rolling:

[FatManDancing]

Fatman Fusion,....

Yep, I like it, This has now fermented dry and I will let it clear for a bit and still on Sat after work

If I still have a job. I am sick and tired of the crap my bosses have pulled on me and called HR. Meeting tomorrow at 8.30 am. The HR person seems overly friendly and told me she had a great conversation with my boss and then started taking coffee orders for "A casual chat'

I am probably screwed but I will go out fighting


May I suggest instead "Fighting Fatman Fusion" I am looking for a template for labels for my bottles

The cat is fine. After chasing her around the house for a week to give her medicine she is now beginning to trust me again :cool: :cool: :cool:

[Wellsy]

Carol has a great thread on labels. Google beerlabeliser mate and you will be on the right track for making your own labels

[RuddyCrazy]

Fatman Fusion,....

Yep, I like it, This has now fermented dry and I will let it clear for a bit and still on Sat after work

If I still have a job. I am sick and tired of the crap my bosses have pulled on me and called HR. Meeting tomorrow at 8.30 am. The HR person seems overly friendly and told me she had a great conversation with my boss and then started taking coffee orders for "A casual chat'

I am probably screwed but I will go out fighting

:

That sounds like me a week before xmas last year when the operations manager who is a true dickhead pulled me into the office saying I had dragged down the company again. So I asked him what bullshit did think up this time around as I think it's total crap so stop having a go at me. Well that opened a barrage and I thought what the hell and asked so your going to sack me a week before xmas eh you fuckwit. Then the general manager came in and I asked him why this idiot is allowed to constantly harass workers. In the end I said I was in a no win situation and I've already been sacked so this toxic company can go and get stuffed. My last words were I'm getting my toolbox and if ever see you again it will be too soon.

Had a great xmas holiday and SWMBO got onto seek and found me a local job where I got a call this morning and went for a personal interview this arvo. So now waiting on a call to go for a medical. The best part less than a 25 minute drive to work and a bigger wage to take home each week and the fact I don't have to drive down the hill and breathe in all smog that hangs over the city that one can see on the drive down.

Cheers Bryan

[RC Al]

Nice Bryan

One door closes, another opens

[FatManDancing]

Thanks Bryan, I am really glad and really needed to hear to hear that. I have been with this company for over 20 years and I know my time is done. Kinda worried about the immediate future but it is great to know that you can still end up in a better place

[FatManDancing]

I did not get to still on the weekend. The thermo switch on my boiler had burned out :angry-banghead: :angry-banghead: :angry-banghead:

I did however get to submit my resignation letter today and I feel really good about that

[FatManDancing]

Thanks Wellsy and Carol

I think I am gonna have some fun with https://www.beerlabelizer.com/


Thermo switches are on their way, gotta give credit to Barley and Hops brewing for that simple vid on Youtube explaining what is most likely wrong with my boiler

[Wellsy]

That’s Brilliant Fat Man

Carol put me on to beer labelizer and I have had a lot of fun doing labels for gifts and bottles in the rack.

Look so much better than a text label and so easy to do.

Sometimes the hardest thing to do is take the first step mate and looks like you have done that with your resignation. Time for the next adventure mate :)

[FatManDancing]

Switches came. It was an easy if fiddly replacement but I am back in business

As the kettle was coming to temp I could smell the mash and it provoked two thoughts

1- This smells awesome. I smell currant, sultana, date, coffee and caramel. I have never been able to smell the wash before

2- This is terrible. I have never been able to smell the wash before. There must be a leak

There wasn' t but after collecting fores I set a 750 ml bottle to collect my stripping run. I went to the car and came back to find I had my first puke

This is still not whiskey. I only collected four 750ml bottles on a stripping run, a yield lower than expected but since this is my first grain mash I didn't know what to expect

What I do know is I made a tonne of mistakes, many of which I had read about but I still made them and you know what? I am kinda glad I did. This pursuit can be as simple as a sugar wash, turbo yeast and a HBS still or you can go down the rabbit warren. I took those first steps down that warren only to find a freaken bear trap with big, sharp pointy teeth willing to snap me in two

I have had other challenges as well but you know what? I updated my Seek profile and uploaded my new resume and two employers called me. This is not jobs I applied for and so far I have applied for seven. On that front I think I am gonna be O.K I am gonna be forever grateful I work in an industry that has really not been affected by covid and in fact the sector I work in made a shitonne of money as they like to brag. To those that the past year has been awful and have read my trite an meaningless complaints, I am sorry

Having said that though, I am still gonna bitch and moan about the trivial until this shit is whiskey. I have ordered 5kg of rye malt and 2kg of Black Forest Rye malt and I will this time pickup and if it is not milled.... :twisted: :twisted:

[Wellsy]

Fatman a great side effect of this wonderful , rewarding hobby is that it gives you something else to think about and try and figure things out. While you concentrate on what you did right or wrong you stop stressing about some of the things in life that we can’t always control.
Perspective mate we sometimes loose it but trying to work out cuts or grain ratios sometimes we get to find it again.
2021 is already looking better hey mate :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[FatManDancing]

O.K

I have not quite worked out how to embed youtube vids so you just get the link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUMAmI5YcBQ

[FatManDancing]

I got a new job, literally one hour and 45 minutes before posting this

Pretty freaken happy and still :dance: :greetings-waveyellow: spinnin out


The second batch of Fatman Fusion will be stripped on Friday and a spirit run of both on Sat

[Wellsy]

We all knew it would happen mate
Congrats and enjoy the high