Take a lie down on Emily's couch of political grief

A politician campaigns and promises a whole bunch of awesome stuff. He doesn't follow through, and the supporters need time to mourn the death of their HOPEs.

The stages of grief are:

1. Shock and Denial - He's sending troops to Afghanistan for a good reason, but it's an important secret reason that he can't say because of security protectiony stuff! It's not really 100 thousand troops to curtail the efforts of less than 100 Al Qada members with no base and no abilities to launch attacks on the U.S. or U.S. allies - while American leadership and mercenaries work out "reconciliation and reintegration" of the Taliban. The reason he Changed his stance on the Patriot Act is also for a very good reason which is also a secret. Lalalaalaaa! I'm not listening!

2. Pain and Guilt - If only I had tried harder and given them more money, then there would be a clear mandate. If only the Democratic Party knew that I loved them, then they would be nicer to me! If only I had given money to whoever ran against Joe Lieberman.

3. Anger - If only YOU had tried harder and given them more money, then there would be a clear mandate. Everyone who stops supporting the Democrats hates America, you America haters! You traitors! You quitters!

4. Bargaining - If I say that I don't like Joe Lieberman, can I still support the rest of the Democratic Party? If I only say that I support the Democratic Party because I am "pragmatic" or some other philosophical ambiguity, can I still keep my Democratic Party membership card and secret decoder ring? It means I'm still intellectual if I use philosophy to justify bullshit, right? I wasn't dumb to support them, I hope. I wasn't wrong, was I? That would be awful.

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And that's all the further anyone has gotten, though some people seem to be in the early stages of "Depression."

After "Depression," there's still "Reconstruction" and "Acceptance," but the earlier ones still have a ways to go. I don't know if we'll ever get there, but we do this dance every few years.

A post about bottling, for those of you that respond to the name "Buster."

On December 20th, we bottled the Taddy Porter. Today we bottled the Grand Cru. Here are some photos of the bottling process.

We use primarily recycled bottles because they're inexpensive and easy to give away. We also have purchased around four cases of bottles, I would guess that we have about eight cases of bottles in the house total. We could easily get away with only recycled bottles, but we didn't know that when we started.

First, the bottles are soaked in hot water.



Then, they're rinsed with the pressure washer, which fits on the end of the laundry tub faucet.



Then, they're sanitized and rinsed again. Here at the Stubby Paws Brewery, each bottle is visually inspected for spiders and other potential impurities. You don't get that kind of quality control at Budweiser, let me tell you, Buster!

Though my username and default icon are from the classic Doctor Who episode Planet of the Spiders, I do not love spiders. I love Jon Pertwee. If Jon Pertwee were in my beer, I would leave him alone.

Here is a picture of the racked, sanitized bottles and the transfer of the beer from the secondary fermenter to the bottling bucket. The spigot on the top of the rack is a pump for squirting sanitizer into the bottles.



I have installed a clever hook in the ceiling. The hook makes the bottling process easier. In this photo, the bucket is already emptied, that's why the hose has been stuck in the top of the bucket so as to not put anyone's eye out. There's a bit of that Marmite goo in the bottom of this one, but nothing worthy of consumption.



I like the clear bottles, that way I can get a picture of the color of the beer. Here's the Taddy Porter, a "Strong Stout."



Here is the Grand Cru, a "Belgian White." It's sweeter than dark beer, but still not flavorless. Below it is the bottled and boxed Taddy Porter, catalogued with a technologically superior system known as "masking tape." In the background is the Irish Red Ale in a secondary fermenter. The towels keep the beer away from the light.



...and that's the bottling process.

Stay in school! Don't do drugs!