Bottling Day

Despite the fact we had a busy day, David tested his brew last night and the specific gravity had remained the same for two days in a row. It was bottling day. We'd used the brown plastic beer bottles and caps before, so he had to sterilize them before bottling the new brew. In the boat, it's sometimes difficult to find space to accomplish such tasks, but he managed to spread out using every flat surface he could find available and got the job done. In addition to the actual brew materials, we were able to buy the sterilizing powder and a sturdy bottle brush at the Tasmanian Brewing Supplies Store (innovative store name, don't you think?). He mixed the required amount of powder with water in my big pressure canner pot, the only vessel large enough to accommodate this amount of liquid. He filled the bottles and let them soak for a couple of hours and then he was ready to begin the bottling process.

It's pretty easy. There's a spigot on the side of the brew tub with a long plastic hose which extends into the bottles. He added two sugar drops to each bottle then filled them up and screwed on the twist caps. The sugar drops increase the carbonation of the beer in the bottles. We now have 30 - .75L bottles sitting in a bin in the forward cabin … that's about 6 gallons or 23 liters of home-brewed Australia Pale Ale. They'll need to sit for another two weeks or so before they're ready to drink. That said, we usually feel the need to start testing within a week or so. Quality control is everything.

He's already started a batch of hard cider. The cider will be bottled in about 10-14 days in recycled 1.25L plastic water bottles that we've been collecting. It, too, will require a specific gravity check to confirm it's ready. It takes much longer to ferment the cider and it won't be ready till Christmas.

We've also found brew kits for ginger beer and hard lemonade, but we need to use up our current stock to make some more room.

Pink Eyes

I was thinking about potatoes the other day. There's no accounting for the thoughts that race or dilly-dally their way through my head. Something pops up and I've gotta deal with it. Why potatoes? Well, we were passing Meredith's Fruit and Veggie store and I saw a huge sign announcing they had Pink Eyes on sale. Have you heard of Pink Eyes before? It's another name for conjunctivitis, I know, but I figured this Pink Eye had to be a fruit or veggie, so that narrowed it down some. We didn't have time to stop, so I made a mental note (very risky) to research this a bit more. A few more miles up the road, Ye Olde Oyster Cove Store announced Pink Eye availability, too. But their sign was a bit more specific: Fresh Dug Pink Eye Potatoes. Aha...now we were getting somewhere.

We stopped. Not only did they have Pink Eyes, but they had Moonlight Brushed, Nicola, Dutch Creams and Red Rascals. Potato heaven! I had to stop to think of the last time I experienced such potato nervana. It certainly wasn't the South Pacific with their small, soft, gnarly spuds sitting in bug-infested dirty bins. It was at a fresh market on the island of Chiloé in Chile. I remember being absolutely astounded at the variety of sizes, shapes and colors of potatoes that were for sale...orange, yellow, white, green, even bright purple. I stopped and took photos and the locals looked at me oddly for taking the time to photograph something so common.

Potatoes were actually first cultivated in Peru around the same time the locals there domesticated the llama. The Incas grew potatoes and made a flour-like substance comparable to wheat flour for bread-making. The Spanish explorers brought the first potatoes back to continental Europe in the mid-16th century, just in time for the Poles to start cultivating them for use in making potato vodka. English explorers brought white potatoes back around the same time and introduced them to Ireland and Scotland. They had a hard time being accepted though. The Brits considered them dirty, evil and poisonous. They even started a society to disclaim these ugly tubers: Society for the Prevention of Unwholesome Diets, aka SPUD. It wasn't until the Irish starting immigrating to the States and growing them back in the 1700's that Americans explored the wonders of the white potato and they became a popular starchy vegetable. I still don't remember seeing any purple ones in the US though.

On our trip back to the States last summer, we stopped in Blackfoot, Idaho at the Potato Museum. Here the mighty potato is revered. We saw all things potato including potato lotion, couch potatoes, potato chips and plush stuffed potatoes...even Marilyn Monroe modeling a potato sack in a potato field.

All this just to say, we now know what Pink Eyes in Australia are. See how my mind wanders.

One cuppa, two cuppa, three cuppa, more

I'm not sure why, but on the boat I'm a tea drinker. In the States, I drank coffee pretty much all the while I was there and never thought twice about it. Perhaps, because everyone in the family drinks coffee; it's there, the Mr. Coffee is always ready to brew and it's just more convenient. David drinks coffee on every continent. But me, as soon as I step foot back on the boat, I put on the kettle for a cuppa and it's always tea. The problem I'm finding is that with the cooler weather here and my new writing projects, I'm sipping tea all day long. I'm usually up early and have my first cup before 0600 and then it's constant throughout the day. Heat the kettle, make a cup of tea and … the cup is empty again. I don't even remember drinking it all; it's just gone. My usual morning tea is regular old Lipton black although Earl Grey with its distinctive bergamot addition is a real eye-opener. I take it “white”, that is, with milk.

Australians drink tea...probably as much tea as Americans drink coffee. They stock Lipton in the supermarkets. Dilmah from Sri Lanka claims to be 100% Ceylon tea and is a popular brand here. Twinings makes an Australian Afternoon Tea that I have yet to try, but plan to. Lord knows I drink tea well into the afternoon. In fact, sometime I'm sipping my last cup as David is pouring the evening glass of wine. Interesting to note, if an Australian invites you to “tea”, it usually means a dinner invitation, not just a cuppa.

There are definitely lots of teas to choose from, no matter where we are. There's Perfect Tea from Papua New Guinea and there are Indian teas and Chinese teas available. I always judge the local population's interest in a particular food by the amount of shelf space that is allotted to it in a big supermarket. Tea definitely takes up a lot of shelf space in Woolworths and Coles here. My favorite tea from New Zealand was Black Adder, a strong anise tea that really made my taste buds stand at attention. It's got a huge snake on the front of it, but I like it anyway. South Africa offered their native rooiboos tea, but I was never able to acquire the taste for it. I never got into Argentina's bitter maté either. And then of course, there was coca tea in Peru, but we won't get into that.

We visited Celestial Seasonings Tea while we were in Colorado last summer. We enjoyed their free tour and stocked up on herbal teas. I love their “zingers”. Tart and tangy lemon, mango, acai, cranberry, raspberry. It's evidently hibiscus that gives their teas the “zing”. Bengal Spice is a wower. I'm not content with a “hint” of anything. I like whatever flavor I choose to be full strength. If it's cinnamon and clove...let me have it. And then, of course, there's the Celestial Seasonings artwork, quotes and interesting trivia on the box. Always a lift-me-up as I'm downing my fifth cup.