Today was a work day/off day. Boozed it up bad with Stan and Connie over an Indian feast during an evening that turned into a morning, telling stories, (there are a lot of men in Dope City married to Asian babes who have had more pricks in them than a dart board) and listening to old records.
Stan recalled how much fun it was for us as young men during the economic depression of the early '80s. "You were the last one to get laid off," said Stan. "The barrel rye came in handy didn't it? We could not have afforded to get as pissed as we did without that cheap poison." Looks like we may both find ourselves in similar economic circumstances in the near future.
We collected old whisky barrels from a local distillery, rolled water around them for several weeks and drank the product. I do not know what the alcohol content of barrel rye was but it was strong enough to light up when you put a match to it and it made you numb like you get after too many McEwen's scotch ales. The distilleries sold the barrels for $5 or thereabouts.
Like I said, today it was back to reality. Made spaghetti sauce in the slow cooker, bread in the bread maker, banana bread in the oven and still had lots of time to walk the Hammer in the warm November sun. When we got back from our walk she lay down and slept on a bed of yellow and brown leaves. I should get to those before the snow comes.
Had a few beer too. Just a few more to go.
5 comments:
"Warm November sun" !!!
"Before the snow comes" !!!
Jesus H. Christ. Bet you can't leach the alcohol out of barrels in the heat of summer. Put em out in the sun and watch the mist rise. Twenty minutes and they're full blanks. That sort of thing would work much better here in Winnipeg where we have six months of winter.
Mollymew
I guess global warming must be getting serious if southern Manitoba is only getting six months of winter now.
The barrels were stored in cool basements and turned often. Once ready the resulting juice was strained through cheese cloth before bottling.
Come to think of it, it was winter when I drank most of my barrel rye.
Barrel Rye - I can’t remember the euphemisim we had for it but we used to to get barrels from the Highwood Distillery here in Calgary into the mid 90s. Used boiling water at the onset though. Somewhere along the line a killjoy got word of what we were doing with the barrels before we cut them in half for planters and they only sell them now already cut. Sigh, what a waste. I even liked the stuff neat.
We too were cut off after a time from our magic barrels by the whisky company. Bastards!
Barrel rye? Wow .. I've never heard of that. Sounds like a great idea!
And yes, winter sounds like a great time for drinking ;)
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