The last couple of weeks have been ridiculous. Between fixing my van with my own bare hands, working on getting ready for tour with my band A Billion Ernies, and buying a house, I have had little time for beer DRINKING, let alone beer creation. But yesterday was a different story.

Do you ever get that great feeling where, at the time when you feel like you cant take another ounce of stress, all of a sudden everything gets worked out? That is how I felt yesterday. The seller accepted mine and my wife's offer, my van is now running smooth with no problems, and ABE made $700 in donations to get us started on my tour. So yesterday I was driving home from work, feeling great, and I saw the exit for Stomp Them Grapes brew shop. I had gotten so used to thinking, "not today, I have to (insert time consuming task here) or my world will explode," and it was so nice to see the exit and finally realize that... hey... I DO have time to brew tonight! So I took the exit, and with no recipe in hand or even the slightest idea of what I wanted to brew, I walked merrily into the brew shop and straight back to the grain bins. Finally, all was right in my world.

I ended brewing an extremely simple beer. 100% Pilsen base, Citra hops to about 30 IBU, and S05 that I recently harvested and cleaned. I had no problems at all, and it is now bubbling happily away in my brew cabinet. I have to say, it felt damn good when I was siphoning into my carboy. The whole process of brewing is so therapeutic for me, I think I go a little bit crazy when I am unable to do it.

So in the future, when I am going through craziness, I am going to make sure to make time to brew. It doesn't matter how busy one gets in life, we have to make time to do the things we love to do. For me, thats brewing beer and writing songs, and I need to look at the former as less of a luxury during those rough times, and remember to think of it for what it really is...

THERAPY