Still Alive

Hello blog!
I'm a little shocked that people are still reading and commenting here, especially as I am a poor and inconstant blogger. So what have I been up to since last I wrote?

In July we moved to a new brewery! A bigger, better, shinier new brewery. Isn't it pretty? No more fiddling around with a paella burner, or using a pump from a coffee maker to transfer hot wort. The new brewery is also around twice the size of the old one, and instead of being in an industrial unit somewhere in Scunthorpe, it's actually in the Isle of Axholme, at a Holiday Park. So at the end of a hard days brewing, we get to sit in the Lakeside bar overlooking 7 Lakes, drinking our own beer, out of our own fancy glasses (we still have to pay for the beer).
We are also bottling beer, which can be bought from us at several Farmers Markets and Food Fairs, and also from shops!

(If you fancy actually drinking our beer, you can order it from http://www.yorkshireales.co.uk/breweries/axholme-brewing-co.html).
It turns out that Setting Up Your Own Damn Business takes time. All your time. You will crawl out of bed cursing, you will drink more than you should. You will fall asleep on the sofa to repeats of QI on Dave most evenings. Your love of spending hours making traditional Mexican food will be a distant dream, as on the days when you actually have the time to do it, you'll just want to sit on the sofa and drink your own bodyweight in tea. And, weirdly, it will be worth every damn minute.

Also having a ferret helps. This is Custard in his Fortress of Doom (aka several boxes stuck together and connected by plastic tubes). He's a rescue. We also have a goldfish that I obtained in a fight with a Carny.

But enough about me, how are you?

I Aten't Dead (still)

Hello Blog.
Yes, it has been a long time. No chutneys, no recipes, no knitting. Whatever have I been doing?
Well, in February MikeyFox & I were made redundant. A lot of serious conversations were had, business plans were written, sacrifices were made to the appropriate deities, our firstborn was offered to the local bank in exchange for coin of the realm & some evening classes were taken, and thus was born The Goddamn Plan

Behold! We now have our Own Damn Brewery! In April we started renting a unit in Scunthorpe, and a crash course in plumbing, engineering, carpentry & electronics followed. B&Q was visited frequently. There were tears, there were several litres of chamomile tea, there was a cafe opposite the brewery, where we were taken pity on, and given copious amounts of strong, sweet tea, extra chips & small items of furniture. MikeyFox finally got to make use of his graphic design skills, electricity was applied, malt & hops were ordered & we made our first beer in July.

The first brew shall not be spoken of. First brew are never fun, or easy. But things improved, we figured out how to improve things, fixed the bits that broke, or exploded. Beer was made, and people liked drinking it. We started bottling the beer in August (which sold out in half an hour, oops!), and in December had our first local market stall

You see those little jars at the front? Its mustard and chutney. My mustard and chutney. Made with beer. Our beer. For sale. Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

But enough about me, how the devil are you?