When I lived in Alaska years ago, we used to make our own spirits and brew our own beer. One fall, we were late getting our winter supply brewed and bottled. The temperature dropped unexpectedly, as it’s prone to do up there. Our batch wasn’t quite ready to bottle; it needed a few more days at a constant temperature. But because our cabin floor was cold, we put the 32 gallon rubber can up behind the wood stove to keep it warm enough that the yeast and sugar could finish their magic.
We had a particularly cold night one night and we fired up that wood stove, banked it well and went to bed. In the middle of the night, I was awakened by this massive whoosh sound. I ran into the kitchen and the heat from the stove had melted the rubber can so that it buckled and spewed the entire 32 gallons of beer onto the floor!
Well, at -50 degrees outside, there wasn’t going to be much airing out of the house. We lived with the lingering smell of stale beer in that place until the following spring.
Brewing has come a long way since then. Here’s a resource that, if you’re into home brew, you might want to look into:
