Anybody watch this? It's a new show on the discovery channel about exterminators.

anyway, I bring it up, because last night's episode featured what the exterminator claims was the worst infestation he's ever seen. It just so happened to be at the apartment of what appeared to be an avid homebrewer. Words can't even describe... It amazes me that somebody could even live there, much less brew beer in that environment. Definitely worse than what I would imagine is even possible. I won't even attempt to describe it.

So anyway, they're going through the apartment and there's just bottles everywhere. Props to the guy for being totally dedicated. He didn't have any food in the place (save for a few empty pizza boxes) and his cabinets were all full of microbrews.

So they come to one of his fermentation buckets, and I'm thinking to myself "oh my god, that's going to be foul." They open it up, and lo and behold there's what appears to be a normal looking krausen sitting on the beer. But the exterminator was completely repulsed by it... I even caught myself yelling "hey that actually looks normal!" at the TV. Which got me thinking... yes, fermenting beer does look completely disgusting to the untrained eye. I can't even recall how many times I've shown somebody a carboy full of beer only to have them ask if that was normal.

Anyway, I'm sure the beer was probably bad as looks can definitely be deceiving and that apartment was beyond unliveable.

If you've got Discovery, check out this episode. It'll be on again on Saturday (11am central)

Consider it a lesson in good sanitation and what not to do.

HAHA, I'll have to watch that one!
We just had some maintenance guys check our apt. for routine structural check, I'm pretty sure they thought I was cooking up meth or something illegal in the garage. But yeah I had 2 carboys a little after high krausen, after it's not fluffy white anymore and more like dirty snow. They probably thought it was disgusting. Now those lambic and bacteria infected beers look like something out of an HP Lovecraft novel!

That's just what you want, one of the Verminators opening up your fermentation bucket. If it wasn't contaminated before, it probably is now.

Brewboy, I think he poured it out. They didn't show it, but that's what it looked like he was going to do. the situation was so bad that the police forcibly evicted the guy... and one of the exterminators nearly threw up. I'd imagine those guys have iron stomachs, so that probably speaks volumes for how bad it is.

watch the show. it's mind blowing that somebody thought they could brew in that environment. that batch was infected the second he turned the burner off.

Every so often you hear about animal control going into someone's house and finding large numbers of pets that are rarely let out. How do people live like that? Do you ever get to the point that $hit doesn't smell bad anymore?

I think it's a slow progression... kinda like that old frog in the frying pan thing. But honestly, when you see something like this, the only thing that makes sense is a mental health issue.

Yeah, I caught that show as well. As soon as they opened the door of the apartment I spotted a bottle capper and all of the empty sixers and thought that the guy must have been a homebrewer. Then of course they showed the fermenter and his copy of Clonebrews. I thought the same thing about the fermenter; looked like a pretty normal layer of krausen on top.

That apartment was infested with lots of stuff; roaches, bedbugs, spiders and even bees. Pretty nasty.

Do you ever get to the point that $hit doesn't smell bad anymore?

no, but i think that there is a certain amount of crazy involved when it gets to a point like that.

on the other side of things, i know i neglect a chore or two here or there for the sake of brewing, but damn! thats commitment to your brew schedule.

Brewboy, during my summers off in high school I worked for the "city" I lived in mowing parks, working on baseball fields, etc. My boss at the time was the city health inspector and had some truly awful stories to tell of houses he'd inspected. I really only remember two: one family had a dog that was kept in a bedroom and never let out, so when he was there there was a good couple of inches of $hit covering the entire floor and the family didn't think anything of it. The other, the family wanted to make as few trips as possible to the dump so they would stock up their garbage in their back yard, needless to say they were too lazy to take even one trip and basically filled their entire fenced in back yard with bags of garbage.

Thanks for the heads up Scott, I'll try to remember to setup the DVR tomorrow to tape it since it sounds interesting.

I googled "verminators" and half the links on the first page were to different homebrew forums who have a similar thread. On the one thread, someone posted this:

Discovery has the episode online for free at http://video.discovery.com - It's called "Moby Rat" and the homebrewer's apartment segment starts at around 25 mins in.

I'm watching it now.

My problem with it was the one guy looked around at all the bottles and said "This guy definitely has a drinking problem."

WTF!?!?! He should see my house then.

Can't imagine any beer came out of that guys apartment that was drinkable.
I personally felt like that segment showed homebrewers in a very bad light. One would not get that homebrewers are actually obsessed with cleanliness.
Good show though.

Funny. The guy's food supply sounds like mine. My malted barley definately outweighs all other foods in my house combined.

"Do you ever get to the point that $hit doesn't smell bad anymore?"

You ever smell a hog farm, or Gary, Indiana for that matter? Ask a hog farmer how he can stand the smell and he'll probably say, "What smell?". I think any odor becomes unnoticable after a couple of days of exposure. Or, for a better examle, when I am brewing, I don't notice the wort smell unless I leave for a few minutes. When I return, the smell, although pleasant, is almost overpowering. Within a few more minutes, I can't even smell it anymore.

This would be a perfect example of why I am sometimes shy of judging at homebrew contests or even club meetings. If I don't know the brewer, I worry that it could be from a source like that. But I still don't turn down a sample of homebrew.

But of course when at a meeting or competition, someone always says "what is this weird sulfury - dirty sock - tangy - spicy flavor?" And Everyone passes it around to try it. HA!

A little off subject but I got arrested for "making meth" because of all the jugs and carboys, and a bag of sugar that the cops thought was meth. I fell and busted my head open and had to call 911, the cops came with the EMTs and looked through my house. Walked out of the ER with 14 staples in my head and handcuffs on. The cops just aren't that bright around here.
Matt

I assume the charges were dropped, right?

oh yeah, but I catch heck about it from friends. And the hospital treats me like a druggie to this day.All purdy $hitty. But the cops were just doing there job you know.

I have always feared that my neighbors think I am making meth. Especially when I lived in a small apartment that had a storage space across the hall. I was always carrying tubing and carboys back and forth. I figured I was being WAY over paranoid, but based on Matthew's story, maybe not.

If you showed a photo of a meth lab and a homebrewing set-up to 100 officers, I wonder how many could tell the difference. That's one of the many reasons why I feel like part of our duty as homebrewers is education. I am always up for delivering the Sermon on the Mount! I've brewed for about a half dozen observers, and am always looking for more.

Seven years ago when I started brewing with my room mate, we had the cops over to our place once. We thought our apartment had been broken into because we came home to find the door kicked in. Nothing was stolen, it turned out our other room mate just forgot his key and didn't bother calling or waiting for us. He wasn't on the lease, and was overstaying his welcome anyway, so we had the cops show him out.

Crazy room mate aside, they seemed to take a real interest in the brewing equipment. When one officer noticed it, he actually called two of his buddies back. You could tell they were ready to arrest us on suspicion of being suspicious. We had to actually show them some finished beer and all the books we had on brewing just to prove it to them that we weren't making drugs. Even then, they were still unclear as to whether home brewing was even legal.

Today, I'm convinced that the nosy old lady down the street thinks I'm up to no good. I'm always going back and forth from the house to garage carrying kegs, carboys, kettles, tubing, my copper immersion wort chiller...

Ditto. Everytime my dumbass father-in-law sees my large immersion wort chiller, he thinks its part of my still?!

yeah the coil of copper seems to conjure up "still" in most people's minds... the irony being that a good still wouldn't use one of those anyway.