Since war stories seem to be in order and you're going back to the "old" days there are caveats you should be aware of.
Back in the old, old days, during WWII, I was a teenage high school student. Money was hard to come by and a case of 24 bottles of beer was $3.00, as I recall. Bootleggers and home brewers were trying to quench the thirst of a gang of "deprived" teenagers and the usual indulgers in the area.
It came New Years Eve........ of course we had a party planned!
My girlfriend was the barbers daughter, the barber made beer and wine. His oldest son was also a barber and he made beer.
The son lived, and worked, in a town about 20 miles away. This was up on the Canadian border and it was New Years Eve! The snow was butt deep to a tall Indian and with the Northern Lights and all, it was a beautiful night for a party.
Us teenagers pooled our money, headed for the country market where the guy would sell alcohol to minors, spent what we had pooled on "long necks" of Ballantines and pressed on to the son's home some 20 miles away.
Long story short.......... we finished what we had purchased long before New Years arrived leaving us the only alternative of sampling the almost 15 gallons of home brew that my girlfriend's brother had brewing. He informed us that it wasn't quite ready but we were welcome to try it!
Coffee cups were produced and we started dipping into the five gallon crocks he used for brewing vessels.
He was right...... the beer wasn't quite ready but it was drinkable, we had nothing else, and it was New Years Eve.
Several hours later and following the consumption of all the home brew we could drink, the party broke up.
As we stepped outside someone noted the fact that it had snowed several inches while we enjoyed drinking Hermie's beer.
Inches of new powder on top of several feet of old snow. Everything covered with fresh snow..... cars, trees, bushes, driveway.
A beautiful night!
BUT!
As we chatted away, heading across the snow covered porch, Hermie's wife, standing in the open doorway, flicked on the porch light to light our way to the car. Hermie hadn't given it a second thought when he installed one of those yellow "bug lights" in the porch light. When the light came on it seemed to light up a half acre......... of MUSTARD!
All that snow was the color of French's finest mustard........... tons of it! As we looked around someone exclaimed "MUSTARD" and it was like somebody just uncorked that home brew.......
Home brew goes a long ways when spread over fresh snow, especially when mixed with chips, peanuts, various dips and chunks of cheese. The landscape changed in an instant................ and I'll never forget it!
So beware my friends, and never drink "not done" home brew. It may result in memories that you "can't" forget.
