It's True!!!

It came up in Modern Family, so it must be true. I've been saying it for years. I have my own anecdotes about it, but I have not had any hard evidence to support my theory. Today, it becomes one of the immutable laws of physics.

The quote, as it happened from Modern Family:

Claire: Haley sweetie, wake up. I need you to teach me how to use the tv.
Haley: Now? Why can't dad teach you?
Claire: Because we're married.

Now it must be true, because a prime time sitcom has recognized it to be so! You may ask now, "But Greg! Why do you know it's true?" The answer? Because I had to get somebody else to teach the Girl to drive a stick, and that's just the latest in the series.

Brew Hacking

For the first time ever (while brewing), we had too much wort. Too much wort!!! That never happens. After filling the 5-gallon bucket up to about 6.5 gallons, we still had some left over. At that point (because it's just not right to waste any beer), we had to sanitize a carboy for the leftover.

However, in going through the supplies, we learned that we were missing a piece of the air lock. It's the little middle piece that prevents the back-flow of water into the fermenting wort. We were in luck, though. Amanda, being the pack rat that she is (;-)), keeps the old test tubes from liquid yeast. She brilliantly realized that the tube fits perfectly in the outer part of the air lock. I brilliantly realized that she has a circular saw. She brilliantly realized that the test tubes are not glass, but plastic.

A couple minutes later, she cut down the tube, and then I sanded the rough edges until they were smooth like glass, and we had a complete air lock!

The process, in less sarcastic detail, is to take the yeast test tube, cut it down to about 1-1.5 inches with a circular saw (carefully). Once that's done, pick off the extra plastic bits and then use some fine-grained sand paper to polish the edges smooth. It should fit in the air lock, and you're good to go (after sanitization, of course).