So when's the beer going to be done? (See, I really do read my mail...). Answer is I just don't know. Ale is done in a week or two. Lager sometimes a bit longer. But my brews are done when they're done. Six months is about the average. You need to let the yeast work, then grow old and die of alcohol poisoning, which they created. Then throw in some more fresh troops. They'll push on a bit further and also eventually die. During this whole process the beer is transforming from a cream color to a brilliant clarity. Most brewerys only wait for the first wave of yeast to peter out. I wait until the beer is crystalline clarity and not one more drop of alcohol can be created in it. This beer is gonna' peter out sooner than my traditional batches, so probably three to four months. Steamy beer for the holidays.

I looked at some invoices. Man I've gone through some stuff. You don't notice it in the day-to-day trying to scratch out a sale. Lotta' cheap guitars. Cheap violins, and cheap flutes. Sure, a couple came back but they've still been flying off the shelves. Relatively speaking. I might sell a flute every couple of weeks, but that's a dozen or so since I've been here.

Oh, and I learned something from the flute experience. I don't recall if I mentioned that I picked up a premier flute line. Got those. And I still have a couple of Selmers priced beyond reality (and that won't ever be replaced, they've been on the inventory since, lessee.... 1989). And I've got the 'minimum acceptable by a consortium of educators for band instruments' flute, and I've got these... They're cheap. They look like a flute. Play like a flute. You decide. I recommend the Selmer. Hey, you asked...

Hang on a second [banging head against desk...]. I've got thirteen year old Selmers I'm trying to sell for nine hundred bucks new. I've got a vintage Selmer - used - thirteen years old. Absolutely perfect condition. Musta' sat in a closet or something, don't you think? Sure beats those ratty old horns on eBay. What a steal. Fifteen hundred bucks. A thousand you say? Let me think about it...