Encounters with the netherworld are hardly verifiable.  Nonetheless, here is my account, subjective as it may be.

Recently, on a dark and cold evening, my wife and I were enjoying the silence in the house.  She, watching her program; me sitting in the dining room writing for Thank Heaven For Beer.  Suddenly, Sandra, a bit bothered, asked, Do you hear that noise?

I stopped and listened.  Sure enough there it was:  grrrrrghhhstt

It sounded much like a person pulling a heavy object across the sidewalk outside.  It must be our neighbors, I concluded, as they are a noisy bunch.

But alas, the vexatious noise persisted to the point that neither I nor my wife could ignore it any longer.  We began peering out the cracks in our drawn shades, hoping to catch a glimpse of the vile perpetrator.  But all was calm.  We hurried to the basements steps and listened.  Nothing.  We checked on the children.  Fast asleep.

I came and sat next to my wife.  We sat in eerie silence, thoughts of poltergeists and ghouls flooding our thoughts.  Suddenly, I was able to pinpoint the source infiltrating our home…it was coming from the coat closet.  That is when it hit me.  There is no ghost in our home!  It is the five gallons of Hefeweizen fermenting in the closet.  Relief!  I had put the heavenly mixture there the previous day and the fermentation process was just now kicking into high gear.

I thought the whole scenario incredibly funny…but maybe that’s just because I am a beer geek.  In fact, at each gurgle that discharged from the closet I could not help but look over at my wife and snicker.  After about ten such snickers she said, Yes Nathan, I hear the beer…it’s very funny…

And just so this post is not completely pointless, let me briefly explain the “ghost.”

As yeast gobbles up glucose in wort it converts the sugar into ethyl alcohol and carbon dioxide gas.  The CO2 will be used to carbonate the beer later, but just not yet, so a way has to be made for it to escape without letting contaminates in.  So, an airlock is fitted to the top of the fermentation container.  When enough pressure builds up in the container, it pushes its way through the liquid barrier in the airlock, creating a gurgling noise that is amplifield by the bucket of liquid, and in the case of my house, the hard wood floors.