Unintended Consequences...

[r8rphan]

A hazard of brewing outdoors in the woods in the winter I hav not considered...

I did my first AG brew last night, a 10G batch of IPA.. I brewed it outside on the service porch.. First time outdoors..

Evidently, I was not the only creature enjoying the smells of roasted barley and hops..

My neighbor just informed me that he followed some fresh bear tracks in the snow today from the logging road out back right up to my back gate.. where they then continued back and forth along the back fences...

I love my 8' tall deer fence!

So I guess I gotta start arming myself when I brew!
Sign of the times...

 

[BreckBastion]

Would that be baiting if you brewed during hunting season?

 

[ultravista]

A .44 magnum Ruger Super Redhawk will work.

 

[r8rphan]

Nothing like combining hobbies...

 

[azscoob]

I can get you a pretty damn good bear chili recipe.

 

[superjunior]

my buddy has been baiting his deer spot with our spent grains and they do work well. guess critters like that smell just as much as we do

 

[ChshreCat]

Don't be a wuss. If the bear shows up, fight it like a man.

 

[rico567]

It's Winter, and things start to get hungry out there. Bears are omnivores, which means bugs, roots, berries, your wort, or......you. 'Nuff said.

 

[Revvy]

Maybe he thought he heard you say you were brewing bear, not beer and was trying to rescue his friend.

Or he just wanted a drink.

Monday, August 23, 2004 - The Globe & Mail, Page A10

If Yogi Bear cartoons are any guide, bears are suckers for picnic baskets. But a black bear at Baker Lake Resort in Washington State proved this month that his taste lies more in beer fridges -- which makes him, as the French would say, an ours of a different cooler.

According to The Associated Press, wildlife officials discovered the bear snoozing on the lawn surrounded by dozens of empty beer cans, which he had evidently stolen from campers' coolers and punctured using his claws and teeth. Clearly he could also distinguish between labels. He opened and drank one can of Busch beer. Then he ignored the other Busch cans and spent his time socking back one can of Rainier beer after another until he had downed 36 of them.

We think we can figure this one out. A bear from the woods would have had quite enough of life in the Busch, but, from what we've heard of Washington's wet climate, it's hard to get any Rainier.

But it is good practice for brewing during the coming zombipocalypse though. Having hoardes at your gate, and brewing strapped.

 

[r8rphan]

Man, went to the step mom's for dinner tonite... One of her grandsons brought some sausage he had prepared from a bear he shot... It was small pepper stick style and large summer sausage style..

I'd never had bear before.. That stuff was awesome... Sent me home with a bit to enjoy with my homebrew during the game tomorrow afternoon...

I just might lock the dogs inside and leave the gate open next time I brew.... strap my GP100 on the hip and put some 000 buck in the shotgun and start brewing.. who knows?

 

[amrmedic]

How about a bear flavored beer? They do have Moose Drool (which is a great beer btw)

 

[TowsonTiger22]

12 ga slugs. Nothing less. Bears get all fat during the winter, and the fat can plug bullet holes.

 

[r8rphan]

I can't imagine that 000 buck would not kill a bear.. 9 pellets the size of thirty eights, in a tight pattern.. Man that leaves a hole the size of my fist...

I can see the .357 not being enough though.. except in a head shot...

 

[amrmedic]

You've never seen a pissed off, hungry bear before.

And if the bear is close enough for your pattern still to be tight, then it is too late.

A Ruger Super Redhawk .44 mag with 9 3/4 inch barrel and scope is good, a Desert Eagle .50, a 454 Casul or a good old 30.06 rifle.

A hand gun has the same drawback as a shotgun, distance. For you to stop it, it has to be close, with a rifle you get distance and safety.

If all else fails throw empty beer bottles and pray. Just dont spill the beer!

 

[ultravista]

bear stool brew?

 

[r8rphan]

Well, there's the mini 14 too...

Where I brew, that thing would be close before I knew it was there...... But it would have to come up a narrow set of stairs to get to me...

Would love to have a desert eagle .50.. but that's way up there on the cost list, and way down on the priority one...

I have a friend that's promised to give me a civil war replica .44 black powder revolver.... He doesn't like it.. I imagine that would pack a wallop...

Truth is, this is all just fantasy.. Ain't no bear gonna show up at my doorstep any time soon....

But man, those peppered bear sticks were tasty! Maybe I can talk to one of the locals who hunt bear, and make a trade partner.. homebrew for bear sticks....

 

[KuntyBrew]

my brother was checking his trap line a few years ago and was charged by a black bear he only had a .22 with 20 rounds he killed it but only barely. talk about lucky!

 

[amrmedic]

A friend I was deer hunting with (archery season) was doing a ground stalk and we were watching this nice apple orchard, so we set up a ground blind, he was on one side and I was way over on the other. Well, he fell asleep and was awoken to a wet sensation on his cheek and hot breath on his face. When he opened his eyes, there was a brown bear sniffing him. Well, the the bears nose was not the only thing that became hot and wet at the time. He didnt move. His bow was beside him. After a minute or 2, the bear walked away.

From that time forward I do not hunt without a side arm, archery season or not.

But bear sausage is good. Bear steaks can be gamey. Never hunted bear yet.

But I wonder what style of beer would be good with bear sausage or even other game meats?

The total homemade dinner, sausage from the bear and washed down with your homebrew.

 

[TowsonTiger22]

I will agree with the .30-06 at a distance. But if I had a bear at my fence, I rather have a semiauto shotgun full of slugs. But, all I have to go on is second hand info. A guy I works with has hunted in Africa. He shot a lion, but apparently you get to hit it with the first round, and the guides empty everything they can find into it right after. I figure bear=lion.

 

[dvdanny]

A Taurus Raging bull w/ .454 casull will put an end to most any bear attacks, the round has been used to hunt cape buffalo and will outperform the .44 mag and .50AE rounds. You can't do better unless of course you go with the obscenely powerful S&W 500.

I've have a friend with experience hunting in Alaska and he says you can scare away most bears just by firing a large caliber pistol in the air as a warning shot. Although he said if a bear ever charged him, he wouldn't bother with a warning shot.

 

[PVH]

Maybe he thought he heard you say you were brewing bear, not beer and was trying to rescue his friend.

Hehe. Reminds me of this French Canadian guy I met on the Appalachian Trail a long time ago. We shared a shelter together (3-sided, overhanging roof sort of thing) with a few other folks. At dusk, an adult male black bear climbed up onto the picnic table right in front of the shelter. The Canadian saw the bear first, and in a loud whisper excitedly said "beer! beer! beer!" No one knew what he was talking about until he pointed at the table.

Anyway, it made for a good story for the next 1,000 miles.

 

[ultravista]

Remember the "cricket", the petite little gun Will Smith had in Men in Black?

That would help in the jerky making process.

 

[jfr1111]

The first time I put spent grains in the trash can, bears got to it because I had forgotten to put the chain on. Yes, I have a chain with a lock to prevent bears from eating my trash.

Now that the neighbor's dog is always frolicking around, I haven't seen any critters getting near the house, wich is nice.

 

[r8rphan]

I have an 8' tall deer fence with barbed wire along the top surrounding the entire property.. There are at least three bears in the neighborhood terrorizing trash cans but not mine so far...

There's also a cougar around, that has stalked people at least twice this fall... I'm more worried about that thing than the bears... That I would shoot on sight and bury the evidence...

There's a huge flock of turkeys in the area too.. Started off as a couple toms, three or four hens, and a dozen youngsters this spring, that I saw today, now numbering at least 100 adult birds... If you drive up on them slowly, they'll take their time getting out of the road...

Man, that's a lot of turkey sandwiches!

 

[Reelale]

A friend I was deer hunting with (archery season) was doing a ground stalk and we were watching this nice apple orchard, so we set up a ground blind, he was on one side and I was way over on the other. Well, he fell asleep and was awoken to a wet sensation on his cheek and hot breath on his face. When he opened his eyes, there was a brown bear sniffing him. Well, the the bears nose was not the only thing that became hot and wet at the time. He didnt move. His bow was beside him. After a minute or 2, the bear walked away.

From that time forward I do not hunt without a side arm, archery season or not.

But bear sausage is good. Bear steaks can be gamey. Never hunted bear yet.

But I wonder what style of beer would be good with bear sausage or even other game meats?

The total homemade dinner, sausage from the bear and washed down with your homebrew.

I didn't know brown bears frequented Florida. I guess it's part of the invasive species phenomenon.