Pete's Log: Agua Bendita
Entry #1821, (Life in General)(posted when I was 41 years old.)
There's a water pump in the Schiller Woods Forest Preserve that is rumored to have special properties.
Once, when Jamie and I picked Tony up from the airport, we happened past it and decided to stop. The only vessel we had was an empty Sprite bottle, so we stood in line amongst dedicated patrons with milk jugs and multi-gallon containers. Most of them laughed at our little bottle. We filled up, and the water certainly tasted fine, but we did not gain any super powers.
Fast forward a couple years and to my talk of home brewing and Jamie has the genius idea that really I should brew with that water. And I have no reason to disagree. So today we stopped by the famous pump. I had a glass carboy and a plastic ale pail, both with roughly a five gallon capacity for a total of ten gallons. We get there and are initially confused because there is no line of people waiting. Did we come to the wrong pump? But we're pretty sure we're in the right place, so I grab the ale pail and start pumping.
When it's about halfway full, two ladies come up and start asking me questions about the pump, like had I used it before and was it drinkable and did it really have all these magical properties. I answered to the best of my ability and once the pail was full carried it back to the car.
Next I bring the carboy to the pump and wait for the ladies to finish filling up. They had a couple milk jugs and a couple smaller bottles. I noticed one of their milk jugs said agua bendita and asked them what bendita meant. They explained it meant holy and that that particular jug previously had contained water blessed by a priest - it was their first time at the pump and they weren't ready to assume this water was holy. They left, I filled my carboy and brought it to the car. As we were getting ready to leave, several other people showed up with big containers so we felt some reassurance we were in the right place.
So I'm pretty excited to brew with this very Chicago water.