I think I blogged my pants…….

Ok, I am just posting this quickly so I can link to these images on a forum I am currently posting too 😛
The TIG welds should of been purged with Argon, but we were lazy and as a result you can see what happens (I have tried to clean it up as best I can and I hope it doesn’t cause any issues with the brewing).

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Last week I purchased 12 Mangos at 99c each and pushed these through the juicer. Unfortunately they didn’t produce that much juice, so I kept the pulp also. I am hoping it is going to be enough for my first mango beer attempt. No biggy if it isn’t as I have enough grain to take a another crack at it. Today I finally managed to brew my base brew as previously posted. Nothing out of the ordinary here, brew day went well and I opted to use a 18/45 blend from Proculter. Mad props go out to Wayne for hooking me up with some awesome blends! I also purchased a 73 for the next mango attempt.  This way I can see which yeast works better.  Any who after mash in and the boil (adding some SAAZ along the way for flavour and aroma) my OG was 1045.. Not too bad as the recipes Expected OG is 1047 and hell this is BIAB spec (No fancy rig for me yet!!!) 😛 I also decided to do a 2L yeast starter so I tonight I have just pitched that while my wort cools down, unfortunately I am not a fan of wasting water so I use the no-chill approach.  This method does run higher risks of infection in your beer but so far so good, besides I don’t have the money to buy a good Counter Flow Chiller.

I will add some pics to this post later!

Till then, enjoy and have a good night! 😛

I like Matso’s Mango Beer however I can’t drink a lot of it in one go as it is a little to sweet for that, but I do like it enough to try my hand at brewing my own.

Below is a base recipe to play with, as you can see I am going to put some SAAZ-B into this brew as I think this will work well with the Mango.  I plan to brew two different batches, one I will drop in the mango 10 mins before flame out.  This should allow enough time to kill any nasties in the mango however we run the risk of destroying some of the flavour so the second batch will have the mango pitched in the secondary.  I will either pasteurise the mango at 65 degs for 30 mins before pitching or just throw it in. I am hoping if I decide to just throw it in, there will be enough alcohol in the beer after the primary fermentation to kill any bacteria they may be introduced.  So I am undecided as to which path I should take….

Anyways below is the proposed basic recipe for my beer (minus mango and yeast).  I haven’t picked a yeast yet as I am waiting for my yeast guru at http://www.proculture.com.au/ to suggest one of his fantastic strains.

Base Brew for Experimenting

0- No Style Chosen

No Yeast Chosen

Well, it isn’t very Honey Spiced.. Infact I can not taste any spices in it!
Last time I made this brew, I put way too many cloves in it and the smell reminded me of fruit mince pies…..
I believe I may have used a little too much honey 1.5L for a 22L batch and not enough ginger etc. I chose to use fresh ginger in this particular brew, but it doesn’t seem to be as strong as powdered ginger….

I will let this age a little more and try it again in about 2 weeks.

So the other day I tried my lemon lime pilsner, unfortunately it is so citrusy that I get epic head…. So it took a while to pour. As I sit here sipping back a pint of it, I thought I would tell the internet all about it. Well internet here it is, it is rather citrusy… That is all! 😛

You can really taste the lemon and lime, probably a little too much that it actually removes the beer like taste! I put way to much in, but the problem I have is that I can’t really gauge how juicy/flavoursome my lemon and limes are… As I take another sip, I am also having trouble detecting any of the SAAZ hops I used for flavour and aroma. Ohh well it is still a very refreshing drop especially if you have been working in the garden on a 40 degree day… Much like today!!!

Please excuse the lame iPhone pic 😛

Last weekend I went over to some dudes house who just recently built a neat looking homebrew rig, details can be found here;

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=45244&st=0

He has enspired me to get off my butt and start building mine.  I managed to source 3 kegs of similar size from a scrap metal yard. Here is a pic of them jammed into my car 😛

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As soon as I got them I headed straight to a mates work, where he proceeded to violate them with a big big mill.

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Next step is to measure where the holes for all my connectors need to go, drill then weld and test for leaks.  Given this is a costly exercise I have decided to do one vessel at a time. So far I have purchased a few SS 316 bits from various places, I have also got myself a die grinder and a heap of scotchbrite pads so that I can clean the kegs up (inside and out).  I will post some more pics when I start drilling into the suckers.

Yesterday I attempted to brew a Pilsner with an infusion of Lemon and Lime. Just before flame out I threw in a heap of Lemon peel (minus the white bitter bits) into the wort. Then when I syphoned it into the contain (no chill style) I threw in some more. Not sure how lime cordial would go, I threw that in also. I am guessing the sugar in that will probably ferment also.

I have just pitched the yeast (Wyeast 2042-Danish Lager) the Gravity Reading is 1041 so this is expect to ferment out to 1010, making it about a 4.2%ABV Brew. All that aside I sure hope I get a distinct lemon/lime taste!

*Fingers Crossed*

So tonight I just finished kegging my Choc Mint Joe Stout, It doesn’t smell too bad and the FG is 1015 which makes it about 4.6%ABV I will leave it to carbonate for a few days before I try it.

This weekend I plan to make another Golden Ale Wannabe but I think I might pick up the Hops a bit more at the end to try and get a fruitier tasting beer…. (Does that sound a bit queer? :P)

Here is a picture of the stout in the Hydrometer Test Tub (it is a bit blurry so blame the iPhone) however it should give you a rough idea on how dark this brew is.

I forgot to post this when I actually kegged and tried this brew for the first time.
Anyway here we go. On the 27/07/2008 I kegged what I have dubbed my “Golden Ale Wannabe” it is basically an attempt to try and produce similar characteristics to the James Squire Golden Ale. Well anyway a few days after I kegged it and cranked the co2 I tried some. Well to my surprise it tasted great, I would go as far as bloody fantastic even! 😛

Here is a picture of a the ale (taken with my iphone) quality of the photo isn’t that great but the clarity of this beer is awesome.

Mmmm Tastey.  I use BeerAlchemy on the mac for all my brews, it was well worth the money.

Ok,
So today I racked my stout into the secondary vessel. but before I did, I crushed up some fresh mint and brewed some “real” coffee, poured it into the vessel and then racked the beer over the top. When I brewed this style on the 13/07/2008 I added chocolate at the beginning of the Boil. Being a novice at all this I felt it was time to start experimenting. Well now it is racked with the last 2 additions so let the count down begin!!! I can’t wait to try it. 😛