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I'm old enough to remember watching at school on B&W TV man landing on the moon. Which makes me almost 43 years young. Not quite old, bold & full of mould, almost growing out of being young, dumb & full of c@#! :beer:

Here's a picture of my mash paddle. :lol: Haven't had a need to use it much though, Kits & bits is the way to go. :beer: Oh, & BTW the pic was taken by a 5mp point & shoot digi. It's not what equipment you've got, it's the way that you use it that matters, eh Tangent. :D

I'm a reformed smoker, gave up 8 years ago to the weekend, (Queen's Birthday), and I have no desire to take up the habit again. The smell of tobacco smoke is very off-putting to my nose now, although I do enjoy the aroma of a freshly opened pouch of tobacco leaf, any brand, it doesn't matter...

Got a full beard & moustache, kept trim, otherwise I look like a hillbilly. Could finally grow one after leaving the food industry where a beard snood (& hair net) was compuslory. Snoods were too sweaty in summer when I grew one for a short time before going clean-skin again. Sure makes me look...

G'day sinkas & airgead, I went to the cellar door of Chateau Dorrien in the Barosaa last weekend and tried out the entire range of five different meads. The Martin's Sweet honey, & Spicy meads are normally fermented (14%), whilst the Scarlet, Grand Miele, & Quandong meads are fermented, then...

In wine country a refractometer isn't far away. Mini-me (aka Ken) stands next to the master of the brewery to guide Captain King in his quest for a great beer.

Ken found the lid needed modifying, so out came the angle grinder to fix up the problem.

Having stopped his nosebleed, Ken was up the ladder next, checking the boil.

Next was the boil, and GMK, that's General Major Ken to you sonny, was directing the troops from the tabletop. Unfortunately he got a nosebleed and had to come down from such great heights. :beer: :party: Looks like a court marshal for this trooper next meeting for insubordination. :lol:

Here is Phil helping Anthony refill the sparge tank. The OH&S guy was out the back having a leak when this was all happening. :D

Now here is my favourite pic for the day, checking to see if the sparge ring is working. :) Ken has already mentioned some mods for it to perform better, but it's simple and it works OK for now.

The merits of gravity were discussed, Ken reckons gravity sucks, but Alan says it pulls and demonstrates it. :beer: :o

With some help from Alan, Anthony puts the sparge tank in place, high in the rafters as Phil & Ken look on.

GMK turned up just in time for the food, a great BBQ cooked by Mark Mark's alter ego 'trev the truckie'. The day was so cold, Ken even worn a Power beanie that was supplied, it is a Power brewery after all. And no Power failures that weekend either. :beerbang:

Here is the top of the mash right at the start. :) Notice the flaked oats on top.

Back to the other dark side, the brewing of the Oatmeal stout. The kegs had been shuffled around and now it was time for underletting the strike water to the grist. :chug:

Due to some vandals or hoons the large steel plaque on one of the tombs had been prized open to reveal some of the ancestors. (the Grieves) Spooky stuff. As for some of the stories about the wild parties in the place and the things they get up to, I don't know if I can believe them. But we'll...

10 kg later and I'd gone out sightseeing to visit the old (130yo) mausoleum just over the hill. What's behind the green door, find out in the next post! :blink: Cue in evil laugh :ph34r: The real dark side :beer:

This ain't no roller mill, but when you're only starting out the old flour mill works just fine. Just got to remember to change hands at 99 turns. :D

What follows is a whole series of pics. Here Anthony is filling the strike tank with cold rainwater.