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badg3er

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Oh i cried.

Yesterday i was putting my first brew together since being away on holidays.

I had my black rock lager, no' 60 converter kit, 500g light dry malt, and some saflager yeast.

I pour the can into the brewer,
fill the can with boiled water to get the last of the mix out -- pour it into brewer
start mixing in the converter and malt
pour in the remaining boiled water from the kettle

as i pour i notice a black "thing"
i tried to put it to the back of my mind
i tell myself, if i cant see it it cant hurt me

as i mix, this black thing keeps popping to the surface

curiousity gets the better of me

i scoop it out

one very well cooked and mashed cockroach


i get naseus just thinking about how many coffees that blighter was in there for.

I cried when i poured the mix out.

:eek:
 
badg3er said:
Oh i cried.

Yesterday i was putting my first brew together since being away on holidays.

I had my black rock lager, no' 60 converter kit, 500g light dry malt, and some saflager yeast.

I pour the can into the brewer,
fill the can with boiled water to get the last of the mix out -- pour it into brewer
start mixing in the converter and malt
pour in the remaining boiled water from the kettle

as i pour i notice a black "thing"
i tried to put it to the back of my mind
i tell myself, if i cant see it it cant hurt me

as i mix, this black thing keeps popping to the surface

curiousity gets the better of me

i scoop it out

one very well cooked and mashed cockroach


i get naseus just thinking about how many coffees that blighter was in there for.

I cried when i poured the mix out.

:eek:
Tragic :/

Closest i've had to that was when I was making a brew a few months back I pushed the airlock grommet through the hole by accident.. ended up spending ages to fish it out, was annoying, brew turned out fine tho :)

One thing, you know with those kit converters (brewcraft) you need to bring them to the boil in a pot of water first (well its recommended anyway) for extraction of the hop aromas? They also recommend straining it into the fermenter, leaving the hops behind.
 
Reg,

The just boiled Water should have sterilised the bugs....excuse the pun.

I would have boiled it all ( to kill any bacteria they might have been still alive) and then brewed as normal...

Worth a try....I dont like wasting Beer.

I did one batch where i steeped the grains in just boiled water for 1.5 hours. (not recommended now)

After i mixed it up with the Barley Wine Kit cans in the fermenter and tasted it....Huge Amount of Tanins.
Thought about ditching the whole thing....but i brewed it and racked it and come 6 months later, the beer took out 1st place in the Canberra Brewers Strong Scotish Ale Competition with my highest ever score of 126.5 out of 150.

Not bad for a beer i thought initially was not worth brewing.

Comments anyone? :chug:
 
Brewcraft Converter Kits

I boil all the brewcraft converter kits i have ever used.
I dont strain the boil into the fermenter.

Now i buy bulk liquid malt ($85.00 for 28Kg...delivered free if u spend $100.00 from Grumpys)
Bulk Hops ($50.00 plus freight for 1 kg of Hop Pellets - chooses upto 4 varieties to make 1 kg - from Grain & Grape - Melb)
Lactose, dextrose grains ( Steeped) etc and make up my own converter kits.

This way i know the hops are fresher. I find it cheaper also.
I used to use corn sugar but dont anymore. Don't think it is value for money and is not needed.
 
That combination hop deal from G&G sounds like a good idea - I wonder if other stores offer this.

As for the cockroach - I read on another list about someone who distilled a batch of weevil ridden grain - called it dead weevil whiskey and I think it turned out ok.

I find cockroaches revolting - don't know what I would have done. I think I'd draw the line at broken glass in the wort. This happened to me recently. It was early in the morning - I was half awake and planning to pitch yeast - managed to smash a fragile glass vessel right near my open wort - wasn't even entirely sure that any glass had entered - I was standing there looking at what I thought would be a delicious pitch black stout - it was one of those moments - ended up tossing it down the sink and mashed another batch. (Consoled myself that I got to brew again sooner than I'd planned :)

cheers
reg
 
Interesting, Reg. I think I would have gone with the "glass bottom stout", racked to secondary, then racked to the bottling bucket att bottling time. Surely all this siphoning would have eliminated any risk of glass getting into the final product?

As for the cockroach, I definitely would have thrown that out - I have drunk coffee brewed with a cockroach and the flavour was not something I ever want to experience again! However, I did keep my porter that had a moth land into it during bottling. All the scales off the wings coated the top of the brew. I'll let you know how it tastes in a couple of weeks.
 
their are a few old cider and ale recipes that call for placing a chicken in the barrel. I havent tried it yet, but it might be worth trying a chicken maryland in the fermenter. I'm going to make some cider in few months. I'll make two batches, one with chicken and one without. I'll let you know how it goes
 
Chicken Cider

I think i would be too chicken to try it......TIC.

why did the chicken cross the road.....
 
There was a recipe for 'cock ale' - info from rec.crafts.brewing. I'm so glad he included a modernised version - I'll be off to pick up some chook this arvo.

As for the glass bottomed stout- - I don't think I could have enjoyed it, no matter how careful I was with racking.

cheers
reg
~~~~~~~~~~~~`



-------------Recipes for Cock Ale from Chris Alfs---------------

The recipe for authentic Cock Ale has finally arrived. Boy it sure is scary:

COCK ALE (circa the 1500's) A real recipe from some obscure text found in the
Scottish Highlands... Enjoy....

"Take 10 gallons of ale and a large cock, the older the better; parboil
the cock, flay him, and stamp him in a stone mortar until his bones are broken
(you must gut him when you flaw him). Then, put the cock into two quarts of
sack, and put to it five pounds of raisins of the sun - stoned; some blades of
mace, and a few cloves. Put all these into a canvas bag, and a little before
you find the ale has been working, put the bag and ale together in vessel.
In a week or nine days bottle it up, fill the bottle just above the neck
and give it the same time to ripen as other ale."

Brutal, eh? I was also given a modern recipe written by some
guy named C.J.J. Berry.... Here goes this one...

"Take a few pieces of _cooked_ chicken and a few chicken bones (approx
one tenth of the edible portion of the bird) well crushed or minced.
Also take half of pound of raisins, a very little mace, and one or maybe
two cloves. Add all these ingrediants to half a bottle of string country white
wine. Soak for 24 hrs. Then make on gallon of beer as follows:
1 lb Malt extract
1 Oz Hops
1/2 lb demerarra sugar
1 gallon water
Yeast and nutrient.

Add the whole of the chicken mixture to the beer at the end of the
second day. Fermentation will last six or seven days longer than usual and the
ale should be matured at least one month in the bottle. This cock ale is of the
barley wine type.

I would challenge someone to make this. (I am actually thinking of trying it
this summer when I will be researching in Belfast - it should be a blast!)

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
 
I'd think cock ales would be for use as a stock in cooking rather than as a beverage.
 
Something about adding meat to beer - sounds very strange to me, but you never know - maybe it tastes good.

cheers
reg
 
...and you could add some curry to the beer as well so after a long beer drinking session you wouldnt have to worry about buying a kebab at 3am!

can anyone tell me it doesnt taste lke sh*t??? :huh:
 
Vindaloo said:
I can see the advertising now ...

"Beer that eats like a meal!"
Ha! what do you mean!

there is already 2 steaks in every beer :lol:
 
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