Yes, it has finally arrived! And with this, I can start my beer brewing adventures again! Well, as you guys know, I am currently in a certain state where nothing else matters but beer brewing. It has gotten into such a situation whereby my mind is consumed with nothing but making the most delicious beer for my friends and me. Well, err… not exactly, but that’s what I like to think myself to be. A beer brewing freak but one without the actual brewing skills.

Anyway, enough of the deep deep talk, it’s time now to showcase what I have just purchased. This time, I bought them from Home Brew. By the way, it cost S$99.50 for this “set” where includes the beer kit (that’s the Morgan’s Blue Mountain Lager Beer Kit) , Lager Malt, Hops, Wyeast Ale Yeast, 30×740ml PET bottles and caps and a priming scoop. The priming scoop is used to measure the amount of sugar for priming the beer which basically means carbonating the beer. I am too cheap to buy any more carbonation drops (which cost S$5 per pack by the way), so I got this instead and will be using just table sugar for priming. Hey, that’s like S$1.05 per kg of sugar at Sheng Siong. Some big shot with a multi-million dollar paycheck told me to go and find cheaper alternatives, so I follow “loh”.

And now we begin!

Well, this is one of the most important part of kit beer brewing - the actual kit itself. This is the Morgan’s Blue Mountain Lager. Looks quite professional too. I have heard great things about Morgan and their beer kits and thus I am very keen to try out their products. If I am not wrong, the Blue Mountain Lager is their best seller. The blue stuff in the background is my nephew’s Thomas train tracks where they connect onto each other to form longer train tracks.

The back of the Blue Mountain Lager Kit. The instructions tells the same thing as what the Cooper’s Kit has stated. Add hot water, add the goo, add some more yeeky goo, stir, add more cold water and add yeast, pray and so on. As usual, I believe that we can safely ignore those instructions and do a partial boil for this kit. Plus, I have ordered additional hops, so boiling should be necessary. The due date on the can states October 2008 and for this I am glad. Always get the freshest liquid malt extract you can find for the best tasting beer. I believe that you will find a pack of dry yeast underneath the can cap.

What do you know, I am correct. There is indeed a packet of yeast underneath the cover, plus an instruction booklet.

Morgan’s lager yeast - pure strain brewing yeast. I heard that it is from Mauribew, so I am not sure whether the yeast will produce a good tasting beer. It’s better safe than sorry, right?

Hmmm….it can ferment at a temperature of 30 °C! Well, from what I have heard, at 30 °C, I think the beer will not come out nice at all. In fact, it will probably taste like some pungent poison.

Confirmed! The kit is still in it’s shelf life. Well, I hope that this means 05-Oct-2008 and not 08-Oct-2005! Wuhahaha!

That’s the Lager Malt Extract, not sure which manufacturer. Feels very different from the Cooper’s Light Malt Extract. The Cooper’s Light Malt Extract feels more “malty” and silky in texture. The lager malt feels more like starch. I guess they are very different in the way they are processed, thus we have such different textures. I was supposed to get the liquid malt extract but Home Brew ran out of stock, so I have to settle for the dried variety.

Eeeeeeek! Cluster hops! And this one comes in a specially designed infusion brew bag, which I think is just like a normal tea bag. Not sure what I will do with this, maybe just do a quick aroma hopping. I don’t really want the Cluster hop flavour to permeate into the brew and I may not even use the hops provided. You may wonder why then did I get this hop? Am I stupid or something? Well, I didn’t really order the hops individually, it came in a package which includes the beer kit, lager malt and the cluster hops. But for just 45 Singapore bucks, what do I have to complain about?

The hops will be kept in the freezer to preserve it’s shelf life.

Yes, that’s what Brewerkz is now serving to their customers. Xtra Gloop Stout. In fact, I think most of the customers of Brewerkz are just too drunk to realize what the hell they are drinking and this is not surprising, their best seller. Na, just kidding. I don’t want to be sued by Brewerkz. I mean if I got sued, who is going to feed my 16.5 children? Actually, it is the yeast that the owner of Home Brew Singapore is providing me. I didn’t want to use the dry yeast provided in the can, so he was kind enough to get some liquid yeast for me. And it’s the Wyeast Ringwood Ale Yeast! Anyways that’s a hell lot of yeast for me to pitch into my wort and for just S$5! I think I will split them into two batches and hope for the best. Remember, liquid yeast in Singapore is very expensive. I believe a smack pack of Wyeast is selling for S$17 at iBrew.

A closeup of the yeast. Yeast really don’t look very nice do they? In fact, I am pretty sure that if I am not a brewer, I won’t have dared touch the cup. The rubber band is to warn people that the cup might implode or create a nuclear meltdown. So beware.

Anyways, the yeast needs to be stored at low temperatures, so in it went to the fridge. And what I did was to put a little plastic bag over the cup to prevent bacteria from entering and infecting the wort cum yeast through the opening in the cup cover.

Well, that’s everything. As you can see, brewing beer is quite easy if you have the time and the interest. And yes, on the top left corner, that’s Thomas The Train Engine, my nephew’s favourite toy and quite possibly the world’s most expensive piece of plastic.

Oh, before I forget, here is the picture of the priming scoop, also another expensive piece of plastic. The smaller scoop is for the 330ml beer bottles while the bigger scoop is for the 660ml beer bottles. If you are using the 740ml bottles, then just add a little more sugar to your beer. But luckily, I am using the PET bottles, which shouldn’t be as dangerous as glass bottles. At least they won’t explode if you over-carbonate them.

Anyways, I won’t be brewing this weekend. Too busy and tomorrow I will have to go and clear my grandparents cemetery. So next week, I will do my wonderful “Blue Mountain Lager which taste like ale” beer. Wish me luck and don’t get too drunk.