Here’s the label for my latest batch of home-brewed beer. I used 4 large ripe mangoes and 2 bananas in the high-test (i.e. high alc, strong) beer batch. I didn’t “add” some garbage flavoring after the fermentation was done (like most breweries do); I fermented the mangoes and bananas right along with the hops, barley, etc. This beer isn’t candied like some flavored beers. It’s got a delicate floral undertone thanks to the mangoes, but the flavor doesn’t dominate at all. It’s quite good and quite potent!

The 8% alc rating is an understatement. Sheesh!

Last night Codi and I went to our friends’ house in West Linn for a big German dinner. We had grilled bratwurst, traditional warm potato salad (so so good!), fresh rolls and my home-made German apple beer. The dinner was great. I was so stuffed I couldn’t breathe deeply. Then we had home-made chocolate cake for dessert. Mmmm mmmm mmmm!!!

I finally bottled and aged my latest home-brew. I used an old, old recipe that called for specialized yeasts, high-test beer ingredients, a dozen pressed apples and the pulp from the pressed apples.

The result is a flavorful bier that doesn’t taste like any traditional bier, nor does it taste like a cider. It’s got a hint of apple-flower, sparkling wine taste, but with a heavy hop aroma. It also has little bits of apple in it.

The bier is hard to describe, hence the name “geheimnisapfelbier”, which means “mystery apple beer” in German.

With the rave reviews of my PlanetX Pilsner, I decided to make another experimental beer. After considering chocolate beer, pineapple beer and a number of other flavors (lime, too), I decided on Georgia Peach.

Not to be outdone, I chose not to use ‘flavoring’, and went with fresh, whole Georgia peaches, simmered in hot water to loosen up the pulp and make the skins bleed their gorgeous red color into the water. With the main ingredient done, I proceeded with the standard Pilsner process.

As anyone in Portland knows today, this is a frikin HOT summer (102 today!), and I must have seen it coming 6 weeks ago when I started the peach pilsner fermentation. I nearly doubled the yeast count in light of the extra peach sugars, and this jacked the final alcohol level way up past the 7% mark. An ice-cold brew like this could sell for $10 on the streets today – I’m sure of it!!

Here’s the label I made for the 16oz bottles. =) I wish you could taste it. It’s sooo good.

Jason has taken up a new hobby – brewing specialty beers at home. After brewing meads in 1999, 2000 and 2001, I learned how to brew beer. It’s pretty easy, really. My first brew was from Beer in a Box, purchased at Barnes & Noble. Not bad, but not very impressive. The next batch was a 6 gallon run of Russian Imperial Stout. Black as night, so dark you can’t even shine a flashlight through a glass of it. And what a taste! I made my own label for it, too. Check it out…