Monday 15th November
Having quit my job at the chokkie factory, I found myself with too much time and not enough chores.  Whilst idly perusing the net I discovered the following -The Core Historical Literature of Agriculture, at Cornell University.  There are scanned books here dudes, and once was full of alcoholic goodness.

It was called 'Beverages Past and Present', and inside was another recipe for Chicken beer and this was good.  Next to the recipe for Chicken beer was a recipe for Egg Ale, and this was better!  A beer that contains both eggs and beef gravy (as outlined in the book), has to be both nourishing and intoxicating - ie an ideal beer for those days you cannot be stuffed going to the supermarket for foody staples such as bread, semi dried tomatoes and Stag Chilli (a favourite of BCa).

The recipe for a 4L trial batch was assembled and goes like this

500g Light dried malt
The gravy from 200g of Beef (made to an old recipe by Mrs Beeton)
1 boiled egg (I'm assuming all should be cooked as this then may not kill me)
30g Raisins
30g Orange (sking and flesh)
All spice mix, liberal dusting
140mL of Sherry (to be added after primary fermentation)
Yeast left over from a beer kit

Could be good!

Thursday 18th November
There is something satisfying about watching pieces of boiled egg yolk bening buoyed aloft by the process of fermentation.

This is a cloudy concoction, however there are no signs of infection, which is a relief.

Sunday 21st November
Fermentation has ceased and it shall sit for a week in order to settle out some of the larger bits of egg.  The raisins and orange peel is determined to float on the top, the photos will look good once they are developed.

Friday 26th November
A large weekend of alcohilic related activities awaits.  It's getting hot and my wine in the shed (cellar) needs to be bottled, so this shall be first priority, after which the Egg Ale shall be decanted, the sherry and priming sugar added and then bottled.  I shall let you know how it tastes (it developed a nice spicy aroma during fermentation, who knows?).

Monday 29th November
The wine has been bottled yesterday- woohoo - 97 bottles!  To celebrate, the egg beer was prepared for priming and bottling.

However, it was an evil smelling creation and after an initial taste, only a small number of bottles were actually filled.  The taste/aroma is not unlike what I imagine decaying flesh would smell like, and as such, obviously not a beer for daily consumption..

BCa in particular was quite ovewhelmed by its unique properties and took today off to recover.

I have a feeling the yolk in particular has reacted in the fermentation, and as such, next time this is attempted, egg white only shall be used.