Gob Stopper Grape Ale (Batch 377)

If you follow along on this blog, or SheppyBrew.com, you likely know that I have been trying to work through BJCP Styles that I've never brewed.

For the most part, I am able to enjoy just about every style of beer, however there a a few I don't necessarily care for.

So ... working through this BJCP Style Goal has the potential of creating beers I may not like as much.

So, far, since I've started the Roll-a-Style list, I have not really rolled any styles that I downright don't like.

However, this one has that potential. We'll have to see.

If you read Roll-a-Style 12: 29D. Grape Ale, you probably were able to determine this was coming:

Gob Stopper Grape Ale

So ... the BJCP Style 29D. Grape Ale is basically a blend of beer and wine, and I don't really like wine.

But, I'm hoping the recipe will be more beer-like than grape-like. I guess we'll see.

I purchased the grains for this beer at the same time I bought the ones for Summer Lovin' American Wheat, at the very beginning of the month. I kept thinking I'd brew but never got around to it.

Until yesterday (Sunday). I actually didn't really decided to brew this until almost 7am, so I got a late start.

The recipe called for an overnight mash with a short boil, but due to the late start, I decided to shorten the mash, making this basically a Short and Shoddy brew day.

The mash started around 7:20. It was around 8 that I decided to shorten the mash, and I started draining at 8:05.

My pre-boil gravity was low at 1.037 (planned 1.041), but I decided to go with it.

One disadvantage of my 120 volt Anvil Foundry is that heating water from mash temperature to boil takes a long time. 

The boil started around 9am.

The boil was planned for only 35 minutes, and went well. I was chilling by 9:35. 

The OG of the wort was 1.042. My calculations said that the juice concentrate would contribute 15 points, so I ended up with an official OG of 1.067, which is actually just below the the BJCP style guideline specify, but I'm not going to worry about a couple of points.

The juice gave the beer a purple color. It certainly looks more like wine than beer.

I chilled the wort fairly quickly. I had the yeast pitched around 10am, making it basically a 3 hour brew day.

I've done quicker, but really only if I do an overnight mash, which eliminates the day-of mash completely.

The beer was bubbling away sometime late afternoon to evening, and is going strong as I type this.

So ... in a couple of weeks, we'll find out how much I like the Grape Ale that I designed.

Hopefully I don't hate it. I might have to find people to give it away to.

Stay tuned, and I'll let you know.

As always, stay tuned on the regular SheppyBrew Channels to see what is happening with beer, barbeque, biking and other things in my life: SheppyBrew's Facebook Page; Sheppy's Twitter Feed; SheppyBrew's Instagram Page; and SheppyBrew's Website.

Halfway to Helles vs Astrosuds Lager

So, part of the logic around brewing Halfway to Helles Leichtbier in May had to do with my May "Seasonal" Helles in a Hand Bock-sket.

Last year, while drinking Hand Bock-sket, I made the comment:

#WillDrinkInJune. Great bready malt character. Loving this beer. I think the only improvement I can think of is making it lower ABV ... But it wouldn't be a Maibock then 😎

I believe this was shortly after drinking a beer at Green Mountain Brewing Company that really reminded me of  Hand Bock-sket, but was lower in ABV. It's name was "AstroSuds Lager".

While a 5A. German Leichtbier isn't really anything like a lower ABV Maibock, it is sort of similar in that they are both German lagers.

Before my latest camping trip, I saw cans of AstroSuds Lager in Green Mountain's beer cooler, and I decided to pick up a four pack.

Around that time, I poured the Halfway to Helles Leichtbier and AstroSuds to compare side-by-side.

 

2025 Fathers' Day Photos (Part 3)

So ... as you know if you've been following along on this blog, I've been posting Fathers' Day photos recently.

If you have not been following along and are interested, check out 2025 Fathers' Day Photos (Part 1) and 2025 Fathers' Day Photos (Part 2).

Now, I'm posting the finale, Part 3.

We got up Sunday morning and the boys made me pancakes for breakfast. Then we packed up the camp.

Juneteenth Paddle on Chatfield

I'm pretty inexperienced at Paddle Boarding. My first "real" time doing it was last year Labor Day Weekend SUP, and I've only really done it once or twice after that so far.

But, it's a fun thing to do on hot summer-like days.

This past Thursday was Juneteenth, which my employer has as a holiday. It was hot, and the wife  (aka the SheppyBrew Beer Model) also had it off. We thought it would be fun to get some paddling in.

So we packed up our paddling stuff, some beer, a lunch and headed down to Chatfield Reservoir.

My wife had an electric pump, but it takes much longer than me with my manual pump. I even had to finish off pumping her paddle board. I think maybe we need to look into a better one.

Anyway ...

 

2025 Fathers' Day Photos (Part 2)

A couple days ago I posted 2025 Fathers' Day Photos (Part 1), and I have more photos from that trip.

After the hike on Part 1, we decided that it was too early to go back to the campground, so we decided to drive up Trail Ridge Road, which is the main road running through the park 48 miles from Estes Park to Grand Lake.

 

2025 Fathers' Day Photos (Part 1)

Fathers' Day was this past weekend.

We hardly go camping anymore. I actually suspect that I'm the only one who actually likes camping and the rest of the family only tolerates it to make me happy.

So, over the past few years, we pretty much only go camping on Fathers' Day weekend.

Oh well. At least I get to go once a year, and at least my family loves me enough to make me happy.

And ... this past weekend, we went up to Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP) for the weekend, and camped in the Aspenglen Campground.

Here are some photos of our trip .... (and I'm planning on posting more in a couple of days)

 

N is for North River Brewery (RiNo)

Here we are at "N" of Round 6 of the A to Z Series of Posts!

Over half way through! It is difficult to believe.

And amazingly, even after 5 and a half rounds of the alphabet, we still have tons of local Denver-area breweries to go through.

We don't always hit the letter perfectly, but for the most part we've found a "reasonable" candidate for every letter so far.

Of course, in some cases we have to stretch the definition of "local" as we did in M is for Moonlight Pizza & Brewpub.

Luckily for "N", we had a couple of choices on the Colorado Brewery Map & List, and we picked ...

N is for North River Brewery (RiNo)