Gob Stopper Grape Ale 🍇🧙‍♂️

Style: American Grape Ale
Brewer: SheppyBrew
ABV: 7.0%
IBU: 16
SRM: 7 (radiant violet)

Appearance 👀

Pours a soft purple with glowing edges—somewhere between wizard robe and melted grape popsicle. Medium white head fades quickly but leaves a ring like candy dust. Light haze gives it a whimsical, fairytale feel.

Aroma 👃

Concord grape front and center—like you just cracked open a juice box at recess. Beneath that: gentle floral honey, a whiff of grapevine must, and faint cereal notes from the malt. Nostalgic without being fake or flashy.

Flavor 👅

Tart grape onset morphs into gentle sweetness mid-palate, lifted by honey malt and clean fermentation. A crisp finish keeps it from going syrupy, and low bitterness balances the fruit. Tastes like if childhood had a craft beer sponsor.

Roll-a-Style 10: 29C. Specialty Fruit Beer

If you follow this blog at all, you probably have read that I want to concentrate more on my BJCP Goal this year.

As of the time of this post, if I'm counting correctly, I've brewed 86 of the 108 styles in the 2021 BJCP Style Guidelines. Since the beginning of the year, I've already brewed 8 new BJCP styles (9 if you include Tasman Pilsner).

And ... I have ingredients and will probably brew my Roll-a-Style 15: 16C. Tropical Stout soon.

I have my Roll-a-Style list, which helps me keep track of styles that I still need to brew.

The idea is that I use a 20-sided online die to decide which style to brew next. 

In late-ish July, I was killing time one day and thought I'd spend time coming up with a new recipe. 

To figure out what beer I'd brew, I rolled my 20-sided online die, and rolled a 10 ... 

 

Boo Berry Wheat (Batch 307)

My wife (aka the SheppyBrew Beer Model) brewed with me Sunday.

We'll brew together from time to time. Sometimes I say I do it so that I'll have a second adult brewer in the household, making it legal for me to brew more than the 100 gallons per year.

Honestly, though, I'm quite certain no one pays that close attention to the homebrewing law, and I don't really have to establish her as a brewer to be ok with the law.

The real reason is that it is fun to pretend that she's in charge of brewing.

I'm not sure why she does it. Apparently she thinks it is fun to brew with me from time to time as well.

Sunday, we brewed one of her favorite recipes ...

Boo Berry American Wheat

Boo Berry Wheat 2021 (Batch 280)

My wife (aka the SheppyBrew Beer Model) and I brewed last weekend.

We had decided awhile ago that the next beer we would make was going to be.

Boo Berry American Wheat

Boo Berry is another one of the recipes I designed years ago, and made a few times, but have not made in quite awhile.

The SheppyBrew Beer Model really likes blueberry beers, and I think of all the fruit beers I've ever made, Boo Berry has to be my favorite.

Anyway ... Saturday, we stopped by my favorite Brew Shop and purchased our ingredients.

Usually when using the Anvil Foundry, I would have prepared the water Saturday and and set the timer, but knowing I was going to start later in the day, I decided to leave that for the hours I would be up waiting for the  Beer Model to get out of bed.

Big Brew Day 2019

You may remember from "Overnight Cook" that the 2019 AHA Big Brew Day was last Saturday (May the 4th be with You).

You might also remember that we were hosting this year.

We invited our homebrewing friends "Doc" and "Du" and each of them brought along their wives to "assist".

The Beer Model and I also invited quite a few non-homebrewers who were interested in learning about the brewing process.

Or at least were interested in drinking and eating while we homebrewed.

We had no idea how many people would end up showing up, but we were prepared to feed a small army. Between the pulled pork and some smoked mac & cheese, and other various snacks, we had food covered.

Luckily, Saturday's weather was perfect.

Our friend "Doc" decided to brew a partial-mash Yuengling Amber Lager clone. Our friend "Du" decided to brew a Mexican Lager.

I decided to have my first 10 gallon brew day, and split the batch into 2 fermentors. The first fermentor would be a Blood Orange Saison. The second would be a Mango Pale Ale.

2019 BBD Blood Orange Saison Mango Pale

232 ... Blackberry in Bed (Bam-ba-Lam)

I brewed my 232nd batch of beer on Good Friday.

232nd all-time. 7th of the year. 1st of the quarter.

Sadly, my closest home-brew shop is closing. While I was in there looking for going-out-of-business deals, I saw they had some Blackberry puree and flavoring.

The Beer Model had mentioned that she thought a Blackberry Beer would be good, so I decided to snag the puree and flavoring.

I also picked up a new 15 gallon brew kettle pretty cheap from the closing shop. Friday was the first brew day for my new bigger pot.

Because I had a much bigger pot, I decided to do a 7 gallon batch this time to take advantage of the extra capacity.

I considered a few names. Most had to do with song lyrics.

"Back in Blackberry" was a strong possibility ... derived by AC/DC's "Back in Black".

I almost named it "Never Go Back".

I went with "Blackberry in Bed" after listening to the Squeeze song "Black Coffee in Bed". I have fond memories of college days drinking and listening to that song with friends.

For the recipe, I went with my standard "Summer Lovin" base. I'll add the puree in secondary and the flavoring at kegging time. The formula works for me. I don't really have any reason to change it up.

Blackberry in Bed American Wheat

Smoked Pork Shoulder and Brew Day

You may remember that back in January, I smoked a pork butt for pulled pork sandwiches. See Hickory Smoked Pulled Pork if you need a reminder.

It turned out great. And it was lots of fun.

At least it was lots of fun for most of the day.

To get that 9 lb pork shoulder done in time for dinner, I got started very early in the morning and kept the meat on the smoker for 13 hours.

My smoker is not a set and forget cook, so I was paying attention to the cooking meat most of the day.

At the end of Hickory Smoked Pulled Pork, I mentioned that in the future I would consider getting the butt to the wrap and then finish off in the oven.

Oompa Loompa Mango Pale Ale, Kombucha, and Turkey Bacon Burgers

After brewing the Where'd My ManGo Wheat, I had some of the Mango Flavoring left.

Also, my Muggled Pale Ale didn't last real long.

I decided that it would be fun to make and drink a Mango Pale Ale.

Oompa Loompa Mango Pale Ale

I brewed it last Sunday

No big deal.

Some Pale Malt. Some Vienna Malt. Some Munich and some Pale Chocolate for a bit more color.

Equinox (aka Ekuanot aka HBC 366) hops. Centennial hops.

Where'd My ManGo Wheat

So ... last Saturday was the AHA's Learn to Homebrew Day, and I used that as an excuse to get the SheppyBrew Beer Model to join me for a brew day.

I try to get The Beer Model to brew at least once a year for legal reasons.

... sort of ...

You see, Colorado (like most states) allows the adult head-of-household to brew 100 gallons of beer per year.

I basically brew 100 gallons of beer per year.

However, sometimes I go a little over.

The law also allows a second adult in the household to brew 100 gallons of beer per year.

As young as she looks, the SheppyBrew Beer Model legally qualifies as an adult in our household.

So, by having her brew ... I figure the SheppyBrew Home Brewery is allowed 200 gallons of beer per year.

Boo Berry Wheat

I have a blueberry beer in my Kegerator.

Boo Berry American Wheat

Brew day was actually on April 30. I put it in a secondary fermentor on blueberry puree on May 13. I kegged it just a few days ago on the 21st.

Blueberry Beer is something the Beer Model really enjoys. I think out of all the fruit beers, blueberry is probably her favorite. Come to think of it, it is probably my favorite fruit beer as well.

Surprisingly this batch of beer is only my third since I came up with the recipe way back in 2012.

The way I make fruit beers is that I will make my standard base "wheat" beer recipe. Once it is done fermenting, I rack the beer on blueberry puree and some blueberry flavor extract.

I let this sit on secondary for a few days to a week. Then I keg. I will taste the beer and add more flavoring to taste.

Apricot Lovin' American Wheat

One of the important logistic considerations in the SheppyBrew Brewing Schedule is that there are two beer drinkers in the house.

It just so happens that one of the people, the SheppyBrew Beer Model, does not always like the beers that the Brew Master likes to drink. The Brew Master, of course, has his favorite styles, but will drink and enjoy just about any beer style.

The SheppyBrew Beer Model has a much narrower focus. Anything too bitter and anything with too much roasted or coffee flavor is out. She also has random aversions to certain beers which she cannot articulate.

And so, the brewing schedule has to factor in taking the time to make beers that the woman of the house wants on tap. 

Gruntled Berry Weiße

I brewed Sunday.

I decided that Super Bowl Sunday's batch would be a 2.4 gallon batch instead of my usual 5.5 gallon batch size. Being the lazy guy that I am, I thought I would use the base of a recipe I'd already designed and brewed: Gruntled Sour Weiße.

Just to make it a little different, I decided to make it a fruit beer, simply adding the same frozen mixed berries that I've been using to help flavor some of my yogurt. I do plan on not adding quite as much Lactic Acid as well.

The resulting recipe on SheppyBrew.com is Gruntled Berry Weiße.

Not only was this a small batch, but it is also very low in alcohol, thus low in OG, thus low in grains needed to brew it.

Pineapple Wheat Brew Day

I brewed Sunday. Earlier last week, I had been thinking about doing a Summer Saison, but I never made it to the Local Home Brew Shop (LHBS) with the Saison yeast that I like. Saturday, I dropped by the newer, closer LHBS that I mentioned in Brewing Buckwheat's BPA (again). to pick up grains for the Summer Lovin base beer that I use for most of my fruit beers.

This newer, closer LHBS didn't have honey malt, so I substituted a Crystal 15. Sometimes that is how recipes come to be.... just grab was it available and see what happens.

My plan with this version is to make a pineapple orange beer. Similarly to how I flavored the "Un-Wheat", my plan is to use frozen juice concentrate in a secondary step. This time, I plan to use pineapple orange juice, and I plan to use two cans instead of the one I used on the "Un-Wheat". I think that will give it enough pineapple that you can taste it. Hopefully it doesn't come across as too much.

When InBev tries to brew a blueberry beer

So, last weekend my wife bought some beer. Someone had finished up the keg of T.RA.SH. Mexican Lager, there was not really any other beer to take it's place yet, and she figured she would want beer with Sunday dinner.

Usually, I will handle beer purchases, but she was going to be out buying groceries anyway, and we figured she could handle the responsibility.

When she returned, the beer she had picked for herself was an 8% abv Blueberry Lager, "Wild Blue". It was a beer I didn't recognize and I was intrigued. I was little surprised that she had picked out a beer that said 8%, but whatever. In case you didn't know, my wife likes most every blueberry beer she has ever tried.

Brewing up some Boo Berry Wheat

I brewed Sunday.

Before the weekend, I actually had not been planning on brewing. However, as I mentioned,  I killed the keg of She Who Must Be Obeyed Wheat. This left the beer choices for the Beer Model sort of limited in the SheppyBrew Brewery. Apparently, I've been giving away too much beer lately. My keg of Sloth Man English Mild is also getting low.

So, anyway, Saturday I decided to go to my Local Homebrew Shop and buy ingredients to make Boo Berry American Wheat. The Beer Model wanted to go too, so we packed ourselves and the Brewing Assistants (aka our kids) into the mini van and headed over to the shop. This is the shop that is closer to my home. I usually get my grains from the Homebrew Shop that is closer to my place of work, so I am not quite as familiar with the layout of this one.

The kids .... er ... I mean the Brewing Assistants helped me find and scoop grain. They also helped me decide which wheat malt and 2 row malt to use. It was sort of fun for them apparently. They actually had a little argument over who was scooping more of the grain. Sometimes those kids fight over the stupidest things.

Whacko Wife Pumpkin Brew Day

Saturday I mentioned that I was going to brew Whacko Wife Pumpkin Witbier Sunday. I didn't lie.

It has been awhile since my wife (aka the SheppyBrew Beer Model) killed the keg of Boo Berry Wheat, and we have not really had anything in the keggerator for her since then. We have bottles of stuff she can enjoy, but she likes being able to pour from a tap.

So, I knew I had to make something for the Beer Model.

In September and October, I had been thinking of brewing a pumpkin beer, but just never got around to it. My wife really targeted pumpkin beers at GABF, so I was pretty sure she would like a pumpkin beer. At one point I had a crazy thought about making Whisky Wife Wit with pumpkin. It was just crazy (whacky) enough to be a good idea.

I had to first convert WWW  to all-grain to use as a base beer. Then I just thought I would add pumpkin and appropriate spices to complete this new beer.

Brewing Boo Berry Wheat

Recently, I asked my blog readers "What should I #HomeBrew Next?". I did an online poll allowing anyone to vote as many times as they wanted.

Here are the results:

• 2 votes for Black IPA (someone entered it in the Other choice of the poll)
• 5 votes for Ale to the Chief: Honey Porter 
• 12 votes for Eric The Awful 
• 15 votes for Boo Berry Wheat

The Beer Model was pretty happy about the winner. To be honest, I was sort of rooting for Eric The Awful , but I can always brew that next. Actually, I am just glad I got so many votes on the poll.

Drinking the Wetta Berry

SheppyBrew's Raspberry Wetta Berry has finished carbonating and I have now had a few.

In case you need a refresher, I blogged about making Wetta Berry in Wetta Berry Mr. Beer Batch.

I blogged about adding raspberry puree to it in Raspberry Wetta Berry.

I blogged about Kegging and Bottling Wetta Berry in Kegging and Bottling Wetta Berry.

It is ... well ... it tastes like it has a lot of raspberry in it. In my opinion, it has too much raspberry in it. Even the Beer Model said "Maybe" when I asked her if it had too much raspberry in it.

Kegging and Bottling Wetta Berry

Tonight, I finally kegged up my Raspberry Wetta Berry "beer".

I blogged about brewing it with Wetta Berry Mr. Beer Batch.

I blogged about adding raspberry puree to it with Raspberry Wetta Berry.

I didn't take an original gravity reading, but based on other Mr. Beer batches, I figure it was about 1.045. It finished at about 1.010. This means that without the raspberry puree, the ABV would have been right around 4.4%. The raspberry puree doesn't add much sugar, so this is almost certainly under 5%. I would guess around 4.7% ABV.

Tonight, I mixed in 4.5 ounces of sugar into the keg and bottled 6 liter bottles, 3 bombers, and 4 12-ounce bottles. The rest (about half I would say) stayed in the keg.

Raspberry Wetta Berry

Last Friday while waiting to begin SheppyQuest Lite with my son, I brewed up a quick double batch of that last of my Mr. Beer HME / UME combos (see Wetta Berry Mr. Beer Batch).

This afternoon, I stopped by my LHBS and picked up some raspberry puree. Then, tonight while the kids were reading to me, I transferred the beer from the two Mr. Beer fermentors onto the puree.

I think perhaps the three pound can of raspberry puree is a bit much for this amount of beer. The color came out ruby red. It reminded me a bunch of the color of New Belgium's Frambozen. Perhaps you remember (although you probably don't watch my blog closely enough to have even read it), In Frambozen I wrote:

"It does have an amazing ruby red color that I would love to recreate in one of my beers."

It looks like now I have recreated the color. I suppose this means the raspberry flavor will be too much for me. I might end up giving away most of this beer.

I'll be letting this sit on the raspberries for another couple of weeks. I will most likely let you know how the Beer Model and I like it.