Bottled and Brood

The Drunkin' Drood is rockin' the carbo scene as of now!
Approximately 264oz of reddish German-style Octoberfest brew was looking good out of the tank - double dry hopped, it did have a few green floaties, but that never hurt anyone so far - amirite?

Drunkin' Drood: Lean and Mean

As for the brood? Well, every year, we celebrate St. Patrick's Day in celebration of my wife's Irish heritage. This year we added a new twist - instead of buying Irish Stout to go with the traditional meal of corned-beef and cabbage, I'm brewing some Irish Stout! 

Using a store-bought recipe from the Original Home Brew Outlet in Citrus Heights, I put up a 5 gallon batch of OHBO Dark/Dry Stout. This was one rich wort - at 1.070 OG at time of pitch this should be a decent bodied stout with pleasant coffee overtones. 

Brewing this was quite the adventure. Let's just say I was blowing so hard I should have had a bag over my head. This boil produced a lot of foam. Actually, to call it foam is not doing it justice. It was a relentless roiling body of bubbles, wanting to overflow, waiting to overflow,  only held back by the lung-power of 'yours truly' .... 

Heat break!. Catch a breath and get some homebrew in ya' soldier! 

(*Wait an minute!)

(*5 gallons? Why Mr. Bishop916... I thought you were a Mr. Beer 2.5 gallon 'little-brown-keg' brewer?)

I am.

But to go with the 5 gallon stout recipe, I also got a new 6-gallon fermenter to go big if I gotta. Yes, I took the dive, and the water is fine!

5 gallons of Irish Stout in the tank

Until next time drinkers and thinkers, I'm out...
Go Steelers!

 - B916

BTK Drunkin' Drood

Heavily inspired by the influential Jon_TWR's own Drunken Druid recipe, I made the small change to use plain ol' Mr. Beer yeast, and thus the Drunkin' Drood was born...

Recipe Gravity 1.052 OG Estimated FG 1.013 FG Recipe Bitterness 43 IBU Alcohol by Volume 5.1% Recipe Color 12° SRM Alcohol by Weight 4.0% Ingredients Quantity Grain Type Use 1.21 lb MrB. Octoberfest Vienna Lager Extract Extract 1.21 lb MrB. High Country Canadian Draft Extract Extract 0.81 lb MrB. Booster Sugar Other Quantity Hop Type Time 0.50 oz Cascade Pellet 0 minutes Quantity Misc Notes 3.00 unit Ale yeast Yeast

Out with the Old, In with the New...

Finishing one batch as I prep TWO more! Good timing perhaps, but not really. I have at least 2 weeks to wait for the Bellowing Wheat to finish carbonating, and the new one - well it looks to be something special too! Inspired by a recipe posted by Jon_TWR over @ MrBeerFans.com, I'll follow suit and call it BTK Drunkin' Drood. 

Bishop Garity's Irish Red Ale, aka (BTK Irish Red), was too good to keep around. People want samples, but they will have to wait! I'm enjoying the fruits of my labors way too much to hand out just yet! I might have a lil' somethin' somethin' of my supercharged weizen to showcase Super Bowl Sunday, but only a few tastes here and there can tell for sure... 

Boilin' Trouble!

Gettin' fizzy with it... 

Until next time good friend.... 

Starting Off the New Year Right! (Part 2)

So brewing the Bellowing Wheat was an exercise in excess; as you can see by the recipe I threw everything I had at this one.  

After steeping some grain for some additional starches and sugars, I boiled in some Mr. Beer Booster to kick it up a notch, a Wheat dry malt extract and Mr. Beer Whispering Wheat liquid extract to get the flavor profile.  By the time I threw in the hops, this brew was one sweet, sticky grog, high in fermentable sugars with an OG of 1.062.

...Let me tell you - after about nine days into the ferment, a quick taste and check of the numbers tells me this is going to be one strong brew. Already sitting at ~ 6.7% ABV with what figures to be a three week ferment, drinkers of this bad boy (edit: Bishop916 and Mrs. Bishop916) will be a' howling at the moon! 

Here are some photos of the fun stuff:

Steeping Grains: Belgian Pale Ale

Boiling up some Brew!

Bellowing Wheat

Style

Weizen/Weissbier

Recipe Gravity		1.064 OG		Estimated FG		1.016 FG
Recipe Bitterness		8 IBU		Alcohol by Volume		6.2%
Recipe Color		5° SRM		Alcohol by Weight		4.9%

Ingredients

Quantity		Grain		Type		Use
0.38 lb		Honey		Sugar		Other
0.81 lb		MrB. Booster		Sugar		Other
1.21 lb		MrB. Whispering Wheat Weizenbier		Extract		Extract
0.31 lb		Two-row (Belgian)		Grain		Steeped
1.00 lb		Wheat DME		Extract		Extract
Quantity		Hop		Type		Time
0.50 oz		Tettnanger (U.S.)		Pellet		20 minutes
Quantity		Misc		Notes

Recipe Notes
Steep Grains in 1 gallon water at 155° for 20 minutes
Add MB Booster and bring to boil.
Remove from heat and slowly stir in DME.
Return to heat until it foams up and subsides (hot break).
Add hops and boil for 20 minutes.
Remove from heat at zero minutes and add the honey and the Mr. Beer HME.

Starting Off the New Year Right! (Part 1)

Today is Bottling Day. A new beer is born.
In one word: Beautiful.
Bishop Garity's Irish Red Ale (aka BTK Irish Red), my first partial-mash recipe, is locked up and gettin' all bubbly-bubbly for me to test out in around seven to ten days.

What started as an attempt to replicate a Mr. Beer recipe turned into many nights of researching grains, grain bills, hops, hop schedules, etc., and etc. Much to my enjoyment, I soon had put together a recipe that not only was in-style, but looked to be something that I'd want to try to brew and consume.
Bishop Garity's IRA seems thus far to be a good representation of the IRA style. The alcohol content seems to be a few points higher than the recipe called for at 5.2% ABV (perhaps due to the extended fermentation over the holiday season) - but I'm not complaining! The color looks to be dead-on with a ruby red finish that complements the toasty flavor well.

As a huge fan of the IRA style (Killian's Red comes to mind), I can't wait to get this one chilled; I'm definitely looking forward to slow-drinking a good IRA from a cold frosty glass...

Happy New Year!

Keep the pipeline a-flowing!

Well, after trying two separate stores, I was able to procure me a couple of Mr. Beer's International Variety 3-packs for under $30 bucks! That prices out to under five bucks per refill, ... which is way, way under the normal online retail prices; the individual refills start off  $15 dollars a piece!

Call this a belated gift from the powers-that-be at Bed Bath and Beyond!