Raspberry Ale! (All by my sulf!)

I started this one on 03-29-09. I WAS SO HAPPPEEEEE!!!! I brewed it aww by my sulf!!!

Ahem...
I had some time two Sundays ago to myself and decided to use up some of the scraps of grains and such that we had. Plus, I had gone out and bought a packet of Wyeast Irish Ale (1084) at half price and needed to use it.

(Back story!) James, Pat, and I started and Irish Red on the Tuesday before and pitched the yeast too hot (apparently). It was still not active two days later, so we decided that we needed another packet of yeast. We didn't check it for a couple of days, and then on Saturday went HOLY SHITBALLS!! WE NEED YEAST. I went to STL Wine and Beer that afternoon and got there too late. I went over to Worms Way and they had just gotten their shipment of supplies in the fridge and they have 1/2 off slap packs of Wyeast that got activated in shipping. $3.50? ROCK! I also got a couple of Mutton's dry ale yeast. I got home and they Irish ale was working like mad.

Fuck. Wasted trip. Oh well, I'll make the most of it and come up with another beer. Pat had some hops in his fridge, so I got crackin'

Anyway, Recipe time!!

7lbs 2oz Ida Pils Cargil Malt
1lb 13 oz Torified Wheat
6 oz Carafoam
1oz of Willamette leaf hops at 5.1 Alpha
- half at start of boil, half for the last 10 minutes
3lbs 12oz frozen raspberrys

3 gallons of water heated to 180F for mash-in dropped to 165F and I started a 60 minute timer. After a half hour (during which I went and got the hops from Pat) it had dropped to 145F, so I warmed it back up to 163F.

I lauterted for over an hour and occaisionally added some 160+F water from the sparge bucket. Then I sparged with 158 - 164 F water for about an hour.

Boiled for 1 hour with half the hops at the start and half at 10 minutes left. It had a starting grav of 1.045.

I cooled it to about 85F and pitched the yeast packet. Two days later, it was still not active (damn 1/2 off yeast...) so I dumped in one of the dry Muton's ale yeast packs. The next day, screamin'. Two days later, after the krausen fell (04-02-09), it was raspberry time!

I slightly thawed them and ran them all through the blender with a little bit of hot water. I boiled another 3 quarts of water and added the raspberry slurry and heated it to about180F or so. They I let it cool for a couple of hours and just dumped it in the beer. Now we hope and pray.