Seriously? Why? (poison rationality)

I really have not been myself this past week. I think maybe the Tweedle Beetles are screwing with me again, but I can't quite figure out why or even exactly how.

Last Sunday morning (AKA Eric's Red brew day), started off with me feeling like I had come down with a minor cold. A few sniffles. Slightly sore throat. Nothing to be concerned about. Didn't keep me home from church. Didn't prevent me from brewing. No big deal.

The brew day went great (see Eric's Red brew day if you have not already). After clean-up and the AFC Championship game, I felt a little worse, but I was totally able to chalk that up to finding out that New England was going to another Superbowl (makes us all feel a bit sick, I'm sure).

Eric's Red is fermenting nicely, BTW.

By about half time of the NFC Championship game, I had to leave the dinner table and lie down in bed. I "watched" most of the 2nd half of that game in sort of a fever-induced-stupor-sleep-zombie state. I never really recovered into anything close to feeling human until Monday morning. At some point, I measured my temperature at 103 degrees.

I am the kind of person who just does not call in sick to work. I've done it maybe twice in all my working life. I was seriously considering doing it Monday morning, though. Eventually, I decided that based on things going on, not coming in would end up being more painful catching up Tuesday than getting up and dragging myself out the door Monday.

By the end of the day Monday, it was hard to believe that I had ever felt bad enough that I was even considering wasting a PTO day. I felt that much better. Not 100%, but not bad. I even made my regular work-out-night at the health club. It was a short one (an hour on the elliptical machine and then back home), and I only got through one of my Colorado Craft Beer Radio podcasts.

Tuesday, I felt 100% better, and pretty much since then have felt completely over the Beetle Flu.

But ... a few weird, possibly-Beetle-related things have popped up during the week. There is nothing overtly bad about any of this stuff. It is just weird and when a bunch of weird things happen to me like this, I always suspect the Tweedle Beetles are up to no good.

I got a piece of paper that announced a pay raise with a new salary. My official documented annual salary is a dollar amount followed by 36 cents. Seriously? Really? This new big corporation that I am part of cannot round off that 36 cents? I guess I don't really care. It is just very odd to me. Maybe this is just how big corporations do things. Poison Rationality? Now how the Tweedle Beetles could influence my salary ... I don't know. Why? I am even more clueless. But, it makes more sense that this would be Tweedle Beetle related than a large corporation wouldn't just round off that 36 cents.

Sometime during the week, I took a look at this blogs Page View stats. A couple of old posts have just been "blowing up" on the weekly and monthly page views. Both have been so popular recently that they both broke into the top 10 all-time list. One of them is "Female vs. Male Brain" posted Oct 28, 2011. The fact that this post is getting attention is sort of weird, but at least this post is somewhat amusing and was fairly popular when posted.

The other one makes no sense at all. It is "Sheppy Brew Web Stats" posted Dec 8, 2010. "Sheppy Brew Web Stats" has no redeeming entertainment value whatsoever. There is only one person in the world who might want to refer to this post and that person (me) would never look at it enough to launch it into the top 10 viewed blog posts of all time. My page views don't count towards the total anyway. Again, Why? There is no logical reason that actual people would be hitting this page so much, so it must be Tweedle Beetles in some complicated passive-aggressive plot to attack me. If there is one thing Tweedle Beetles excel at, it is doing illogical things.

Another weird thing that happened this week (Wednesday) is that I became Foursquare "mayor" of my church. Foursquare posted to my facebook wall that I "ousted [name deleted] as the mayor of Abiding Hope Lutheran Church!" My sister was nice enough to point out that it "Doesn't seem very Christian-like to oust someone". She is, of course, right. I feel horrible about my hostile takeover of the mayor-ship. I actually had no idea that I was even close to being the church mayor, and the announcement took me as much by surprise as anyone. But, truth be told, bumping out [name deleted] and obtaining new minions does make me feel powerful.

Bow before me minions! I'm sure it is the Tweedle Beetles making me say that.

Speaking of facebook ... my Untappd account is not posting my check-ins to facebook. Not sure how or why, but I'm sure the Tweedle Beetles are behind this one too.

So the last weird thing that I'm going to share started Wednesday night while I was working out. For those of you who don't know, my wife and I have an agreement that I get to work out at the health club on Monday and Wednesday nights while she takes care of dishes and puts the kids to bed etc ... she gets Tuesday and Thursday while I do the dishes and put the kids etc ... I already shared that Monday was a short workout because of the Beetle flu. Wednesday was to be a short one too because of the church meeting (where I displaced [name deleted] as mayor ... bow before me minions).

While working out, I usually listen to various beer-related pod-casts. There is a local Saturday noon-time show called Colorado Craft Beer Radio . I never listen to it on Saturday. Instead I download the podcast Monday morning and try to listen to it the following Monday. Sometimes it ends up being Wednesday because they are late posting the pod-cast or because I just don't get to it. It is the only one of my pod-casts that I try to actually keep up with on a week to week basic. The rest pod-casts I listen to a month or more after the actual "brew-cast" date.

This week was unusual in that I had 2 Colorado Craft Beer Radio (CCBR) pod-casts to listen to at the beginning of the week (they had technical issues and did not get it out the week before). As I mentioned, I listened to the first one on Monday. Wednesday night all of a sudden at the end of the podcast it was announced that Gary V (one of the two hosts) was leaving the show. There was no explanation other than that he had a new business opportunity and the more information was forth-coming. And then the show ended.

Thursday morning, I discovered through CCBR's facebook page that Gary was starting a new craft beer radio show on another local radio station. Turk (the other host) was promoting Gary, so it certainly appears that there are no hard feelings. It may be hard to determine from reading this blog, and I know I do a great job of keeping it secret, but the subject of Craft Beer interests me quite a bit. Knowing that there were going to be 2 craft-beer-related radio shows in my local market was great news. More beer talk radio is a good thing.

However, I discovered by following the facebook trail that Gary's new show is going on at the same time as Turk's "old" show. Really? Seriously? There are exactly two craft beer shows on in all of the Denver Metro Area and the new station picked to put it on at the exact same time as the only other one? Again, I am not sure how or why, but I am quite certain the Tweedle Beetles are to blame for this.

Of course, as I have always listened to CCBR on podcast and will do the same for Gary's new show, this is not something that affects my listening habits in any way. However, there are only so many craft beer-geeks out there. Even in a fantastic craft beer area as Denver, I am not sure there are enough of us to support two shows on at the same time. I'm afraid that dividing the craft-beer enthusiasts between two shows will eventually kill both shows. I'm sure this is what the Tweedle Beetles are counting on.

AND ... the old show has a new show name, logo, facebook page, twitter feed, and web site in the works. This also seemed weird to me. It has been explained to me since then. The explanation seems almost plausible, so at this point I'm not 100% sure this is a Tweedle Beetle attack as well. It is just illogical enough for me to wonder, though.

There are other little weird things that happened during the week that I am sure are symptoms of Tweedle Beetle activity. I have probably already completely lost your attention, so I won't share more of the minutia.

Hope everyone has a great week. Happy Ground Hogs day on the 2nd everyone! 

Just a weird picture of a strange kid.

By the way ... in case you are wondering ... the "new" Colorado Craft Beer Show has a facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Colorado-Craft-Beer-Show/344704912216107 . The new American Craft Beer Show facebook page is here: https://www.facebook.com/AmericanCraftBeerRadio

Hopslam Ale

 It has been awhile since I've had any of the beers on my Best Beers in America List (see A couple more beers from my list for the last report on this blog.) I am lucky that my buddy Scott (whom I usually refer to as CrazyBrody) has been looking out for me. Do me a favor and check out his Homebrew Blog.

Bell's Brewery has recently released its annual Hopslam ale and Scott (who lives in the mid-West where it is possible to purchase beers from Bell's Brewery) knew that this was a beer on my list and offered to pick up a some Hopslams and UPS a couple of them to me. I accepted his offer, he was able to pick some up and get a couple of bottles out to me in a UPS package that also contained a couple of his own home-brewed "Nanci's Brown Ale" (which is a fantastic beer, by the way).

He got them to me last weekend, but it was not until today that I took the time to open one of the Hopslam bottles.

47 Pints @bonfilsdotorg

I gave my 47th pint of blood to Bonfils Blood Center today. This means that next time I give blood, I will get my 6 gallon pin. Since 2003, I have averaged giving blood more than 5 times a year, which is a pretty good since the absolute maximum that Bonfils will let me give blood is 6 times a year.

I happen to "like" the Bonfils Blood Center facebook page, and from time to time I'll see them post a picture of someone reaching some incredible milestone. I'm sure I'll get there eventually, but I am always impressed at the dedication of these people. According to Bonfils' website, Bonfils’ highest gallon donor has donated 75 gallons of blood or 600 pints, saving and enhancing nearly 1800 patients lives. Now, that is impressive!  Actually, I'm not sure the math works out on that.

Apparently, January is National Blood Donor Month. I would have given today regardless, and I know the month is almost over, but if you don't give blood regularly you might as well use January as an excuse to start. It generally takes less than an hour from the time you walk in the door to the time you finish your cookies and juice. It is painless and easy. There are donation centers and mobile buses all over the place and you should be able to find something close. If you live in the Denver Metro area, consider stopping by Bonfils donation page to see when and where you can do it. If you live else where, just Google it.

Personally, I am always impressed with how painless and smooth the whole process goes.

Here are some interesting "Blood Facts" listed on the Bonfils website:

• One whole blood donation can save and enhance the lives of up to three patients. 
• Every two seconds someone in the U.S. requires a transfusion of donated blood. 
• Bonfils’ highest gallon donor has donated 75 gallons of blood or 600 pints, saving and enhancing nearly 1800 patients lives.
• The need for blood is constant.  Red blood cells are useable for only 42 days and platelets are useable for only five days. 
• Blood products are used in a variety of medical treatments including helping kids with cancer feel better and saving the lives of car accident victims. 
• O- blood type is the universal donor.  O- blood can be transfused to any patient regardless of their blood type.
• The most common blood types are O+ and A+. 

Go to "Blood Facts" to read more.

Anyway, there you go. I feel I've done my part for National Blood Donor Month. Just in case you were wondering, they need blood in February too.

Eric's Red brew day

So, you may remember that last weekend, I tried to brew Eric's Red Ale, but failed miserably. See Eric's Red Failure if you want to review. I do have almost 5 gallons of Red Failure fermenting right now. We'll have to see how it goes.

This past Thursday, I purchased ingredients for another batch. Saturday, I made another yeast starter. Sunday, I started brewing up my 2nd attempt in as many weeks. Things went better this time, although on Saturday I discovered that my hops were missing. Usually when I bring home my hops I put them either in the beer fridge or in the beer fridge's freezer as soon as I bring them home. I guess this time I set them on the kitchen counter for some reason. It took me awhile to track them down, but eventually I did. You would think that I'm too young to have senior moments like this, but you would be wrong.

Eric's Red failure

As planned (see Eric's Irish Red #HomeBrew), I had a brew day yesterday. It didn't go very well. It made my Worst brew day ever seem perfect. The experience of adjusting worst brew day ever was sort of fun. Yesterday was not fun at all.

Eric Shepard and the King of Beers

This morning, a co-worker sent out a link to this Denver Post article: Disagreement between Denver, Boston mayors comes to a head. Apparently, the Boston mayor called Colorado beers "weak".

He told a Boston Globe reporter, "We have the best. . . . Colorado Rocky beer? Uck."

I was asked if what the Boston mayor said offended me. The answer is No, not really. I can't be angry at someone who is as obviously completely beer-ignorant as the Boston mayor. If the mayor had talked to Jim Koch of Boston Beer company (who actually knows a little about good beer), he would know that Denver, Colorado is one of the (if not THE) craft beer centers of the world. People who know good beer consider the Denver area "the Napa Valley of Beer".

Wanna have some fun?

Ok ... do you want to have some fun?

Here is what to do:

Open this link in several browser windows:  http://blog.ericshepard.com/2011/08/little-lion-man.html

5 to 8 windows works out great.

This actually doesn't seem to work for me anymore in the newest version of firefox. At the time I'm typing this, it works in IE8, so you probably want to take this into account when choosing a browser.

There is a video of Little Lion Man by Mumford and Sons on that page.

Once you have 5 to 8 (or more if you want) browser windows open, start the video on the first window. Wait a couple seconds and start the video on browser window #2. Repeat this process until all the videos are running.

Listen and enjoy. Fun fun fun.

Personally, I think it sounds best on earphones. For the best results, have a few SheppyBrews before you do it. If you don't have SheppyBrew, another type of home-brew probably works almost as well. If you don't have home-brews, I suppose some other beer would work. If you don't have beer, just do it sober. I don't think it is something you can enjoy with wine or hard-liquor.

Happy New Year everyone!

Eric's Irish Red #HomeBrew

When I shared my latest brew day for Stone Soup (see Another batch of Stone Soup), I mentioned that my next batch was going to be Eric's Irish Red.

I've made 6 batches of beer called Eric's Red, making it one of the most brewed beers at SheppyBrew brewery. In fact, only Buckwheat's Belgium Pale Ale (brewed 9 times) and my world famous Phat & Tyred Amber Ale (brewed 7 times) have been brewed more. For a long time, I considered Eric's Red to be SheppyBrew's "flagship" beer. But, I have not brewed it in over a year. And, strangely, until recently I didn't even convert the recipe to all-grain. In fact, all the Eric's Red iterations so far have been based on Mr. Beer Bewitched Red HME with Mr. Beer Mellow Amber UME. Very old-school. I always intended it to be one of my first all-grain conversions. I just never got around to it .... until now.

Prohibition was Bad

I came across the graphic below because I subscribe to Drink with the Wench (see Prohibition Did What?: A Beer-Goggled Look at the Volstead Act of 1920).

I found the graphic informative, educational and entertaining enough to share with my readers as well. Thank goodness prohibition was long over by the time I was of drinking age.

Enjoy.