Puppy Monkey Baby (274)

Puppy. Monkey. Baby. PuppyMonkeyBaby.

There was an incredibly stupid commercial during Superbowl 50. (Go Broncos!)

Puppy. Monkey. Baby. PuppyMonkeyBaby.

The commercial was for some sort of weird Mountain Dew flavor. Not something I ever tried. I am fairly certain I'm not missing anything.

I keep a list of potential beer names on my phone, and for some reason, at some point (I assume during or shortly after the Superbowl), I added "Puppy Monkey Baby" to my list of names.

A couple weeks ago, I decided that my next beer would be a low alcohol American Blonde ale, and I as I was trying to decide on a name, "Puppy Monkey Baby" jumped out at me.

I honestly don't know why. It is a stupid beer name. But, it does amuse me. I guess that is reason enough to choose a name.

I brewed it last Sunday on my Anvil Foundry.

Puppy Monkey Baby Blonde Ale

This was my fourth batch on the Foundry, and I'm still getting used to it. 

I did add the water to the Foundry on Saturday night and set a timer to start heating the strike water. I love that feature. 

I ended up getting up earlier than I thought I would, and still had to wait some for the water to get to strike temperature, but that still saved me some time I would have spent getting all that ready had I not set it up the night before.

I got the mash started a little before 5:20, which is about the same time I got Irregular Eric's started the week before. 

My mash efficiency was much better this week than last week. I think that is mostly because this was a much smaller ABV beer than Irregular Eric's. I even diluted a little to get to my expected pre-boil gravity.

I was experimenting with sort of a manual recirculation / vorlauf by draining water out of the spigot and then pouring it back into the top.

This seems to help with clarity, but then I disturbed the grain bed while pulling out the grain sleeve, and I still ended up with cloudy wort in the boil. 

Still wondering if I should get a pump.

The boil itself went great. I added everything I was supposed to when I was supposed to do it.

I ended up right at the planned 1.040 OG.

In previous Foundry batches, I've mentioned that I cannot use my Hydra chiller because it was too big a diameter for the Foundry, but I saw others on forums had made it fit, but I decided to give it another try.

It fits. It actually seems to work pretty well. So that's cool (pun intended). 

I was able to chill to 56ish degrees without using a pond pump. That was cool too (pun intended). 

The yeast was pitched and the fermentor downstairs by 9ish. I had things pretty much cleaned up by 9:40.

This is a slightly faster brew day than last time. 

The beer was actively fermenting by the next morning.

After brew day, I made some Smoked Mac & Cheese for dinner. My son is home from college and requested it.

It turned out awesome.

I expect the beer will be kegged sometime next week. I'll let you know how it turns out.

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

Of course, don't forget to visit this blog often as well!


Go Bears!

Irregular Eric Double IPA (Batch 273)

Early in 2020 ... I started seeing a lot of traffic to my "Colorado 6 Pack" post on the blog, and I decided that it would be fun to take that list and homebrew batches that matched up with the list. 

See Sheppy's Blog: Homebrew Colorado 6 pack.

So far, from the "6 Pack" ... I've brewed:

• Stone Soup IDA (inspired by Tommyknocker's Hop Strike Black IPA)
• Foothills IPA (inspired by Odell IPA)
• Blackhawk Black (inspired by New Belgium's 1554)
• One Hundred Hoppy Brown Ale (inspired by Boulder Beer Company's Flashback India Brown Ale)

Next up, it was time for me brew something like Oskar Blue's Deviant Dale's IPA. 

Deviant Dale's doesn't exist anymore, but the idea was that it was essentially Dale's Pale Ale, only more. More hops. More malt. More ABV. More Body. More deliciousness. It was an 8% ABV, 85 IBU double IPA with lots of citrus, grapefruit rind and piney resins in the aroma and flavor.

I didn't really have a recipe that was close, so I designed one.

Irregular Eric's Double IPA

B is for Bierstadt Lagerhaus

If you follow my blog fairly regularly, you likely know that I began round 3 of my A to Z Denver Breweries Project with A is for Altitude Brewing & Supply.

If you follow the English alphabet, you likely realize that after "A" comes the letter "B".

And ... it doesn't take a huge leap of deductive reasoning to conclude that next up I would be trying to add a brewery that starts with the letter "B".

The Colorado Brewery List has quite a few "B" breweries in the Denver area. In fact, "B" looks to be the most common letter to start a brewery name with in the Denver area.

... Or maybe it is "C" ... I didn't actually count. 

Regardless, I had lots of  "B" breweries to pick from, but in my mind there was one logical choice.

B is for Bierstadt Lagerhaus

Honestly, it is a little crazy that I have not visited this brewery. I've enjoyed their beers on several occasions, but never made my way to the brewery.

Lithuanian Autumn vs. Falling Leaves

When I kegged Lithuanian Autumn Ale, and tasted the sample of the beer, I thought "Wow ... that really tastes a lot like Falling Leaves Autumn Saison".

A couple days later, on election day, I thought I'd run a blind triangle test on myself between these two beers.

Traveling Brew Checklist

 Remember in Lithuanian Autumn Ale (Batch 270), I mentioned that I actually spent the time to make a checklist to help remember what to bring along with me when I travel to other Home Breweries to brew.

Here is that List:

• 5 gallon BB P.E.T. Carboy with air lock and Star San. (x 2)
• Brew kettles and measuring stick. 
• Propane and burner
• Brew Bucket 
• Mash and Kettle hoses
• Mash paddle 
• Metal spoon
• Star San spray bottle
• Floating thermometer 
• Whirlfloc
• Fermcap
• Refractometer 
• Small bowl
• Mash tun
• Grains / hops / etc ...
• Wort chiller (if host doesn't have one for me to use)
• Beer

I think this is all I brought. I may add to this list if I come up with other things I may need.

Learn to Homebrew Day: X-Mas Ale 2020 (272)

Saturday was the AHA's Learn to Homebrew Day. The SheppyBrew Beer Model and I have made it tradition to brew together on that day every year.

Of course we both know how to homebrew, but Saturday was the first opportunity for the Beer Model to brew with the Anvil Foundry I recently purchased (see Bud Lite Lime (271) on the Anvil Foundry).

There are two main reasons that the idea of electric brewing was extremely attractive to me.

First: most of the electric units I know about allow the ability to set a timer to start heating water. This means you can get your water all ready the night before and have the strike water to temperature when you get up in the morning.

That way, you can start the mash process immediately when you get up. 

Both times I've used the Anvil Foundry, I've taken advantage of this feature, although when brewing with the Beer Model, we get started so late, it wasn't as big a deal for me.

A is for Altitude Brewing & Supply

Here we go! 

Round 3 of my A to Z Denver Breweries Project.

The SheppyBrew Beer Model and I finished A to Z Denver Breweries Round 2 with Z is for Zuni Street Brewing Company (again), and we're starting right over at the beginning of the alphabet.

As I mentioned in A to Z Denver Breweries Round 2, I have breweries for A through C picked out already.

In fact, the Beer Model and I biked to a "C" brewery last weekend.

You'll have to wait to see what that "C" brewery is, but I'll tell you right now what I picked for "A".

Big A. Little a. What begins with A?

A is for Altitude Brewing & Supply 

A. A. A.

Altitude Brewing & Supply is actually primarily a Denver Homebrew Shop, but they also have a little tap room area with a decent selection of beers.