Electric Smoker Guy

So, you may remember that I got a grill / smoker for Christmas. Technically, I got a picture of the grill / smoker ... but that is a story of its own. And ... eventually I got the actual grill and the actual smoker box.

As a result of this gift, I've gotten into smoking meats.

If you want, you can take a look at all the blog posts about the smoking I've done so far: Sheppy's Blog: Smoked

I have started looking at different Barbecue / Smoker forums because ... well ... because I now have a smoker.

Cinco de Bealtaine Irish Stout

The 5th of May was the American Homebrew Association's Big Brew Day.

One of my Homebrewing Friends ("Doc") hosted an event at his house and invited me to brew at his house.

I usually brew alone, and I've never brought my equipment "on the road". Generally, I'm pretty inefficient at fetching and readying my equipment during brew day. I usually get the next piece of equipment or brewing ingredient "Just in Time", and quite often take several trips down to the basement rather than bringing everything up at the same time.

This helps my fitbit stats, but is rather inefficient. A manufacturing engineer would never approve of my process. A Time and Motion Study would yield all kinds of low-hanging-fruit-improvements to make the process smoother.

I don't care. It works for me.

However, it does mean that I'm not used to getting everything I need together for a brewing road trip.

Smoked Chicken Green Chili

So ... I had a work potluck on May 4th (May the Forth Be With You). We had a weird Mexican / Star Wars theme. Strange, but it works.

I decided I wanted to make green chili with smoked chicken Thursday night.

Given that I would not have a lot of time for smoking the chicken, it being a work-night and all, I decided to start with boneless skinless thighs.

Along with the chicken, I smoked some Anaheim and Jalapeno chilies. It took around 2 hours to smoke the things and stuff and not too much longer to get everything combined in the crock pot.

It really turned out great. My dish did not last long at all at the potluck.

Shipping SCOBY

As you may remember, I have been brewing Kombucha on a regular basis.

I basically have two one-gallon batches of Kombucha going at any time. One with a standard black tea base. The other is made from green tea.

According to my "records" I've done 22 batches of kombucha since September 30 last year.

Anyway, the SCOBY (Symbiotic Culture Of Bacteria and Yeast) gets pretty big after a few batches and I end up separating it and throwing most of it out periodically.

That is somewhat of a waste. I've reached out on facebook and instagram asking if anyone was interested in taking SCOBY off my hands. No one took me up on the offer.

Until this past weekend.

This past weekend, my sister texted me about the possibility of shipping SCOBY to her brother-in-law for his birthday.

Sasquatch Hunter Altbier and Smoked Pork Loin

I brewed and Barbecued last Sunday.

My award-winning Sasquatch Hunter German Altbier and my first time smoking pork loin on the grill.

I also drank a fair amount of homebrew, but ... well ... it was Sunday ... so of course I drank homebrew.

The Sasquatch Hunter German Altbier is the beer that won a Blue Ribbon in the Denver Region of the 2013 National Homebrew Competition.

It was my first homebrew to win any kind of recognition, so it was a pretty big deal.

More importantly, I really liked the beer.

For some reason, it has been 3 years since I brewed this recipe. Sunday seemed a good time to do it again.

Smoked Mac and Cheese

So ... I got to use my smoker a couple times last weekend.

Recently, I posted articles about Bacon Wrapped Onion Bombs and Smoked Salsa. I cooked both of these last Saturday on the smoker.

On Sunday, I made something else on the smoker.

Something even more delicious.

Macaroni and Cheese.  Yum! Yum! Yum!

It was sooooooo Guuuuuuuud.

So Good.

Really when it comes right down to it, there are tons of baked Mac and Cheese recipes out on the internet. Smoked Mac and Cheese is simply doing the same thing ... only cooking it on the grill.

Smoked Salsa

Homemade salsa is the best salsa. Last year around March, I made some fermented salsa, which turned out great. Fresh salsa is wonderful too.

I can actually put salsa on all types of foods. Brats. Burgers. Chips. Dips. Chains. Whips.

I digress.

Somewhere. Somehow. I came across the idea of smoking salsa.

I'm embarrassed to say that I don't remember where I got the idea.

I'm sure it was on the interwebs somewhere. It was probably a youtube video.

It might have been this youtube video: Brisket Tacos with Smoked Salsa at All Things Barbecue