Helles in a Hand Bock-sket (Batch 356) and Chicken

It is almost May. 

Well, when I post this (and likely when you are reading), it will actually be May.

I don't know if I've mentioned it on this blog, but I'm making an effort this year to brew a Seasonal Beer for every month this year.

In SheppyBrew Seasonals, I identified 12 Seasonals.

Last year (see 2023 Seasonals), I brewed 8 out of 12 of those beers.

I missed March (McShepardSons Irish Ale) and May (Helles in a Hand Bock-sket) along with a couple of other months.

This year, I've already hit 2024 McShepardSons Irish Ale (Batch 352). Last weekend (as I type this ... by the time I post it, it will have been 2 weekends ago), I got my "May Seasonal" brewed as well:

Helles in a Hand Bock-sket

 

Usually when I brew in my Foundry, I get the water prepared and the timer set to get the water heated up by the time I get up in the morning.

However, it was raining pretty hard Saturday night, and I was hoping to brew outside, so I decided to wait until the morning to get started.

I was up before 6am, and had the mash going by 6:20. 

As we have to get going to church by 8am, I decided to get the mash done and set the controller to heat up just below boiling while we were at church. 

With the amount of grain in this batch, it seems that there was more liquid taken up by the drained grain. And, my mash efficiency suffered.

My pre-boil gravity and volume was very low. I compensated some with table sugar, but decided to not worry about getting the OG all the way up to plan.

The boil itself went well. I remembered to add all the right ingredients when I planned on adding them.

Chilling went well also. I got the wort to mid-50's using just the hose through the wort chiller. 

I had lots of yeast harvested from 2024 Mardi Bock (Batch 351), and with a nice yeast starter, fermentation took off before bedtime.

Like is usual on my lager fermentations, my plan was to ferment in the 50's for the first week and let the temperature rise to ambient of my basement for the rest of the time.

Unfortunately, I forgot to switch out ice on Tuesday night and that meant my cold fermentation was done early. In my experience, when this happens I don't get any negative impact. I just roll with it.

After my Brew Day, I went on a bike ride, returning to watch the Avs beat the Jets.

Then, I made a chicken for dinner. Like I've done the past few times, I spatchcocked the chicken and cut it in half.

I cooked the bird at just over 300 degrees for most of the time, letting the grill rise up to 350 at the end.

About 1/3 of the way through, I flipped the pieces over.

And, then another 1/3 of the way through I flipped them again.

The chicken turned out great. Very tender and juicy with wonderful color.

Delicious.

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.

Go Avalanche!