#GCCUSA2026 Jersey Shots

As you know if you've been following along, I'm riding 1000 miles this month as part of the Great Cycle Challenge.

If you'd like to help out with a donation ... here is my rider page:

https://greatcyclechallenge.com/riders/EricShepard

I've been doing this thing every year for the past 10 years and over that time have collected quite of few GCC Jerseys.

As of a couple days ago, I've taken selfies of all these jerseys (other than 2016, which doesn't fit me and is now in my wife's closet).

Here are those photos:

2017

2018

2019

2020

2021

2022

2023

2024

2025

2026

I'm making good progress. As I type this, I've logging over 760 miles, which puts me slightly ahead of the 33-miles-a-day I need to average to hit 1000 by the end of the month.

By the time this publishes, I should have completed over 830 miles, and I don't anticipate it being a problem to finish off the mileage for the challenge.

Keep an eye on https://greatcyclechallenge.com/riders/EricShepard if you'd like to follow along or make a donation.

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

Buckwheat's Belgium Pale Ale (Batch 398)

So ... remember in Brain Freeze Rauchbier (Batch 397), that my friend "Doc" had a plan to help us "catch up" a little on our low beer inventories?

Well, his plan was a "Quad Brew Day" at his home brewery. 

I would brew a batch. My wife would brew a batch. He would brew a batch. His wife would brew a batch.

As it turned out ... neither his nor my wife really planned on brewing a batch themselves, so really it would be Doc brewing two batches and Me brewing two batches.

And ... they ended up needing to babysit their new grand child later in the day, so they decided to just brew one batch.

Honestly, I had not been excited about having to transport (and set up and clean) both my brewing set ups. So, when they said they might be doing one batch, I told them "we" would only be doing the Beer Model's batch....

Buckwheat's Belgium Pale Ale

Brain Freeze Rauchbier (Batch 397)

Even though I have 4 beers on tap, I feel like my beer inventory is pretty low. Every time I pour a beer, I think a keg is going to blow.

Apparently, my friend "Doc" hasn't brewed much this summer, and is in the same boat.

He proposed a plan to help with both our inventory issues, and it will allow us to catch up a little. We're planning on brewing together at Doc's Brewery soon-ish.

More on that later.

Still, I wanted to get a brew day in before we get together. I actually wanted to get an appropriate lager on tap for Oktoberfest season.

If you read, Roll-a-Style 10: 6B. Rauchbier, you knew this was coming .... on Sunday I brewed:

Brain Freeze Rauchbier

PBR vs. PBR

If you follow along on this blog, you likely remember that I screwed up the Potato Beer.

I won't go into details ... if you need a reminder you can check out the I screwed up the Potato Beer link. For now, I'll just say SheppyBrew's Potato Barley Rye (PBR) is a bit salty.

It isn't completely undrinkable, and I don't have a lot of HomeBrew "Inventory", so I still have the beer on tap.

K is for Steep Brewing LaKeside TiKi Bar

If you're following along on the A to Z Series of Posts, and read L is for Landlocked Ales, you know we skipped over "K".

It just so happened that there wasn't really anything close to our house on the Colorado Brewery Map & List that would really work for us.

But ... we had plans to stay up in the mountains over Labor Day weekend, and my wife (aka the SheppyBrew Beer Model) came up with a fantastic idea.

We were staying up in Copper Mountain, which is a short down-hill bike ride down to Lake Dillon.

So, we brought our bikes, and on Saturday morning we headed down to visit ....

K is for Steep Brewing LaKeside TiKi Bar

3 Floyds Zombie Dust

So ... remember Zymurgy's Best Beers in America?

Zymurgy is the American Homebrewers Association's magazine. As a member, I continue to get it, but don't really get around to reading it much.

One of the issues I always looked forward to was their Best Beers in America lists. For awhile, I would look at the list, make my own list of beers I had never tried and then attempt to track them down to taste them.

I would share these on Sheppy's Blog: Zymurgy BBIA. The last time I posted an article mentioning the list was early 2015.

August Update on 2026 Fitness Goals

As you know if you follow this blog, I generally give a monthly update on my fitness / Strava goals. I'm sure no one besides myself really cares, but I figure sharing these publicly give me a little extra motivation because of the extra accountability.

Plus, from time to time I'll look at older updates just to see where I was in the past.

In previous years, my goals have been mostly around cycling, but starting this year, I've started running as well.

If you're interested, You can always track these workouts on Strava. 

So far, I'm tracking pretty well to my 2026 Fitness goals, although a couple of aches and pains (not quite injuries) do seem to be slowing me down a bit (at least on running).