Big Brew Day ... Where'd My ManGo Wheat (Batch 391)

It was the American Homebrew Association's annual Big Brew Day this past Saturday.

If you follow along on this blog, you may remember that Big Brew Day is quite often a day that the Beer Model and I brew with one or more our homebrewing friends "Du" and "Doc".

But, this year the date sort of snuck up on us all and we didn't make plans for a get-together.

However ... the Beer Model and I had ordered and even picked up ingredients for a recipe that she was wanting us to brew ...

And ... so we decided to do it on Big Brew Day ... 

Where'd My ManGo Wheat

May Update on 2026 Fitness Goals

As you know if you follow this blog, I generally give a monthly update on fitness / Strava goals. I guess we can say that it is another level of accountability to share these publicly.

Plus, from time to time I'll look at older updates just to see where I was way-back-when.

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

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

So far, I'm tracking pretty well to my 2026 Fitness goals.

My 2026 Fitness / Activity Goals are:

Chelsea Dagger Pre-Prohibition Lager (Batch 390)

I'm not brewing very much this year. As I've discussed, I'm on track to brew the least amount of homebrew for the year ever.

By a bunch.

But, I did brew a batch of beer this past Sunday.

Hopefully, I'll get another batch of beer in on Big Brew Day, which is coming up this Saturday.

So ... maybe I'll catch up some.

Even if I do, I don't anticipate catching up enough to get over that 100 gallon homebrewing limit.

Regardless, I got up early Sunday morning to start up the Anvil Foundry and brewed ....

Chelsea Dagger Pre-Prohibition Lager

B is for Bent Barley Brewing Company

As you know if you read A to Z Denver Breweries Round 6, we finished up our alphabet exploration of Denver-area breweries for the 6th time.

You also know we were not sure how to progress with this series of posts. Or ... should we even continue on at all.

The Colorado Brewery Map & List still has quite a few breweries left for us to visit, but there are enough challenging letters that we probably won't be able to fill them all in.

As it turns out, the first few letters fall in place pretty well, so we decided to go ahead and proceed with the beginning of the alphabet.

We don't know how to handle letters we cannot find a brewery for, but that is a problem to address another day.

In the meantime ... 

B is for Bent Barley Brewing Company

A is for Alley Brews Brewery & Coffee Shop

As you know if you read A to Z Denver Breweries Round 6, we finished up our alphabet exploration of Denver-area breweries for the 6th time.

You also know we were not sure how to progress with this series of posts. Or ... should we even continue on at all.

The Colorado Brewery Map & List still has quite a few breweries left for us to visit, but there are enough challenging letters that we probably won't be able to fill them all in.

As it turns out, the first few letters fall in place pretty well, so we decided to go ahead and proceed with the beginning of the alphabet.

We don't know how to handle letters we cannot find a brewery for, but that is a problem to address another day.

In the meantime ... 

A is for Alley Brews Brewery & Coffee Shop

Tengu vs. Samurai®

One of the beers I have on tap right now is "Whisper of the Tengu" Rice Lager.

"A rice lager brewed with reverence and restraint. Whisper of the Tengu is not a beer that shouts—it listens. It’s subtle, sharp, and quietly powerful, honoring the spirit of the mountain trickster with every clean, deliberate note. Ideal for quiet reflection, shared toasts, or moonlit mischief."

This is the first rice lager I've ever brewed (at least as far as I remember), and I think it turned out fantastic.

Rice lagers seem to have jumped in popularity somewhat recently, and I see them much more at commercial breweries than I did 5 and certainly more than 10 years ago.

I thought it would be fun to pick up a Rice Lager from a local brewery and compare it with Tengu.

So, I bought some of Great Divide's Samurai and this past Sunday I compared them side-by-side.

A to Z Denver Breweries Round 6

The SheppyBrew Beer Model and I are done with Round 6 of our A to Z Denver Breweries series of posts.

Hurray for us! 

In late 2024, we started off this round with A is for Arms, Call To Brewing Company (sadly now closed)

We recently just finished with Z is for MestiZo Brew Cantina.

In this round, we had to take way more "Artistic License" to slot breweries into letters than I like, and (obviously) a Round 7 would be even worse.

For most of the round, I thought the A to Z Series would now be complete. The Beer Model and I would need a new way to pick new breweries. 

However, the Colorado Brewery Map & List does still have lots of Denver-area breweries, and we probably could come up with some brewery for most letters. We'd have to come up with what to do if we cannot find anything that works for a particular letter. Let me know if you have ideas.