Potato Barley Rye (PBR) ... Batch 395

I brewed a batch of beer last week, only my 9th of the year, but the 2nd brew this month.

I'm still way behind my usual brewing volume, and tracking to be one of the least-amounts brewed in any year since I started.

At this point, I'm thinking it is unlikely I'll catch up to my "normal" amount this year ... but I guess we'll have to see.

Currently, I have 4 beers "on-tap", which is my maximum, but 3 out of my 4 kegs are very close to being empty.

So ... I may need to brew a few more batches soon.

Anyway ... the beer I brewed last week is an interesting experiment (interesting to me) ....

Potato Barley Rye (PBR)

Yes, I brewed a "potato beer". 

Way back in 2016, I brewed a Sweet Potato Beer called #WeAreGroot. For #WeAreGroot I cut up and mashed actual sweet potatoes.

For PBR, I used boxed flaked potatoes, which I thought would be less of a pain. I didn't have to cut, boil, and mash the flakes, so I guess it was a little less of a pain. 

But, the flaked potatoes are a pain in their own way. The first thing I noticed was that it was extremely difficult to get all the "dough balls" out (potato balls?). With a bunch of stirring I guess I got them to an acceptable point, so that wasn't too terribly bad.

But ... even with rice hulls, the potato flakes were not very re-circulation friendly. I had the pump going very slow, and still got the dreaded "stuck mash".

Eventually, I just turned off the pump, so that was fine too.

Draining took a ridiculous long time. But, I wasn't really in a hurry, so I just let it go for a long time.

The mash absorbed much more water than my usual malted-grains do. I ended up having to add more than a whole gallon back to dilute.

The pre-boil volume / gravity was actually right on plan after the dilution water, so I guess the difficulties didn't seem to affect my mash / brewhouse efficiency. 

Cleaning up the potato "gunk" was also more difficult than a regular malt-based beer clean up.

The boil actually went well. This particular recipe calls for quite a few hops, and I got them all in where I intended.

I caused my own issue with chilling. I pushed the wrong button on the power, so while I was chilling, my Foundry was still heating.

Surprisingly, my chiller still got the wort under 90 degrees. I decided to rack into the fermenter at the higher temperature and letting my fermentation cooling system bring the temperature down to pitching temperature.

It took a couple of hours.

I pitched and the fermentation started up pretty quickly. As of now, we are about a week into fermentation. I'll keg this up and probably start drinking soon.

Should be an interesting beer.

As always keep watching the regular SheppyBrew Channels to see what is happening with my BBQ, Beer, Biking: 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!

SheppyBrew Wild Cow (sort of) Kölsch

Brewery: SheppyBrew Style: Cow Beer ABV: 4.7% IBU: 23 SRM: 6.4

Appearance

Pale golden with a faint amber hue from the touch of specialty malt. A dense, creamy white head crowns the glass and lingers like a milk mustache on a happy cow. Brilliant clarity shows off the beer’s clean fermentation and careful conditioning.

Aroma

Soft grain sweetness and a whisper of corn mingle with light floral hops. There’s a subtle fruity note — pear and apple from the Kölsch yeast — balanced by a rustic, countryside freshness that evokes barns, fields, and gnomes laughing over pints.

July 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).

More SUP Photos

So ... something happened during the Chatfield SUP Photos that made me think it probably isn't a great idea to bring my phone out on the lake to take photos.

I won't go into details, but you can probably imagine reasons a phone on a Stand-up-Paddle-Board is not a good idea.

You might even think it odd that it took me as long as it did for me to realize something so obvious.

After some research ... I decided to purchase an Akaso Brave 7 LE Action Camera, which has a waterproof case.

In addition to being less expensive and more water proof than my phone, it is also something that allows the wife to be able to take photos as well.

You may have noticed (or maybe not) that most of our SUP trips have very few photos of me and tons of her.

H is for Homegrown Tap and Dough

As I mentioned in G is for Green Mountain Beer Company, Round 7 of the A to Z Breweries series has been going fairly smooth.

A, B, C, D, F and G all had local breweries that started with the respective letters. E was a little stretch, but not bad at all.

But ... now we are up to "H", and the Colorado Brewery Map & List didn't really have any options that we had not already used.

Last Friday was a date night for me and the wife (aka the SheppyBrew Beer Model), and there is a Littleton restaurant / "tap house" we had not been to in awhile that just happens to start with the letter "H".

So ... I decided to use it as our H A to Z "brewery".

H is for Homegrown Tap and Dough

G is for Green Mountain Beer Company

As you know if you follow along on the A to Z Breweries series of articles, we've decided to continue on with Round 7. 

At the end of Round 6, I mentioned that I wasn't sure we' really do a Round 7, because it is becoming more and more difficult to tie each letter to a Denver-area brewery.

But, honestly so far, this doesn't seem to be the case. In fact, we are doing better so far this round than we did last round.

Regardless, we'll continue on. Eventually we'll come across some challenges, but we'll figure something out.

After F is for Full Frame Beer, we're now up to "G", and as luck would have it there is an obvious choice for us on the Colorado Brewery Map & List.

G is for Green Mountain Beer Company

Wild Cow (sort of) Kölsch (Batch 394)

I brewed a couple Sundays ago for the first time since Bad Lands Kölsch (Batch 393).

Over a month between brew days. I'm still "on pace" for less than 75 gallons of beer, which would be the least amount of beer I've ever brewed in a year since 2009, the first year I brewed.

And ... back then I only did 2.5 gallon batches, so even though the volume was less, the number of batches would have been much higher that year.

Oh well! My beer supply isn't in danger of running out. 

Anyway ... as I mentioned in Bad Lands Kölsch vs. Spotted Cow, I recently traveled to Wisconsin, and picked up some Spotted Cow.

Back in 2020, I came up with a "tribute" recipe to Spotted Cow, but didn't have any to compare the two beers to.

I thought now would be a perfect opportunity to re-brew ...

Wild Cow (sort of) Kölsch