Thursday, June 25, 2026

Ground Hog Premium Lager

Brewery: SheppyBrew
Style: Czech Premium Pale Lager
ABV: 5.0%
IBU: 38
SRM: 3.7

Appearance

A brilliantly clear pale‑gold lager with a soft straw hue and a tight, persistent white head. The foam forms a fine, creamy cap that lingers as a thin lace down the glass. Bright carbonation streams upward in steady, lively columns, giving the beer a crisp, polished look that immediately signals refreshment.

Aroma

Clean, elegant malt leads the way — lightly bready, faintly sweet, and reminiscent of fresh‑cracked grain. A subtle floral‑herbal hop note rises behind it, offering a gentle Saaz‑like spice without dominating. Fermentation character is impeccably clean: no esters, no sulfur, just a classic lager profile with a soft, inviting malt presence.

Flavor

Smooth, rounded pale malt flavor up front, offering a delicate balance of bread crust, grain sweetness, and a touch of honey‑like depth. The hop bitterness is firm for the style but never harsh — a crisp, Czech‑style snap that keeps the beer dry and drinkable. Floral and spicy hop notes add complexity without overshadowing the malt. The finish is clean, refreshing, and just bitter enough to invite another sip.

Mouthfeel

Light‑to‑medium body with a smooth, refined texture. Carbonation is moderately high, giving the beer a lively, sparkling lift without sharpness. The bitterness provides a pleasant drying effect, but the beer remains soft and rounded overall. No harshness, no heaviness — just a clean, polished lager mouthfeel.

Overall Impression

A crisp, flavorful premium pale lager that bridges Czech finesse with American nostalgia. Ground Hog Premium Lager delivers the clean malt character and balanced bitterness of a classic Czech pale lager while echoing the elegant simplicity of the Michelob you remember from your Bradley days. Exceptionally drinkable, quietly complex, and built for both reflection and easy enjoyment — a true SheppyBrew premium lager.

🍺 The Legend of Ground Hog Premium Lager

Long before SheppyBrew carved its mark into the Front Range, before the gnomes claimed the brewhouse rafters and before the first mash paddle was ever swung in righteous purpose, there was U‑Hall — a concrete labyrinth where freshmen learned, slept, schemed, and occasionally studied. And deep beneath that building, on the Ground Floor, a tribe was born.

They called themselves The Ground Hogs.

Not because they burrowed (though some claimed the carpet smelled like it), and not because they feared the sun (though mornings were… difficult). No — they were Ground Hogs because they lived below the surface, where echoes of intramural glory bounced off cinderblock walls and the scent of cheap pizza lingered like incense.

The Ground Hogs were fierce competitors. Softball. Floor hockey. Walleyball. Tug‑of‑war. If a sport existed, they fielded a team. If a sport didn’t exist, they invented one. And win or lose, they always ended the night the same way: gathered around a battered dorm fridge, passing bottles of Michelob — the good stuff, the “premium” stuff, the beer that tasted like adulthood even when adulthood was still years away.

Time moved on. The Ground Hogs scattered. U‑Hall changed. Michelob changed even more.

But legends don’t fade — they ferment.

Years later, in a Colorado brewhouse where gnomes whisper over mash tuns and sky‑creatures occasionally appear in the steam, a brewer remembered those nights. The laughter. The victories. The defeats. The clink of bottles. The taste of a beer that no longer tasted the way memory insisted it should.

So he set out to rebuild it — not the modern version, but the original, the one with depth and character and quiet elegance. A beer worthy of the Ground Hogs.

He studied old recipes. He read Jack Horzempa’s reconstruction. He brewed. He tasted. He refined. And when the beer finally matched the memory — crisp, golden, clean, balanced, unmistakably premium — he knew its name instantly.

Ground Hog Premium Lager.

A beer for the underdogs.
A beer for the late‑night legends.
A beer for the teams that played with heart, even when the scoreboard disagreed.

Today, when a pint of Ground Hog is poured, the foam rises like a cheer from the old U‑Hall basement. The malt glows like the lights of the intramural court. And the finish snaps clean and bright, just like the moment you realize you’re part of something you’ll remember forever.

Raise a glass. Once a Ground Hog, always a Ground Hog.


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!

Tuesday, June 23, 2026

2026 Fathers' Day Camping at Turquois Lake

This past Sunday was Father's Day, and my wife and kids took me camping.

For quite awhile, our family tradition has been to go camping on Father's Day weekend.

On this blog, you can go all the way back to 2011 Father's Day Weekend to see photos of us camping.

Back then, the kids were pretty small. They are not small anymore. In fact, this year all four of us were drinking alcohol beverages around the camp fire.

I'm not sure how much longer this tradition will continue, but I was lucky enough to have it go at least this year.

This year, like a couple of previous years, we camped just West of Leadville close to Turquois Lake.

Friday, June 19, 2026

Pork Belly Burnt Ends

So ... I've tried making "Burnt Ends" a couple times, but not really in what I would consider a "traditional" way.

And ... it has been quite awhile.

I tried Pork Butt Burnt Ends a couple years ago, and "Poor Man Burnt Ends" made from a Chuck Roast a little later.

It could be just me, but when I think "Burnt Ends", I think it should be made from a Brisket point or Pork Belly.

Part of the reason I've never done them is my Sam's Club didn't sell Pork Belly for quite awhile. But, recently I started seeing it there. Last time I was there, I picked a 5.88 lb. Pork Belly.

And ... about a week ago I used it to make Pork Belly Burnt Ends.

Tuesday, June 16, 2026

E is for dEnver bEEr Company - littlEton

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. 

You also know that we will have to take quite a bit of "artistic license" as we go through the alphabet.

We were not able to find local breweries that begin with all the letters in Round 6, and of course this round has even less breweries to choose from.

I thought we'd have to relax our rules quite a bit, but honestly I'm not sure we even have rules.

So far, we've found breweries for A through D and as I mentioned in D is for Dry Dock Pub, "E" was the first (somewhat) challenging letter for us.

Last Saturday, my wife (aka the SheppyBrew Beer Model) told me she wanted to ride bikes to downtown Littleton to go to a shop or two, and thought we could do lunch at ...

Saturday, June 13, 2026

Bad Lands Kölsch (Batch 393)

If you read Ground Hog Premium Lager (Batch 392), you know I brewed last Saturday.

My wife was out of town on a "girls trip" for the weekend, so I had extra time on my hands.

With this extra time, I decided to brew Sunday also.

This should help get my beer inventory up. It actually also helps catch me up a little on tracking to a typical brewing year.

For this Sunday batch, after cleaning up the Ground Hog Premium Lager brew day, I prepared water etc... and a little later in the evening, I started an overnight mash.

For ...

Thursday, June 11, 2026

Ground Hog Premium Lager (Batch 392)

I brewed this past weekend.

If you read and remember 2026 Q1 SheppyBrew Stats, you know that this year has been slow in regards to brewing.

Since Q1, before this past weekend I'd only brewed Chelsea Dagger Pre-Prohibition Lager (Batch 390) and Where'd My ManGo Wheat (Batch 391), so I really have not been catching up with my normal brewing cadence.

I was on track for the least amount of beer I've homebrewed since 2009. Back then I was doing 2.5 gallon batches.

But, I took advantage of the opportunity to brew Saturday ...

Tuesday, June 09, 2026

Brisket!

I love brisket, but OMG beef is expensive now-a-days.

The cost and the time commitment make smoking a brisket less than ideal, and the last time I actually did one was Humdinger of a Brisket in November of 2023.

I've had a 10 pound full packer in the freezer for awhile, so it certainly isn't simply the cost.

I decided that I would smoke this brisket the Sunday before last and so a few days before I pulled it out of the freezer to thaw.

And on Sunday, I smoked it.

Saturday, I applied Montana Steak Seasoning to the meat to sit on there overnight.