Blogging Jan of 2014

This blog started off the year with another page-view record, just barely beating December, but beating it none-the-less. For awhile it didn't look like it was going to happen, but the blog had really strong traffic that last week of the month.

The posts most viewed this past 30 days were:

9 Beers I don't Drink

There is something I feel I must clear up.

I am not Eric Shepard, executive editor at Beer Marketer's Insights.

I'm not.

He and I are different Eric Shepards.

You may remember the other Eric Shepard from my post "Eric Shepard and the King of Beers", or more likely from one of these more recent (and more popular) posts:

No More Ads

I decided to remove the Google Adsense adds from this blog.'

They didn't make me much money and some of the ones that popped up didn't seem like things I would want to support. Plus, they were a bit annoying and on some browsers some of took awhile to load.

I think some of them threw javascript errors from time to time as well.

At some point I may bring them back, but for now, this blog is free of Google Adsense advertisements.

2013 SheppyBrew Stats

2013 has ended. SheppyBrew Brewery was pretty busy last year, and since the Brewery likes to post quarterly updates on how much we have brewed, it is time for another Brew Stats post.

If you are interested, can see all these past updates (including the one you are reading right now ... and if any I do in the future) by following this link: http://blog.ericshepard.com/search/label/Brew%20Stats .

Of course, as I've shared before, I entered my first home-brew competitions in 2013. I entered 3 competitions (4 if you include the National Round of the NHC as separate) , and two of my beers won blue ribbons. One also won 2nd in the Best of Show.

Against the Grain

I keep meaning to do more posts for "The Session" (aka Beer Blogging Friday), but I keep not getting around to it. Maybe I'll be better in 2014.

In case you have no idea what I'm talking about,  "The Session" is simply an opportunity once a month for beer bloggers from around the world to get together and write from their own unique perspective on a single topic. Each month, a different beer blogger hosts the Session, chooses a topic and creates a round-up listing all of the participants.

If you want to know more ... feel free to visit Brookston Beer Bulletin and read about "The Sessions".

Anyway, the first topic of 2014 comes from Rebecca at The Bake and Brew. In her article, Announcement! The Session #83 – Against the Grain, she asks ....

"How much is our taste or opinion of a craft beer affected by what friends and the craft beer community at large thinks? What beer do you love that no one else seems to get? Or what beer do you say “no thanks” to that everyone can’t get enough of?"

Interest topic ... right? Personally, I think there is lots of "peer pressure" in the craft beer community.

Brew Day: Schnockered to Comfortably Numb

Back at the beginning of November (see Fall Back ... Brew a Morlock Porter), I brewed my Category 12 Porter. This meant that I only had one more BJCP Category left to brew in my quest to have brewed at least one batch in all 23 BJCP Categories (see SheppyBrew Styles).

Since then, I've brewed a couple of old favorites, leaving the last category for the very end of the year. Monday, I took the day off work to brew a Category 19 Strong Ale. (Actually, I took the day off because my employer has a use-it-or-lose-it policy on vacation days. The brew-day was just a bonus)

If you want to see the recipe, go to the SheppyBrew website and look at

Schnockered to Comfortably Numb Barleywine

December 2013 Blogging

December had more page-views than November, making December the new all-time page view record holder. For most of the month, it looked like it would easily blow away the record, but the week between Christmas and New Year's was really slow ... very similar to how things were at my workplace. The page views beat November's by a very narrow margin, needing that whole extra December day to do it.

Anyway, just in case you are wondering ... the 10 most viewed posts in December were: