Easter Ham

You may remember that I (double) smoked a ham around Christmas.

The ham turned out good. Not great.

My wife (aka the SheppyBrew Beer Model) really liked that the ham didn't take up oven space, which helped with the cooking logistics.... one less thing to have to coordinate in the oven.

So for Easter, she told me that I was making the meat for the holiday meal.

I was leaning towards Rib Roast ... as it was on sale at my local grocery store, but the kids both really wanted ham.

Silly kids.

So, I ended up making another Double Smoked Ham.

One of the things I thought last time was that I didn't give the ham enough time on the smoker. Because it was a pre-cooked ham, getting to a "safe" internal temperature wasn't as big of an issue. But, the smoked flavor just didn't seem as developed as I thought it should.

So, this time, I gave myself significantly more time for the smoking.

232 ... Blackberry in Bed (Bam-ba-Lam)

I brewed my 232nd batch of beer on Good Friday.

232nd all-time. 7th of the year. 1st of the quarter.

Sadly, my closest home-brew shop is closing. While I was in there looking for going-out-of-business deals, I saw they had some Blackberry puree and flavoring.

The Beer Model had mentioned that she thought a Blackberry Beer would be good, so I decided to snag the puree and flavoring.

I also picked up a new 15 gallon brew kettle pretty cheap from the closing shop. Friday was the first brew day for my new bigger pot.

Because I had a much bigger pot, I decided to do a 7 gallon batch this time to take advantage of the extra capacity.

I considered a few names. Most had to do with song lyrics.

"Back in Blackberry" was a strong possibility ... derived by AC/DC's "Back in Black".

I almost named it "Never Go Back".

I went with "Blackberry in Bed" after listening to the Squeeze song "Black Coffee in Bed". I have fond memories of college days drinking and listening to that song with friends.

For the recipe, I went with my standard "Summer Lovin" base. I'll add the puree in secondary and the flavoring at kegging time. The formula works for me. I don't really have any reason to change it up.

Blackberry in Bed American Wheat

3 Saisons

If you follow this blog, you've probably picked up that generally, I brew 4 saisons a year Winter / Spring / Summer / and Autumn. I call these my Seasonal Saisons.

It is rare that I have more than one saison on tap at the same time. I usually finish drinking the previous season's saison before brewing the next one.

However, this year I decided to add a 5th Season. 

At the beginning of April, my 2019 Melting Stream Spring Saison was ready to drink. 

I still had a little of my Arctic Vortex Winter Saison left, and I had plenty of the 5th Season Blood Orange Saison too. 

3 Saisons at once!

Alcatraz

As you may remember from recent posts, The family visited San Francisco for Spring Break this year.

You know we took many many pictures of The Golden Gate Bridge.

You've also seen pictures of us hiking in Muir Woods.

Another of our activities was to visit Alcatraz.

Both kids told us that their favorite part of the trip was this Alcatraz visit.

The day was beautiful and the boat ride if pretty fun. Plus, when it comes right down to it,  Alcatraz is pretty awesome.

Really a must-see when you visit San Francisco. Here are some photos:

C is for ????

I have lots of choices for my "C" Brewery.

• Call to Arms Brewing Company
• Cerebral Brewing
• Cheluna Brewing Company
• CO Brew
• Colorado Plus Brew Pub
• Crazy Mountain Tap Room + BBQ
• Crooked Stave Artisan Beer Project

I don't really know what to pick.

I would love to visit Crooked Stave Artisan Beer Project, but they specialize on sour beers and if The SheppyBrew Beer Model goes with me ... she would probably rather stay away from that one.

I've had quite a few Crazy Mountain beers, and I have visited that location when it was Breckenridge, so I think I can mark Crazy Mountain Tap Room + BBQ off the list.

2019 Q1 SheppyBrew Stats

It blows my mind, but the first quarter of 2019 is over. But, it is. It really really is.

As you may know, the Brewery likes to post quarterly updates on how much we have brewed. You can see all these updates (including the one you are reading right now) by following this link: Sheppy's Blog: Brew Stats.

The SheppyBrew Brewery had a big Q1, brewing 6 batches of beer and 30.5 gallons:

• Arctic Vortex Winter Saison
• Popcorn Barley Rye (PBR)
• Mardi Bock
• 5th Season Blood Orange Saison
• Melting Stream Spring Saison
• Bridge Fog California Common

Arctic Vortex Winter Saison

Muir Woods

Remember from Golden Gate Bridge that we visited San Francisco for Spring Break this year?

Well, on Monday of the week, we headed across the bridge up to Muir Woods National Monument for some hiking.

I think this was my favorite part of the visit.

I loved walking in the redwood forest.

The size of the trees was just awe inspiring. Truly awesome.

We could have spent a lot more time here.
Luckily my wife (aka the SheppyBrew Beer Model) is a thorough planner and made the proper reservations. She also was clever enough to identify that there isn't cell service there so taking an uber wasn't a great option.

Here are some of the pictures we took:

B is for Briar Common Brewery + Eatery

As I mentioned in A to Z Denver Breweries, I'm starting over at the beginning of the alphabet.

My "A" brewery this time around was ... A is for Alternation Brewing Company. After "A" comes "B", so I needed a Denver Brewery that started with the letter B.

Last time, I chose B is for Baere Brewing Company, so obviously I couldn't pick that one. 

Turns out that there are a bunch of choices for "B" breweries in Denver.

After my brew day last Friday, for no particular reason, The SheppyBrew Beer Model and I drove to Briar Common Brewery + Eatery in the Jefferson Park neighborhood of Denver.

2298 Clay St. Denver CO 80211. Right on the corner of 23rd and Clay street. A few blocks from Mile High Stadium.

The "Eatery" part meant we could have lunch there without bringing our own food. That was nice.

B is for Briar Common Brewery + Eatery

Bridge Fog California Common (Batch 231)

As I mentioned in Golden Gate Bridge, we spent a few days in San Francisco last week.

I took the whole week off work, but we returned Wednesday. This meant I had Thursday and Friday to do with as I pleased.

So, I decided to buy beer ingredients on Thursday and brew on Friday.

Fun, right?

As we had just returned from San Francisco, Anchor Steam was on my mind. I decided to brew a California Common.

Between a clone recipe in a Zymurgy issue, and Jamil's recipe in Brewing Classic Styles, I developed my own recipe.

Feel free to check it out on the website:

Bridge Fog California Common