Tuesday, September 24, 2019

H is for Halfpenny Brewing Company

I modified the rules a little bit for my "H" brewery.

I made the rules, so I can modify them. If you don't like it, go visit your own set of breweries A to Z.

As I mentioned in "G is for Goldspot Brewing Company", I only knew of one "H" brewery in the Denver area that I have not visited.

But ... I didn't want to go to that one.

The "H" brewery I'm thinking of is a Gluten Free brewery, and I don't really like any of the Gluten Free beers I've had.

I just like my Glutens too much.

At some point, I should give this place a chance ... maybe my third time through the alphabet.

But, rather than pick a brewery I wasn't excited about this time around, I picked another brewery. It is a brewery that I've been to one time. That one time, I had one beer. I never mentioned it on this blog.

Until now ...


Saturday, September 21, 2019

2019 Will-o'-Wisp Pumpkin Ale (batch 240)

Pumpkin. Spice. Ale.

If you follow this blog at all ... you probably know that the SheppyBrew Beer Model (aka my wife) enjoys drinking Pumpkin Spice Ales.

Mid September, 2014, I brewed my first Pumpkin Spice Ale. Mostly, I did it to make my wife happy.

Happy wife. Happy life.

I'm not proud of it, but I am pretty good at brewing Pumpkin Spice Ales.

I'll even drink some of mine without complaining too much.

It being close to mid-September, now is the time to brew a Pumpkin Spice Ale for it to be ready by Pumpkin Spice season.

So, last weekend, I made the SheppyBrew Beer Model (aka my wife) help me brew. (I actually can't make my wife do anything she doesn't already want to do).

Since it has been such a hit in the past, we left the recipe pretty much the same as it has been since 2014 ...


Thursday, September 19, 2019

My First Brisket

This past weekend, I smoked a brisket.

Honestly, the fact that it took me so long to smoke one is somewhat embarrassing. There really is no excuse.

If I'm honest ... I was a little scared of briskets.

I can't always find brisket at my Sam's club, and often when I see one it is really more expensive than I want to pay.

Part of the reason it took me so long to do one is that I'm nervous about screwing it up. A brisket is not nearly as "forgiving" as "pork butt" ... or at least that is what I've heard / read / seen.

And it takes a long time to smoke a brisket. It sort of sucks to spend all day making something that turns out less than awesome.

But a few weeks ago, briskets were on sale and I grabbed a 10 pound packer. I had intended to smoke it sooner, but my plans changed and I ended up freezing that brisket.

This past weekend is when I finally got around to doing it. Turns out I didn't really have to be afraid.

Monday, September 16, 2019

Schreck Gartenzwerg Pilsner (Batch 239)

I brewed a couple weekends ago. As you may remember, I wanted to brew more lagers and more new recipes this year.

The last lager I brewed was "Bridge Fog California Common" back at the end of March, and I thought it was past time to brew another.

I recently won some money and I had decided to treat myself to an Anvil Stainless Bucket Fermenter with part of those winnings.

And ... part of the reason I decided to go with Anvil was because it has a cooling system that goes with the "bucket".

I hope to write more about the Anvil Stainless Bucket Fermenter and its cooling system in later blog posts ... stay tuned for that.

Those two things arrived the Friday before, and it was a no-brainer to brew a lager over the weekend.

The recipe I came up with was a German Pilsner:


Friday, September 13, 2019

Another Overnight Pork Butt

Soooooo ... Remember back in May, I did an Overnight Cook on my Weber Kettle using the snake method.

Set up charcoal around the perimeter of the kettle in a "snake", light up one end, and let it burn. The burning coals will light unlit coals slowly until they are all burned out.

I was able to get over 12 hours of fairly consistent heat this way. Perfect for allowing myself to get sleep while performing a long smoke.

Last weekend, I used this technique again. This time, I wasn't shooting for lunch time, but wanted to be done early afternoon so I could let it sit until dinner while actually doing things on Sunday afternoon.

Monday, September 09, 2019

Chicken and Hatch Chile Stew

In Smoked Green Chili Hashbrown Egg Bake, I mentioned that at my work, we have this "Friday Breakfast Club". People on one of my teams take turns bringing in breakfast for the rest of the group every Friday.

Recently, one of my people brought in what he called "Chicken and Hatch Chile Stew".

I really liked it and thought it would be a good thing to make to help me use up left over smoked meat.

This past Saturday, my family wanted to go to Saturday night church (I was out-voted as I usually am).

When we go to church on Saturday night, I try to make something I can throw in the Crock-pot. And it seemed like a good opportunity to try this "Chicken and Hatch Chile Stew".

Monday, September 02, 2019

G is for Goldspot Brewing Company

If you were following along during the D, E, F posts, you might have thought I was going to knock of a "G" Brewery at the same time.

A short block away from De Steeg is The Grateful Gnome Sandwich Shoppe and Brewery.

And ... if you look closely at the collage on each of the D, E, F posts, you can make out a flight that shows the logo of Golden City Brewery.

While both are great "G" breweries, we've been to both, so I could not use them for my A to Z Denver Breweries Project. It just isn't allowed.

Unless I changed the rules.

So ... you know two breweries that I didn't use.

Unless I changed the rules

If you remembered my first time through the alphabet or wanted to look it up, you would have known that I wouldn't pick Great Frontier Brewing Company, because I've already done that one.

Unless I changed the rules

Big G little g. What begins with G? (Goat and Googoo Googles?)