Spike in Page Views

My blog currently says it has gotten 12,713 page views in the last 30 days. That is a ton for my blog.

February will be the highest number of views this blog has ever gotten. Back in June of 2016, I hit 11,124 page views. Then for a little over half a year, the number fell steadily. It sort of had some ups and downs until late last year.

R is for Resolute Brewing Company Arvada Tap & Cellar

Right after "Q" in the alphabet is "R". You may already know this.

As you may remember from the end of Q is for LiQuid Mechanics Brewing Company, Finding breweries that started with the letter "R" was not going to be a problem.

There are several I could have chosen in the Denver area.

Last weekend, my wife (aka the SheppyBrew Beer Model) chose for me.

We actually went for a hike / walk up north of Denver in the Arvada / Golden area.

And after the hike / walk, she directed me to local Arvada brewery tap room ...

R is for Resolute Brewing Company Arvada Tap & Cellar

Brewing the Stone Soup IDA

If you follow SheppyBrew's Instagram or Facebook pages ... and/ or you read Stone Soup IDA, you know that I brewed this past weekend.

Stone Soup IDA is Black IPA / Cascadian Dark Ale / India Dark Ale recipe that I first brewed in 2010. I have not brewed it since 2011 despite the fact that I really liked the Black IPA / Cascadian Dark Ale / India Dark Ale style.

To be honest, I'm not sure I've had a recent Black IPA / Cascadian Dark Ale / India Dark Ale from any brewery in several years.

I'm sure I have had one that I'm not remembering in the last year or two, but still, it isn't a style that I drink as much as I used to.

I think the rest of the world is with me too. There just don't seem to be that many out there anymore.

TommyKnocker's Hop Strike Black IPA was one of the first Black IPA's I ever had and the one to which I compared all others after it. That is why I added to my Colorado 6 Pack list.

Anyway ... I brewed a Black IPA / Cascadian Dark Ale / India Dark Ale this past Sunday.

Stone Soup IDA

I Love Brisket

I made my third brisket a couple weekends ago.

My first brisket was about 10 pounds choice and turned out really good.

The second one was almost 13 pounds prime and turned out better.

This third one was my best so far. I appear to be getting better at this, although I'm not sure what I'm doing differently each time.

This one was about 12 pounds when I bought it from Sam's Club, and I went with a prime cut again.

To be honest, 10 to 11 pounds is really about as big as I think fits on the smoker, and I think this would have been even better if I were able to find a 10 pound brisket.

But, it is hard to find one under 15 pounds at my Sam's club. Especially when the price per pound is reasonable.

Stone Soup IDA

Remember my post "Homebrew Colorado 6 pack"?

Well ... I'm starting off the project by brewing a beer that represents TommyKnocker's Hop Strike Black IPA.

Back in 2013, when I made my Colorado 6 Pack list, Black IPA's (or Cascadian Dark Ales) were much more popular, and Hop Strike was the Black IPA to which I compared all others.

For quite some time, it was my favorite Tommyknocker beer.

At some point, Black IPA's / Cascadian Dark Ales went out of favor among the masses. I don't know when, but it looks like Tommyknocker stopped brewing Hop Strike.

Still, I have fond memories of the Black IPA style in general and Hop Strike specifically.

I'm going to brew a Black IPA.

Stone Soup IDA

Cheesy Bacon Wrapped Meatballs

At some point, I came across this recipe for Cheesy Jalapeno Bacon Wrapped Meatballs.

Cheesy. Jalapeno. Bacon Wrapped. Meatballs.

Sounded good, so I decided to make some.

Sort of.

I actually made Cheesy Bacon Wrapped Meatballs without Jalapenos in them.

Why?

Because I forgot to buy jalapenos when I went to the grocery store.

Oh well.

Of course, I switched up the recipe a bit. As you know if you read this blog very much, I'm not very good at following recipes.

Homebrew Colorado 6 pack

I've noticed recently that my May 2013 post "Colorado 6 pack" has been getting some traffic.

Unless you just followed the link, you probably don't remember much about "Colorado 6 pack", but it was basically a blogging collaboration that @BryanDRoth at This Is Why I'm Drunk. set up.

He wanted to get 6 different bloggers from six different states to each come up with a 6-pack of beers that "best represent your state and/or state's beer culture".

So I did that back in 2013 for Colorado. The blog post seems to have been fairly popular over the past month or so. It has been getting more traffic than my more recent posts. 

It got me thinking ... wouldn't it be fun to brew up beers inspired by this "Colorado 6 pack"?

My answer to myself was "Yes".

So ... here are the beers I picked:

50

I recently had a birthday.

This birthday brought my age to 50. Not sure I feel a day over 49.

My wife (aka the Beer Model) is a saint. Not only does she put up with me, but she also does a great job making me feel special.

This year for my birthday, we coordinated with the kids to come up with a birthday weekend getaway for us to do in the Mountains.

We went Snowmobiling.

We did go snowmobiling once before, and it was a blast.

This time was awesome too.

Here are some pictures from the snowmobile ride:

Progress on #5000MilesIn2020

As you may remember from earlier in the month, I've decided to try to ride my bike 5000 miles this year.

See #5000MilesIn2020 if you want to catch up. Go ahead. I'll wait.

Here it is, February, so I thought I would let y'all know how it is going.