Amish Friendship Bread Waffles

Not sure if you noticed, but I've been doing more with Amish Friendship Bread Starter lately. Until very recently, the only thing I made with it has been the standard (Original) Amish Friendship Bread Recipe.

Now I'm trying to branch out some. There are TONS of recipes to choose from on the Friendship Bread Kitchen, and I want to try some more of them out.

My newest experiment is Amish Friendship Bread Waffles.

Dudocs Best Bitter (Batch 251)

It had been quite awhile since I brewed with my homebrewing buddies Du and Doc. Learn to Homebrew Day was the last time we had gotten together.

We made a plan to meet at Doc's house prior to all of Colorado's closings, and with all the covid-19 things going on, we considered cancelling.

But, none of us were feeling sick. We'd all been fairly separated from the world for awhile. We were planning on gathering in a group less than 10.

We decided to still go for our brew day.

And this happened Saturday.

Like last time we got together, I decided to go with a fairly simple extract recipe rather than doing a full all-grain batch.

It means I don't have to bring as much equipment and it means I don't have to pay quite as close attention while Doc's homebrew is distracting me. Plus, cleanup is quicker and simpler.

It just makes sense when I'm brewing away from my home brewery.

The recipe I came up with is

Dudocs Best Bitter

T is for ... Time Out

Well ... certainly not the worst of the casualties of the Covid-19 pandemic, but my A to Z Denver Brewery Project is on hold.

"Time Out", you might say.

Even if I didn't want to practice social distancing, all tap rooms in the Denver area are closed down, so I don't really have much choice.

Most (if not all) of the Denver breweries are trying to survive by remain open for beer-to-go, but for now, I won't be visiting any breweries.

This means that you won't see any new posts to Sheppy's Blog: A to Z.

In the grand scheme of things, this is the very least of anyone's concerns. No big deal.

It does add to my general sadness about this whole pandemic, though.

Amish Friendship Bread

So ... quite a few years ago, my sister was nice enough to send me some Amish Friendship Bread Starter.

I built it up. Made some bread, and froze some of it.

From time to time, I pulled some out of the freezer and made more bread.

From time to time I build up more to replenish my freezer supply.

Until fairly recently, I've only ever used it to make the standard (Original) Amish Friendship Bread Recipe. It is a nice easy thing to make for the family or my "Friday Breakfast Club" that I've mentioned before.

Note ... being in Denver ... it is important to make High Altitude Adjustments (see Recipe Adjustment Guide) for the bread to turn out pretty. Sometimes I do a better job than others. Even when the top collapses some on itself, the bread still turns out delicious.

Here is the recipe I use:

Buckwheat's Belgium Pale Ale (Batch 250)

According to my records, I have brewed Buckwheat's Belgium Pale Ale 13 times. It is SheppyBrew's most brewed beer.

It started out in 2010 as an extract recipe based mostly on a recipe from Jamil Zainasheff's and John Palmer's book Brewing Classic Styles called "Antwerp Afternoon".

The SheppyBrew Beer Model (aka my wife) picked the recipe out from the book as something she would like to try.

She ended up really liking it. In fact for a long time, she called it her favorite beer.

So, I made a lot of it.

It was the first recipe I converted and brewed as all grain.

I also did quite a bit of experimentation on yeasts with the beer to find out what my wife preferred.

The recipe today is all grain and a bit more hoppy than the original, but I think the base is very similar.

Mexican Hot Chocolate Amish Friendship Bread

Do you know about Amish Friendship Bread?

“Amish Friendship Bread is a type of bread or cake made from a sourdough starter that is often shared in a manner similar to a chain letter. The starter is a substitute for baking yeast and can be used to make many kinds of yeast-based breads, shared with friends, or frozen for future use.”

Years ago, my sister sent me a starter. I have not shared it like a chain letter, but I have built it up and frozen it multiple times.

From time to time, I've made bread. Mostly, I've made the "Original" Amish Friendship Bread.

Recently, though, I tried a couple of batches of Mexican Hot Chocolate Amish Friendship Bread.

Sunny Rise Wheat (batch 249) and Smoked Pork

I brewed and barbecued this past weekend.

I was up around 3AM to start seasoning a pork butt and getting the Weber ready to go.

The meat was on a little before 4AM. 40 degrees internal temperature.

Then, I went straight into brew day for Sunny Rise American Wheat, which is basically a wheat malt base hopped like I do my Bohemian Pilsners.

Around 4:45 AM, I had the mash started.

Everything went well on both the smoked pork and the brewing.

Around 6:30, I was sparging, and the internal temperature of the pork read 108.

S is for Station 26 Brewing Company

It was not real long ago that I posted R is for Resolute Brewing Company Arvada Tap & Cellar.

Just like the letter "R". The letter "S" had plenty of breweries for us to pick from.

The Colorado Brewery map has over 25 breweries whose names start with S. Not all of those are in the Denver area though.

I could have picked from any one of these:  Sanitas Brewing Company; Satire Brewing Company; Seedstock Brewery; Sheaf & Kettle Brewing; Shoes & Brews; SomePlace Else Brewery; Something Brewery; Soul Squared Brewing Company;Southern Sun Pub & Brewery; Spangalang Brewery; Sparge Brewing; Spice Trade Brewing Company; Station 26 Brewing Company; Stein Brewing Company; Strange Craft Beer Company.

Some of those I've been to and some are a little farther away than is practical (especially given that we had such a huge number to choose from.

When it came right down to it, it wasn't difficult to pick at all. I picked a brewery that I've been meaning to visit for quite some time.

S is for Station 26 Brewing Company

February Progress on #5000MilesIn2020

So ... you know I've decided that I'm going to try to bike ride 5000 miles this year?

See #5000MilesIn2020 if you missed it.

I gave you an update after my first month of riding (see Progress on #5000MilesIn2020) .