Foothills India Pale Ale

If you follow this blog, you may remember that I decided to brew one beer to represent each of the beers I had in my Colorado 6 pack years ago.

See Homebrew Colorado 6 pack if you need a little reminder.

The first of these beers was Stone Soup IDA, which was very similar to the Hop Strike Black IPA that Tommyknocker brew pub used to make.

Second up on the list was Odell Brewing Company's IPA.

I've never really brewed a beer based on it, but the AHA has an Odell IPA Clone that I was able to borrow for pointers.

So, I went ahead and made a recipe using the Odell IPA Clone as the base.

Foothills India Pale Ale

Amish Friendship Bread Cornbread

You may have noticed that I've been trying Friendship Bread recipes recently.

See Sheppy's Blog: Friendship Bread.

What is "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.”

Or ....

“It’s a gloopy, unappetizing substance in a bag that you mash for ten days before baking the most heavenly bread in the world.”

Either way ... you can find information about how to make it and what to make with it at The Friendship Bread Kitchen.

16 lb Brisket on the Kettle

Well ... as I mentioned recently, I Bought Another Weber Kettle.

One of the reasons that I Bought Another Weber Kettle is that I wanted a bigger kettle on which to smoke bigger briskets.

For a month or two, every time I go into my Sam's Club (which is where I get most of my bigger cuts of meat to smoke), the meat department is pretty empty.

So, it has been awhile since I've seen a brisket to smoke.

Last week, I discovered that Sam's was now allowing briskets to be added to the online-order to pick up at the store.

So, I included a Prime Brisket to an order. To be honest, I wasn't sure I'd actually get one until I came pick it up.

But, sure enough .... when I picked up my order, included was a 16 pound USDA Prime Brisket.

I Bought Another Weber Kettle

Last year, I proudly announced that "I Bought a Weber Kettle". If you spend any time at all on my blog, you know that I use it a lot (see Sheppy's Blog: Weber Kettle).

I love it. Literally the only thing I think that I would change from time to time with the Weber Kettle is that I wish it were a little bigger. Honestly, it really only pops up when I smoke a brisket, but it is something I consider from time to time.

My son is graduating from High School this year, and I also thought I would need extra capacity to make more meat as part of his graduation party.

So ... for awhile I had been on the lookout for a 26 inch Weber Kettle either on sale or "like new" on various online market places.

Strava Widgets

So ... I've been bike riding more during the early months of this year than I ever have before ... as you may remember ... I'm trying to log 5000 miles in 2020.

According to Strava ... I have already logged over 1500 miles in 2020, which isn't bad when you consider its been winter most of that time.

While on Strava ... I came across a couple of "widgets" that I thought I'd try ...

#SIPBeerFest and Smoked Ribs

One of the unfortunate things about this whole covid-19 pandemic is the number of local businesses that may not survive the stay-at-home orders.

Of course, shelter-in-place orders reduce the amount of foot-traffic to businesses that rely on people coming to your business.

Business is down and when you are a small local business, you often don't have the luxury of a whole lot of margin to get past a long period of reduced sales.

This is true of restaurants and similar businesses, and of course includes the small local brewery.

Here in Denver, over this past weekend, there was a "Shelter-in-Place Beer Festival" to try to help out these small breweries.

All proceeds from ticket sales, merchandise sales, and sponsorships will go to affected Colorado craft breweries staff. 

I decided to participate. I ordered 2 "tickets" and a couple of tee-shirts. I also headed over to one of my local breweries, Green Mountain Brewing Company and picked up a couple crowlers and a growler of beer. 

My participation won't save any breweries, but hopefully it helps out some.

March Progress on #5000MilesIn2020

If you follow this blog fairly regularly, you might remember that I've made it a goal to ride 5000 miles in 2020.

If you don't know what I'm talking about ... you can catch up by checking out Sheppy's Blog: #5000MilesIn2020.

Now that March is complete, I thought I'd give another quick update.

2020 Q1 SheppyBrew Stats

I know it is difficult to believe ... but the first quarter of 2020 is done.

Wow.

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.

Arctic Vortex Winter Saison

The SheppyBrew Brewery had a huge Q1, brewing 7 batches and a whopping 35 gallons. I'm almost positive that this is the most volume of beer I've ever brewed in in a quarter. I'm on pace to brew 140 gallons of beer in 2020!

2020 Melting Stream Spring Saison (Batch 252)

It is Spring here in the Front Range of Colorado.

This means fairly nice warm weather followed immediately by beautiful snow falls followed by sunny melting warmth.

This might be my favorite time of the year.

It also means that it is time to brew Sheppy Brew's spring version of the Seasonal Saisons.

Melting Stream Spring Saison

Melting Stream is the lightest in color of my Seasonal Saisons and uses slightly different hops than the traditional noble hops that the rest of them use.

It is nice and dry letting the Lemon Drop hops shine through. A beautiful spring saison. Wonderful to drink both on those snowy and Sunny March and April days.