2021 Thanksgiving Turkey

This past Thursday (yesterday) was Thanksgiving.

The Sheppy Family generally eats turkey on Thanksgiving. 

Weird ... right? (no not really)

Since 2018 ... I've been in charge of cooking the turkey (see Cherry Wood Smoked Thanksgiving Turkey).

It generally turns out better smoking it on the grill than in the oven. Plus, it is one less thing we have to juggle the plans around what gets cooked in the oven.

Plus, I really enjoy doing it.

So ... 2021 Thanksgiving was my forth time smoking the Thanksgiving turkey.

YUM!

At some point, my wife picked up a 14 pound frozen turkey from our local King Sooper. The kind that is always on sale this time of year.

300,000 feet in 2021

According to Strava, over the weekend, I passed 300,000 feet climbed on my bikes this year.

#10EverestsIn2021

300,000 feet was my yearly goal for 2021. I still have over a month of cycling to go before the end of the year, but with the cold weather, I probably won't do a whole lot of climbing in the next month.

As I mentioned when I first mentioned the goal, to get to 300,000 feet in the year, I was going to have to average 822 feet climbed every day. 

That is quite a bit. As of today, I've averaged 928 feet per day, which is even more. This is certainly the most climbing I've done in my life.

For what it is worth, I've also cycled more miles this year than last year, which makes this the highest number of miles I've ever ridden in a year. 

Not bad for an old couch potato.

I'm not sure what cycling goals I'll have for next year. We'll see what I come up with.

Stay tuned and you can find out ... Sheppy's Blog: Biking

P is for Prost Brewing Company

2021 started out pretty slow for my A to Z Denver Breweries series of blog posts.

It was December of last year that I posted C is for Cerveceria Colorado.

Mostly due to covid guidance, it wasn't until May until I posted D is for Dead Hippie Brewing.

I got in E is for Evergreen Brewery a couple weeks later.

Then, it was another couple months before I posted F is for Fiction Beer Company.

After that, though the SheppyBrew Beer Model (aka my wife) and I have been speeding through the alphabet. We seem to be making pretty good progress.

We got from "F" to O is for Oasis Brewery pretty quickly. 

Now ... as you can imagine if you've been paying attention ... it is time for a "P" brewery. As I mentioned, I had a brewery in mind.

Big P Little P what begins with P?

P is for Prost Brewing Company

Mr. Awesome vs. Mountain Time

As you may remember if you follow this blog ... not too long ago I brewed Mr. Awesome Merican Lager (Batch 300).

This is my first recipe that I've called an American Lager style of beer. 

I was inspired by New Belgium's Mountain Time Premium Lager, which has become a favorite local commercial beer for the Beer Model and myself over the summer.

I kegged a couple of weeks ago. I added gelatin a couple days later, and it has been carbonating since then.

I poured some a couple days ago and noticed its carbonation and clarity was about perfect. Not to mention it was delicious.

I had some Mountain Time in the fridge and thought it would be fun to compare the two beers.

So, I did.

Learn to Homebrew Day: Dudocs English Mild (301)

This past Saturday was the AHA's Learn to Homebrew Day.

This year, my friend "Doc" decided he wanted to host a brew day, so I packed up my equipment and traveled to his brewery.

The recipe that I designed for this brew day, was Dudocs English Mild.

It is a pretty simple English Mild recipe fermented with Lallemand Voss Kveik Ale Yeast.

It should be an easy drinking flavorful dark, malty session beer. I'm looking forward to trying it out.

As usual, I started the mash at home and let the amylase enzyme do their thing while I was driving.

This way, when I got to Doc's I just had to drain the wort into the kettle and start heating to boil.

10th Everest of 2021

According to Strava, I've climbed 291,913 feet on my bikes this year. This means I passed up my 10th Everest in my #10Everestsin2021 goal.

Mission accomplished. Sort of.

For my official Strava climbing goal, I rounded up to 300,000 feet. (see #10Everestsin2021), so I still have some climbing to do over the next couple months.

With shorter days, especially with the end of daylight savings time, I'll have less time to bike outside, so I'll probably slow down.

Even so, another 8,000 feet should be easy to accomplish.

I'll probably let you know when I pass up 300,000 feet. Follow Sheppy's Blog: #10Everestsin2021 to see.

Go Bears!

O is for Oasis Brewery

It is somewhat amazing that I'm already over halfway through my 3rd round of the A to Z Denver Breweries series of blog posts.

As a reminder ...

Back in February of 2015, I was embarrassed by the huge number of Denver Breweries that I had never visited.

It struck me that if I went down the list, the starting letters of the brewery names represented almost every letter of the alphabet. That was when I started my A to Z Denver Breweries Project on this blog.

I finished my first round in February of 2019 with A to Z Denver Breweries.

I finished round 2 in November of 2020 with  A to Z Denver Breweries Round 2. 

Now, I'm up to "O" in round 3. As I mentioned in N is for Novel Strand Brewing Company, we had actually visited our "O" brewery already. I just had to write and publish this post.

O is for Oasis Brewery

Caliente Fuerte Mexican Stout (Batch 300)

When I bought my Anvil Foundry ... there were two main reasons I thought I would like electric brewing. 

The first thing is something I take advantage of quite a bit ... I can set a timer on the Foundry to start heating strike water while I'm sleeping so that I can start brewing right when I get up in the morning.

The other big thing is that the electric boil doesn't get affected by a windy day as much as my propane burner.

As I've brewed with the Foundry, there are two disadvantages I've found over my old mash tun / propane burner system.

The first disadvantage isn't that big of a deal to me, but especially for bigger ABV brews, my mash efficiency isn't as good as it was with the "older" method.

The second disadvantage is that it takes much longer to get from mash temperature to boiling. Generally, it takes about 45 minutes to get from 155 degrees to 200, which is boiling for me at my high-altitude.

N is for Novel Strand Brewing Company

It has been awhile since we biked to M is for Mountain Toad Brewing.

I actually don't think the Beer Model had been on her bike at all since Mountain Toad.

But this past weekend, we decided to continue our exploration of A to Z Denver Breweries.

As I mentioned in M is for Mountain Toad Brewing, there was really only one logical choice for our "N" brewery.

I'd actually ridden my bike by this brewery a couple times on my various biking journeys.

It is a nice ride from our Home Brewery along bike paths to ...

N is for Novel Strand Brewing Company