My 4th of #10Everestsin2022

As of today, I've climbed 118,625 feet on my bikes this year. Over 4 times the elevation of Mount Everest.

The peak of Mount Everest is 29,032 feet above sea level. 4 x 29,032 = 116,128. So, 118,625 feet is 4.02 Everests.

My goal in 2022 is to climb 10 Everests, 290,320 feet. Today, I'm ahead of  "schedule" ... just barely.

Y is for Wild Blue Yonder Brewing Company

We're almost done with round 3 of the A to Z Denver Breweries series of posts.

Since mid - April, we've done V is for Vision Quest Brewing Company, W is for Wah Gwaan Brewing Company, and X is for Bruz Off FaX.

After "X" comes "Y", so obviously we needed to come up with a "Y" brewery.

In round 1, we went to Y is for Yak and Yeti Restaurant and Brewpub.

In round 2, we used Y is for Over Yonder Brewing Company.

As I mentioned in X is for Bruz Off FaX. we wouldn't be traveling to the Yampa Valley to check off the "Y" brewery. So, we'll have to take a little artistic license again.

The SheppyBrew Beer Model scanned the Colorado Brewery List, and came up with a few possibilities. When it came right down to it, there was only 1 real choice ...

Y is for Wild Blue Yonder Brewing Company

Chuck Roast in the Snow

Chuck Roast is something I end up smoking quite a bit.

Ever since Chuck Roast on Weber Kettle and Crock-pot ... way back in late 2019, my process in cooking Chuck Roast is to smoke it for 3 or 4 hours, and then put it in the crock pot for the rest of the day.

This allows me to get done with the smoking early in the day. When the chuck is in the crock pot, I don't have to pay attention to it.

So ... I can spend the part of the day when the rest of my family is up doing something else.

It works out great. At some point I may try the same process with a pork butt.

Anyway ... as I mentioned in a couple of posts recently, the Denver area got a bunch of snow Friday night into Saturday. I cleared out the snow to get a chuck roast on the kettle.

Catching up on #5000MilesIn2022

So ... 

Today is the 22nd of May. 

If you've been following my updates on my #5000MilesIn2022 goal, you know that my Strava mileage goal is 5,000 miles.

You also know that so far this year, I've been behind plan. As of the beginning of this month I was 30 miles behind plan.

To reach 5,000 miles, I need to average 12.7 miles per day. If I'm counting right, today is the 142nd day of the year.

To be "on plan" for my goal, I should be at 1945 miles today.

Manitou Incline

On May 19, 2022, Alexa told me that the temperature out side my home was 89 degrees.

Today is the 20th and I'm watching it snow. The high temperature was 39.

50 degree drop overnight. Awesome. 

We are going to get a significant amount of snow. One of the things I love about living in Colorado is these late spring snow storms ... but still ... this is crazy.

Anyway ... today I climbed the Manitou Incline.

The Manitou Incline is a popular but strenuous hike up 2744 steps over around .87 miles and climbing over 2000 vertical feet. The average grade is over 45% and the maximum is 68%.

It is a difficult hike.

Mothers' Day Kettles

This past Sunday was Mothers' Day.

My wife's parents were visiting so we had two mothers in the house.

My older son also came home from college.

The two mothers decided they wanted grilled ribeye steaks for their dinner, which at our house means I had to cook.

As I generally reverse-sear my steaks, the 6 ribeyes fit just perfectly around my vortex on the 26 inch kettle.

In order to get sides done, I needed to pull out both of my Weber Kettles, and do the sides on my 22 inch.

The main side I made was the dish I made for Easter, Pecan Smoked Potatoes Au Gratin. I also grilled some corn.

SheppyBrew Beer Names

So ... one of my favorite homebrew podcasts is the The Brülosophy Podcast.

One of their recent episodes ... Episode 232 | exBEERience: Naming Beers ... got me thinking about how I go about naming beers.

Apparently, not all homebrewers name all their beers, but I certainly do. Some of these names only make sense to me, but they all have at least some thought put them.

So ... what are some of the themes in my beer names?

Sports teams

Lots of my beers are named for my favorite sports teams ... lead, of course, by the Chicago Blackhawks.

Blackhawk Black Ale is pretty obvious. Tommy Hawk APA is named after the Blackhawks' mascot. Chelsea Dagger Pre-Prohibition Lager celebrates the Blackhawks with the song that plays after each of their goals. 

I've also celebrated the Cubs' world series with Cubs Win! Munich Dunkel. And the Colorado Rockies making it to the world series with Rocktoberfest Lager.

I even named a beer based on my hatred of a football team: Pats Disliker New England Pale Ale.

Mid-week Pork Butt

It is rare that I get to cook during the work-week. Even more rare to do a long BBQ / Smoke.

Due to the covid shutdowns, I now work at home, so there is really no reason not to do long cooks like Pork Butt and Brisket. We just mostly think of those as weekend meals.

Anyway ...

This past week, my nephew, AKD Bluefield (my sister's son), was on a post-college road-trip with 3 of his friends and stayed with us a couple of nights.

My wife worked on Tuesday, and we thought we should feed AKD and his friends. I decided to smoke a pork butt for dinner so she wouldn't have get home and try to get something cooked for a larger-than-normal group.

Colorado Vienna Lager (Batch 310)

Remember that in my post "Disappearing Beer" I shared that I didn't get to drink most of my first batch of Colorado Vienna Lager?

Heck ... I didn't even get to check it in on Untappd! (Yes, I check in most of my homebrewed beers on Untappd).

I've been wanting to brew Colorado Vienna Lager again so I could enjoy more of the beer.

Friday, I got the Root Shoot malts at my favorite homebrew shop, so that I could brew it on the weekend.

On Saturday, I prepared my water and set the timer to heat up while I was sleeping. I got up early Sunday to brew ...

 Colorado Vienna Lager

X is for Bruz Off FaX

Last week I posted W is for Wah Gwaan Brewing Company.

If you've been following along on the A to Z Denver Breweries series of posts, and are familiar with the English alphabet, you know that it is time for us to post about an "X" brewery.

Well ... according to the Colorado Brewery List ... there are no breweries in Colorado which start with the letter X.

In round 1, we took artistic license with X is for WestFaX Brewing Company.

In round 2, we shamelessly cheated with X is for Mad Jack's [JaX] Mountain Brewery.

This past Saturday, the SheppyBrew Beer Model and I had to take artistic license again with ...

X is for Bruz Off FaX

Biking update ...

Today is May 1st.

Last year by May 1st, I'd ridden 1,689 miles and climbed 104,466 feet on my bikes.

This year, I'm still behind last year, but I think I'm catching up. So far this year, I've ridden 1,627 miles and climbed 88,448.

Last time I reported my cycling numbers, I was 108 behind "plan" to reach #5000MilesIn2022. Now I'm only 30 miles behind plan.

I was 8,327 feet behind plan to get to #10EverestsIn2022. Now, I'm 7,795 feet behind.