Dubble Minor at Du's Brewery

Well ... damn ... in SheppyBrew 2022 Year End Brewing Stats, I mentioned that I would probably brew less this year than I have for the past few "covid" years.

But, as of now, I'm on track to brew 160 gallons, which is about as much as I brewed in 2020.

Despite evidence to the contrary, I do still think my 2023 totals will be down. It's still early in the year.

But, for now, I'm brewing a bunch.

I brewed this past weekend, because my friend "Du" invited my friend "Doc" and me to his house in Ft. Collins.

It would have been rude to say "no". So ... on Saturday, I traveled to brew a new recipe ... 

Dubbel Minor

Ginger Kombucha

Since Sauerkraut Yogurt Kombucha in 2023, I've pretty regularly been "brewing" up kombucha.

I've brewed 4 batches this year. 2 green tea and 2 black tea. 

One of those black tea batches is currently carbonating with Black Cherry Pomegranate juice right now.

One of those green tea batches is in the kombucha jar right now, fermenting.

 

R is for River North Brewery

Ok ... we got through "Q" fairly unscathed in our A to Z Denver Breweries series of posts.

We're getting close to the end of Round 4.

Next up ... "R", which you can probably deduce is much more straight forward than "Q" was.

The Colorado Brewery List has tons of "R" breweries to choose from.

In fact, it was a little intimidating to choose just one.

As luck would have it, I actually got an e-gift card from my employer for one of the local "R" breweries ... and that basically made the decision for me.

Well, technically it narrowed the choices down considerably, because this brewery has two locations ...

R is for River North Brewery

Mardi Bock and other Sunday Activities

Yesterday was Super Bowl Sunday. 

It was also my first Brew Day after Fixing the Foundry.

And ... it was my first brew in which I'm using a new toy and trying out Pressure Fermentation.

Of course, it being Super Bowl Sunday, I had to make food for the game.

And ... it was beautiful out, so obviously I had to get a bike ride in.

It was a busy day for me.

I was up ridiculously early. Not necessarily because I wanted to be. I just couldn't sleep.

But, regardless, I woke up at 4:00am. I sort of half heartedly tried to go back to sleep, but it was not happening. I got up and started brewing ....

Mardi Bock

Whole Chicken in the Dutch Oven

So ... remember Another Whole Chicken in the Vortex?

At some point I realized that I could basically do the same thing in a cast iron Dutch oven.

So ... fairly recently I gave it a try.

It was a snowy work day back in January. 

I placed the Dutch oven down on the charcoal grate and place lit charcoal around it. 

The chicken went on the Beer Can stand up in the middle.

You can see what I mean in the following pictures.

Basically the same as in the Vortex ... only in the Dutch oven.

Fixing the Foundry

As I mentioned in 2023 Arctic Vortex and Chucky and Doodle Bop Belgium Single (batch 328), my Anvil Foundry had an issue. 

It stopped working. It would not power on.

This is not ideal. In fact, it really made me sad. 

I'm well past the warranty, so I had to fix it. I really missed having the Electric Brewing capabilities on my Doodle Bop Belgium Single (batch 328) brew day.

According to my records, I've brewed 48 batches of beer on this thing. When it works, I really like it.

I don't remember what I paid for it. Currently according to the Anvil Foundry it costs $425. I know I paid less than that, but let's use that cost ....

My first brew on the Foundry was Bud Lite Lime (271) on the Anvil Foundry on 11/1/2020. I discovered that it didn't work on 1/15/2023.

If I assume the $425, it means I paid 53 cents per day for the Foundry. That doesn't sound too bad.

I've brewed 48 batches of beer on the Foundry (although I did use it even on a couple of other brew days). Again, assuming the $425 that it costs now ... I paid $8.85 per batch. That is basically a pack of liquid yeast per brew day.

Doodle Bop Belgium Single (batch 328)

I brewed this past Sunday. It was extremely cold out, so it was a brew-in-the-garage day ...

As I mentioned in 2023 Arctic Vortex and Chucky, my Anvil Foundry need fixing. Based on some troubleshooting, I believe the Foundry's power switch needs replacing.

I've ordered a new switch and according to UPS it should be arriving today. Maybe my next brew will be back on the Foundry.

Regardless, it wasn't ready for Sunday's brew day, so I used my "old" cooler-mash-tun-propane-burner-boil brewing system.

The beer I brewed is a new recipe resulting from my desire to brew a beer in the BJCP Category 26, Monastic Ale.

As I mentioned in Followup on BJCP 2021 Style Guidelines, the style I wanted to most brew in this category was  26A. Belgian Single, and so awhile ago I designed the recipe ....

Doodle Bop Belgium Single

Jalapeño Poppers

Last Sunday, after a snowy bike ride and before the football games started, I couldn't get Jalapeño Poppers out of my head.

If you know me or even just follow this blog, I suppose it wouldn't surprise you to know that I really like Jalapeño Poppers.

Strangely, though, I had never made my own.

So ... I decided to rectify that situation.

I had to head over to the grocery store because I didn't have most of the ingredients.

I had to buy cream cheese, bacon, and especially jalapeños.

My wife (aka the SheppyBrew Beer Model) suggested that I should get a couple of other things while I was there, but when I was actually there ... I forgot those extra things. 

Oh Well.