Tuesday, October 31, 2023

Another Chicken Spatchcocked and Halved

Well ... in Chicken Spatchcocked and Halved, I mentioned that I wanted to try the technique again.

Just as a reminder ... the "new" chicken technique was to Spatchcock the bird, cut it in half and cook it as two halves of a chicken.

It turned out nicely the first time I did it, and I had another bird to cook this past weekend, so I tried it again.

Last time, the only change I thought I needed to make was to give myself a little more time.

So ... last Saturday, I got the Weber Kettle fired up in time to cook a little less than 2 hours.

I started earlier in the day by cutting out the backbone and dry brining the chicken. I then let it sit in the fridge for a few hours.

Thursday, October 26, 2023

D is for Diebolt Brewing Company

As you know if you've been following along with the A to Z Breweries Series of Posts ... the Beer Model and I have started a 5th round through the alphabet.

We started our 5th round a couple months ago with A is for AC Golden Tank Room.

We continued earlier this month with B is for Black Shirt Brewing Company, and then followed up with C is for Cannonball Creek Brewing Company.

D is another letter that has still has a few choices.

As it turns out, the SheppyBrew Beer Model (aka my wife) and I had the same brewery in mind for our "D" brewery ...

Monday, October 23, 2023

C is for Cannonball Creek Brewing Company

Well ... as you know if you've been following along with the A to Z Breweries Series of Posts ... the Beer Model and I have started a 5th round through the alphabet.

We started our 5th round a couple months ago with A is for AC Golden Tank Room.

We continued earlier this month with B is for Black Shirt Brewing Company.

So ... as you know if you're familiar with the alphabet, next up, we needed a "C" brewery.

According to the the Colorado Brewery Map & List, there are a ridiculous number of "C" breweries we had choose from.

I narrowed the list down to 3 breweries I was interested in.

The Beer Model then narrowed down that list of 3 to 2 breweries based on what the websites said they had on tap.

I made the final decision based on potential parking issues ...

Thursday, October 19, 2023

Over 6000 miles in 2023

If you follow this blog, or the SheppyBrew Facebook Page or Instagram Page, you know that recently I finished my #1000MileSeptember #GCCUSA2023.

This past weekend, I did an October Metric Century, have have passed 6000 miles for the year.

My Strava cycling goal for 2023 is to basically get the number of miles and elevation gain I got last year, which would be 6250 miles and 326,749 feet climbed.

To reach 6250 miles before the end of the year, I have to average something like 2 miles a day for the rest of the year.

To reach 326,749 feet climbed, though, I have to average about 741 feet per day for the rest of the year.

Friday, October 13, 2023

2023 Falling Leaves Saison (Batch 344)

Here it is Autumn. Time to brew my Autumn Seasonal Saison.

I knew I was going to brew sometime in the next week or two, so I had actually biked to my favorite LHBS on Sunday.


More than anything I was interested in seeing how the ride would be.

It turned out to be an awesome 40 mile round-trip ride, so I will probably do this commute more in the future.

The LHBS was out of the dark Munich malt I like to use in this recipe, so I modified it "on the fly". This resulted in a slightly darker beer, but I don't think it will taste too significantly different.

I brewed ...

Wednesday, October 11, 2023

Chicken Spatchcocked and Halved

Lots of people say that spatchcock is the superior way to cook whole chickens and turkeys, but as I have mentioned a few times on this blog, I've never really found spatchcocking to turn out as good as cooking the whole thing upright like beer can chicken.

However, as I wrote in More Chicken in the Vortex ... I mentioned:

"I did realize that I've never spatchcocked a chicken on my Weber. To be fair, I should probably give that a shot."

In case you don't know, spatchcocking a bird is basically cutting out the backbone of the bird so that the whole thing can be laid out flat. People who believe in this method say it helps cook more evenly.

It also theoretically will cook the bird faster.

It makes sense to me, and it has worked out fine for me. I just find the other way results in juicier more delicious chicken or turkey.


Friday, October 06, 2023

B is for Black Shirt Brewing Company

So ... I it is official now ... we're doing a 5th round of the A to Z Denver Breweries series of posts.

I guess.

We certainly have a bunch more breweries to visit on the Colorado Brewery Map & List, but there are several letters in the alphabet that are not straight forward to fill in.

For now ... we are good ... once we start hitting letters without breweries, we'll figure out what to do.

If you read #1000MileSeptember #GCCUSA2023, you know that Saturday I finished off my Great Cycle Challenge. There is still plenty of time to donate, and of course I'll doing it again next year, but I think for now, this is the last time I'll mention the Great Cycle Challenge for awhile.

But the 2nd ride of the day was with the SheppyBrew Beer Model (aka the Pedego Owner aka my wife).

Wednesday, October 04, 2023

#1000MileSeptember #GCCUSA2023

If you follow me at all on this blog or facebook or instagram .. you know that I've been participating in the Great Cycle Challenge all last month.

I've pledged to ride September to raise money and awareness for the Children's Cancer Research Fund.

https://greatcyclechallenge.com/Riders/EricShepard 

 

Monday, October 02, 2023

2023 Q3 Brewing Stats

The summer just flew by. We are now into October and therefore it is time to report my Brewing Stats for the 3rd Quarter.

I brewed 6 batches in each of Q1 and Q2. I keep saying that I'll start to slow down ... but again ... I brewed 6 batches in Q3.

For what it is worth, in July I brewed 3 batches. 2 batches in August. I only brewed 1 batch in September. So, I am sort of slowing down I guess.

The recipes I brewed in Q3 were: