XMas Ales and Ribeye Roast

For various reasons, the "SheppyBrew Christmas Dinner" was on the 23rd this year.

If you've been following along for awhile, you may have figured out that one of my favorite things to make on holidays is Ribeye Roast.

I only really get it when there are holiday sales for them at our local grocery stores. This often happens around Christmas, and I picked up one on sale this year to make.

Another thing you probably know if you've been following this blog for awhile is that every year (since I started brewing way back in 2009) I brew an "X-Mas Ale".

Back when I bottled most of my beers, I always saved 6 or so bottles to do vertical tastings in future years. Now that I keg, I have pretty much gotten away from that, but I still have some older "X-Mas Ale" bottles in my fridge.

Random SheppyBrew Recipes

After typing up SheppyBrew's Most Brewed Beers, I got to thinking ... "what am I going to do with my Roll-a-Style list once my 'Bench' has been emptied?"

Ok ... not something I have to worry about for a long time (and really ... why would I worry about it at all?) ... but in only 8 Roll-a-Style brews, my "Bench" will be empty.

As a computer geek, here is what I came up with: 

I made a change to SheppyBrew.com where my recipe page will randomly pick a previously brewed beer when the id=random.

IE ... 

http://www.sheppybrew.com/recipes/recipe.aspx?id=random

Butt and Biking

If you look at this blog, you'll see that I smoked Port Butt quite often.

Out of all the meat I BBQ, I have probably posted more about Port Butt than anything else ... although I suspect that I've actually cooked chicken thighs more on my various grills.

My kids are home on Christmas break from their colleges, so with more mouths to feed, I thought I'd make a big piece of meat this past weekend.

Port Butt is what I ended up making. 

One of the nice things about Port Butt is that it is something that doesn't require constant attention to make.

I tend to use a modified snake method, which if set up correctly means that I can just let the kettle cook for several hours.

SheppyBrew's Most Brewed Beers

Last week (from when I am typing this ... not when it was posted), there were technical issues with SheppyBrew.com where the web server could not connect to it's database.

I was a bit annoyed that my hosting company needed me to point out the problem, and that it took them several hours to fix it after I pointed it out.

But, in the grand scheme of things ... it's a first world problem.

For some reason ... once the issue was fixed, and I was looking through the database I decided to figure out what beers I've brewed the most.

I went down a rabbit-hole of sql queries and since I had gone through that effort ... I thought I might as well share what I found.

F is for Fiction Beer Company Chapter Two

It seems likes it's been quite awhile since we've done anything with our A to Z Breweries Series of Posts.

I posted E is for El Rancho Colorado over a month ago, which isn't THAT long ago, but for whatever reason, it seemed like longer ago than I guess it was.

Anyway ... this past weekend, the SheppyBrew Beer Model and I decided to hit another brewery for lunch.

Time for an "F" brewery.

Once we eliminate the "F" breweries we've been to already (see A to Z Denver Breweries Round 4) ...

I thought there was one obvious choice on the Colorado Brewery Map & List.

F is for Fiction Beer Company Chapter Two

Decemberfest Lager (Batch 348)

December already? Where did 2023 go?

Seems like I just submitted the first 2023 post recently.

I suppose I'm just getting old enough that time flies by faster and faster.

Anyway ... 

I brewed my 23rd batch of beer of the year Sunday. I believe this will be my last batch of beer for the year.

It was the 348th batch of beer I've ever brewed.

I have brewed this beer (with minor recipe modifications) 3 times now.

It is a nice December Seasonal lager.

Decemberfest Lager

2023 Update on the 2021 BJCP Goal

If you follow this blog, you know I've renewed my old BJCP Goal.

Through a series of blog posts, I've discovered / acknowledged that I had not brewed whole categories in the 2021 Style Guidelines (see BJCP 2021 Style Guidelines, I lied, and 2021 BCJP Styles to Brew).

At some point, I decided to not only try to get every category covered, but work through all the styles (at least the ones that I'm interested in drinking)

I even came up with a "Roll-a-Style" concept to give me help deciding which style to brew.

After X-Mas Ale 2023 (Batch 347), I've now brewed at least one style in every BJCP Category. And ... I'm not planning on adding any more new styles before the end of the year.

X-Mas Ale 2023 (Batch 347)

Every year since I started homebrewing (way back in 2009), I've brewed an X-Mas Ale to have around the holidays.

They have all been similar base beers ... a malty winter warmer ... with various flavorings.

I've done everything from Almond Vanilla Cinnamon Cloves (2009) to just the base beer (2015).

I've used Smoked malt, Peppermint, Peanut Butter, Cherry Pomegranate, and other flavorings.

If you're interested, there are links to every single recipe on X-Mas Ales 2009 - 2023.

Towards the beginning of 2023, I realized that I had not brewed beers in every category of the 2021 BJCP Guidelines (see Sheppy's Blog: I lied), and I thought that Category 33 - Wood Beer would make a good X-Mas Ale.

X-Mas Ale 2023

Roll-a-Style 18 ... Wood Aged Beer

Well ... on Roll-a-Style 13 ... Wild Specialty Beer, I had 33A. Wood-Aged Beer on my "Roll-a-Style" list even though I knew for quite some time that my 2023 X-Mas Ale was going to satisfy that style.

So, I suppose this is another beer style where I am pretending to roll. For this one, I am pretending to use the online 20-sided dice to roll 18 ...

2023 Thanksgiving Turkey

If you've been following along on my blog, you already knew that ...

1) I was going to smoke a turkey for Thanksgiving. 

2) I was planning on Spatchcocking and halving it on my weber kettle. 

3) I was going to use Crack as my spicing.

This past Thursday was Thanksgiving, and I did indeed smoke a spatchcocked turkey on my Weber kettle and spiced it with Crack.

Since 2018, which was the year I started becoming obsessed with BBQ, I've been in charge of making the Thanksgiving turkey outside on my smoker.

3 Redheads and a Blonde

I feel like I've brewed a lot of Amber / Red beers lately. Currently, I have 4 homebrews on tap, and they are all in that color range.

• Falling Leaves Autumn Saison ... my Autumn "Seasonal Saison". Sort of an Oktoberfest with a French Saison character.
  
  
• Steamacularly Common ... a "California Common" brewed in tribute of Anchor Steam upon closing of the brewery.
  
  
• Buckwheat's Belgium Pale Ale ... SheppyBrew classic BPA. Favorite of the Beer Model. Currently the lightest in color, but still in that amber range. 

• Humdinger of a Hootenanny ... Kentucky Common. currently the darkest of the beers I have on tap. Almost a "brunette", but still in the red range.

 

Chicken Crack

You might remember in Humdinger of a Brisket, that I went down a little rabbit hole that included hitting my 2020 Thanksgiving Turkey post.

I had used Crack Seasoning on that Turkey, and I remember liking it quite a bit.

I decided to track some down and grabbed some for this year's Thanksgiving Turkey.

As I was ordering the spice, I saw they now have "Spicy Crack Seasoning", and I picked some of that up along with the "Original Crack Seasoning".

I had to try it out, and I had planned to cook a chicken, so I used the Spicy Crack Seasoning on my chicken last Sunday.

Humdinger of a Brisket

Soooo ... As I am typing this post, I just went through a weird rabbit trail to realize I had not posted my latest Brisket cook ...

I just picked up "Crack" because I remembered that I really enjoyed it on my 2020 Thanksgiving Turkey.

As I was looking through Turkey posts on this blog, I started looking through Smoked posts.

At some point ... I started looking through Brisket posts, and saw that my last one was my Easter Brisket from earlier this year.

I thought that was weird ... because I knew I had cooked a brisket much more recently than that. 

In fact, I cooked one just on the 29th, which as I type this, was Sunday of last week.

I cooked one on my Humdinger of a Hootenanny (Batch 345) brew day. I'm absolutely sure I intended to blog about it. But, I have not. Yet. Until now.

Smoked Chicken Bombs

I subscribe to and watch various BBQ Youtube channels. One of my favorites is Hey Grill Hey.

Recently, Susie had a video called Amazing Smoked Chicken Bombs with a cheesy jalapeno center! So easy anyone can can do it!.

 

Golly Jeepers Wild Mango Ale (Batch 346)

If you read Roll-a-Style 13 ... Wild Specialty Beer, you know that Saturday was Learn to Homebrew Day, and that I brewed Golly Jeepers Wild Mango Ale.

My friend "Doc" wanted to host another brew day, so I headed over to his "brewery".

Generally, when I "Travel Brew", I like to start my mash at home and let it convert during the drive over. Then, when I arrive I can just transfer to a boil kettle and therefore have a head-start.

I do this in my old-style gott cooler / propane burner system.

But, my friend "Du" also was heading over, and he asked to use a propane burner and boil kettle.

E is for El Rancho Colorado

We're well on our way through round 5 of A to Z Breweries Series of Posts.

A is for AC Golden Tank Room

B is for Black Shirt Brewing Company

C is for Cannonball Creek Brewing Company

D is for Diebolt Brewing Company

So far, so good. No issues at all filling out the alphabet.

As you probably can figure out, it is time to get to something that starts with the letter "E". Unlike the past couple of letters, we only really had one choice ....

E is for El Rancho Colorado

Roll-a-Style 13 ... Wild Specialty Beer

I brewed Humdinger of a Hootenanny (Batch 345) the weekend before Learn to Homebrew Day. I obviously had to have something to brew on the first Saturday of November (today if you're reading this the day it publishes)

About the time I discovered that I Lied about the 2021 BCJP Categories ... I came across some Wildbrew Philly Sour yeast in my favorite local homebrew shop.

That yeast has been sitting in my fridge since then, and I always had expected I'd use it to brew a Category 28. American Wild Ale with it.

I decided that Learn to Homebrew Day would be the day. It was on my Roll-a-Style list ... so ...

I pretended to roll the Online 20 sided die and pretended that I rolled ... 13

13 corresponds to 28C. Wild Specialty Beer, a pretty wide-open style.

An American Wild Ale with fruit, herbs, spices, or other Specialty-Type Ingredients.

I decided to go with a simple base beer with mango fruit. The "Wild" character would come from the Wildbrew Philly Sour yeast.

My recipe is 

Humdinger of a Hootenanny (Batch 345)

I brewed on a snowy Sunday this past weekend.

Due to poor planning, this was probably my worst brew day in awhile, but a bad brew day is better than a good work-day, so it was still pretty good.

I'm sure the beer will still turn out great.

If you read this blog and are able to remember, you may know what I was planning on brewing next as I mentioned it in Roll-a-Style 9 ... Historical Beer: Kentucky Common.

This was my 345th batch ever. My 20th of 2023. My 63rd batch of beer brewed in my Anvil Foundry.

It was a new recipe, my 222nd unique recipe since I started brewing beer (if I am counting correctly).

Humdinger of a Hootenanny

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.

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 ...

D is for Diebolt Brewing Company

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 ...

C is for Cannonball Creek Brewing Company

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.

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.

See Sunday Ride on Strava.

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 ...

Falling Leaves Autumn Saison

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.

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).

#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 

 

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:

• Hail Storm Summer Saison
• Gypsy Magic Bière de Garde
• Helles Won't Kellerbier
• Steamacularly Common
• Buckwheat's Belgium Pale Ale
• Shoddy IPA

2023 #GABF Saturday Photos

I posted 2023 #GABF Friday Photos just a couple days ago.

As I mentioned, I took a break from my Great Cycle Challenge for the weekend to attend both the Friday night and Saturday afternoon sessions. 

Sunday was a rest day.

As I post this, I have actually finished up my #1000MileSeptember, so I was fine taking that break.

The Saturday afternoon "Brewers Only" session has always been my favorite session.

It was interesting have family attend with us.

Anyway ... here are some photos from Saturday night ...

2023 #GABF Friday Photos

This past weekend, I took a break from my Great Cycle Challenge.

Don't worry, I'll still finish my #1000MileSeptember with miles to spare.

There is still plenty of time to donate to fight kids cancer ...

https://greatcyclechallenge.com/riders/EricShepard

This year, the Great American Beer Fest was earlier in the year by a couple of weeks than usual, so it interrupted the Great Cycle Challenge. Next year it will be back in October so I won't have to worry about it.

Anyhoo ... it is a tradition for the Beer Model (aka my wife) to attend GABF. 

Like usual, we attended both Friday night and Saturday afternoon ...

Roll-a-Style 9 ... Historical Beer: Kentucky Common

After pretending to Roll-a-Style 9 ... Hazy IPA ... I actually did roll the Online 20 sided die 

I rolled: 

On my Roll-a-Style list, 18 corresponded to Style 27A. Historical Beer: Kentucky Common.

A Kentucky Common is:

An American original, Kentucky Common was almost exclusively produced and sold around Louisville, Kentucky from some time after the Civil War until Prohibition. It was inexpensive and quickly produced, racked into barrels while actively fermenting, and tightly bunged to allow carbonation in the saloon cellar. Before the style died, it accounted for about 75% of sales around Louisville.

Some have speculated it was a dark variant of Cream Ale, created by immigrant Germanic brewers who added darker grains to help acidity the local carbonate water.

Shoddy IPA (Batch 343)

Well ... if you read Roll-a-Style 9 ... Hazy IPA, you already know that I brewed Sunday.

When I planned the brew day and bought the ingredients, I thought that I was hosting a brew day with my friends Du and Doc, but plans changed and it was a solo brew day.

I always thought that a Hazy IPA would be a great beer to use "Short and Shoddy" techniques to brew.

The short boil time in particular is something that I think helps keep haze in a beer, and the recipe I developed used a 15 minute boil because of that theory.

Kveik Voss is also a great IPA yeast and since you don't have to chill the wort very far to use Kveik yeast, this is also a time-saving ingredient.

Also, to save time in the morning, I decided to do an overnight mash so that I could skip that mash step on Sunday.

Shoddy IPA

Roll-a-Style 9 ... Hazy IPA

Well ... I thought I was going to have a group brew day coming up, and I have a bunch of IPA hops in my freezer.

I pretended to roll the Online 20 sided die and pretended that I rolled ...

9 Corresponds to 21C. Hazy IPA.

A Hazy IPA is

An American IPA with intense fruit flavors and aromas, a soft body, smooth mouthfeel, and often opaque with substantial haze. Less perceived bitterness than traditional IPAs but always massively hop-forward.

Another #GCCUSA2023 Century Ride

I did another Great Century Challenge Century Ride yesterday (Labor Day).

Yep, 100 miles.

That's right ... On my bicycle.

Yep, in one day.

No, my butt is fine.

Nope, I'm not crazy.

Yes, I know you don't like to drive that far.

As I type this, I've done a total of 321 miles in September. By the time you read this, I will almost certainly have even more miles ridden.

So far, I've raised $2,911, hoping to get to $5,000 by the end of the challenge.

If you'd like to help out or just follow along, feel free to visit my GCC profile page:

https://greatcyclechallenge.com/Riders/EricShepard

First #GCCUSA2023 Ride

Yesterday, I started my Great Cycle Challenge with a Century Ride.

Yep, 100 miles.

That's right ... On my bicycle.

Yep, in one day.

No, my butt is fine.

Nope, I'm not crazy.

Yes, I know you don't like to drive that far.

I have committed to riding 1000 miles over the course of September. I always try to get a good start over the first few days and the long Labor Day Weekend so that I'm not worrying about miles towards the end of the month when who knows what might be going on.

By the time you read this, I will probably have gone on another long ride. If you'd like to follow along or make a donation ... follow the link:

https://greatcyclechallenge.com/Riders/EricShepard

Buckwheat's Belgium Pale Ale (Batch 342)

If you follow along on this blog, you might have caught that I try to have the Beer Model (aka my wife) brew from time to time.

In the United States, an individual homebrewer is allowed to brew 100 gallons of beer a year. A household with two or more adults over 21 years of age is allowed a maximum of 200 gallons.

The SheppyBrew "Brewery" brews significantly over 100 gallons most years, and we're on track to get over 100 again this year. 

So ... mostly jokingly, I say that the Beer Model has to brew in order to keep me out of jail.

I'm honestly not sure who is supposed to enforce this 100 (or 200) gallon limit. I suspect that no one actually does, so I don't think I'm in any real danger of going to jail for brewing too much beer.

More Tri-tip photos

As I mentioned in Tri-tip photos, I got buy-one-get-one-free Tri-tips last time I bought tri-tip.

So ... I had another tri-tip in the freezer to make.

This past Sunday after my #MetricCenturyEveryMonth ride ... I made the second tri-tip from that purchase.

Yum!

As usual, I Reverse Seared it on one of my Weber Kettles.

Hickory smoked tri-tips are delicious.

I got started around 4:30 pm, which is about an hour and a half before dinner time.

2023 Tribute Day Photos

We're getting close!! In September, I'll be cycling 1000 miles in September to help raise awareness and money to fight childhood cancer.

It is called the Great Cycle Challenge.

If you'd like to help out, head to my "Rider Page" at 

https://greatcyclechallenge.com/Riders/EricShepard

 

#MetricCenturyEveryMonth

If you follow this blog at all (or the SheppyBrew Facebook page or the SheppyBrew Instagram page), you know that I try to raise money every year to try to fight childhood cancer.

The Great Cycle Challenge. Feel free to follow that link and donate.

This is my 8th year doing The Great Cycle Challenge.

My goal is to ride 1000 miles over the month of September, which honestly is not an easy thing to do, so I have stay in cycling shape to have any chance of accomplishing this goal.

Honestly, part of the reason I do this every year is to force myself to stay in shape.

Anyway, I cycle year-round, and part of what I do to stay in shape is to make sure I ride at least one "Metric Century" every month. 100 km or 62.14 miles in one ride. 

This past Sunday, I did my "Metric Century" for August.

Pork Butt and Kumbucha

Summer is almost over!

My youngest son is heading off to college this week. How did this happen so fast?

One of the things he requested before heading off to school was to have pulled pork for dinner some night.

So, this past Sunday I smoked a pork butt.

Generally, I use Kombucha to spray my bbq. My spray bottle was empty, but I've had a batch fermenting for quite awhile.

So, I had to bottle up that batch.

I got started around 6am, applying rub to the butt, getting the kettle ready, and getting the kombucha ready to bottle.

A is for AC Golden Tank Room

Ok ... well I guess ... here we go again ...

In A to Z Denver Breweries Round 4, I mentioned that I wasn't sure if we'd do a 5th round of the A to Z Denver Breweries series of posts.

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.

However, The SheppyBrew Beer Model (aka my wife) wanted to ride her Pedego to a brewery last Saturday for lunch.

There was an "A brewery" that is a pretty nice ride and that I've been interested in visiting, so we decided to go for it ...

A is for AC Golden Tank Room

Steamacularly Common (Batch 341)

R.I.P. Anchor Brewing company. 

After 127 years in business, Anchor Brewing has closed.

It is sad.

Back in the Spring of 2019, the family visited San Francisco, and shortly after, I brewed a California Common beer in honor of Anchor Steam, their iconic classic beer. (see Bridge Fog California Common (Batch 231)).

Upon hearing about the closing of Anchor Brewing, I decided to brew another beer inspired by Anchor Steam.

The American Homebrew Association published a Clone Recipe of the beer, which I used as a base to my recipe ...

Steamacularly Common

Gypsy Magic, Wings and Corn

So.... I sort of had a weird issue with Gypsy Magic Bière de Garde, but I seem to have gotten past it.

The issue was that the beer was quite cloudy when I kegged it.

I'm really not sure why. It attenuated fully and I thought I had given enough time to clear up.

I thought that once it was chilled it would take a day or two to clear up, but it really stayed cloudy for longer than I expected. Eventually, I added gelatin to help settle out the "crud", and a couple days after, that seems to have done the trick.

But, I probably had almost a whole gallon of beer before it was where I thought it was finally good to drink.

I guess the good news is that the beer is exactly what I think it should be now. 

Smooth and malty with clean yeast character. Fairly strong, but dangerously drinkable. Not much hop character. Nice and dry. Beautiful dark amber / brown.

A to Z Denver Breweries Round 4

The SheppyBrew Beer Model and I are done with Round 4 of our A to Z Denver Breweries series of posts.

We started this round in June of 2022 with A is for A Bit Twisted Brewpub. We posted Z is for CraZy Mountain Brewery just a few days ago.

This means we made it all the way through the alphabet in just over 13 months, which is much faster than any of the previous rounds.

I'm actually pretty surprised how far we got down that alphabet before we started having to "take artistic license" with names in this round. I'm also a little surprised how few we had to do that with.

We made it all the way to Q (Q is for Six Capital Brewing and BBQ) before having to use a brewery that didn't actually start with the target letter. If I'm counting correctly, we only had to do this with a total of 5 in this round.

First Century Ride of 2023

This past Saturday, I did my first Century ride of 2023.

Yep, 100 miles.

That's right ... On my bicycle.

Yep, in one day.

No, my butt is fine.

Nope, I'm not crazy.

Yes, I know you don't like to drive that far.

Spoiler alert ... there are a lot of similarities between my First Century Ride of 2022 and this one. It was also done the last Saturday of July.

If you've been following me, on this blog, you know I'm "training" for September. 

In September, I'm riding 1,000 miles to help raise awareness and money for the Children's Cancer Research Fund with the Great Cycle Challenge.

If you can afford it and are against childhood cancer, you should donate some money to help with the cause. If you want to help my fundraising effort ... you can donate at

https://greatcyclechallenge.com/Riders/EricShepard

Tri-tip photos

My grocery store had tri-tips on sale again last week, and I picked some up.

As I've mentioned more than once on this blog, I really like making and eating tri-tips, but I don't see them that often.

Maybe that is changing as this is already the second time I've made them this summer (see Tri-tip). That would be awesome.

The sales was buy-one-get-one-free, so I actually have another nice-sized tri-tip in my freezer that I'll make sometime before the summer is over.

I'm quite certain this will be the only time I've made tri-tips so many times in a season.

Anyway ... If you've read any of my other tri-tip posts, you pretty much know how I make them ...

Z is for CraZy Mountain Brewery

Here we are ... we got through Round 4 of the A to Z series of posts.

If you're new to the blog, or just have not been paying attention ...

Way back in 2015, I was a little embarrassed at how few of the Denver area breweries I had visited.

As I was looking through a list of the breweries in the area, it struck me that there were breweries starting with (just about) every letter in the alphabet.

And ... staring with A is for Alpine Dog Brewing Company, I started working my way through the alphabet.

In fact, I was able to get through A to Z Denver Breweries Round 1, A to Z Denver Breweries Round 2, and A to Z Denver Breweries Round 3.

And ... here we are about to finish up Round 4 ... Big Z, Little Z, what begins with Z?

Z is for CraZy Mountain Brewery

Country Style Pork Ribs

Country Style Pork Ribs ... Aren't.

It's annoyingly misleading that these things are called "ribs", isn't it?

I honestly have no idea why they are labeled "ribs", and Google really has not been very helpful in answering this question for me. 

They are actually cut from the shoulder of the pig.

Regardless, though, they are delicious.

I made some on the Weber Kettle last weekend.

They are pretty easy to make. I put charcoal in the "vortex" in the middle of my kettle and placed the "ribs" around it.

Helles Won't Kellerbier (Batch 340)

Well, I brewed again this past Sunday.

This is already my 15th of batch of beer this year, and my 340th batch all-time.

I'm getting to a point where I might have to stop claiming that my 2023 brewing totals will be down from 2022.

I'm not quite there, yet, though. I still think my 2023 totals will be less than last year.

Sunday's batch was a new recipe and new style for me.

If you follow this blog at all, you can probably guess what I brewed after reading Roll-a-Style 10 ... Kellerbier.

Tryna get girls from a brand? Man, you hella won't

Man, you hella won't

Helles Won't Kellerbier

Roll-a-Style 10 ... Kellerbier

After Roll-a-Style 13 ... Bière de Garde ... I thought I'd try another Roll-a-Style.

I rolled the Online 20 sided die and rolled ...

10 corresponds to Historical Beer: Kellerbier.

Gypsy Magic Bière de Garde (Batch 339)

Remember I said I am running low on beer?

Well ... because of that, I decided to brew on the 4th of July this year.

This is already my 14th batch of beer this year, and my 339th batch ever.

If I'm counting correctly, this would be my 218th unique recipe.

You'll remember I had decided to brew a "Bière de Garde" next on Roll-a-Style 13 ... Bière de Garde.

Of course, Bière de Garde isn't a style of beer I see a bunch in breweries or liquor stores, so I probably won't get a chance to compare my batch to a commercial example ... but that's ok ...

Gypsy Magic Bière de Garde

2023 Hail Storm Summer Saison (batch 338)

It is summer, and that means it is time to brew my Summer Seasonal Saison.

We've had a lot of company and the over the last few weeks, and of course we had 2023 Fathers' Day Weekend.

This prevented me from brewing over most of June AND all these visiting people have been drinking my beer.

So .. my beer inventory is lower than usual.

I mentioned in 2023 Q2 Brewing Stats, that my Hail Storm Summer Saison would be the next beer I brewed.

Last Sunday, I did ...

Hail Storm Summer Saison

Roll-a-Style 13 ... Bière de Garde

Ok ... after having people visiting and drinking a bunch of my beer, I need to brew to get my inventory back up.

In order to determine what to brew next, I decided to start the SheppyBrew Roll-a-Style.

So ... I used my online 20 sided die and rolled ...

On my list, 13 just happened to correspond with style 24C. Bière de Garde.

Y is for Black SkY BrewerY

We're getting close to the end of Round 4 of the A to Z series of posts.

It was almost a month ago that I posted X is for Los Dos Potrillos MeXican Restaurant and Brewery.

Of course, after "X" comes "Y" ... and shortly after that ... "Z".

As I mentioned, the Colorado Brewery Map & List doesn't really have anything in the "Y" section close enough that we could use.

We used Y is for Yak and Yeti Restaurant and Brewpub, Y is for Over Yonder Brewing Company, and Y is for Wild Blue Yonder Brewing Company in rounds 1 to 3.

We really had to take a little artistic license for this one ...

Y is for Black SkY BrewerY