Littleton to Silver Plume

If you've been following along on Sheppy's Blog: Triple Bypass and/or SheppyBrew Facebook and/or SheppyBrew Instagram and/or my Strava profile, you know that I signed up for the Triple Bypass Ride.

FYI ... the Triple Bypass Ride is a bike ride. I am not signing up for heart surgery.

I've been a little surprised how many people thought I was having surgery.

Anyway ... this past weekend, I did another "training ride". 

Littleton to Silver Plume was 6:05 hours of riding time, and a total of 73 miles with 8,458 feet elevation gain.

My unofficial target for the Triple Bypass is to finish the 118 miles and 10,800 feet climbed in 10 hours. The rides I've done give me confidence that I'll be able to do that.

Summer Lovin' American Wheat

Step into a world where fantasy and flavor intertwine with Summer Lovin' American Wheat, a beer that's as enchanting as the meadow it's brewed in. This American Wheat beer, with its **5.5% ABV** and **22 IBU**, is a testament to the art of brewing, crafted by the gorgeous SheppyBrew Beer Model whose passion for beer is as deep as the mountain roots.

In this idyllic setting, surrounded by the majesty of towering peaks, she works alongside a troupe of helpful gnomes, each adding a touch of magic to the brew. The gnomes, known for their brewing prowess, carefully select the finest **Pale and Wheat malts**, blending them to perfection.

Juneteenth Brew Day

I keep forgetting that Juneteenth is a holiday that I get off work.

It always comes as a pleasant surprise when I see it on my calendar. This year, it popped up on Wednesday of this week.

I've been running low on what I had on tap, and so I decided to brew Wednesday.

Summer Lovin' American Wheat (Batch 357) was also ready to keg, so I was able to clear out that fermenter as well.

If you follow along on this blog, you might have caught that I had another Roll-a-style beer coming up ... Roll-a-Style 20 ... 20A. American Porter.

I brewed a slightly modified recipe from that post:

Nargles American Porter

Workday Pork Butt

My oldest son graduated from college this past weekend.

It is sort of hard to believe I'm old enough to have a kid this old .... but ... anyway ...

We had some family in town to help celebrate, and my wife thought I should cook on Friday when the family was going to be arriving.

It was a work day for me, but I decided to smoke a Pork Butt.

Generally, it takes me about 8 hours to smoke a Pork Butt on my Weber Kettle.

Since I work at home, and making pulled pork is mostly just waiting for the pork to slowly cook, it was a very do-able activity while doing my job.

I pretty much had the butt seasoned and the Weber Kettle going by 6:30 AM.

Cold Brewed French Press Coffee

You may remember that I got a French Press for Christmas this past year.

I drink a lot of coffee, and most of it comes out of the Keurig, but I usually use the French Press when I feel like I have a few extra minutes to make coffee in a more "relaxed" manner.

To be honest, I'm not sure the French Press is actually that much more time consuming than the Keurig.

Anyway ... in the French Press post, I intended to do a few more blog posts on it. Until today, I have not really done that but ...

 

Summer Lovin' American Wheat (Batch 357)

I don't know about where you live, but here it is starting to feel quite a bit like summer. I've had to fire up the air conditioning a few times already.

Although I drink just about any beer style at any time of year, there are a few beers that I would consider summer beers.

One of these beers is my "June Seasonal": Summer Lovin' American Wheat.

It honestly doesn't have to be consumed in summer, but it certainly doesn't suck in beautiful warm weather.

This is one of the SheppyBrew Beer Model's favorite beers, and therefore, it is one of my most brewed beers.

I like it too, but she really really really likes it. I think that when we brewed Alex's GPT, what she really wanted was 

Summer Lovin' American Wheat

More Training for Triple Bypass

If you follow the SheppyBrew Facebook and / or Instagram pages, you might have noticed that I rode a long bike ride on Saturday.

Another "training ride" for the Triple Bypass that I'll be riding in mid-July.

I started at my house in Littleton, Colorado at around 5am and went over Juniper Pass, down into Idaho Springs and then up to Cabin Creek Brewing in Georgetown.

The ride was over 64 miles and I climbed over 7,400 feet of elevation.

My wife was kind enough to meet me at Cabin Creek so I didn't have to ride all the way back home. 

Since this ride was over 100 km, it extended my #MetricCenturyEveryMonth to 35 straight months. 

Roll-a-Style 20 ... 20A. American Porter

After Roll-a-Style 11 ... 14C. Scottish Export, I couldn't help myself ... I wanted to Roll-a-Style beer.

In case you are not familiar with the concept ... I made a list of BJCP Styles that I've never brewed, and assigned them to the numbers 1 - 20. When I want to brew, but am not sure what style to go after, I "roll" an online 20-sided die. Whatever number I roll is the style of beer I brew next.

I rolled a:

According to my most recent list, "20" corresponded to the BJCP Style 20A. American Porter.

A malty, bitter, and often somewhat hoppy dark beer with a balanced, roasted, and frequently chocolatey character.

May #7100MilesIn2024 Progress

If you've been following along on this blog (or various social media outlets), you might have seen that I'm Training for Triple Bypass.

On July 13th, which is fast approaching, I am riding 118 miles with about 10,800 feet elevation gain.

Considering how many Century Rides I've done in the Denver area, 118 miles doesn't concern me at all.

10,800 feet climbing was a little bit of a concern because I had never done anything close to that in one day.

So, after my April #7100MilesIn2024 Progress post, I've been working on getting more long climbs in.

As a result, I've really made huge progress on my #7100MilesIn2024 goal, and even more progress on the #11EverestsIn2024 goal.