1519 Barker Exportbier (Batch 400)

I had a day off on Monday after being away for a wedding in north Minnesota (stone throw from Canada) over the weekend.

I did a run in the morning. Then I went on a bike ride. 

After the ride, I had lunch and then lay down for a little nap.

I had grains for a brew day ... and around 2pm ... I decided to brew a batch of beer.

It just happens to be my 400th batch of beer I've brewed since I started making beer.

This is actually the third time I've brewed this particular recipe ....

1519 Barker Exportbier

1519 Barker Exportbier is my attempt to capture the spirt of "classic" Michelob (not the absolutely awful low-carb "Ultra" watery beers) that I remember from my college days.

My first two batches of this beer turned out great, although I have no idea how close they were to Michelob. I just don't have the flavor memory from over 30 years ago.

Based on research, I suspect that Ground Hog Premium Lager is much closer, but as the classic Michelob doesn't seem to exist anymore, I have no way to actually verify.

Someday, I'd like to brew these two beers close enough together to compare them to each other. Maybe I'll brew Ground Hog soon. 

Anyway ... it was actually 2:30 before I got the mash going.

The mash went for about an hour, which is actually less than the recipe calls for. I was draining the mash by 3:30.

My pre-boil gravity was right on, but my volume was a little low. I decided to add some water to get the volume, making the gravity just a little low.

The boil went fine. I was able to try a few of the SheppyBrew Beers on tap during the brew day.

Khupacabra Kolorado Kolsch, Brain Freeze Rauchbier, and GNorthside Gnome Cold IPA are still tasting great. I'm sure Buckwheat's Belgium Pale Ale is too, but I didn't have any of that beer during the brew day.

I was chilling before 5:45 and I had the yeast pitched with the cooling pumps running by dinner time.

With clean-up, I'd say this was a 3.5 hour brew day, which is pretty good for a non-short-and-shoddy batch.

The fermentation was bubbling by mid-day the next day. I'll be fermenting "cold" (under 60F) until this weekend, at which point I'll let fermentation go to ambient basement temperature. I guess you can call this my "diacetyl rest".

My Brewing Calendar says I'll keg this on November 1st.

I'm sure I'll post something sometime about how this batch turns out.

As always keep watching the regular SheppyBrew Channels to see what is happening with my BBQ, Beer, Biking: SheppyBrew's Facebook Page; Sheppy's Twitter Feed; SheppyBrew's Instagram Page; and SheppyBrew's Website.Of course, don't forget to visit this blog often as well!

3 Blondes and a Redhead

So .... I actually have 4 wonderful SheppyBrew beers on tap right now. It has been awhile since it has been the case that all my taps have a beer on them.

Catching up with Buckwheat's Belgium Pale Ale (Batch 398) and then Khupacabra Kolorado Kolsch (Batch #399) seem to have done what I hoped.

The beers I have "on tap" are

• GNorthside Gnome Cold IPA 
  Hoppy "Cold IPA" ... a hoppy rice beer brewed as a lager with IPA hops. The citrus hops come through nicely in a crisp, clean base.
  
  
• Brain Freeze Rauchbier 
  My Roll-a-Style 6B. Rauchbier, which is basically a smoked Marzen. The amount of smoke malt is less than 10% of the grain bill, which isn't really as much as most Rauchbiers. I the smoke comes through nicely without being overpowering.
  
  
• Buckwheat's Belgium Pale Ale 
  This SheppyBrew Classic has been brewed 15 times with various grain bills and yeasts. The past few times have been pretty consistent. I refer to this as "fat tire light". The Beer Model says this is her favorite SheppyBrew Beer, which is why it has been brewed so often.
  
  
• Khupacabra Kolorado Kolsch 
  Actually not much of a "Kolsch" ... it really presents more like a session IPA. It was designed a my first "No-chill" beer with only CTZ in the boil, but Cascade, Centennial, and Citra added as a dry-hop. 

2026 Q3 SheppyBrew Stats

Well ... it is October, putting us past the 3rd Quarter of 2026. We can report on the SheppyBrew Home Brewery "Brewing Stats" for Q3.

If you read the Q1 report, you know 2026 started off very slow. Slow enough that I was on track to brew the least amount of beer EVER.

In the Q2 report, I had brewed a little more, and was no longer on track for the least volume of beer ever, but still probably the lowest since my Mr. Beer days. 

Wild Cow (sort of) Kölsch

September Update on 2026 Fitness Goals

As you know if you follow this blog, I generally give a monthly update on my fitness / Strava goals. I'm sure no one besides myself really cares, but I figure sharing these publicly give me a little extra motivation because of the extra accountability.

Plus, from time to time I'll look at older updates just to see where I was in the past.

In previous years, my goals have been mostly around cycling, but starting this year, I've started running as well.

If you're interested, You can always track these workouts on Strava. 

So far, I'm tracking pretty well to my 2026 Fitness goals, although a couple of aches and pains (not quite injuries) do seem to be slowing me down a bit (at least on running).

Khupacabra Kolorado Kolsch (Batch #399)

Last Saturday, the Brew Model and I normally would have probably gone on a bike ride.

However, the Denver Century Ride was going on, and we didn't really want to navigate bike paths with potentially hundreds of others.

Originally, Saturday the 26th was going to be "Doc's Quad Brew Day", which meant my buddy Doc would brew a batch. His wife would brew a batch. The Beer Model would brew a batch. I would brew a batch.

Plans changed and we did it the previous Saturday, with Buckwheat's Belgium Pale Ale (Batch 398). And, our hosts decided they would only do one batch that day.

When they were not doing two batches, we decided to "only" do one too.

This meant that we had ingredients ready to brew with. Last Saturday we used them on the "original" planned brew day without Doc and his wife .

Khupacabra Kolorado Kolsch

I finished #GCCUSA2026

Yesterday, I got in an 18 mile ride to finish up my 1000 mile September, raising over $5,300 to help fight Childhood Cancer with my Great Cycle Challenge.

The rider / donation page will remain available for at least another month ... and I'll be signing up for my 12th year in 2027 ... so if you want to donate, you still can:

https://greatcyclechallenge.com/riders/EricShepard