Not that it is a competition

I mentioned last year what a loser I am. Last year, I was completely dominated by my sister (Mrs. Bluefield) in our unofficial monthly blog post "competition". In the article, I mentioned that as of December 2010, I had "won" 3 months during the year to her 8 months. We ended up in a tie in December, and I had to work really hard to scrap for the tie. She coasted through the month effortlessly.

Next iteration of Bluefield Chocolate Ale

So, I am currently drinking a Bluefield Chocolate Ale.  I think more so than any beer I've ever created, this beer is Jekyll and Hyde to me.  There will be some nights when I think it is a wonderful treat, and there will be some nights when I question why I would ever brew such a thing.

Tonight is sort of Jeyde to me (somewhere between Jekyll and Hyde).  I'm not wild about it, but I don't think it is a complete waste of fridge space either. 

I do think its the hazelnut that most screws with me in this beer.  And usually, when I think about it, I keep thinking that peppermint would better compliment the chocolate than hazelnut.  I actually brewed a Peppermint Stout quite awhile ago (Leprechaun Stout) which I thought was a wonderful dessert beer every single time I drank a bottle.  I kept describing it in my mind and to other people as very much like girl scout thin mints (mostly virtual people, but I did actually describe it to a couple of real people like that as well).  And, it was actually a beer that I could enjoy for the beer as well.

Right now ... light-bulb ... Leprechaun Stouticus, but, that is not what this blog entry is about.

What should I do about the Bluefield Experiment?  Should I just give up?  I can't do that ... I've already got a blog label.  Should I continue to try to make a beer that my sister might possibly enjoy?  That seems like a waste, she's convinced herself that she hates beer, and so I'm doomed to failure there.  Should I start taking the experiment seriously and try to use chocolate like beer-lovers might enjoy (more of a subtle chocolate taste)?  Well, that seems like a cop-out since the whole point was trying to make a beer that Mrs. Bluefield might like.  I don't know.  Do you see my dilemma? 

Whatever I do, the next iteration of the beer has to take some things into consideration.

1. Hazelnut is just too schizophrenic in this beer for me.  I am thinking peppermint may be a better complimentary flavor to the chocolate.
2. The beer is over-carbonated, and therefore hard to pour with a reasonable amount of head.  I should carbonate to a lower level.
3. With such a lot of unsweetened cocoa, there is too much sediment in the bottom of these bottles.  I think maybe I should try to cold-crash to keep more out.  Perhaps I should condition in a secondary fermenter.  I wonder if I should investigate filtering.
4. I do not think both the lactose and the cocoa are a good idea (at least at their current levels).  The final gravity seems just too high.  (I could be wrong about this ... I don't know).

I guess the biggest question is, should I keep the cocoa at this high level (less beer-like) or should I reduce the cocoa and allow the chocolate malt to provide more of that flavor (more beer-like).

I don't know.  To be honest, it doesn't really matter at the moment, because there is no way I'm going to fit Bluefield Chocolate Ale into my brewing schedule for quite some time. At a minimum, I have to brew Gringo Cerveza, Phat and Tyred Ale, BlackHawk Black Ale, Stone Soup IDA, and Eric's Irish Red.  By the time I've done half of those, I'll have other beers I have to brew.

But, I was drinking the beer and thinking about it, so I put my thoughts down on the blog.

Go BlackHawks!!!  Red Wings Suck!!!

Shipping Bluefield Ale

Not sure why I took this picture.  See the sexy beer model in the background, though.  Very hot.

If you've read any of my recent blog posts and/or follow http://www.sheppybrew.com closely, you know that I've brewed a chocolate hazelnut ale porter inspired by my sister (the one who I blame for making me homebrew). Unfortunately, she lives in Wisconsin. Since the SheppyBrew nanobrewery is in Colorado, and has pathetic distribution (we are no Sierra Nevada ... that's for sure), I have to make special accommodations to get a sample to her.

We are going to be in the same place at the same time in a few weeks.  I don't want to pack beer in my luggage (various reasons including my lack of trust for baggage handlers).  So, I thought I would mail the chocolate ale.  I've never shipped beer before, but home-brewers do all the time.  It is illegal to ship beer via the US Postal Service.  It is against policy for UPS or Fed Ex to knowingly accept beer, but the advice I got from the AHA forum seems to be that a "don't ask / don't tell" approach with UPS works just fine.  This seems to be standard procedure for lots of other home-brewering bloggers as well.  The best resource I found was at BarlowBrewing:  "How to Pack and Ship Beer".


So ...


First I put each bottle in a zip-lock bag.

Then, I wrapped each of the zip lock bags with bottles in them in bubble wrap:

I put the bubble wrapped bags with bottles in a box with shipping peanuts.

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And lots of crumpled up news paper.

Next, I'll have to weigh the box, print out a UPS label, and either take the package to a UPS store or someplace like that.  It should arrive in plenty of time.  Hopefully the recipient will have room in her fridge to chill the beer upright for a few days before Mrs. Bluefield arrives.

I have to admit that I'm a little nervous about shipping my beer.  I think I've packed everything pretty well.  I just don't know how it will turn out.  I guess we'll see.  If it turns out well, I'll probably let you know.  If not, I'll probably just stay silent on the subject.

SheppyBrew.com

GoDaddy has been sending me warnings that most of my domains were "about" to expire.  GoDaddy starts sending out the notifications ridiculously far in advance (90 days?) and I finally got sick of all the emails and renewed my domains.  At the same time, I registered sheppybrew.com.  You might call it an impulse buy, although it is something I've been thinking about for several months.

So, now if you want to read up on Sheppy Brew's beers, not only can you go to http://beer.ericshepard.com, but now you can go to http://www.sheppybrew.com.  Personally, I'll be getting there through the new sheppybrew.com domain name.  Google has not indexed sheppybrew.com, yet, so my search page still hits beer.ericshepard.com.  I'm sure I'll be able to update that soon.

I set up forwarding to the "brewing" labeled entries of this blog at http://blog.sheppybrew.com, so if you want to read about beer on my blog, but not all the other boring minutia of my life, you can bookmark that url (right ... like anyone would want to come back here more than once). 

Thank you to the Beer Snob Chick who just recently gave me a suggestion on where to buy New Belgium's 2010 La Folie.  You may remember (but most likely you don't) that La Folie was one of the great sour beers that I tried this year at GABF (that stands for Great American Beer Festival for my step-cousin-in-law). As of the time I am writing this, I have not headed up to 14th and Krameria, yet.  I hope they still have some when I arrive.

The hazelnut chocolate Bluefield Ale

This weekend, the Beer Model and I shared a Bluefield Chocolate Ale.  Part of me was dreading the experience, but it did not suck at all.  In fact, I think it makes a very nice dessert beer.  It will make an awesome beer float at some point.  It is very chocolaty and has a very nice hazelnut flavor to it as well.  Even Tyler said it smelled like cocoa, so I guess the aroma doesn't have any of that disgusting beer smell (disgusting for my kids and sister ... or at least my I hope my sister doesn't think it smells or tastes disgusting).  Since I like it and the beer model likes it, chances are my sister will not like it, but hey, we can't please everyone, now can we? Now, I just have to figure out a good way to get some to either Wisconsin or Michigan, so Mrs. Bluefield can give it a try.

The beer model thought Bluefield Chocolate Ale was good.

The kids didn't think it smelled disgusting

I had been planning on cracking open my second taste of Fox Sox Knox Rye Pale Ale sometime this weekend, but never got around to it.  I had my first taste Thursday night.  It is a wonderfully hoppy beer.  The color is a beautiful gold that is not quite like any of my other beers.  It is very similar in taste to Tommy Hawk APA, and I might have to do a side-by-side comparison to decide how close they actually are.

We played up in the mountains by Mt. Evans this Saturday, and stopped by Tommy Knocker brew pub for lunch.   I got to use my AHA membership card to get the pub discount.  This is the first place that I've pulled out the card and had the person actually know what I was talking about.  The beer model and I each got a free pint (I think the deal there is a free pint with an entree ... which is a pretty good deal).  Lunch was nice.  My Hop Strike Black Rye IPA was excellent.  Tracy liked her Jack Whacker Wheat Ale as well.

As always, if you are reading this on facebook, it really looks nicer on my blog:  http://blog.ericshepard.com/2010/12/sheppybrewcom.html.

Bluefield Experiment Part I

I home-brew my own beer. I like brewing. You might say I am a bit obsessed with brewing. If you have been following this blog for awhile, you probably know that my sister is to blame for this obsession, as she is the one who bought me my first beer kit. Actually, if you have been reading my blog regularly, chances are you are my sister. Hi Tera.

Ironically, my sister does not like beer. Sad, I know. The one time she tried one of my beers, she made a horrible disgusted face that still hurts me when I think about it. Often, I see that look in my nightmares. But, I really can not take it personally. At least I know that she's very unlikely to ask me if I can brew something that tastes like Coors Light.

Recently, she asked me to brew a no-calorie dark chocolate non-beer tasting beer, so that if she tastes it, she doesn't say "yuck, that tastes like beer". She has nagged me a bit after the initial request. Obviously, I cannot brew a no-calorie beer. I cannot make a non-beer tasting beer, but I can make one that doesn't taste like any beer she has ever tasted. I can certainly make it dark and I can add chocolate to it. I do not think she would like this type of beer, and since she is at the Sheppy Brew nano-brewery so seldom, chances are she'll never get a chance to taste it anyway.

But, part of the spirit of home-brewing is experimenting with different ingredients to make unique flavors. And this could be an exciting unique beer to play with.

I started my recipe based on Jamil's Chocolate Hazelnut Porter from his Brewing Classic Styles. I converted it to a Mr. Beer sized batch and added in some lactose to give it more sweetness. I increased the cocoa powder and reduced the hops. You can see the recipe at the Sheppy Brew website.

This past weekend, I bought some unsweetened Hershey cocoa powder and then stopped by the liquor store for some Tommyknocker brewery Cocoa Porter Winter Warmer to get me in the mood for this great experiment.

Weekend purchases

Today, I headed to the Brew Hut  for the rest of the ingredients. Brew day will probably be Sunday.  Hmmm... I just realized that I need to get propane sometime.

I expect this will be a recipe that I have to tweak several times.  I might even tweak it a few times before my sister even gets a chance to taste it.  Who knows ... I might get sick of brewing this before she ever gets a chance to try one.  Unfortunately, I do not know what she means by "beer taste".  There are so many different styles of beer that can taste so radically different that I am not sure I know what I mean when I say a "beer should taste like beer".  I do know that her definition of what would taste good in a beer is radically different than mine.  My buddy Charlie has said that when people tell him that they don't like beer, he doesn't believe them.  He strongly believes that if you try hard enough that eventually a beer can be found for every taste.  My sister is probably the exception to the rule.  Maybe if the Great Bluefield Chocolate Experiment fails, I need to give Charlie a call and have him work on finding a beer for my sister.


I'll be posting results.  Hope you are looking forward to seeing them.