2023 Q2 Brewing Stats

As I type this, there are still a few days left in Q2 of 2023, but I am not going to brew again this month, so I can actually get my SheppyBrew Brewing Stats for the quarter in.

You may remember that Q1 was a busy brewing quarter, and this quarter was basically just as busy.

I keep saying I'll slow down to get a more reasonable total in 2023, but so far I have not managed to slow down very much at all.

My excuse this quarter was that my youngest son graduated high school and I needed beer for various family members to consume for our celebrations.

Regardless of the reason, I brewed another 6 batches of beer in Q2, matching my Q1 total and bring my total for the year up to 12 batches of beer.

Melting Stream Spring Saison brew day

Captain Serious vs Westbound & Down Italian Pilsner

Right now, my favorite SheppyBrew Beer on tap is Captain Serious Pilsner.

I don't have very much left because one of my favorite brother-in-laws (I have like a hundred of them) ... visited a couple weekends ago. It was also his favorite of my beers on tap, and he drank a lot of it.

I don't know if I've shared this, but Captain Serious Pilsner (Batch 333) was (at least partially) inspired by W is for Westbound & Down's Italian Pilsner.

In W is for Westbound & Down (Denver), I did share that this Italian Pilsner was one of my favorite commercial beers right now.

I had a few cans of the Westbound & Down's Italian Pilsner in my fridge when he was visiting.

I brought it out and told him Captain Serious had been inspired by Westbound & Down's Italian Pilsner. We both had a pint of Captain Serious and shared a pint of Westbound & Down's Italian Pilsner.

Mac and Cheese on the Kettle

My youngest son graduated from High School this past weekend.

This makes me feel old. Where did all the years go? As they say ... "The days are long. The years are short".

Anyway ... with my oldest son visiting to celebrate his little brother, I made my world-famous comfort food ...

Smoked Mac and Cheese.

I made it a little different than I ever had before. Usually, I use either bacon or sausage as the meat. This time I used both.

And ... the bacon was just laying on the top of the dish as opposed to having it mixed into the noodles and cheese mixture.

Captain Serious Pressure Transfer

Well ... I've finally gotten a pressure transfer to work.

It happened slower than I would have liked, and I still wish there was a way to know where the level of the beer in the keg was, but at least I got Captain Serious Pilsner into the keg from a pressurized fermenter.

So, I pressure fermented Captain Serious Pilsner (Batch 333).

Four days into the fermentation, I dry hopped the beer by pulling sous vide magnets that were attached to hop bags in the fermenter.

That worked really slick.

Captain Serious Pilsner (Batch 333)

As you probably know if you follow this blog at all, the Chicago Blackhawks are my favorite professional sports team.

And ... my favorite recent player has to be Captain Jonathan Toews (Captain Serious)

The Blackhawks really have not been a good team for several years now, and Toews has had health issues.

This past year, the team decided that Jonny would not be coming back to the team as they are concentrating on bringing on young (cheap) players to go all-in on their rebuilding process.

While, I don't disagree with the decision, the separation makes me sad. 

But, in honor of "Captain Serious" I decided to brew a beer named after him.

Captain Serious Pilsner