SheppyBrew 2022 Year End Brewing Stats

So ... as I'm typing this, we still have over a week left in 2022, but I won't be brewing again this year, so I can actually report on my 2022 Brewing Stats.

I did brew quite a bit of beer in 2022, but I am on a steep downward trend after an absolute ridiculous amount of brewing in 2020 and considerably less, but still a huge amount in 2021.

I brewed over 160 gallons in 2020, and over 140 in 2021.

In 2022, I only brewed 122 gallons of beer. Even with this downward trend, 2022 was my 3rd highest brewing volume ever. I blame covid.

This 4th Quarter, I only brewed 5 times for 26 gallons. Practically a reasonable amount.

• Mr. Awesome Merican Lager
• Will-o-Wisp Autumn Ale (no pumpkin)
• Wien Zerschlagen (Vienna SMASH)
• Dudocs Red IPA
• X-Mas Ale 2022

Mr. Awesome (and Jethro Bud)

A Blonde, two Redheads, and a Brunette

For Christmas,  the Beer Model's parents were in town. While watching football, I got her dad a flight of SheppyBrew beers. 

While getting the beers, the beers I had on tap reminded me of the post I made a long time ago ... A Brunette, a Read Head, and a Blonde. 

I told him his flight was One Blonde. Two Read Heads. One Brunette.

Mr. Awesome Merican Lager was the blonde. Wien Zerschlagen and Dudocs Red IPA were the Reds. X-Mas Ale 2022 was the Brunette.

2022 Thanksgiving Turkey

Since 2018, it has been my job to make the Thanksgiving turkeys.

I smoke them outside, which is delicious and also frees up the oven to help the wife planning various sides.

Plus, it's fun for me to do.

Win. Win. Win.

This year, of course, I did it again. My wife got me one of the supermarket frozen turkeys that are always on sale, and I started thawing it out the weekend before Thanksgiving.

Wednesday, I unwrapped the bird and put it in a beer brine made with salt, pepper, brown sugar, and my some extra Dudoc's Red IPA that I had in a growler.

2022 Learn to Homebrew Day

This past Saturday was the AHA's Learn to Homebrew day.

You might remember this from previous years, but my homebrewing friends "Doc" and "Du" and I try to get together a few times a year to brew together.

Learn to Homebrew Day and Big Brew Day are always great excuses to get together.

The AHA always posts a recipe for these national brewing days. The one they posted for Saturday was LTHD22 Hoppy Amber Ale.

While I don't ever actually use the AHA's recipes, their Hoppy Amber Ale, inspired me to come up with a recipe for a Hoppy Red Ale (aka Red IPA). 

Back in the day, I was a great fan of this style. Remember such classic beers as Quarter Life Crisis and Pompously Illegitimate Red Ale.

SheppyBrew 2021 Year-End Brewing Stats

As I type this, 2021 is almost over. I'm not brewing again before 2022, so I can report on my brewing stats for the 4th quarter and for year end.

I brewed quite a bit of beer in 2021. Not nearly as much as 2020, but significantly more than any other year in my brewing "career".

In the 4th quarter this year, I only brewed 5 batches of beer.

• Mr. Awesome Merican Lager
• Caliente Fuerte Mexican Stout
• Dudocs Dark Mild
• X-Mas Ale 2021
• Decemberfest Lager

Mr. Awesome Merican Lager

Learn to Homebrew Day: Dudocs English Mild (301)

This past Saturday was the AHA's Learn to Homebrew Day.

This year, my friend "Doc" decided he wanted to host a brew day, so I packed up my equipment and traveled to his brewery.

The recipe that I designed for this brew day, was Dudocs English Mild.

It is a pretty simple English Mild recipe fermented with Lallemand Voss Kveik Ale Yeast.

It should be an easy drinking flavorful dark, malty session beer. I'm looking forward to trying it out.

As usual, I started the mash at home and let the amylase enzyme do their thing while I was driving.

This way, when I got to Doc's I just had to drain the wort into the kettle and start heating to boil.

2020 Q1 SheppyBrew Stats

I know it is difficult to believe ... but the first quarter of 2020 is done.

Wow.

As you may know, the Brewery likes to post quarterly updates on how much we have brewed. You can see all these updates (including the one you are reading right now) by following this link: Sheppy's Blog: Brew Stats.

Arctic Vortex Winter Saison

The SheppyBrew Brewery had a huge Q1, brewing 7 batches and a whopping 35 gallons. I'm almost positive that this is the most volume of beer I've ever brewed in in a quarter. I'm on pace to brew 140 gallons of beer in 2020!

Dudocs Best Bitter (Batch 251)

It had been quite awhile since I brewed with my homebrewing buddies Du and Doc. Learn to Homebrew Day was the last time we had gotten together.

We made a plan to meet at Doc's house prior to all of Colorado's closings, and with all the covid-19 things going on, we considered cancelling.

But, none of us were feeling sick. We'd all been fairly separated from the world for awhile. We were planning on gathering in a group less than 10.

We decided to still go for our brew day.

And this happened Saturday.

Like last time we got together, I decided to go with a fairly simple extract recipe rather than doing a full all-grain batch.

It means I don't have to bring as much equipment and it means I don't have to pay quite as close attention while Doc's homebrew is distracting me. Plus, cleanup is quicker and simpler.

It just makes sense when I'm brewing away from my home brewery.

The recipe I came up with is

Dudocs Best Bitter