2025 Q2 SheppyBrew Stats

It's July, which means that we've made it through the second quarter of 2025. It is time to "report" on the 2025 Q2 SheppyBrew Stats.

Q1 was pretty busy, and I was on track for 120 gallons of beer in 2025.

Q2, on the other hand wasn't nearly as busy. I only brewed 4 batches of beer totaling 20 gallons, putting my projected 2025 volume right at 100 gallons.

The Q2 batches were:

• Melting Stream Spring Saison
• Halfway to Helles Leichtbier
• Summer Lovin' American Wheat
• Gob Stopper Grape Ale

At the time that I'm typing this, I have Melting Stream, Halfway to Helles, and Summer Lovin' on tap. Gob Stopper is fermenting.

Melting Stream Spring Saison

  

Big Brew Day ... Halfway to Helles (Batch 375)

It was the American Homebrew Association's annual Big Brew Day this past Saturday.

If you follow along on this blog, you may remember that Big Brew Day is quite often a day that the Beer Model and I brew with one or more our homebrewing friends "Du" and "Doc".

But, "Du" recently moved out of state and "Doc" was busy doing something else this year. So, the Beer Model and I did a brew day all by ourselves.

I had a Pork Butt thawed, and we decided to make a feast even though it was just the two of us.

If you are a regular on this blog, and were paying attention to the Roll-a-Style posts, you might actually have a guess as to which beer recipe we brewed:

Halfway to Helles Leichtbier

2025 Melting Stream Spring Saison (Batch 374)

Here it is mid-April already. Seems we just started Lent ... and now it is almost Easter.

The year is speeding by faster and faster.

Spring has sprung, which in Colorado means we get a few days of hot sunny weather followed by snow.

Lots of melting water. Mountain streams start to rush ...

I have not made a secret of the fact that I'm skipping (most of) the Seasonal beers this year so that I could concentrate on the Roll-a-Style List in order to make progress on my BJCP Goal.

However there was at least one Seasonal I actually wanted to make sure I brewed. The "April" Seasonal.

Melting Stream Spring Saison 

2024 Seasonals

Early in 2022, I spent some time identifying "SheppyBrew Seasonals". I tied a specific SheppyBrew beer to every month in the year.

For whatever reason, after the year was done I shared 2022 Seasonals I had brewed during the year. I had brewed all but 3 of the "Seasonals".

I reported on the 2023 Seasonals as well, missing 4 months. Now that I've established the pattern, I feel like I have to share my brewed "Seasonals" for 2024.

I actually made it a brewing goal in 2024 to brew all my "SheppyBrew Seasonals". Around July or August, I got tired of the idea, but I had hit all the months so far, so I forced myself to finish them up.

2024 Mardi Bock

2024 Q2 SheppyBrew Stats

It is already July, which means the 2nd Quarter of 2024 is done. We can report on the Q2 SheppyBrew Brewing Stats. 

When it comes right down to it, I'm sure no one besides myself really cares, but I like to look back on these posts to see how much I've brewed and what I was planning on brewing at certain points of the year.

As I've been saying, I expect that I'll brew less beer this year than I have for the past several years, and so far it does look like I'm tracking for a lower volume than 2023.

In this quarter, I've brewed 5 batches of beer:

• Melting Stream Spring Saison 
• Helles in a Hand Bock-sket 
• Clan DunBroch Scottish Ale 
• Summer Lovin' American Wheat 
• Nargles American Porter 

This 5 batches of beer resulted in 25 gallons, putting me right at a total of 50 gallons half way through the year.

Melting Stream Spring Saison

Once upon a time in the picturesque Front Range of Colorado, there was a brewer named Sheppy who had a passion for crafting unique and flavorful beers. As the snow began to melt and the streams swelled with the promise of spring, Sheppy was inspired to create a Saison that captured the essence of the season.

He called it the “Melting Stream Spring Saison,” a beer that was as refreshing as the cool, clear waters rushing down from the snow-capped peaks. The Saison had a light, golden hue like the morning sun reflecting off the melting snow, and a taste that was crisp and lively, with hints of citrus and spice.

2024 Melting Stream Spring Saison (Batch 354)

Colorado Spring Time means we get snow, then it gets warm out and melts the snow.

It snows again.

It melts again.

Repeats again and again and again. This cycle is one of the reasons I love living here.

Mountain streams are full and fast rushing this time of year thanks to all the melting snow.

It being Spring also means it is time to brew my Spring time Seasonal Saison.

Sunday, I brewed ...

Melting Stream Spring Saison

2023 Seasonals

So ... a couple of years ago, I spent some time identifying "SheppyBrew Seasonals".

I didn't really pay much attention to "Seasonals" in 2023, but a couple weeks ago, looking through my blog, I came across 2022 SheppyBrew Seasonals. That made me want to check out which of these seasonals I did brew in the past year.

I figured that I had not done nearly as many as I had in 2022, but as it turned out ... I was actually pretty close.

The fact that I always brew the Seasonal Saisons every year gives me a little of a head-start.

Arctic Vortex 

 

SheppyBrew's Most Brewed Beers

Last week (from when I am typing this ... not when it was posted), there were technical issues with SheppyBrew.com where the web server could not connect to it's database.

I was a bit annoyed that my hosting company needed me to point out the problem, and that it took them several hours to fix it after I pointed it out.

But, in the grand scheme of things ... it's a first world problem.

For some reason ... once the issue was fixed, and I was looking through the database I decided to figure out what beers I've brewed the most.

I went down a rabbit-hole of sql queries and since I had gone through that effort ... I thought I might as well share what I found.

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

2023 Melting Stream Spring Saison (Batch 332)

It is springtime here in the front range of the Rocky Mountains.

Here, that means it gets warm, melting snow ... followed by getting cold and making more snow.

Followed by warm weather snow melts. Followed by cold and snow.

Repeat.

My Spring Seasonal Saison is called "Melting Stream", which is what jumps out to me as the image I most associate with Colorado spring time.

Yesterday, I brewed this beer. Interestingly enough, I also made Spare Ribs.

I didn't plan this, but apparently I made spare ribs when I brewed my 2021 Melting Stream and my 2022 Melting Stream.

Well ... ok ... maybe it isn't THAT interesting, but I thought it was sort of note worthy.

Melting Stream Spring Saison

2022 SheppyBrew Seasonals

Earlier in the year, I published a blog post in which I talked about beers that could be considered  SheppyBrew Seasonals, attaching them to each month of the year.

As I was working my way through brewing over the year, I kept this list in mind. I didn't hit every month, but I brewed most of the beers close to their month this year.

Spare Ribs

Just yesterday, I posted that the previous Sunday I had brewed my 2022 Melting Stream Spring Saison (Batch 309).

Later that day, I smoked a rack of Spare Ribs on my Weber Kettle.

At some point between the time I wrote that post and now, I was looking at Sheppy's Blog: Melting Stream, and noticed the title of blog post last time I brewed Melting Stream ...

Melting Stream and Spare Ribs.

I thought it was a cool coincidence that I smoked ribs last time I brewed this recipe.

I guess it isn't that amazing. I brew the Spring Saison every year, and I almost always smoke something on Brew Days.

I just thought it cool and I thought I'd share. So, that is what I'm doing now. Here are some pictures of my ribs:

2022 Melting Stream Spring Saison (Batch 309)

Spring has sprung here in the Front Range of Colorado.

Here ... that means a few nice sunny days in the 50's, 60's, or 70's followed by a couple cold snowy (or rainy) days followed by more sunny warm weather.

Because of this spring cycle ... melting snow from the mountains makes its way into streams. Rivers flow down into the high plains by Denver and to the East.

I love the image of the melting snow filling up the streams during this time of year.

This is what inspired the name for the SheppyBrew Spring Seasonal Saison ...

Melting Stream Spring Saison

Last weekend, I brewed it again. I've been brewing these Seasonal Saisons since 2014, and this is the 8th time I brewed Melting Stream.

SheppyBrew Seasonals

While out for a walk earlier in the week, I was thinking about homebrewing (surprise surprise).

One of the things that popped into my mind was beers that I always brew about the same time of year.

I was wondering if I had seasonal beers for every month of the year.

An obvious example is my Seasonal Saison series of beers. January is almost always when I brew Arctic Vortex Winter Saison. I usually brew Melting Stream Spring Saison in March or April, Hail Storm Summer Saison in June or July, and Falling Leaves Autumn Saison in September or October.

May is easy. The tag line for Helles in a Hand Bock-sket is "Will Drink in May". 

Will-o'-Wisp Pumpkin Ale makes the most sense for October.

Decemberfest Lager has "December" right in the name. 

2021 Q1 SheppyBrew Stats

Q1 of 2021 is already over, which means its time to report our brewing stats for the year so far.

Continuing on the trend from last year, I brewed a ridiculous amount of beer over the first 3 months of the year.

The first quarter of 2020, I brewed 7 whole batches with 35 gallons. In 2021, I brewed even more in Q1 ... 

I brewed 8 batches and 42 gallons of beer.

Arctic Vortex Winter Saison

Melting Stream and Spare Ribs

In February of 2014, I brewed Arctic Vortex Winter Saison for the first time.

Since that day, I've been brewing at least one saison for every season.

I call these series of beers, my Seasonal Saisons.

Summer. Autumn. Winter. Spring. 

They all use French Saison yeast except the rare occurrence that my LHBS is out of stock and I have to substitute some other yeast. 

They are all dry with simple malt bills. They are all fairly hoppy and use mostly noble hops.

None of them use spices or other flavor additives other than malt / water / hops / yeast.

They range in color from very light (summer) to very dark (winter).

Obviously, I find these beers delicious (otherwise I would stop brewing them).

As this past weekend was the beginning of Spring 2021, it was time to brew my Spring Saison ....

Melting Stream Spring Saison

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!

2020 Melting Stream Spring Saison (Batch 252)

It is Spring here in the Front Range of Colorado.

This means fairly nice warm weather followed immediately by beautiful snow falls followed by sunny melting warmth.

This might be my favorite time of the year.

It also means that it is time to brew Sheppy Brew's spring version of the Seasonal Saisons.

Melting Stream Spring Saison

Melting Stream is the lightest in color of my Seasonal Saisons and uses slightly different hops than the traditional noble hops that the rest of them use.

It is nice and dry letting the Lemon Drop hops shine through. A beautiful spring saison. Wonderful to drink both on those snowy and Sunny March and April days.

3 Saisons

If you follow this blog, you've probably picked up that generally, I brew 4 saisons a year Winter / Spring / Summer / and Autumn. I call these my Seasonal Saisons.

It is rare that I have more than one saison on tap at the same time. I usually finish drinking the previous season's saison before brewing the next one.

However, this year I decided to add a 5th Season. 

At the beginning of April, my 2019 Melting Stream Spring Saison was ready to drink. 

I still had a little of my Arctic Vortex Winter Saison left, and I had plenty of the 5th Season Blood Orange Saison too. 

3 Saisons at once!