"Dry January" Beers

I don't really believe in "Dry January" in the same way I don't really believe in New Year resolutions.

I don't understand why if you want to make a change on yourself you would wait until January. If you want to make a change, do it when you identify the change you want to make.

 

SheppyBrew 2025 Year End Brewing Stats

Here it is, 2026 already. It is crazy how fast the year flew by.

If you follow along on this blog at all, you probably know that after each quarter, I "report" my SheppyBrew Brewing Stats.

And, now it is time for me to report on the SheppyBrew 2025 Year End Brewing Stats.

So ... in the 4th quarter of 2025, I brewed 5 batches of beer:

• Gnomeberry Hollow Cherry Porter
• Tafel Mystère Belgian Single
• X-Mas Ale 2025
• Yoker Belgian Tripel 
• Skadoosh Blond Ale

This puts me exactly where I was last year. I brewed 19 batches of beer for 95 gallons for the year. Another year at less than 100 gallons of beer.

Gnomeberry Hollow Cherry Porter

X-Mas Ham

When I asked my kids what they wanted for Christmas dinner this year, my eldest said "ham".

While ham is not my favorite holiday food, I aim to please, so I went ahead and decided to do my "typical" Double Smoked Ham.

My wife got the standard spiral cut ham, around 10lbs.

On Christmas morning I made a glaze / sauce with a coke base and various spices. 

I also made a brown-sugar based "rub".

I placed the ham in a cooking pan, and then poured about half the glaze over the ham, and sprinkled the rub over it.

12 Beers Of Christmas

Way back in 2020, I did a little blog series ... The 25 Beers of December. For the first 25 days of December that year, I drank and took a picture of a different beer. It was sort of an Advent calendar of beers.

For some reason ... my little 12 5k's of December made me think about this little project. I didn't think of it soon enough to do exactly the same thing, but I thought a "12 Beers Of Christmas" might be sort of fun.

On Sunday, December 14, I pulled a pint of Wrexham Lager out of my beer fridge. This is apparently a 140 year old recipe, brewed in 1882 when two German immigrants set forth to brew in the UK. It is nicely session able at 4.0% ABV. Crisp, clean, and "iconic". Subtly hopped, light and refreshing.

Wrexham Lager

X‑Mas Ale 2025

Style: English Barleywine
Brewer: SheppyBrew
ABV: 8.0%
IBU: 36
SRM: 14 (deep amber)

Appearance 👀

Pours a glowing copper‑amber with ruby highlights at the edges. A modest off‑white head forms, then quickly settles into a thin lace that clings to the glass. The body is clear yet rich, catching the light like stained glass in a winter chapel.

Aroma 👃

Sweet malt dominates—caramel, toffee, and biscuit—with undertones of dried fruit (fig, raisin, plum). A gentle waft of English hops adds earthy spice and a touch of floral character. There’s a warming alcohol note, subtle but inviting, like brandy by the fire.

2025 Update on the BJCP Goal

If you follow this blog, you know I've renewed my old BJCP Goal.

My original BJCP Goal was to make sure I've brewed beers in every category of the BJCP Style Guidelines. I've now covered all the categories, and have decided to work through all the styles (although there are some I will probably skip).

I even came up with a "Roll-a-Style" concept to give me help deciding which style to brew.

At the end of 2023, I posted 2023 Update on the 2021 BJCP Goal and last year, I posted 2024 Update on the 2021 BJCP Goal.

And, now I decided I'm not going to brew any more new styles in 2025, so I'm doing another similar post for 2025. (Can you believe 2025 is almost over? I can't)

At the beginning of 2025, I planned on hitting the Roll-a-Style list harder. My unofficial goal was to reduce the list enough that I'll be rolling a 12 sided die by the end of the year (as opposed to the 20 sided die I had been rolling).

My Roll-a-Style list has 13 beer styles on it, so I could probably switch to a 12-sided die. I suspect I'll end up picking my next one instead of rolling. Then, I'll switch the list to 12. 

I actually don't think I'll do as many of these Roll-a-Style beers in 2026.

Keep an eye on Sheppy's Blog: Roll-a-Style, and you'll be able to continue to follow along how I'm doing. 

2025 Thanksgiving Turkey

This past Thursday was Thanksgiving.

Since 2018 (Cherry Wood Smoked Thanksgiving Turkey), I've been the one in charge of cooking / smoking / grilling the turkeys at the SheppyBrew house.

It's fun for me, and it frees up the oven for the various sides my wife generally makes.

And, I think smoked turkey tastes better than it would if we cooked it in the oven.

Over the years, I've tried several techniques for actually cooking the turkey.

I've smoked a few roasted whole. I've done spatchcocked. I've halved the bird and last year, I quartered the bird.

My plan this year was to repeat the Quartered bird like I did with the 2024 Thanksgiving Turkey. However, for whatever reason, this bird was just being difficult when I was cutting it.

I ended up just deciding to try the spatchcock method again.

2025 Thanksgiving Beers

Thanksgiving is here! Merry Thanksgiving from SheppyBrew Brewery.

In lots of ways, it honestly feel like 2025 just began and now it's getting close to being over.

Here at the SheppyBrew Home Brewery, we have a pretty decent lineup of beers available for the Thanksgiving holiday.

Learning to Homebrew: 2025 X-Mas Ale (Batch 384)

Saturday was Learn to Homebrew Day. Originally I thought maybe I'd be brewing with one or more of my homebrewing buddies, but Doc was busy and Du has moved away ... so it was just me and the SheppyBrew Beer Model this year.

Doc and I might get together in a couple weeks, but we'll see.

You may remember from Roll-a-Style 20: 17D. English Barley Wine (X-Mas Ale 2025) that this year's X-Mas Ale is a little different than the usual Winter Warmer that I generally brew.

This year, I'm marking 17D. English Barley Wine off my Roll-a-Style list, and since a Barley Wine is a bigger beer than I usually brew, I decided to pitch right onto the yeast cake of Gnomeberry Hollow Cherry Porter (Batch 382).

This meant, I had to keg Gnomeberry Hollow before getting started on Saturday. 

Roll-a-Style 20: 17D. English Barley Wine (X-Mas Ale 2025)

Every year since I started homebrewing (way back in 2009), I've brewed an X-Mas Ale to have around the holidays.

The base beer was always a very similar "Winter Warmer", and I'd add various ingredients to make it more of a "Holiday" Beer.

Over the years, I added wood spirals, vanilla, cherry pomegranate, chocolate, peppermint, peanut butter, hazelnut, cherry, and many other flavorings.

But, if you follow this blog at all, you probably have read that I want to concentrate more on my BJCP Goal this year, and when I was thinking about brewing my 2025 X-Mas Ale, I wanted to pick a style on my Roll-a-Style list.

Looking through the list, I decided that the closest to my "traditional" X-Mas Ale recipe was 17D. English Barley Wine.

So, I pretended to roll a 20 on my 20-sided online die.

 

SheppyBrew 2024 Year End Brewing Stats

Well ... as I'm typing this, I'm not 100% sure I'm done brewing in 2024, but I think I am.

So ... I'll go ahead and type up the draft of my 2024 Brewing Stats. And when you're reading this, you probably won't know if I ended up brewing again or not because it will no longer be a draft and I will have updated based on the (potentially) last brew of the year.

Anyway ... in the 4th quarter of 2024, I brewed 5 batches of beer:

• Will-o'-Wisp Autumn Ale (no pumpkin)
• Pack o' Hooligans Stout
• X-Mas Ale 2024
• Decemberfest Lager
• Tafel Mystère Belgium Single

This puts me at 19 batches of beer for 95 gallons. This is the least amount I've brewed since 2018, which was the last time I brewed less than 100 gallons for a year.

Will-o'-Wisp Autumn Ale (no pumpkin)

2024 Update on the 2021 BJCP Goal

If you follow this blog, you know I've renewed my old BJCP Goal.

Through a series of blog posts, I've discovered / acknowledged that I had not brewed whole categories in the 2021 Style Guidelines (see BJCP 2021 Style Guidelines, I lied, and 2021 BCJP Styles to Brew).

Since then, I've covered all the categories (or at least I'm pretty sure I have now) ... 

And .... at some point, I decided to not only try to get every category covered, but work through all the styles (at least the ones that I'm interested in drinking)

I even came up with a "Roll-a-Style" concept to give me help deciding which style to brew.

At the end of last year, I posted 2023 Update on the 2021 BJCP Goal. I thought I'd post another update at the end of 2024. 

Here is that post ...

In 2024, I've only reduced my Roll-a-Style list by 5 beer styles. Instead, I concentrated on 2024 Seasonals.

In 2025, I'm planning on hitting the Roll-a-Style list harder. My unofficial goal is to reduce the list enough that I'll be rolling a 12 sided die by the end of the year (as opposed to the 20 sided die I've been rolling).

Keep an eye on Sheppy's Blog: Roll-a-Style, and you'll be able to follow along how I'm doing. 

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

Tafel Mystère Belgian Single (Batch 367)

Well ... I was sort of planning on brewing on Sunday the 8th. I even had a yeast starter ready to go.

When it came right down to it, I just didn't feel like brewing.

So, I saved the the starter for this past weekend.

My original plan was to brew Sunday morning after an overnight mash, but on Saturday after a morning bike ride and then a pickleball "match" with my wife ... it didn't seem like I had much else going on until that evening when we had tickets for the big DU vs CC "Gold Pan" Hockey match.

I decided to start up the Foundry. This was my 83th batch of beer I've brewed on it. 

Tafel Mystère Belgian Single

Christmas vs X-Mas Ales

Sunday, I posted SheppyBrew vs Breckenridge Autumn Ales where I compared Breckenridge Autumn Ale with my Will-o'-Wisp Autumn Ale (no pumpkin).

Of course, I also have my X-Mas Ale 2024 on tap, and it just so happens that I also have some bottles of Breckenridge Christmas Ale.

Breckenridge Christmas Ale actually inspired my traditional base beer recipe of my X-Mas Ales.

"The chill of winter calls for a beer with extra flavor and strength! An abundance of carefully roasted malts create notes of caramel and chocolate, while Chinook and Mt. Hood hops contribute a spicy quality for balance and a clean finish."

2024 Thanksgiving Turkey

Since 2018, which was the year I started becoming obsessed with BBQ, I've been in charge of smoking the Thanksgiving turkey outside.

It's fun for me, and it frees up the oven for the various sides my wife generally makes.

And, I think smoked turkey tastes better than it would if we cooked it in the oven.

Over the years, I've tried different ways to cook the turkey, and this year I actually tried something new.

Last year, I spatchcocked, and halved the bird, which is how I generally cook my whole chickens now.

This year, I came across a youtube video where the author "quartered" the bird. I decided to do the same thing on my cook this year.

 

2024 Learn to Homebrew Day

If you read Roll-a-Style 14 ... 16A. Sweet Stout, you know that Learn to Homebrew Day was the first Saturday in November.

I had plans to get together for a brew day with my buddies Du and Doc.

My turn to host has been overdue, and the Beer Model and I decided that we would go ahead and have Learn to Homebrew Day at our "brewery".

We also invited some non-brewers over to "Learn" on Learn to Homebrew Day. These people were also available to help us eat BBQ and drink beer.

I was a little more ambitious than I probably should have been, planning to brew two batches of beer, smoke a pork butt, and make some chicken wings.

Roll-a-Style 18: 17A. British Strong Ale

Every year since I started homebrewing (way back in 2009), I've brewed an X-Mas Ale to have around the holidays.

The base beer was always a very similar "Winter Warmer", and I'd add various ingredients to make it more of a "Holiday" Beer.

Over the years, I added wood spirals, vanilla, cherry pomegranate, chocolate, peppermint, peanut butter, hazelnut, cherry, and many other flavorings.

Some years, I brewed the base beer without the "festive" flavorings.

When I started thinking about the 2024 X-Mas Ale, I had been doing the Roll-a-Style series of brews for over a year.

17A. British Strong Ale had been sitting on the list for quite some time, and at some point I wondered if I should just mark off that as a style that I had already brewed as one of my base-beer-only X-Mas Ales.

But ... I decided that this style wasn't exactly what I was brewing on the base beers.

I decided, though, that I would switch up the base a bit to make it match the "British Strong" a little closer, and make this new recipe the 2024 X-Mas ale.

I pretended to roll an "18" ...

 

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 2023 Year End Brewing Stats

So ... as I'm typing this, we still have a couple of weeks left in 2023, but I won't be brewing again this year, so I can actually report on my 2023 Brewing Stats.

Last year, I mentioned that I was on a downward trend on my brewing totals since the ridiculous amount I brewed in 2020.

All year, I've been saying that this year will continue that downward trend, despite evidence to the contrary every quarter so far this year.

But, with a slightly lower brew total in the 4th quarter, I did end up lower than 2020, 2021, and 2022.

In the 4th quarter, I brewed 5 batches of beer for 25 gallons:

• Falling Leaves Autumn Saison
• Humdinger of a Hootenanny
• Golly Jeepers Wild Mango Ale
• X-Mas Ale 2023
• Decemberfest Lager

4 beers including Falling Leaves and Humdinger