La Chouffe vs Yoker Belgian Tripel

So ... for Christmas, my wife (aka the SheppyBrew Beer Model) got me a "Chouffe Discovery Pack".

Chouffe, of course is a world-famous Belgian brewery. If I were to visit Belgium someday, it would certainly be on my list to visit.

As luck would have it, I have a SheppyBrew "Belgian Triple" on tap, "Yoker". While brewing Whisper of the Tengu Rice Lager (Batch 388), I decided to try La Chouffe Belgian Blond Beer and Yoker Belgian Tripel together.

Yoker is significantly lighter in color and much more clear. It is also drier and (in my opinion) more "drinkable".

Over the Top Chili and Poppers

So ... on Super Bowl Sunday, after my famous Super Sunday Fun Run B-Race I made some food for us to eat while watching the game.

Of course, you know I had to make it outside on one (or more) of my grills.

It's become a tradition that I make Bacon Wrapped Jalapeño Poppers, and of course my wife (aka the SheppyBrew Beer Model) demanded that I do it again.

So, that was a no-brainer. Happy Wife. Happy Life. (nothing rhymes with husband)

Lately, I've seen various posts on online BBQ forums of people doing "Over the Top" Chili.

And ... until this recent trend, I had never heard of such a thing.

But, it is pretty simple, and I thought I'd give that a try as well.

"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

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. 

Yoker Belgian Tripel (Batch 385)

As I mentioned in Learning to Homebrew: 2025 X-Mas Ale (Batch 384), I was hoping to get together with at least one of my homebrewing buddies coming up soon.

It turns out that this past weekend, we were able to do this.

The SheppyBrew Beer Model and I packed up our brewing equipment Saturday and headed over to Doc's Brewery for a brew day.

Getting started at Doc's Brewery starts even later than when I brew at home with the Beer Model, but Saturday I still got up fairly early to get things ready for the Travel Brewing.

I put a Chuck Roast on the weber kettle to smoke for a few hours so that I could leave it in the crock pot most of the day.

That way we'd have dinner ready when we got home.

Yoker Belgian Tripel

Style: Belgian Tripel
Brewer: SheppyBrew
ABV: 8.5%
IBU: 24
SRM: 5 (golden brilliance)

Appearance 👀

Pours radiant gold with a creamy white head that rises like a crown and lingers like a stat line. The body is crystal clear, shimmering with hints of straw and sunlight. Tiny bubbles race upward like fast breaks, promising energy and finesse.

Aroma 👃

Aromas of pear, white pepper, and clove swirl with subtle floral hops and a whisper of honeyed malt. The yeast esters are expressive—spicy, fruity, and regal. It smells like a monastery garden in spring… or a locker room after a win.

Roll-a-Style 16: 26C. Belgian Tripel

Well ... if you follow this blog at all, you are familiar with my BJCP Goal and Roll-a-Style list.

Of course, the idea is that I have a list of beer styles that I've never brewed. I roll a virtual 20-sided online die, and brew the style that corresponds with the number that comes up.

Originally, I had 20 beers on the list and several on "the bench". I've reduced the list so that I'm still rolling a 20-sided die, but not all the numbers have a style assigned to them. In fact, soon I'll be rolling a 12 sided die.

You also likely know that quite often I know what I want to brew next and "pretend" to roll that die to correspond with the style I want to brew next.

Part of the reason I recently picked Tafel Mystère Belgian Single (Batch 383) to brew was to build up some Belgian yeast so that I could get to a style I've had on the list since the debut of the list.

So ... I pretended to roll a 16