2026 Fathers' Day Camping at Turquois Lake

This past Sunday was Father's Day, and my wife and kids took me camping.

For quite awhile, our family tradition has been to go camping on Father's Day weekend.

On this blog, you can go all the way back to 2011 Father's Day Weekend to see photos of us camping.

Back then, the kids were pretty small. They are not small anymore. In fact, this year all four of us were drinking alcohol beverages around the camp fire.

I'm not sure how much longer this tradition will continue, but I was lucky enough to have it go at least this year.

This year, like a couple of previous years, we camped just West of Leadville close to Turquois Lake.

A to Z Denver Breweries Round 6

The SheppyBrew Beer Model and I are done with Round 6 of our A to Z Denver Breweries series of posts.

Hurray for us! 

In late 2024, we started off this round with A is for Arms, Call To Brewing Company (sadly now closed)

We recently just finished with Z is for MestiZo Brew Cantina.

In this round, we had to take way more "Artistic License" to slot breweries into letters than I like, and (obviously) a Round 7 would be even worse.

For most of the round, I thought the A to Z Series would now be complete. The Beer Model and I would need a new way to pick new breweries. 

However, the Colorado Brewery Map & List does still have lots of Denver-area breweries, and we probably could come up with some brewery for most letters. We'd have to come up with what to do if we cannot find anything that works for a particular letter. Let me know if you have ideas.

A to Z Denver Breweries Round 5

The SheppyBrew Beer Model and I are done with Round 5 of our A to Z Denver Breweries series of posts.

We started last August with A is for AC Golden Tank Room and just recently finished with Z is for Zymos Brewing.

Amazingly enough, we were able to cover most of the letters of the alphabet without taking too much "artistic license".

We made it to "H" before we didn't have a brewery that started with the letter and decided to do H is for Left Hand RiNo Drinks & Eats.

And, if I'm counting correctly, we only had to choose a total of 9 breweries that didn't start with the letter we were on. Not bad considering we've been through the alphabet 4 times before this round.

T is for Tilray Beer Brands, Littleton

Honestly, you'd think that we'd have plenty to choose from the letter "T" on our A to Z Denver Breweries series of posts.

And, yes, according to the Colorado Brewery Map & List there are quite a few Denver area breweries starting with the letter "T".

However, we've already used T is for TRVE Brewing Company, T is for Two22 Brew, T is for Tivoli Brewing Company, and T is for Tommyknocker Brewery, and most of the other "T" breweries on the Colorado Brewery Map & List are too far away for just a brewery visit.

There is another local brewery I could use, but honestly, I've never thought this brewery makes very good beer, and I didn't really want to subject myself to beer I don't like.

So ... I am taking a little "artistic license" here ...

T is for Tilray Beer Brands, Littleton

A to Z Denver Breweries Round 4

The SheppyBrew Beer Model and I are done with Round 4 of our A to Z Denver Breweries series of posts.

We started this round in June of 2022 with A is for A Bit Twisted Brewpub. We posted Z is for CraZy Mountain Brewery just a few days ago.

This means we made it all the way through the alphabet in just over 13 months, which is much faster than any of the previous rounds.

I'm actually pretty surprised how far we got down that alphabet before we started having to "take artistic license" with names in this round. I'm also a little surprised how few we had to do that with.

We made it all the way to Q (Q is for Six Capital Brewing and BBQ) before having to use a brewery that didn't actually start with the target letter. If I'm counting correctly, we only had to do this with a total of 5 in this round.

U is for BlUe SprUce Brewing Company

It wasn't too long ago that I posted T is for Tommyknocker Brewery.

Of course if you're familiar with our  A to Z Denver Breweries series of posts, you know that next up comes "U".

Even if you're not familiar ... it isn't really all that difficult to figure out.

You see ... Back in early 2015, I composed a list Denver Breweries that I had not visited (see Denver Breweries II). As I was composing the list, I realized that most of the letters in the alphabet were covered by the first letters in these brewery names.

I started with A ... A is for Alpine Dog Brewing Company .. and worked my way through the alphabet.

We're on our 4th round of the alphabet ... almost done ... we're up to "U".

Anyway ... there are no "U" breweries on The Colorado Brewery List.

T is for Tommyknocker Brewery

Well ... as I'm sure you know if you've been following along on the A to Z Denver Breweries series of posts, we've made our way all the way through "S" in our 4th round.

We posted S is for 6 and 40 Brewery just a couple weeks ago.

If you're at all familiar with our concept ... it doesn't take much intellectual ability to figure out that next we need a "T" brewery.

There are tons of "T" breweries on the Colorado Brewery Map & List.

However, after filtering out breweries the start with "The", breweries that are too far away from our house, and breweries we've already blogged about in the A to Z Denver Breweries list ... there is really only one good choice....

T is for Tommyknocker Brewery

Updating the Homebrew Colorado 6 pack

If you've been following my 6 Pack Project posts, you know that I matched up 6 of my homebrew recipes with my Colorado 6 pack list that I put together back in 2013.

As I was brewing beers in my Homebrew Colorado 6 pack, I noted that 3 out of the 6 beers no longer existed at their commercial breweries, so I was unable to compare my beers to the beers that they were meant to represent.

Irregular Eric Double IPA (Batch 273)

Early in 2020 ... I started seeing a lot of traffic to my "Colorado 6 Pack" post on the blog, and I decided that it would be fun to take that list and homebrew batches that matched up with the list. 

See Sheppy's Blog: Homebrew Colorado 6 pack.

So far, from the "6 Pack" ... I've brewed:

• Stone Soup IDA (inspired by Tommyknocker's Hop Strike Black IPA)
• Foothills IPA (inspired by Odell IPA)
• Blackhawk Black (inspired by New Belgium's 1554)
• One Hundred Hoppy Brown Ale (inspired by Boulder Beer Company's Flashback India Brown Ale)

Next up, it was time for me brew something like Oskar Blue's Deviant Dale's IPA. 

Deviant Dale's doesn't exist anymore, but the idea was that it was essentially Dale's Pale Ale, only more. More hops. More malt. More ABV. More Body. More deliciousness. It was an 8% ABV, 85 IBU double IPA with lots of citrus, grapefruit rind and piney resins in the aroma and flavor.

I didn't really have a recipe that was close, so I designed one.

Irregular Eric's Double IPA

Blackhawk Black (batch 258) and Pork Butt

If you follow this blog, you may remember that I decided to brew one beer to represent each of the beers I had in my Colorado 6 pack years ago.

See Homebrew Colorado 6 pack if you need a little reminder.

So far, I've brewed Stone Soup IDA, which is a black IPA designed to be like an old Tommyknocker Beer, Hop Strike. And, I've brewed Foothills India Pale Ale, which was designed to be like Odell Brewing Company's IPA.

Next up on my Colorado Homebrew 6 Pack list was New Belgium's 1554 Enlightened Black Ale for which, I decided to brew SheppyBrew's Blackhawk Black.

To be honest, Blackhawk Black was never REALLY designed to match the taste of 1554, so I doubt that a side-by-side tasting will be as close as the last two, but I am interested to see.

So ... brew day was Sunday. I also had a pork shoulder to smoke, so I was up early to get that on the Weber kettle.

Foothills India Pale Ale

If you follow this blog, you may remember that I decided to brew one beer to represent each of the beers I had in my Colorado 6 pack years ago.

See Homebrew Colorado 6 pack if you need a little reminder.

The first of these beers was Stone Soup IDA, which was very similar to the Hop Strike Black IPA that Tommyknocker brew pub used to make.

Second up on the list was Odell Brewing Company's IPA.

I've never really brewed a beer based on it, but the AHA has an Odell IPA Clone that I was able to borrow for pointers.

So, I went ahead and made a recipe using the Odell IPA Clone as the base.

Foothills India Pale Ale

Brewing the Stone Soup IDA

If you follow SheppyBrew's Instagram or Facebook pages ... and/ or you read Stone Soup IDA, you know that I brewed this past weekend.

Stone Soup IDA is Black IPA / Cascadian Dark Ale / India Dark Ale recipe that I first brewed in 2010. I have not brewed it since 2011 despite the fact that I really liked the Black IPA / Cascadian Dark Ale / India Dark Ale style.

To be honest, I'm not sure I've had a recent Black IPA / Cascadian Dark Ale / India Dark Ale from any brewery in several years.

I'm sure I have had one that I'm not remembering in the last year or two, but still, it isn't a style that I drink as much as I used to.

I think the rest of the world is with me too. There just don't seem to be that many out there anymore.

TommyKnocker's Hop Strike Black IPA was one of the first Black IPA's I ever had and the one to which I compared all others after it. That is why I added to my Colorado 6 Pack list.

Anyway ... I brewed a Black IPA / Cascadian Dark Ale / India Dark Ale this past Sunday.

Stone Soup IDA

Stone Soup IDA

Remember my post "Homebrew Colorado 6 pack"?

Well ... I'm starting off the project by brewing a beer that represents TommyKnocker's Hop Strike Black IPA.

Back in 2013, when I made my Colorado 6 Pack list, Black IPA's (or Cascadian Dark Ales) were much more popular, and Hop Strike was the Black IPA to which I compared all others.

For quite some time, it was my favorite Tommyknocker beer.

At some point, Black IPA's / Cascadian Dark Ales went out of favor among the masses. I don't know when, but it looks like Tommyknocker stopped brewing Hop Strike.

Still, I have fond memories of the Black IPA style in general and Hop Strike specifically.

I'm going to brew a Black IPA.

Stone Soup IDA

Homebrew Colorado 6 pack

I've noticed recently that my May 2013 post "Colorado 6 pack" has been getting some traffic.

Unless you just followed the link, you probably don't remember much about "Colorado 6 pack", but it was basically a blogging collaboration that @BryanDRoth at This Is Why I'm Drunk. set up.

He wanted to get 6 different bloggers from six different states to each come up with a 6-pack of beers that "best represent your state and/or state's beer culture".

So I did that back in 2013 for Colorado. The blog post seems to have been fairly popular over the past month or so. It has been getting more traffic than my more recent posts. 

It got me thinking ... wouldn't it be fun to brew up beers inspired by this "Colorado 6 pack"?

My answer to myself was "Yes".

So ... here are the beers I picked:

Snowshoeing in the Mt. Evans Wilderness

 We went snowshoeing in the Mt. Evans wilderness last weekend.

I love snowshoeing. It is so peaceful to be out in the wilderness and there is something about the pure white snow that makes it even more amazing to me. I also really like the opportunity to get exercise. As a bonus, dragging the kids along gets them exercise too.

Pumpkin Ales

I am brewing a pumpkin ale this weekend. Pumpkin ales are not my favorite, so why am I brewing one? The main reason is that the SheppyBrew Beer Model really likes them, and (let's face it), it is a good idea to keep the Beer Model happy.

Plus, a pumpkin beer is something that I've never brewed before, and it is fun to try new things.

Actually, it is really more surprising that this is the first time I've attempted to brew a pumpkin beer.

You can take a look at my recipe on the SheppyBrew website: Will-o'-Wisp Pumpkin Ale.

#IPADay: My Last 6 IPAs

Here I am contributing to the HashTagging of this made-up twitter holiday again.

#IPADay.

When I first started homebrewing (way back in 2009), I was not really a fan of IPA's. I started understanding hop bitterness vs. hop flavor vs. hop aroma and how to extract each in the brewing process. It wasn't until I started getting a handle on how hop bitterness balances malt sweetness that I started getting an appreciation for bitterness. It wasn't until I got that appreciation of bitterness that I started to understand and like IPA's.

So, I really have my brewing experience to thank for my appreciation of IPA's.

Still More @Untappd Badges 16

Well, as you probably know if you follow this blog even semi-regularly, I share from time to time which untappd badges I've earned. I can't imagine why you would want to, but you can look at all the posts (including this one) by going to the "untappd" label on this blog.

As I mentioned last time, I have a few badges that could have been shared at that time, but I decided to share them for the next post (which is now this one).

Still More @Untappd Badges 15

It has been a long time since I've done a report on my untappd badges. Not sure why. I've had enough to do a post. Time just got away from me. I'll give you the next few now and save some for the next one.

I can't imagine why you would want to, but you can look at all the posts (including this one) by going to the "untappd" label on this blog.

Since Still More @Untappd Badges 14, I've earned the following:

My Best Beers in America

If you follow this blog at all, you probably know that every year I seek out beers I have not had on Zymurgy's Best Beer in America list. Sometimes I even tell you about the beers and/or my progress (see http://blog.ericshepard.com/search/label/Zymurgy%20BBIA). I voted for the list a couple years ago, but missed the voting last year.

I actually voted for this year's list a couple days ago. I even posted on the SheppyBrew Facebook Wall that I would share my vote ... so here we go.