The Beer Clinic

One of my favorite beer blogs is Billy Broas's BillyBrew.com.  His blog is interesting and informative.  He updates it regularly, so you can almost always see a link to his blog up high on the "Blogs I Read" section to the right of my blog  (FaceBook readers will not know what that means unless you go to http://blog.ericshepard.com).

He was the one who alerted me to 5280's Colorado's Best Beers Six Pack.  I have purchased the six pack, but have not had any of the beers from it yet.

Shrek and I might have to give the 5280 6 pack a try next week.

His most recent post (as I write this, anyway) is Improve Your Homebrew with The Beer Clinic.  You can (and should) read the post and/or watch the video interview he included with Marty Nachel of The Beer Clinic, but just as a quick summary, Marty has started a service to help home-brewers by allowing them to send him beer.

Hmmm... let me say that again.  You can send Marty your beer.

Yes, as I typed it, I said to myself, "This guy is an evil genius.  He is starting a business where you pay him so that you can send him beer!"  You may ask, "now why would I want to send this guy my beer?"  Well, the reason is pretty simple.  He will objectively evaluate your beer and give you feedback on how to improve the beer.  Again, you can read Billy's post or go straight to Marty's site if you need a better explanation than that.

I personally think this is an awesome idea.  Forget about the evil genius aspect of the business.  There is a lot of value in getting your beer objectively evaluated.  Personally, I love the beer that I brew, but I am certainly not the most objective person when it comes to my own creations.  How could I be?  Even if I could be completely objective, I'm not really enough of an experienced beer taster to really focus in on various aspects of flavor, aroma, and all the other details that go into beer evaluation.

And, I do share my beer with quite a few people, but none of my friends, family, or co-workers are beer judges.  Most of them are either non-beer drinkers or BMC drinkers.  Even from my craft-beer-drinking acquaintances, the most "objective feedback" I ever get is "I don't like this beer as much as that other one." 

Anyway, at some point, I may give Marty a try.  Thanks, Billy, for blogging about the service.

beer.ericshepard.com

The url http://beer.ericshepard.com is not currently working.  GoDaddy changed my web server, which meant an IP switch.  GoDaddy kindly switched the DNS entry for http://www.sheppybrew.com and the other primary domain names that were pointing to that same web server, but they didn't switch the DNS entries for any sub-domains, which meant I needed to manually switch the IP address of beer.ericshepard.com.  I thought I did switch it.  In fact, I am looking at the DNS manager right now, and it looks to me like beer.ericshepard.com should be pointing to my web server, but browsing to it gives me a not found error and pinging it points to the old IP address.

Of course, this is not really a big deal since anyone can get there by using http://www.sheppybrew.com (plus there are few people who even go to that site) , but there are quite a few old links out on the internet that point to pictures or pages with the address beer.ericshepard.com .  I probably would not have even noticed except I was looking at old posts on this blog about Buckwheat's Belgium Pale Ale and noticed that a picture was missing.  I may have to contact tech support on this one.  Bummer.

Hopefully by the time you read this post, it is taken care of.

Speaking of Buckwheat's Belgium Pale Ale.  Inventory is running low, so I think I'll be brewing another batch soon.  The Beer Model really goes through this beer fast.  You may recall that last time I brewed this, I did a double batch and fermented half with the fermentis S33 yeast (which is my standard yeast for this beer) and some of the T58 yeast (which yields more Belgium flavors).  We agreed that we both enjoy the beer better head-to-head with the S33 yeast.  This time I am going to compare S33 (the reigning champion) with US05.  I am pretty sure that it will be a little more difficult to tell a difference between these two yeasts.  My experience tells me that US05 will probably attenuate more fully with a cleaner ester profile than S33.  If she can tell the difference, my guess is that she'll still prefer S33, but until we do the taste test, there is no way to know for sure.

After this experiment, I have one more yeast I may want to use to challenge the winner.  Many of my beers ferment with a harvested version of American Ale II (Wyeast Labs #1272).  So, far, I've really enjoyed all the beers using the AAII yeast and I sort of consider it my "house yeast".  I have said before that Buckwheat is Phat & Tyred's little brother.  I suspect that if Buckwheat used the same yeast the two beers would be even closer, and maybe extremely difficult to tell apart.  Even if AAII wins, I may not use it in Buckwheat just so the beers are truly significantly different.

Anyway, we are getting ahead of ourselves a bit.  That whole thing is way down the line.

I am running dangerously low on empty bottles.  Anyone have empties they want to drop off? If not, anyone what to help me drink some beer?

Stouticus

So, I am making an American stout.  See Stouticus American Stout on the SheppyBrew web site for the recipe and the story behind why I am making a stout.  I don't make a lot of stouts.  The main reason this one is a stout is because I had a request that included the name "Stouticus".  I didn't think it would be proper to brew anything but a stout for a beer named Stouticus, so I brewed a stout.

I developed the recipe making sure to use ingredients from McMenamins Terminator Stout (which is part of the story you can read about on the web site).  When I went to the LHBS, though, I tasted black barely and thought it's roasty dryness was too intense to use as much as I had originally planned.  I guess you can say I wimped out, but at the time I thought it was a good decision.  I still do think the decision was sound, but sort of think I should have just "gone for it".  After tasting the wort, I just didn't get a bunch of the dry roast flavors that stout lovers like.  It will be a good stout, for my taste it will be a great stout (most likely).  It just won't have as much "roasty" flavors as a true American stout lover would expect.  Luckily, I know the brewer, so if I decide it needs something, I'll just have it brewed again.

This was my second time using my wort chiller.  Awesome.  This was also my first time using my new 6 gallon better bottle carboy.  Awesome as well.

The brew day started early today.  I got my mash started at 6:30 today and let it do its thing through church.  I started sparging when I got home.  This is something I've been doing quite a bit lately.  I don't think there is a disadvantage (or advantage for that matter) in the long mash.  It is a very convenient way to multi-task.  Enzymes do all that work and don't need me to them how to do their job.  I might as well be off doing something else.

I got a "stuck-mash" this time.  It wasn't a big deal because I had planned 3 sparges and it was the last one that got stuck.  By that time, there were enough sugars in the collected wort that I simply added water to the boil and my specific gravity into the boiler was fine.  I do want to figure out what is going on, though.  My sparge last weekend was slow at the end too.  I wonder if the long mash might be doing something that gums up the works.  Don't know, but at least it turned out today.

The boil went as planned.  I ran out of propane in the middle of the boil, but I had anticipated that and had another propane tank ready to go.  The wort didn't even stop boiling.

The wort chiller did its magic wonderfully again.  The pitch temperature was right at 62 after less than 20 minutes of cooling.  It also gave me an excuse to water our front yard tree.  I'm so glad that my wife got me the wort chiller for my birthday.

I ended up diluting the wort at the end because of a high OG.  My volume was right on originally.  I added about .5 gallons and ended up with 5.5 gallons in the ferementor.  I pitched the starter that I had made this past week.  I never really ever noticed the starter fermenting, but this morning, I took an FG reading and it had indeed fermented quite low.  It also tasted really good.  I like the nutty, almond flavor that the WY1272 imparts to beer.  I don't know how much of that nutty flavor will come through in the final beer this time, since it is such a dark beer.  I guess I'll find out.

One thing I don't know about is how to go about keeping fermentation temperatures low in the bigger fermentor.  Right now, I'm simply keeping the carboy in our spare bedroom in a bin with a couple of ice bottles covered with a towel.  This probably won't work well in the summer.  It should be fine for Stouticus this time, though.

Anyway, it was another great brew day.  Hope I have enough bottles to handle all this beer.  But, that is another story.

Tommy Hawk APA

So, you may remember the whole thing with Whisky Wife Wheat that I wrote about a couple weeks ago.  Long story short:

• I took a poll on what I should brew (WWW, TommyHawk APA, or Stone Soup IDA)
• TommyHawk came in with the most votes.  WWW came in with the least amount of votes.
• My wife voted for WWW.
• Because I am whipped, I made WWW, despite the fact that it got the least number of votes.

This weekend, WWW was ready to bottle.  This freed up two Mr. Beer fermentors.  I got a new wort chiller for my birthday last weekend.  The weather was supposed to be beautiful.  I even got a shipment from Northern Brewer which would included my first 5-gallon carboy (although in the end, I decided to save its maiden brew session for next weekend).  The beer I had at dinner on my birthday was the New Belgium seasonal Mighty Arrow APA (which is what originally inspired the Tommy Hawk recipe).  All these factors could only combine to mean 1 thing:  time to brew a batch of TommyHawk APA.  Friday afternoon, I stopped by The Brew Hut to get the ingredients for this weekend's brew.

Bottled up WWW this weekend.  39 12 oz bottles; 1 22 oz bomber; 2 1 liter bottles; 1 2 liter growler.

I feel a little dishonest calling this an APA.  It is sort of in that gray area of being a hoppy / high alcohol APA, or a lower-end American IPA.  Technically, though, I think IPA would be a better description of what it truly is.  If you are ever drinking one and feel cheated by the name, feel free to ask for your money back.  I will gladly give you double what you paid for it.

Regardless (notice that I didn't say irregardless), Tommy Hawk is a nice hoppy beer.  It also has the best art-work of any of my labels.  My oldest son drew that Blackhawks logo for me.  He was only 6 at the time.  He's a much more talented artist than his father.

This is my first all-grain batch of Tommy Hawk.  It is also the first large (large compared to my usual batch size. regular compared to most brewers) batch of this beer.  My plan this time is to split the batch into two Mr. Beer fermentors.  I'll dry-hop one half and leave the other without.  A nice little experiment to see what the dry hopping actually adds.

I started the brew day before going to church.   Right when I left, I measured the temperature at 154 (exactly what I wanted).  Weirdly enough, it was at 160 when I got home 2.5 hours later.  So, my mash was probably hotter than I wanted.  Oh well.

I measured my SG from the start of the boil at 1.055 in about 7 gallons of water.  I was expecting 1.048 going into the boil.  Beer Smith tells me my mash efficiency at this point was a bit over 95%.  I know that can't be right.  I guess I must have measured something wrong.  Did I grab too much 2-row on Friday?  Don't know.

The wort chiller that my wife got me for my birthday worked fantastic. The wort went from boiling to about 80 in 10 minutes and was in the low 60's after about 20 minutes.  That is much better than the ice bath.  I am glad my wife was nice enough to get me one.

I ended up diluting the wort quite a bit at the end of the boil.  Even so, my OG ended up much higher than I intended.  I guess the good news is that I seem to be getting bigger beers than I intend rather than smaller ones, and that can't be a bad thing.

The weather was sunny and mid-60's but we still have quite a bit of snow.  The boys and I built a snowman after my brewing day was over.  Yes, Tyler is dressed in PJ's and snow boots.  Connor is a bit more reasonably dressed.  Isn't Colorado weather fun?

Anyway, it ended up to be another successful brew day.

Stop It!

Stop it.  Stop it.  STOP IT!

Stop typing "your" when you mean "you're".  Just stop it!  For goodness sakes, I know most of you passed 2nd grade. It drives me crazy when people get that mixed up.  I certainly am not grammatically perfect in everything I type, but I have noticed an epidemic in your / you're confusion lately.  Between facebook and twitter and various online forums, I see it all the time.  I don't usually call anyone on it, but I might start.  Please stop it so I don't have be a jerk.

"Your" is the possessive form of you.  Here is an example of how it can be used:

YOUR brain should be able to comprehend the proper use of the word.

"Your" should not be used like this:

YOUR so funny LOL.

or

YOUR so funny.  LMAO.

or even

YOUR so funny.  ROFLMAO.

"You're" is a contraction for "You are".  Here is an example of how it can be used:

YOU'RE an idiot if you use your when you mean you are.

or

YOU'RE so funny. LOL.

or

YOU'RE so funny.  LMAO.

or

YOU'RE so funny.  ROFLMAO.

I suppose some of the problem is that we live in a world of text messages and twitter where the number of characters you type are limited.  But, quite honestly, I would rather you type UR to mean "You are" than "your".

While you're at it.  Please stop typing "their" when you mean "there" or "they're".  Stop typing "to" when you mean "too" or "two".  Stop.

And, I really would prefer you stop typing i.e. or e.g. unless you actually know the difference.  It doesn't bother me so much that people don't know that difference, but if you choose to use one or the other, at least look it up so you know which means which.

And, while I'm at it, irregardless is not a word at all.  Don't use it.  You really mean regardless, so just say regardless.

Thanks for letting me get that all off my chest.

Whisky Wife Wit

Recently, I asked my FaceBook friends:

Not sure what to brew next. I have it narrowed down to an American Pale Ale or an Indian Dark Ale or a Belgium Witbier. Any votes?

I also tweeted:

What to brew next? Indian Dark Ale or APA or Belgium Wit?

I got a pretty decent response on FaceBook.  I usually do when I post similar questions.  I even got one response from twitter.  The results were:

• 3 votes for American Pale Ale (which would have been my Tommy Hawk APA)
• 2 votes for Indian Dark Ale (which would have been my Stone Soup IDA)
• 0 votes for Belgium Witbier (Whisky Wife Wit)

I thought that was a good result.  I'd brew my Tommy Hawk APA this weekend and then I could finally brew my  Stone Soup IDA a few weeks after that.  This would leave Whisky Wife Wit to be ready for drinking as a spring / summer seasonal.  But WAIT!!!  The Beer Model decided to weigh in:

Belgium Witbier! Can I vote more than once? Or does my vote weigh more then these APA/IDA lovers?

Well, as you may already know, I am married to the Beer Model.  You may also know that I'm an extremely whipped husband.  She is much hotter than I am, and she has a real easy time influencing me.  So, it probably doesn't come as much of a surprise that Whisky Wife Wit won despite the fact that it got the least number of votes.  As it turned out, it got the only vote that counted.  I suppose next time, I'll just ask her what she wants me to brew.  I might have to ask for special permission to brew anything real hoppy or dark.  Not sure she'll ever let me brew my IDA as it is both hoppy AND dark.

When it comes down to it, though, I posted the question because I wanted to brew all three of those beers and I don't have a 3-sided coin (or enough fermenters available to do all three).  None of those other voters are going to help me drink the beer (I'm sure they would be willing, but they all live outside the SheppyBrew distribution area).  It might as well be the Beer Model who decides.

It you've never had Whisky Wife Wit (previously known as Whisky Wife Wheat II), it is a lot like Blue Moon's Belgium White.  I think it has a slightly smoother / creamy and fuller bodied mouth feel which really works well with the the orange flavor.  It might have a slightly more authentic "Belgium" spicy phenolic character than Blue Moon, but it is still pretty restrained compared to lots of Belgium wits I've had.  It has what I would consider the perfect amount of "Belgium" in it.  This, along with the oat and wheat flavors combines with the orange and coriander for a nice complexity.  I find that every sip I take will bring out a slightly different flavor to my attention.  It really is a nice beer IMHO.  Apparently the Beer Model likes it too (at the very least she likes it more than APA's or IDA's).

Part of the reason WWW was on the list is because I've had some Belgian Witbier yeast (Wyeast 3944) harvested from when I brewed my last series of wits.  I think it has been in my fridge since last May.  This is longer than most will suggest that you store harvested yeast.  I was not completely sure it would still be viable.  So, I have been building it up with a series of starters.  It did get real active replicating and fermenting in the starters, so I think it will work fine.

..Just as an aside, I gave the Screwy Brewer my standard link on how to harvest yeast and I think he improved upon it.  I will now be using his blog entry as my new standard link.  He was also nice enough to mention my name and link to my website in the post.  Now, back to our regularly scheduled blog entry ....

If you followed the link above to the recipe, you may have noticed that I am doing this as a partial mash rather than all all-grain.  The main reason is that between the flaked oats and the high percentage of wheat, I am a bit concerned about a stuck mash with my usual process.  By doing a partial mash in a grain bag and "steeping" the bag containing the mash rather than a traditional sparge, I don't have to worry about that possibility.  Someday, I'm sure I'll do all-grain mashes with wheat and / or oats, but just not this time.

I had to get up early on the brew day to purchase the oats and oranges.  I used the King Sooper brand quick oats and got 6 (used 5) navel oranges.  This time, I "toasted" the oats just at 325 in the oven for about 15 minutes on 2 cookie sheets.  Palmer had suggested that on one of his Brew Strong shows and also in a BYO magazine article.  The zest came to 2 1/8 oz on my scale.  I called it good enough.

My recipe said to use .79oz of coriander.  It turns out I only had 5/8oz, so I called that good enough as well.  That actually seems like a bunch of coriander, so I am really hoping that I didn't make a mistake documenting the amount last time I made this.  RDWHAHB, right?

And then, my partial mash started out sort of badly.  The original strike water was the perfect temp (sort of rare in my process), but did not seem nearly enough.  The mash was a paste and the temp was way down below 140.  I quickly heated up about a gallon of what was going to be my sparge water and dumped that in.  The mash temp magically went to 154 (I got lucky there).  I guess you could say I did my first (unintentional) step mash.

See my new(ish) 8 gallon pot?

My water volume was a bit high.  So was my OG into the kettle.  I think maybe my little kitchen scale is not as accurate as it used to be.  But, it isn't big enough a difference to get worked up about.  The boil went as usual.  I only did a 60 minute boil this time since it was not all grain.  The first hop addition went in at the 50 minute mark.  The only other addition was right at flame out.

One thing I have to address is getting a wort chiller for my 8 gallon pot.  The ice bath is not as efficient at the larger volume of water.  Plus, it is almost my birthday, and that will make a great toy (if no one gets it for me).

My OG was high (1.058 compared to recipe 1.050) as well.  Part of it is not being used to the bigger pot.  The fact that my scale might be having me add too much LME might be an issue too.  Well, I'm ok with a higher alcohol beer.  The orange aroma from the pot was great.

I'm looking forward to drinking and sharing this with my beautiful Beer Model.  I might even share with others.

He has a whisky wife
He has a vodka wife
He has a lager wife
He has a cider wife

By the way... I created a RSS Feed for the SheppyBrew website this weekend.  If you would like to subscribe to updates, the feed is:  http://www.sheppybrew.com/rss/RSSHandler.ashx .  I am using twitterfeed to automatically tweet whenever I make an update to a page or if a comment is made on one of the pages.  Yes, I'm a geek.

Weird Dance

Connor was doing this weird dance today.  I guess he learned it at school. 

Of course, all you Facebook readers will have to go to the blog post to see the video.  http://blog.ericshepard.com/2011/01/weird-dance.html

I'm not changing

I have always put two spaces at the end of my typed sentences.  I know for sure that my typing teacher in high school told me to double space after every sentence, and I've always done as she taught.  Apparently, a single space is correct, and I have been doing it wrong.

My facebook friend Elizabeth shared a link to this article:  Space Invaders Why you should never, ever use two spaces after a period. By Farhad Manjoo.  For those of you too lazy to follow the link, it basically just says:

"Shep, you are completely wrong for putting two spaces after your periods.  Man, you're an idiot!"

I paraphrased there.  You can read it yourself if you want a more complete understanding of the article.

I didn't believe Farhad Majoo, but I checked a couple of books and magazines.  I looked at his references, and I googled the subject.  Apparently, he is right.  I have been wrong all these years.  I am an idiot, just like he said.

I also went and checked a bunch of blogs.  Apparently, most bloggers know the rule, because the majority of the blogs that I checked seem to be following the correct format.  It was just barely a majority in my admittedly limited poll of blogs.  It was indeed a majority none-the-less.

You know what, though?  I am not going to change.  I've decided that it is not worth the effort.  The faq at the Modern Language Association (which is probably the most official reference I found) even says:

"As a practical matter, however, there is nothing wrong with using two spaces after concluding punctuation marks unless an instructor or editor requests that you do otherwise."

So, Farhad's claim that I'm an idiot is a bit harsh, and you might even say unfair. 

Elizabeth says that she is trying to change.  I'm not going to.  I refuse to.  Maybe when I eliminate all my other imperfections, I'll work on the correct end-of-sentence spacing, but until then, I'm not going to worry about it.

Just for the record, though, if you say "your" when you really mean "you're", I still think that you are (you're) an idiot.

Random Post Christmas Photos

Just a few pictures of the kids in that after-Christmas / New Year time frame.

I'll start with a few pictures from our trip to Michigan.  We went there to attend my grandmother's 85 birthday party.  You can also look at some pictures that my sister took CLICK HERE to see those.

My parents with all their grand kids.

At my grand mother's 85th birthday party.  This is most of her great grand kids.

This is my grand mother with two of her great grand kids.

Back in Denver, we went to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science on New Year's Eve. 

Denver Museum

Denver museum in a part we never knew existed.

Lifting a big snake in the Denver museum

On New Year's Day we tried to go sledding, but never really found a good spot with enough snow.  We did stop by Red Rocks Park and Amphitheater, and the boys sledded in the parking lot for awhile.  Then we walked up to the stage and hung out.

New Year's Day in the snow

On the walk up to the stage

In the rocks on the back of the stage.

In front of the rocks on the back of the stage.

Ok, well there you go.  Hope you enjoyed the pictures.

SheppyBrew 2010 Stats

Well, 2010 is over, so I suppose that it is time to give you an update in the continuing series on SheppyBrew's brewing stats (see SheppyBrew 2009 Stats, 1st Quarter Stats, 2nd Quarter Stats, 3rd Quarter Stats)

In 2010:

• I made 33 batches of beer (compared to 29 in 2009)
• I made about 75 gallons of beer (around 65 in 2009)
• 18 of the batches were new recipes (18 in 2009 as well)
• 2 of the batches were lagers (0 in 2009)
• All of the batches were SheppyBrew recipes (26 in 2009)
• 9 were partial mashes (5 in 2009)
• 10 were all-grain mashes (0 in 2009)
• My beers were better in 2010 than in 2009 (and for the most part they were great in 2009)
• My favorite beer is officially Quarter Life Crisis Hoppy Red Ale (in 2009 I said my favorite beer is Phat & Tyred.... or maybe Blackhawk Black ... or maybe Eric's Red.) 
• The Beer Model's favorite beer is Buckwheat's BPA ( Girly Berry in 2009)
• I'm not sure what the favorite of "the public" was this year.  If you make me declare one, it would be Buckwheat's BPA.  It might still be Wetta Blonde.  (it was absolutely Wetta Blonde in 2009)
• The person who has consumed the most beer of anyone (other than the Brew Master) is the SheppyBrew Beer Model. (same in 2009)

In SheppyBrew 2009 Stats, I said that in 2010, I expect:

•  SheppyBrew nano-brewery will brew more beer. 
  I did indeed brew more beer.
  
•  A higher percentage of SheppyBrew beers will be completely formulated from non-Mr. Beer ingredients.
  A much higher percentage of my beers had no Mr. Beer ingredients.
  
•  All the recipes will be SheppyBrew original.
  All my batches were formulated from my own little mind. I did get help from various sources, but all were in the end, my own.
  
•  SheppyBrew nano-brewery will brew a couple of lagers.
  I did (Brother Bear Dopplebock and Rocktoberfest Lager)
  
•  SheppyBrew nano-brewery will either do start doing 5 gallon batches or some all-grain batches (or maybe both).
  I have done a bunch of All-Grain batches.  The last time I did Buckwheat's BPA, I did a split batch that almost counts as a 5 gallon batch.
  
•  I'll do more dark beers.
  I do not really know, and it is not worth it to figure it out.  I'm not even sure what I meant by "dark" beers when I typed that.
  
•  More people will drink SheppyBrew beers.
  More people did drink SheppyBrew beers, although probably not by as much as I had planned.  I did give away quite a few 6-packs as gifts this year.

I'm not sure what to say about 2011 expectations.  I think I'll brew about the same amount or maybe even less.  I'm thinking that I'll concentrate more on my favorites and thus have a bit less variety as well.  I may or may not let more people try my beers.  Part depends on who comes and visits the brewery and part of it depends on what my inventory looks like.  I think most of my beers will be all-grain, but I will certainly do some of each of my recipe types.  I probably will do real 5 gallon batches.  Even if I don't get a 5-gallon fermenter, there will probably be more big batches split into two Mr. Beer fermenters.  I may experiment more with different yeasts and/or dry hops in these split batches.  I would love to get into kegging my beers, but I do not know if that will happen.

Ok, I guess I'd better get going.

6 Million Barrels

Interesting.

A few weeks ago, I mentioned in Beer Ads that Boston Brewing Company (Sam Adams) is actually on the verge of technically being too big to fall under the definition of craft brewery.

The Brewers Association has just decided to change the definition of "small" from under 2 million barrels to 6 million barrels.

Here:  Brewers Association Announces Revised Craft Brewer Definition

I guess Sam Adams, New Belgium, and Sierra Nevada are safe for awhile.

In case you were wondering, the SheppyBrew Brewery was not even in danger of exceeding the 2 million barrel limit.  I got to almost 2.5 barrels of beer in 2010 leaving me a bit more than 1,999,997.5 barrels short of the 2 million limit.  It is good to have that extra buffer for 2011.

---

I mentioned in Sheppy's X-Mas Eve that I did some work on the SheppyBrew.com website to prevent spamming in the comments.  It is working.  For awhile after I posted the code change, the spammers appeared to stop even trying.  I continue to track the potential spam comments.  I just don't "publish" them until I manually look at them and decide if it should or should not appear on the site.  For some reason, today the spam-bots seem to be trying again for the first time since Christmas.  Apparently these bots are not smart enough to figure out that it is not working.  Another thing that is sort of dumb is that the vast majority of spam attempts are on a page that is not linked from anywhere, so even if the spam-bots succeeded in posting comments, no one would be able to see them except me.   I don't need viagra, levitra, or cialis.  Honestly, I don't.

I'm starting to accumulate IP addresses of my known comment spammers.   Today, all the spam attempts have come from the same address.  Pretty soon I will do something to known spam IP addresses.  If for some reason, your IP address is incorrectly flagged and you are unable to leave comments on the sight, leave me a quick message from the email form and I'll try to figure out what to do about your situation. 

Update on "My" List

Back in June (Best Beers in America) I shared  2010 Zymurgy Best Beers In America Poll.

At that time, I had never had numbers 1 through 4.  Out of the top 10, I had only had 2.  Out of the top 50, I'd only had 8.  That is pretty sad for a supposed craft beer drinker, so I had to get to work drinking more of these beers. 

While in Michigan this week for my grandma's 85th birthday party, I got my hand on #2:  Bell's Two Hearted Ale.  This is another IPA.  It seems like most of the list is some sort of IPA.  This one is just a regular old IPA as opposed to a double or an imperial IPA.  Personally, I would rank this above Pliny, but that's just me.  I actually think the Two Hearted Ale is better than most of those on the list, so I am pretty good with it being at number two.

Over the holidays I also got to taste (tied for) #7:  Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale.  This is an interesting beer that uses all fresh hops from Sierra Nevada's own harvest.  It is another hoppy IPA, and it is probably deserving of the list.

I sort of wish the list was more representative of other beer styles.  I get Zymurgy now, so maybe I'll have to make sure I add my vote for the 2011 list.

So, now, I've had all of the top 5.  I've had 9 of the top 10.  I've had 25 on the list of 50 (actually there are more than 50 on the list due to ties at 49).  A large number of the beers were tasted at GABF , so it is a good thing that Mr. Beer invited me this year.

I'll probably be able to taste a few more before the 2011 lists comes out.  I'm sure several of the 2011 beers will be the same, so I will have a pretty good head-start on the 2011 list.

Happy New Year everyone.

Sheppy's X-Mas Eve

I was up at 3:30 or so.

Worked a bit on http://www.sheppybrew.com . I added an email (contact us) form and did some work to prevent spamming in page comments. I kept an eye on Santa's progress on twitter (@noradsanta, @OfficialSanta, @XmasElf, @OfficialRudolph) and the NORAD tracking site http://www.noradsanta.org.

At 5:30 or so I went to the health club to work out and listen to brewing podcasts. I also kept an eye on Santa's progress on twitter and my mobile google map.

Back home at around 7:45. My wife made breakfast. I showed the kids how Santa was doing on the NORAD site.

Then, we went driving around taking random turns based on input from the people in the car.  We ended up in Evergreen and hiked a little bit.  Actually, it was more climbing up rock formations by the boys than hiking.

Up above Evergreen Lake.  Sorry the shot is into the sun.

A rock the boys played on.

The biggest rock the boys found.

We had lunch at the Bear Creek Grill.  Pretty good food.

Then, we made our way home.  Rested awhile and then got ready for church.

After church, we came home, ordered a pizza and watched a couple of Christmas movies.


The next day, the boys were up early for some reason.  Here are some Christmas pictures:

Santa was generous this year.

Tyler's new telescope.

Connor's gift to Mom

Connor's claw was a big hit.

It was a Harry Potter Christmas for Tyler.

a couple more gifts.

Mommy's new panini maker

Connor got cooking stuff.

Connor's big project for the day was a Lego Train.

Tyler's project for the day:  Hogwarts Castle.

Daddy tried Bluefield Chocolate Ale in a Beer Float.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Black IPA / IDA

Remember back in July when I told you all about the new Black IPA (Cascadian Dark Ale) style?  Since then, it seems like everyone is making one.  Lots of breweries are still calling it Cascadian Dark Ale.  This name sort of annoys me, but certainly not enough to keep me from drinking it when I get a chance.  If I'm at a bar / brew pub / restaurant and they tell me they have a Black IPA (or even a Cascadian Dark Ale) on tap, you know for sure what I will be ordering first.

Recently, I have had one or more at Rock Bottom Brewery, TommyKnocker Brewery, and Dry Dock Brewing Company.  I tried a bunch at GABF.  I loved them all.  The good-old American hoppy goodness with the complexities of darker malts really blend together into a flavor that I completely enjoy.  And, every Black IPA that I've had has been awesomely made.

That being said, my favorite of this style is still SheppyBrew's Stone Soup IDA.  I know that makes me sound a bit (or maybe more than just a bit) of an Arrogant Bastard, but it really is true.  And, yes, there may be something to the fact that I made it and so of course I love it.  But, there is just something about the Stone Soup IDA that I think makes it better than all the rest.  It might be the dry-hopping.  It might be the slightly fuller body.  It could be the significant amount of wheat malt extract in the recipe.  It might be the brown sugar or the honey.  It could be that little bit of cinnamon in the brew.  It might be a combination of all-of-the-above.  But bottom line, I like my IDA better than all the other Black IPA and/or Cascadian Dark Ales I've tried.  It is, of course, one of the beers that I refuse to share with anyone, so I cannot get an impartial third party confirmation, so you'll have to trust me (would I lie to you?).  It's the best.

I drank my last Stone Soup quite awhile ago, and have not gotten it back into the brewing schedule.  Obviously, I need to make a another batch soon.  It should be a big batch so I won't run out.  Actually, recently, Connor (my 5 year old son) has requested that I brew it again.  He has actually requested and re-requested a few times.  I'm not sure if I should consider this cute or if I should be worried (I'm going to go with cute for now).  The reason he wants me to brew it is because he made a label design change he wants on the new bottles.  Both my boys helped me design the original label, but it was mostly Connor's idea.  Unfortunately, his design change is pretty specific to Christmas, so it might be inappropriate by the time I actually get it brewed, but we'll see.

Anyway,whether or not I use Connor's new label design, I need to get it brewed again.

great beer

GREAT, wonderful, fantastic, glorious, awesome,  beer.

Brewing Eric's Red

Tonight, I am brewing up Eric's Red Ale. I changed the recipe from the last few times to use up my Mr. Beer inventory. I did not feel like coming up with a new name or a new label, so I am just calling it Eric's Red. I have to formulate an all-grain version of the recipe, anyway, so none of the extract versions of the beer will be used again (probably).

For quite awhile, I considered Eric's Red my "flagship" beer, but I have not brewed it since January. After this batch it is still tied as the most often brewed beer in my lineup. I still enjoy red beers. Quarter Life Crisis has just sort of taken over as my red of choice. 


 
This brew day will be very quick and easy compared to anything I have done recently. Even the Wetta Blonde I did a few batches ago was slightly more complicated than this Eric's Red. I am just doing a 15 minute boil with one hop addition. Then, cool down the wort, transfer to a fermenter, and pitch the yeast. Simple quick and easy.


 
Should be drinking Eric's Red in a month and a half. Yum!



I snuck this video into the blog just for the fun of it (facebook readers will have to go http://blog.ericshepard.com/2010/12/brewing-erics-red.html to see the video)

2011 Calendar Photos: RETRACTION

When I wrote my blog post:  2011 Calendar Photos , I did not realize that my wife thought I was not going to do a calendar this year and so took it upon herself to do one.  Apparently, she thought she would surprise me with it, and put it all together and even got it all sent out.

So ... if you are one of those getting the calendar, the pictures posted on FaceBook will not match what you will see in the hard copy.  I'm sure some will be the same, but certainly not all.

----

In SheppyBrew news ...

The Beer Model on the taste panel

You probably know that the SheppyBrew Beer Model's favorite beer is Buckwheat's Belgium Pale Ale.  What you may or may not know about the beer is that it really isn't a Belgium pale ale.  The yeast I generally use just doesn't produce those funky Belgium flavors.  This is actually "by design" because I know from experience that Tracy doesn't usually care for those flavors.  To be honest, I'm not a big fan unless the "Belgium" flavor is pretty subtle.

The last time I brewed Buckwheat, I did a double batch and split it into two fermenters.  In one fermenter, I used the "standard" Fermentis S33 ale yeast.  In the other, I used a more "Belgiumy" strain, T58.  Yesterday, we had a two person tasting panel at the brewery.  No surprise, the S33 batch was the favorite.  I did do a good job keeping the "Belgium" flavor pretty restrained, so the T58 was still enjoyable for both of us, just not as awesome as the original recipe.

Visually, they were exactly the same.  S33 had a much thicker, nicer, longer lasting head and a fuller mouthfeel.  The beer did not attenuate as fully as the T58, so that makes sense.  Of course, the S33 aroma was more malty, and the T58 had that Belgium funk to it.  As the beers warmed up, the Beer Model made the comment that the difference was becoming more pronounced.  Obviously, I agreed, because it was a true statement.

One thing that I thought was very interesting was that the nice biscuity / grainy flavor that I think really makes Buckwheat awesome came through much more in the S33.  It blended into the background of the T58.  The T58 actually seemed a bit more balanced toward the hoppy / bitter side than the malty goodness of the S33.  That is interesting that simply a difference in yeast made such a huge difference above the flavors that came specifically from the yeast.

This is actually the first time I did a head-to-head comparison between the exact same beer with two different yeasts.  Of course, I knew "theoretically" and anecdotally that there would be differences, and generally speaking sort of had an idea what they would be.  But, this was the first time I actually got to experience the difference like this.  I might have to try more experiments like this.

Very cool.

Its Coming

Facebook readers, this is another one where you'll have to go to the blog to see the videos.  Go here:  http://blog.ericshepard.com/2010/12/its-comming.html

We went to our church's Christmas celebration thing today.  Tyler and Connor decorated (and devoured) cookies.  They also did other craft type things including making magic reindeer food.

Connor and Tyler assumed themselves before the service. I honestly don't know what they are doing here.

or here:

Not far from our house there are a couple of houses together that go way overboard with decorations on ALL the major holidays.  I think maybe one couple owns both houses.  They need two to store all their decorations during the year.  What you are about to see below doesn't even give justice to the situation.  I actually think they go even crazier on Halloween than they do Christmas.

I apologize for the crappy quality of my cell phone videos, but I think you can get the idea here.

2011 Calendar Photos

I am working on finishing up our 2011 calendar.  I posted all the pictures in a facebook album.  Even if you don't have a facebook account, you can see them here:  2011 Calendar Pictures .  Of course, if you are a recipient of the calendar, and don't want ruin the surprise, don't look.  But, there are a few pictures that didn't make the cut for the final version, so you might want to keep it bookmarked to go look at after the year is up.  Who, you may ask, are getting these calendars?  Well, if you got one last year, chances are good you will get one this year.  If you didn't get one last year, chances are good you won't get one this year.

I had forgotten about this picture:

This was my attempt to make it look like Connor was holding Tyler in his hand.  I probably could have done an even better job if I had more cooperation, but I think it actually turned out pretty good.  The boys both think it does look as intended.  They think it looks cool.  I suppose now that they see the result, they'll want to do this a bunch.  Probably it will get to the point that I get sick of one son in another's hand.