Biking the Beermuda Triangle

So, Denver has lots of breweries.

Take a look at Dave's map on Fermentedly Challenged. Sure looks like a lot. And the number is growing all the time.

I should visit more of these breweries. I've been thinking for some time that it would be a good idea to put together a series of bike-rides to visit sets of breweries. Sort of brewery/biking mini-tours.

One set of breweries that I thought would be perfect, recently started calling themselves the "Beermuda Triangle Coalition". Take a look at Westword's article "West-side brewers form the Beermuda Triangle coalition in the face of increasing competition".

The breweries in this area between Lincoln Street and Federal Boulevard, Alameda and Colfax avenues (really more of a square ... but whatever) are:

• Renegade Brewing Company 925 W 9TH AVE, DENVER, CO 80204
• Breckenridge Brewery 471 Kalamath Street, Denver, CO 80204
• Black Sky Brewery 227 Broadway #101, Denver, CO 80203
• Trve Brewing Company 227 Broadway #101, Denver, CO 80203
• Wit's End Brewing Company 505 West 2nd Avenue #13, Denver, CO 80219
• Strange Craft Beer Company 1330 Zuni, Unit M, Denver, Colorado 80204

I put together a google map to give some perspective: See it by following this hyperlink.

Bottling the 2014 X-Mas Ale

I bottled today SheppyBrew's 2014 X-Mas Ale today.

I hate bottling.

My original plan was to let the X-Mas Ale sit in secondary longer, but when I made that plan, I was forgetting that I need the secondary for adding spices to my pumpkin ale. So, I decided to go ahead and bottle today.

Have I mentioned that I hate bottling? Hate is probably too strong a word. It is mostly that it is just more time-consuming than kegging. It has been a long time that I've bottled a whole batch of beer, and I had almost forgotten how much more time consuming it is. I'm not too sure what the last batch of beer was that I bottled. It might be last year's X-Mas Ale.

Will-o-Wisp Brew Day

Well, this certainly should not surprise anyone. As I mentioned in my last blog post (see Pumpkin Ales), I was going to brew this weekend. And brew I did.

I brewed SheppyBrew's first ever pumpkin ale

Will-o'-Wisp Pumpkin Ale

I started super early, and was finished before 8:30AM. As a result, all my pictures of this brew day except one are with my crappy camera phone flash. I applogize for the lack of quality photographs. Not that they are all that great most of the time.

Brewing a pumpkin ale was a bit of a learning experience, but everything went great. 

I started out the brew-day by spreading my canned pumpkin onto a cookie sheet and baking it at 350 degrees. While the pumpkin was cooking, I got my mash going. I hit my temperature perfect, which is rare. 

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.

September Camping in RMNP

For quite awhile, we went camping in Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP) every year, but over the past few we have not been. Earlier this summer, our youngest child told us that he wanted to go camping there. My wife went online and was unable to get a spot reserved until mid-September, this past weekend.

When you commit yourself to camping in mid-September in Colorado, especially above 8,000 feet,  you are taking a risk. Weather may be awesome that time of year. Weather may be miserable. Last Friday in the Denver area it was miserable. I was worried but the Sheppy family doesn't let a little cloudy cold rain / snow mist affect our weekend plans. We had campsite reservations and we were going.

Hanging Lake

I mentioned in my last blog post (see Pictures Rescued from my Camera) that we spent Labor Day weekend in Glenwood Springs.

We had a great time. The weekend went way too fast. But then, they always do, don't they?

One of the things we did while in the area is that we hiked up to Hanging Lake. If you have never been, it is an absolutely gorgeous spot. You should try to visit if you get a chance, but make sure you get to the trail head early. The parking lot gets full.

Here are some pictures.

Pictures Rescued from my Camera

So, our family camera is not real fancy, but it works for us. Quite often now-a-days we end up leaving it behind and simply using our cell phones to take pictures, but it still seems right to have a "real" digital camera.

I was thinking about moving pictures from the camera SD card onto our computer this morning when I remembered that there were a few photos still "trapped" on the camera's internal memory. To be honest, I'm not sure how this happened since we always have the SD card in, but somehow it did.

I thought I would get those off.

Brewing the 2014 X-Mas Ale

It does seem a bit early in the year, but I decided to brew SheppyBrew's 2014 X-Mas Ale this past Sunday.

Every year since I started brewing way back in 2009, I've done an X-Mas Ale. Each year it has been a little different. The base beer has been pretty consistent, but I always add spices or other flavorings to the beer to give it a festive character.

You can look at all the X-Mas Ales together on the SheppyBrew Website for an idea what spices/flavorings have been used (see X-Mas Ales 2009 - 2014).

An Update on my Travel Bugs

I am fascinated with Travel Bugs.

You probably know this, but just in case, a Travel Bug is a type of geocaching "trackable". Basically, it is sort of like a game piece. The bug is a tag attached to an object that travels from cache to cache.You can read more about these little hitchhikers at Geocaching 101.

So, it is cool to me that you can easily look and see where a travel bug has gone.

Brew Day for Near-Sighted Swine

So, if you read this blog or follow me  on untappd or follow me on twitter or like SheppyBrew's facebook page, you probably know that I like IPA's.

I don't, however, make a lot of IPA's. Really, it is because I like so many beer styles that I don't get around to it very often.

On #IPA Day, I mentioned that I would be brewing an IPA (see #IPADay Announcement: Near-Sighted-Swine).

My 2012 Zymurgy List included Russian River's Blind Pig IPA, which I figured I would not ever be able to get. Russian River beers are extremely over-hyped .... errrr ... popular and it is very hard to pick any of them up here in Denver. Fortuitously, a local pizza place / craft beer bar had some the very day we ate there (see Blind Pig at Parry's Pizza). That year, there was a Blind Pig clone recipe in Zymurgy. Before finding the beer at Parry's I thought maybe I would make the clone and count that as my taste of the beer.

WY3711, The Real Super Yeast

SheppyBrew's newest beer is Hail Storm Summer Saison.

If you are familiar at all with the Saison style of beer, you know that one of its very critical characteristics is that it should finish very dry. From the great Brewing Classic Styles, "the most common mistake for this style is not getting a dry enough finish. In order to get the beer to finish dry, the recipe must have a considerable amount of simple sugars."

One of the reasons that it took me so long to brew a Saison is that I have heard that many of the Saison yeasts available for homebrewers are very finicky and often stall way before they fully attenuate.

My First Multi-Cache

If you follow this blog, you know that our family is into geocaching. Usually, it is an activity that I do with the kids, but fairly often I'll go off and do it on my own. I hate to admit that. I'm sure it makes me some sort of geek. It is fun for me, though, and sometimes it is something I do when I am on my own. Judge me if you must. It is just how I am.

Biking and Hiking and Geocaching and Canoeing

Busy day Friday.

We had decided to visit our friends in Breckenridge this weekend, and I took a PTO day.

Early in the morning, sometime before dawn, I grabbed some stuff, put my mountain bike on the back of the minivan, and headed up to Mt. Falcon Open Space Park.

There were a couple geocaches that I thought I would like to pick up. One is a multi-stage cache that I had begun a week or so before.

A.L.S. #IceBucketChallenge

My wife was challenged by her niece (see link on youtube: #IceBucketChallenge Tracy).

Then, she challenged me. (see link on youtube: Eric's #IceBucketChallenge)

And I challenged my son (see link on youtube: Tyler #IceBucketChallenge)

and ... it goes on and on and on and on.

To learn more about the Ice Bucket Challenge, go to: http://www.alsa.org/news/archive/als-ice-bucket-challenge.html. To make a donation go to: http://www.ethnomedicine.org/

August Backpacking Trip Part 3

Hopefully you've seen August Backpacking Trip Part 1and August Backpacking Trip Part 2. This is the third and final post of this series. Feel free to go back and check out 1 & 2.

I got up earlier than the rest of the family and did some climbing. The views were absolutely spectacular. The light juxtaposed with the shadow of areas where the sun had not cleared the mountains was awesome.

August Backpacking Trip Part 2

A couple of days ago, I posted August Backpacking Trip Part 1. Now, it is time to continue the story.

We woke up pretty early (but not too early) the next day. The sky was very blue with no clouds. 

August Backpacking Trip Part 1

Not this past weekend, but the before it, we packed stuff on our backs and headed out into the Lost Creek Wilderness. Yes, this is the same place we always go backpacking. You might think it might get boring for us, but we discover new things every time we go, and it continues to be fun.

We do need to find another good spot for our family backpacking trips.

Hiking to Maxwell Falls

A couple of weeks ago, we decided to do a day-hike by Evergreen, CO up to a spot called Maxwell Falls. We did the "Lower Maxwell Falls Hike", the longest of the options on the webpage. Packed up a lunch and made a day of it.

It was really a great hike.

Here are some pictures:

#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.

#IPADay Announcement: Near-Sighted-Swine

I've mentioned this before, but shockingly SheppyBrew Brewery does not brew a lot of IPA's.

SheppyBrew's TommyHawk APA is actually technically an IPA, but I think it might be my only one. And, of course, its name still has "APA" in it as a tribute of where it came from.

I've brewed Black IPA's and West-Coast Reds, but those don't really count.

I think it is about time that I actually design and brew an IPA.

I've decided to call it "Near-Sighted Swine IPA" in honor of Russian River's Blind Pig IPA. It isn't a clone of the beer, just a tribute.

It isn't real high in alcohol or bitterness, but has quite a few late-addition hops and dry hops.

I am planning for this to be the next beer I brew. Stay tuned to read about brew day and how it ends up turning out.