SheppyBrew's PBR

Remember in SheppyBrew 2018 Year-End Brewing Stats, I mentioned that I wanted to brew more new recipes in 2019?

Remember in SheppyBrew 2018 Year-End Brewing Stats, I mentioned that I wanted to brew more lagers in 2019?

So ... last weekend I brewed a beer that was both a new recipe and a lager.

Bam!

At first, I thought I was going to brew a Standard American Lager (BJCP Category 1B). This category call for using corn as an ingredient. I've brewed Popcorn Beers in the past, and I thought it would be fun to add popcorn to this one too.

For some reason, I thought it would be funny to make a beer name for which P.B.R. could be an acronym.

Popcorn was a great start for the "P".

It took me awhile, but eventually, it hit me that "Popcorn. Barley. Rye" would work for "P.B.R".

I already had Popcorn and Barley as part of the recipe. It certainly isn't difficult to add some Rye.

Voila ... I had the malt bill for my new lager.

Z is for Zuni Street Brewing Company

Z. I'm finally to Z. Hooray for me.

Yes, I am finally down to the last letter in my A to Z Denver Breweries series.

I bet for awhile there you probably never thought I'd get here.

Well, way back in February of 2015, I composed a list of Denver Breweries that I had never visited. I was embarrassed by the large number of breweries I had never been to, and decided to try to make an effort to get to more.

It struck me that most of the letters of the alphabet were covered by the beginning letters of the brewery names. I thought a fun way to get through a bunch of un-visited breweries was to start with A and work my way through Z.

If you follow this blog, you likely caught that I hit "Y" just a little while ago.

Now I'm at Z.

Z is for Zuni Street Brewing Company

X-Mas Ale Vertical Tasting

You may have gathered from Sheppy's Blog: X-Mas Ales that I brew a different X-Mas Ale every year.

I started this back in 2009, and have continued every year up to and including 2018.

I'm certain I'll brew a new X-Mas Ale recipe in 2019 as well.

Back when I first started and for several years thereafter, I bottled extra bottles that I let sit in the beer fridge for several years. The idea was to be able to perform vertical tastings of the various years.

Now that I keg everything, I have not been great at putting aside beers, but I still have quite a few left from 2011 through 2015.

Y is for Yak and Yeti Restaurant and Brewpub

Big Y little y. What begins with Y? Yak and Yeti Restaurant and Brewpub. Y. Y. Y.

Yes. I am finally down to the second to last letter in my A to Z Denver Breweries series.

What the hell am I talking about?

Well, way back in February of 2015, I composed a list of Denver Breweries that I had never visited. I was embarrassed by the large number of breweries I had never been to, and decided to try to make an effort to get to more.

It struck me that most of the letters of the alphabet were covered by the beginning letters of the brewery names. I thought a fun way to get through a bunch of un-visited breweries was to start with A and work my way through Z.

I started with A is for Alpine Dog Brewing Company

By the end of 2015, I had worked my way through G is for Great Frontier Brewing

I made great progress in 2016, getting to T is for TRVE Brewing Company before 2017 began.

2017 brought U is for Ursula Brewery, V is for Vine Street Pub and Brewery, and W is for Wits End Brewing Company.

Then I got lazy for over a year.

SheppyBrew 2018 Year-End Brewing Stats

The 2018 is over.

As you may know, the Brewery likes to post quarterly updates on how much we have brewed. You can see all these updates (including the one you are reading right now) by following this link: Sheppy's Blog: Brew Stats.

The forth quarter was light. We only brewed 3 beers.

• X-Mas Ale 2018
• Buckwheat's Belgium Pale Ale
• Resilience IPA Clone(ish)

Those 3 batches totaled 16 gallons of beer, bringing my 2018 total to 18 batches and 93 gallons brewed. Hooray ... I'm a legal homebrewer this year!

2018 X-Mas Ale

2019 Arctic Vortex Winter Saison

Here it is. Winter again.

Among other things, winter means that it is time to brew Arctic Vortex Winter Saison.

Yum!

As you probably know if you follow SheppyBrew Brewery, we brew at least 4 saisons every year.

Winter Spring Summer Autumn.

I call them my Seasonal Saison series of beers.

The Arctic Vortex Winter Saison happens to be a black saison, because winter is generally dark ... and it would be boring to make all my saisons look the same.

This weekend, I brewed this year's Arctic Vortex Winter Saison.

Christmas Ribeye Roast

As I mentioned in Double Smoked Ham, I had a couple of Christmas dinners to make this year. The first was the Sunday before Christmas with some family. I cooked that ham on my smoker.

The second was our family Christmas dinner. This one was a 6 lb Ribeye Roast that our local super market had on sale for Christmas.

I had never made a Ribeye Roast before this year. It really isn't difficult at all.

Pretty simple, really.

The night before, I trimmed a bit of the hard fat on the roast and applied Montreal Steak Seasoning over the whole thing. I let it sit in the fridge overnight.

Around 10 the next morning, I started up the smoker with charcoal and hickory chunks. I put the roast on the smoker in a roasting pan around 10:40.

Double Smoked Ham

Happy New Year!

Recently, we had a couple of Christmas Dinners that had to be prepared.

We had some family over to the house on the 23rd, and decided to do a Christmas dinner for them.

The kids wanted a ham.

We decided to cook it on the smoker. I had never done a ham before, and it provided extra oven space for other things.

To make things easier, we decided that I might as well just do a pre-cooked spiral cut ham.

As luck would have it, I had come across a recipe ... How To Smoke A Honeybaked Ham.

Smoked Pulled Pork Sandwiches

I didn't brew last weekend, but I did Barbecue.

Last time I got Pork Butt, they were on sale for 99 cents per pound. I got two and froze one of them for later.

I decided to cook it up last Sunday (12/16/2018).

As you may know, last Sunday was the big Bears vs. Packers game. The Bears won the game and the division.

I love to see the Packers lose. It is even better when the Bears do the beating. Of course, it has been a loooong time since that happened.

Hurray for the Bears!

Anyway ... I decided to smoke pork shoulder. Since it was frozen, I had to thaw it over the week before, so I was committed by the time Sunday got here.

Resilience IPA

As a general rule, I don't brew clone beers.

However, late in the year, the "Camp Fire" devastated Northern California and it hit close to home for Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. While the brewery was spared, many of Sierra Nevada’s employees, patrons and neighbors lost everything as the Camp Fire ravaged northern Californian.

To help raise much needed support for the recovery efforts, Sierra Nevada created a beer called Resilience IPA. Sierra Nevada, along with many of its professional brewing peers, brewed and sold Resilience IPA with all proceeds donated to the Sierra Nevada Camp Fire Relief Fund through Golden Valley Community Bank Foundation.

On the AHA Website, they posted a clone recipe for Sierra Nevada Resilience IPA, and wrote:

"It is our hope that homebrewers will make a batch of Resilience IPA in solidarity with Sierra Nevada and pro breweries across the country. While we can’t sell our creations and donate the proceeds, please consider donating to the Golden Valley Community Bank Foundation if you are able."

X is for WestFaX Brewing Company

Well ... Damn.

I was so close to finishing up my little A to Z Breweries project.

After V is for Vine Street Pub and Brewery, I cheated a little with "W is for Wits End Brewing Company" ... I only had X, Y, and Z left.

I even visited WestFaX Brewing Company back in the summer of 2017.

And then I just never finished up writing this post. After a few months, I thought that I should visit it again.

And then I forgot about the whole thing for awhile. I got lazy I guess.

Just in case you're new to this blog, and the concept of what I'm talking about ... check out Sheppy's Blog: A to Z ... I think you'll be able to figure out the concept. Pretty simple, I'm attempting to visit local breweries that I have not been to. I decided to go down the alphabet.

Cherry Wood Smoked Thanksgiving Turkey

Well ... as you know if you've been following this blog, I've taken up barbecue as a hobby.

My wife bought me a smoker as a gift last Christmas, and I've been using it pretty regularly.

One of the things I've really been looking forward to doing is smoking a Thanksgiving Turkey.

If you follow the SheppyBrew Instagram Feed or Facebook Page, you probably know that I did make our family's Thanksgiving Turkey this year on the Smoker.

If I'm honest, I was a bit nervous about doing it. I've never really smoked anything that big, and I certainly didn't want to screw it up.

I've done quite a few whole chickens, though, and a turkey is basically just a big chicken ... right?

As it turns out, it was great, so I was ok.

Learning to Homebrew

So ... Saturday, November 3 was the AHA's Learn to Homebrew Day.

My homebrewing friend, "Doc" invited me to his house to brew. You may remember that earlier in the year, I went to house for Big Brew Day (see Cinco de Bealtaine Irish Stout).

In addition to the two experienced homebrewers, there were a couple of people there to watch us, and a new homebrewer doing his first "real" homebrew batch.

Again, I packed up my brewing equipment and brought it "on the road". Again, it is a little awkward for me to do this.

I need a checklist.

But I was able to get enough of the stuff to Doc's house that I wasn't missing anything. The only thing I had to borrow from him was his wort chiller.

2018 X-Mas Ale and Tri-tips

So, I brewed my 2018 X-Mas Ale a couple Sundays ago.

As you may remember, every year I brew a different X-Mas Ale. You can read about most of them right here on Sheppy's Blog: X-Mas Ales.

They are all winter warmer base beers with various flavorings.

This year's version was designed to be slightly lighter in color.

The unique flavoring this year is Peanut Butter.

As you might have noticed over the years from my GABF posts, that my wife (aka the SheppyBrew Beer Model) really enjoys trying out Peanut Butter beers.

I've been surprised quite a few times since this year's GABF, when I mention peanut butter beers (or chocolate peanut butter beers) how surprised / disgusted people initially are.

2018 Q3 SheppyBrew Stats

The 3rd quarter is done.

As you may know, the Brewery likes to post quarterly updates on how much we have brewed. You can see all these updates (including the one you are reading right now) by following this link: Sheppy's Blog: Brew Stats.

Hail Storm Summer Saison brew day

2018 Falling Leaves Autumn Saison

On the last day of September, I brewed my 2018 version of Falling Leaves Autumn Saison.

Falling Leaves is, of course, the Autumn version of my Seasonal Saisons series of beers. It is darker in color than the Spring and Summer Saisons, but not as dark as the black Winter Saison.

Just for the fun of it, I threw some pumpkin in the recipe as well.

The beer is pretty interesting.

It gets most of its color from a Dark Munich malt from Gambrinus Malting Corporation. The malt flavor is heavily Munich breadiness, but it does have the distinct French Saison taste from the yeast and lots of late Saaz hops.

It is a delicious beer.

2018 #GABF Photos

Well, as you probably know, the SheppyBrew Beer Model and I go to the Great American Beer Festival almost every year.

Like last year, since I'm so far behind getting blog posts up, I won't say much about this year's except:

• It was fun as always
• The food trucks they had this year were much better food than the regular vendors
• I do not like Brut IPA's
• I do seem to like Milk Shake IPA's
• It didn't feel quite as crowded this year
• I really liked hitting the State Brewery Guilds.
• For the first time, I used the GABF Phone App to take notes, and it was much better than carrying pen and paper.
• Getting into the building was even a smoother process than in past years.

Scallywag Czech Dark Lager

Barbecue and Homebrew. Can you think of a better combination on a beautiful September afternoon?

I can't think of one.

Add in some football; it doesn't get much better than this.

I brewed and barbecued exactly two weeks ago today.

The homebrew of the day was a new SheppyBrew recipe called Scallywag Czech Dark Lager.

I'm not real familiar with the Czech Dark Lager style. It is there in the newest BJCP guidelines, but I don't think I've ever actually had one.

I am in love with Czech Pilsners (now referred to as Czech Pale Lagers in the BJCP Guidelines). I figured I would simple make my My Ello Poppet Czech Pilsner and add some color.

That is what I did.

Scallywag Czech Dark Lager

2018 Q2 SheppyBrew Stats

Ok. This is embarrassing.

We are only just now getting around to posting our 2nd quarter results. As I start to type this, the 3rd quarter is almost done. Like it ends tomorrow.

Embarrassing.

As you may know, the Brewery likes to post quarterly updates on how much we have brewed. You can see all these updates (including the one you are reading right now) by following this link: Sheppy's Blog: Brew Stats .

Anyway ...

We didn't brew a whole lot in the 2nd quarter.

The beers we brewed were:

• Sasquatch Hunter Altbier
• Cinco de Bealtaine Irish Stout
• Pomegranent Biker "Radler"

That is it. Only 3 batches. Only 15 gallons of beer.

2018 Will-o'-Wisp Pumpkin Ale

I have gotten bad at getting my blog posts out. This post should have been published at least 2 weeks ago.

But ... oh well ...

Here we go.

On Sunday, September 9 I brewed the 2018 Will-o'-Wisp Pumpkin Ale.

For some strange reason, my wife REALLY loves pumpkin spice beers.

That being the case, in 2014, I designed a pumpkin spice ale. And I brewed it.

Happy wife ... happy life ... right?

It is actually pretty good. The base beer is fantastic and the pumpkin spice is subtle enough that I can drink it, while still being present enough for my wife to enjoy the beer.

Only highly skilled brewing craft men can walk that fine line. Good thing I'm awesome like that.

Some people will tell you that you don't need pumpkin in a pumpkin spice ale. I disagree. So, I put pumpkin in.