2022 Thanksgiving Turkey

Since 2018, it has been my job to make the Thanksgiving turkeys.

I smoke them outside, which is delicious and also frees up the oven to help the wife planning various sides.

Plus, it's fun for me to do.

Win. Win. Win.

This year, of course, I did it again. My wife got me one of the supermarket frozen turkeys that are always on sale, and I started thawing it out the weekend before Thanksgiving.

Wednesday, I unwrapped the bird and put it in a beer brine made with salt, pepper, brown sugar, and my some extra Dudoc's Red IPA that I had in a growler.

The 3 B's

If you follow along on this blog at all, you quickly realize that most of my posts have something to do with BBQ, Beer (brewing), or Biking.

Quite a few mention two out of the three. Many combine all three.

BBQ, Beer, Biking

Just about every weekend I do at least one activity in each of those categories.

Sometimes when people ask me how my weekend went I just tell them ... "I did the 3 B's".

If it's the first time I've mentioned it to someone, I have to explain, but after that first time, it's never a surprise.

I guess you'd have to say those are my three biggest hobbies. I can also say that during the whole craziness of Covid lockdown, those were big parts of what kept me sane.

L is for Little Dry Creek Brewery

It is amazing to think that the Beer Model and I are already on "L" for this round of our little  A to Z Denver Breweries project.

The wife keeps forcing me out to the breweries.

We posted A is for A Bit Twisted Brewpub in June ... only 5 months ago.

K is for Knuckle Puck Brewery Kombucha & Beer appeared about a week ago.

If my quick math is correct, that's over 2 new breweries visited per month. Crazy!

Regardless, the letter L comes after the letter K, so we needed an "L" brewery.

There are actually a ton of breweries that start with the letter "L" in our area.

Merican Lagers head to head

I don't know if I "said it out loud" on this blog, but I've been wanting to compare my Mr. Awesome Merican Lager to my Jethro Bud Nelson Merican Lite Lager.

They were certainly designed to be different, but I was curious to see how much.

K is for Knuckle Puck Brewery Kombucha & Beer

If you've been following my A to Z Denver Breweries series of posts, you know that I recently posted J is for Jade Mountain Brewery and Teahouse.

That means, of course, that we had to find a "K" brewery next for our 4th round.

In round 1, we visited K is for Kokopelli Beer Company.

In round 2, we visited K is for Kitchen, Lowdown Brewery +.

In round 3, K is for Kettle, Copper Brewing Company.

According to the Colorado Brewery Map & List, we had a couple choices for round 4, but nothing particularly close. So we had to travel a bit for ...

K is for Knuckle Puck Brewery Kombucha & Beer

Riding in the November Cold

I cycled over 110 miles in the cold this weekend. Each day I started early in the morning with the temperatures close to 20F.

Had to rely on my winter "kit" to keep me warm, and even so, my fingers and toes got cold.

But, even so, the rides were fun.

I passed my #5000MilesIn2022 goal early in October, and am now working on completing the #10Everestsin2022 goal.

Sunday I got in another Metric Century to keep my #MetricCenturyEveryMonth goal alive.

According to Strava, I only need about 8000 feet to get to 29,032 for the year. 

2022 Learn to Homebrew Day

This past Saturday was the AHA's Learn to Homebrew day.

You might remember this from previous years, but my homebrewing friends "Doc" and "Du" and I try to get together a few times a year to brew together.

Learn to Homebrew Day and Big Brew Day are always great excuses to get together.

The AHA always posts a recipe for these national brewing days. The one they posted for Saturday was LTHD22 Hoppy Amber Ale.

While I don't ever actually use the AHA's recipes, their Hoppy Amber Ale, inspired me to come up with a recipe for a Hoppy Red Ale (aka Red IPA). 

Back in the day, I was a great fan of this style. Remember such classic beers as Quarter Life Crisis and Pompously Illegitimate Red Ale.

Wien Zerschlagen (Batch 323)

I brewed my 7th lager of the year last Sunday.

My 19th batch of beer this year (20th if you count the double bath of McShepardSons Irish Ale as two batches).

Officially, it was the 323rd batch of beer I brewed since I started way back in 2009.

If you've been following along on this blog for the last year or so ... you might have noticed my infatuation with the Vienna Malt from Root Shoot Malting.

Root Shoot is a Colorado malting company, so I've tried to use it quite a bit for the various Colorado Strong beers I've brewed.

The Root Shoot Vienna Malt is darker in color and (in my humble opinion) more rich in flavor than other Vienna Malts.

I feel like it is pretty unique and I use it quite a bit in beers whenever I get my malts from the Brew Hut.

No Pumpkins were harmed in the brewing of this beer

I brewed an Autumn Ale last Sunday.

No pumpkin or pumpkin spice was harmed in the brewing of this beer.

My wife (aka the SheppyBrew Beer Model) told me earlier that she didn't want to brew a pumpkin ale this year.

I'm not sure if it was because she didn't like the last one I made or if she got sick of me bitching that the pumpkin spice ale lasted from September to March last time I brewed it.

Regardless, I don't have a problem not brewing a pumpkin spice beer. In fact, I prefer it.

I do really like the name, though. And, I actually have always thought the base beer of my pumpkin beer is really good.

Will-o-Wisp Autumn Ale (no pumpkin)

J is for Jade Mountain Brewery and Teahouse

Well ... if you read I is for {"Immersion Brewing","Immigrant Son Brewery","Independence Brewing","Independent Brewing Company","Insight Brewing Company","Ivanhoe Park Brewing Company"} ... you know we cheated a little on the "I" brewery of our A to Z Denver Breweries series of posts.

Shameless.

We need to get our "J" brewery posted so we can get the taste of that unfortunate post out of our figurative mouths.

I'm glad to say that we actually had a couple of good local brewery choices for our "J" brewery.

Last weekend the SheppyBrew Beer Model (aka my wife) and I played Pickle Ball, and then we headed out to lunch at a brewery ...

J is for Jade Mountain Brewery and Teahouse

I is for {"Immersion Brewing","Immigrant Son Brewery","Independence Brewing","Independent Brewing Company","Insight Brewing Company","Ivanhoe Park Brewing Company"}

If you're following along on this round of the A to Z Denver Breweries series of posts, you know that we recently checked "H" off the list.

H is for Holidaily Brewing Company (DTC)

If you're familiar with the English alphabet, you realize that next up is "I".

In previous rounds ... "I" has an interesting history to the posts.

The first time through the list, we did I is for IronWorks Brewery and Pub. At the time, it was the only "I" brewery I could find in the Denver area.

By the time we got to round 2, Iron Works had closed, but another "I" brewery had popped up, and we did I is for [The] Intrepid Sojourner Beer Project.

When we got to round 3, Intrepid Sojourner had closed and we headed down to Castle Rock for I is for Iron Mule Brewery.

Thankfully, Iron Mule hasn't closed, but we don't have any more local "I" breweries.

#5000MilesIn2022

On Wednesday October 5th, I passed my Strava goal of cycling 5000 miles in 2022 on a bike ride home from work.

Since then, I've increased my Strava goal to 6000 miles for the year.

The weather is starting to get colder, so I probably won't ride quite as much over the last few months of they year, but an extra 1000 miles shouldn't be too difficult.

As I type this, I still need 753 miles, and I'm 496 ahead of plan to reach it.

I need 26,388 to reach my #10EverestsIn2022 goal. With 2 and a half months left in the year, that should be even more of a sure thing than the mileage goal.

2022 #GABF Pictures

As you saw if you follow SheppyBrew on Instagram or Facebook, the Beer Model and I attended the Great American Beer Festival last weekend.

If you have been following this blog for awhile, you know that we attend the GABF just about every year.

It is always in Denver and as a member of the American Homebrewers Association, I'm allowed to buy tickets before the general public. 

And it is fun, so the Beer Model and I make the effort to get there.

See Sheppy's Blog: GABF to see all the blog posts I've done.

Of course, we have not been since 2019, because it was cancelled due to the Covid pandemic.

We attended the Friday night session and the Saturday "brewers only" session again this year.

H is for Holidaily Brewing Company (DTC)

Fairly recently, I posted G is for Golden City Brewery, and if you're familiar with the A to Z Series of posts on this blog, you know I now have to find and type up something on an "H" brewery.

In the G post ... I wrote:

According to the Colorado Brewery Map & List, there are a bunch of "H' breweries in Colorado. However of the ones close to us, we've covered them already. I'm not sure where we'll end up ... but we'll come up with something.

Last time through the alphabet, I used H is for Holidaily Brewing Company.

Somehow I missed it, but my wife (aka the SheppyBrew Beer Model) pointed out that Holidaily Brewing Company opened a second location. 

I didn't have a better idea for our H brewery ... so ...

H is for Holidaily Brewing Company (DTC)

Mr. Awesome Merican Lager (Batch 321)

Recently, I brewed Jethro Bud Nelson Merican Lite Lager for the second time (see Jethro Bud Nelson (Batch 319)).

For whatever reason ... I've been into Craft American Lagers recently. It seems to be a trend ... and I am following along.

Last time I brewed Jethro Bud Nelson, I didn't get to drink much of it. I took the beer to a family vacation at the Lake of the Ozarks and the family there finished off the keg in a couple of days.

So ... I knew I was going to brew it again sooner rather than later.

As I was Drinking my Merican Lite Lager, I noted that it would be great to have it on tap at the same time as my "Merican Premium Lager" ....

Mr. Awesome Merican Lager

Last Saturday, I kegged the Jethro Bud Nelson, and last Sunday I brewed Mr. Awesome, so I should get the chance to try these two beers side-by-side.

2022 Q3 (and 2) SheppyBrew Stats

Well ... crap ... here it is the end of Q3 ... and I just realized I never reported on SheppyBrew's 2nd Quarter.

Oh well.

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.

You just will not see one for 2022 Q2. I think this is the first quarter I missed since I started doing these updates.

Must be getting old.

So ... just a quick update on the 2nd quarter ... I brewed 5 batches of beer for 26 gallons. There were 2 new recipes during that time, and I brewed 2 lagers.

Colorado Vienna Lager

 

Falling Leaves Autumn Saison (Batch 320)

As you know if you've been following along,  I've been pretty busy cycling over September.

But, of course live goes on. Here it already is ... Autumn.

And at the SheppyBrew Brewery ... Autumn means it is time to brew up one of my Seasonal Saisons ... Falling Leaves Autumn Saison.

2022 is the 9th year I've brewed this beer. 

That last sentence sort of blows my mind away ... where did the time go? I still sort of consider my idea of Seasonal Saisons a newish thing ... but 9 Autumn Saisons says otherwise.

Anyway, last Sunday (not yesterday, the one before that), I brewed up 

Falling Leaves Autumn Saison

As with most of my saisons, I got started the night before and did an overnight mash. I figure saisons are supposed to be dry, so the long mash with temperatures on the lower side of the beta amylase range make the overnight mash perfect.

#1000MileSeptember

If you follow me at all on this blog or facebook or instagram .. you know that I've been participating in the Great Cycle Challenge all last month.

I've pledged to ride September to raise money and awareness for the Children's Cancer Research Fund.

https://greatcyclechallenge.com/Riders/EricShepard

 

G is for Golden City Brewery

Well ... you probably know that I've been doing a ton of riding for the Great Cycle Challenge this month.

If you follow me on Instagram, you might have noticed that last Saturday, I passed up my 1000 mile September.

If you paid attention to Saturday's Instagram post, you also noticed which "G" brewery we picked.

I started off the morning with a 57 mile ride (see #GCCUSA2022 Ride #32), which actually got me over the 1000 mile September.

When I returned, my wife (aka the SheppyBrew Beer Model) wanted to go on a bike ride too.

So ... we headed out on a ride together (see #GCCUSA2022 Ride #33), and headed out to our "G" brewery.

G is for Golden City Brewery

Jethro Bud Nelson (Batch 319)

I took a little "break" Sunday from all my GCC Riding (sort of).

I had a blood donation in the morning, and so I decided that I would not be doing anything long.

Since I had not brewed in awhile ... last time was August 28th (see Brian Phelps Pale Ale (Batch 318)) ... I thought it would be a good idea to brew beer on a weekend day on which I was not riding a bunch.

So ... I brewed Sunday.

The beer I brewed was one that I brewed earlier in the year ...

I really enjoyed this light refreshing lager ... and my wife's family drank most of it 

Jethro Bud Nelson Merican Lite Lager