May Update on 2025 Cycling Goals

I do quite a bit of cycling for a middle-aged couch potato.

With all the BBQ I make and eat, and all the beer I brew and drink, biking a ridiculous amount helps keep me somewhat in shape.

So ... I spend lots of time cycling around the foothills of Denver, which I always track on Strava.

Anyway ... as you may remember from 2025 Cycling Goals, I have 5 cycling goals this year:

#MetricCenturyEveryMonth / #8200MilesIn2025 / #16EverestsIn2025 / Triple Bypass Ride / #GCCUSA

M is for Moonlight Pizza & Brewpub

Here we are at "M" of Round 6 of the A to Z Series of Posts!

Half way through! Wow!

If you've been following along for awhile, you might remember that when I posted A to Z Denver Breweries Round 5, I wasn't sure we'd continue along on Round 6.

In fact, if it were up to me, we wouldn't have continued, but the Beer Model (aka my wife) did want to do it, and nothing rhymes with husband.

If you read L is for Littleton Brewing Company, you know that I wasn't sure what local "M" brewery we could use.

But as luck would have it, we headed up to Salida, Colorado for Memorial Day Weekend, which allowed us to have dinner at ...

M is for Moonlight Pizza & Brewpub

L is for Littleton Brewing Company

If you've been following along on this blog, you probably know that we've been working on round 6 of our A to Z series of posts.

If you have not been following along and have no idea what I mean by A to Z series of posts, feel free to check it out. It's not real difficult to get the gist.

We're visiting breweries, letting the alphabet guide us to which brewery we visit next.

As I mentioned in K is for Knotted Root Brewing Company, we needed a "L" brewery next, and I was pretty sure which one we'd hit.

According to the Colorado Brewery Map & List, we had a few choices, but if you know the brewery scene in our area at all ... it comes as no surprise that ...

L is for Littleton Brewing Company

K is for Knotted Root Brewing Company

Here it is May already. We're getting close to being halfway done with 2025.

We're actually getting pretty close to half-way done with Round 6 of the A to Z series of posts as well.

We just started Round 6 late November last year with A is for Arms, Call To Brewing Company.

And ... 

Just a couple weeks ago we hit J is for Justice Lady Brewing.

Which means we had to find a good "K" brewery to visit.

While technically, we've hit all the "K" Denver-area breweries on the Colorado Brewery Map & List, there was a Nederland brewery I wanted to visit ... 

K is for Knotted Root Brewing Company

April Update on 2025 Cycling Goals

Soooo ... it wasn't until mid-march that I shared my 2025 Cycling Goals, and now it is already mid-May.

As always, I'm fairly certain very few people care. I might be the only one who reads through these, but I do like to have a record of my progress.

I'm sure next year sometime I'll read this and be glad I have it.

Anyway ... as you may remember from 2025 Cycling Goals, I have 5 goals:

#MetricCenturyEveryMonth / #8200MilesIn2025 / #16EverestsIn2025 / Triple Bypass Ride / #GCCUSA

What the hell is up with Oisin Owl?

I have a confession to make.

Quite often on this blog when I say that I ask ChatGPT something, I am lying. For the purposes of this blog, I lump all AI Chatbots together, and refer to them all as ChatGPT.

I actually use MS Copilot a lot more. But, still on this blog I refer to them as ChatGPT.

 

SheppyBrew's Biggest Big Beers

It is rare that SheppyBrew Home Brewery makes a "big", high alcohol beer.

By some standards, you might even say that SheppyBrew has never brewed a big beer.

Generally, my beers are in the 4 - 6% ABV range. Sometimes I go a little higher. But, not very often at all.

For me, two of the beers I have on tap right now Kemosabe Quad and King Fergus Wee Heavy are high abv beers at 8.5% and 8%.

 

Big Brew Day ... Halfway to Helles (Batch 375)

It was the American Homebrew Association's annual Big Brew Day this past Saturday.

If you follow along on this blog, you may remember that Big Brew Day is quite often a day that the Beer Model and I brew with one or more our homebrewing friends "Du" and "Doc".

But, "Du" recently moved out of state and "Doc" was busy doing something else this year. So, the Beer Model and I did a brew day all by ourselves.

I had a Pork Butt thawed, and we decided to make a feast even though it was just the two of us.

If you are a regular on this blog, and were paying attention to the Roll-a-Style posts, you might actually have a guess as to which beer recipe we brewed:

Halfway to Helles Leichtbier

King Fergus Wee Heavy

Category: Strong Scotch Ale (Wee Heavy)  
Brewer: SheppyBrew Home Brewery
ABV: 8%  
IBU: 21.6  
SRM: 15.3  

Appearance: 
King Fergus Wee Heavy showcases a deep mahogany hue with ruby highlights. It pours with a creamy tan head that may not persist but leaves behind elegant legs on the glass.

Aroma:
Richly malty with a strong caramel component. Subtle smoky notes add complexity, while low to moderate esters suggest hints of dried fruit like plums or raisins.

Easter Ribeye Roast

I know that it has already been awhile, but I did holiday cooking on Easter.

Of course I did.

If you follow along at all on this blog, you know that Ribeye Roast is one of my favorite holiday meats.

As luck would have it, I had a Ribeye Roast vacuumed packed and waiting in the freezer. 

For whatever reason, we must have purchased extra last Christmas.

And ... that is what I cooked this past Easter.

The process is pretty much the same as always. I smoke the meat to a rare internal temperature. Then, I sear the roast for a bit to get a nice crust on the meat.

SheppyBrew Home Page

After doing the updates mentioned in New SheppyBrew Website, I had copilot rewrite my SheppyBrew Home page. 

To be honest, I can't decide if I like copilot's version better or not. 

Just in case I think I want to go back, I'm storing what it was before here. 

Let me know what you think. 

........

New SheppyBrew Website

I spent some time recently updating the SheppyBrew Website.

The tech stack used on the site was very out of date and making any code changes to the site was very difficult.

If you're a computer geek at all, you could probably tell with the use of .aspx pages, and the fact that it really was not great on smaller screens.

But, really the main reason I felt I had to get the thing updated was that my hosting company sent me an email letting me know that support for the version of .NET was being removed from their servers "sometime this quarter".

 

J is for Justice Lady Brewing

If you've been following along on this blog, you probably know that we've been working on round 6 of our A to Z series of posts.

Earlier this month, we posted H is for CHeluna Brewing Company.

If you're familiar with the A to Z concept or even just familiar with the English alphabet, you'd probably be expecting us to move on to "I" next.

"I" does indeed come immediately after "H", but we already did I is for Incantation Brewing, visiting Incantation on the very last day they were open.

So, in this case, we are now up to "J".

According to the Colorado Brewery Map & List, there was really just one logical choice ...

J is for Justice Lady Brewing

 

2025 Melting Stream Spring Saison (Batch 374)

Here it is mid-April already. Seems we just started Lent ... and now it is almost Easter.

The year is speeding by faster and faster.

Spring has sprung, which in Colorado means we get a few days of hot sunny weather followed by snow.

Lots of melting water. Mountain streams start to rush ...

I have not made a secret of the fact that I'm skipping (most of) the Seasonal beers this year so that I could concentrate on the Roll-a-Style List in order to make progress on my BJCP Goal.

However there was at least one Seasonal I actually wanted to make sure I brewed. The "April" Seasonal.

Melting Stream Spring Saison 

Roll-a-Style 3: 5A. German Leichtbier

If you follow this blog at all, you probably have read that I want to concentrate more on my BJCP Goal this year.

As of the time of this post, if I'm counting correctly, I've brewed 83 of the 108 styles in the 2021 BJCP Style Guidelines. Since the beginning of the year, I've already brewed 5 new BJCP styles (6 if you include Tasman Pilsner).

I have my Roll-a-Style list, which helps me keep track of styles that I still need to brew.

The idea is that I use a 20-sided online die to decide which style to brew next. However, sometimes, I have decided what I want to brew and "pretended" to roll the number I wanted to brew.

May is coming up, which would be a time to brew the "seasonal" Helles in a Hand Bock-sket, and I thought this year it would be fun to brew a lower ABV German Lager to replace the Hand Bock-sket beer.

The one lower ABV German Lager I still had on the list was 3, and I pretended to roll the online die ...

Ribs and Belgian Beers

I made some spare ribs a few weekends ago.

I have not really published many BBQ posts on this blog this year, and I took photos when I made the ribs. 

So I thought I might as well go ahead and share. 

My spare rib process has changed some over the years, but for the most part it remains basically the same.

I set up charcoal in sort of an ugly snake with chunks of (usually) hickory wood.

For a 6pm dinner, I'll aim to get the ribs on the kettle around 5pm.

I cook the ribs between 250 and 275 for between 2 and 3 hours ... usually closer to 3.

2025 Q1 SheppyBrew Stats

Here we are already in April. Time to report on the 2025 Q1 SheppyBrew Stats.

The year is flying by and I have brewed quite a bit so far this year. Last year was a down year for me, not even reaching the 100 gallons. 

This year so far my brewing rate is a bit faster; I'm on pace to reach over 110 gallons this year.

In Q1, I brewed 6 batches totaling 30 gallons.

My 6 batches were:

• Tasman Devil Pilsner
• Merida Scottish Ale
• Mardi Blonde
• Oisin Owl Irish Stout
• Kemosabe Quad
• King Fergus Wee Heavy

At the time of me typing this blog post, Merida is the only of these beers that I've finished. King Fergus is fermenting. Kemosabe Quad is aging and not in the beer fridge yet. 

King Fergus Wee Heavy (Batch 373)

I brewed a couple weekends ago ... the last Sunday of March.

I've been brewing quite a bit this year so far, but the last time before this one was Kemosabe Quad (Batch 372) at the beginning of the month.

I actually got ingredients for this beer the same time I got the ones for the Kemosabe Quad brew day.

So, the fact that I've had these grains for awhile and a couple days before, I killed the keg of Merida Scottish Ale, I thought I should get a brew day in.

If you follow along with this blog, you probably read Roll-a-Style 19: 17C. Wee Heavy and knew what was coming ...

King Fergus Wee Heavy

Kemosabe Quad: A Belgian Dark Strong Ale

Category: 26D. Belgian Dark Strong Ale
Brewer: SheppyBrew Home Brewery
ABV (Alcohol By Volume): 9%
IBU (International Bitterness Units): 25
SRM (Standard Reference Method): 16

Appearance: Pours a deep, dark mahogany with ruby highlights. A generous, creamy tan head crowns the beer, leaving intricate lacing as it slowly recedes. The beer's clarity is excellent despite its dark color, with a slight haze typical of the style.

Aroma: The aroma is rich and complex, featuring notes of dark fruit such as raisins, figs, and plums, intermingled with caramel, toffee, and molasses. Subtle hints of spice, clove, and mild phenolics from the Belgian yeast add depth. A faint earthy and floral hop presence is detectable, balancing the malt sweetness.

H is for CHeluna Brewing Company

Here it is April already. This year is just flying by.

It wasn't all that long ago that we posted G is for Great Divide Brewery & Roadhouse, Belmar.

Of course, as you know if you follow along on the A to Z series of posts on the blog, this meant that we need to figure out an "H" brewery to visit next.

I mentioned in G is for Great Divide Brewery that we were going to have to take "artistic license" in our "H" brewery.

There just are not any local breweries that start with the letter "H".

And ... the SheppyBrew Beer Model (aka my wife) was up to the challenge and was cleverly able to save the day with ....

H is for CHeluna Brewing Company