Whisky Wife Wheat

One of my very first beers was named Whisky Wife Wheat.  It turned out well.  It was a nice light American Wheat beer.

The next time I brewed it, I changed the recipe to make it more of a German Hefeweizen.  That beer turned out well too.

But, I got to thinking that really something named after my wife (Whisky Wife ... the Sheppy Brew beer model), should be a bit more Blue Moonish in its flavor character, so the 3rd time I made it, I used a Witbier yeast and some coriander and orange peel along with a healthy dose of flaked oats (oatmeal for most of you).  3rd time was a charm, because Whisky Wife Wheat II is absolutely worthy of the name.  Its silky smooth light slightly oat - wheat flavor with just enough orange coming through is really a nice summer, blue-moon-type beer.

Just because I had some Mr. Beer wheat ingredients, I made another Whisky Wife Wheat with the Witbier yeast and orange with corriander.  On this one, I over-did the orange peel, and it really does not have the nice smoothness that comes with the flaked oats, but it is still a nice light summer orange beer if you are in the right mood.

The beer on the left is Whisky Wife Wheat.  The beer on the right is Whisky Wife Wheat II.  II is better, but I is not bad either.  II is the recipe that I am going to follow whenever I brew a Whisky Wife Wheat.

Tiny bear

This morning, I was in the bathroom taking vitamins when a tiny little bear wandered through our bed room into our bathroom and growled at me. Then, it turned around, climbed on our bed and made a growl that I could have sworn sounded like "I'm going to eat you".  Of course, I must have been hearing things ... because bears can't talk.  Besides, my wife just sort of laughed.  I do not think she would have done that if a bear (no matter how tiny) had just said something like that.


Later, in the kitchen, the bear had gotten into some waffles.  Not sure how he got them out of the freezer and into the toaster, but he did.  Apparently a very talented bear.


I took a picture with my camera.  Not a great photo ... but it is all I have.

Dragon Spit and Moose Drool

Recently, I brewed up my world-famous Dragon Spit Brown Ale and Dragon Spit II Brown Ale very close together.  Dragon Spit was one of my very successful recipes that used a Mr. Beer HME as a base.  Dragon Spit II was my attempt to recreate it without using Mr. Beer ingredients.

Sunday, I tried them side-by-side.  Just for the fun of it, I also added in a bottle of Big Sky Brewing Company's Moose Drool to compare how a commercial example of the American Brown Ale (Moose Drool is listed in the guidelines as one of the commercial examples).  Of course, I knew my beers would not really be the same as Moose Drool ... they use cinnamon for goodness sake, but it was interesting to do the comparison.

Dragon Spit I and II are very close.  For some reason, DSI has a lot more cinnamon flavor than DSII.  Probably too much.  Moose drool is more malty and has a noticeable roasted barley (coffee-like) flavor.  Even without the cinnamon, the Sheppy Brew beers have more hop flavors, and less of the rich malty character.  My beer model and I decided we liked Dragon Spit II the best, and Moose Drool came in third. 

I did decide that I will be retiring Dragon Spit I.  Next time I brew Dragon Spit II, I think I will cut down on the cinnamon.  I will add just a touch of roasted barley to get the flavor more inline with a brown ale.  I'm also going to change the yeast to Fermentis S-04 to accentuate the malts just a bit.  And, it will most likely be another all-grain batch.

I have no idea when the next Dragon Spit Brown Ale will make it into the brewing schedule.

I have to get my Rocktoberfest Lager going.  I promised myself I'd make Stone Soup IDA ASAP.  I really would like to get all-grain batches of Phat & Tyred Ale and Blackhawk Black Ale brewed.  There are a few new things I'd like to try soon (Breasty Bimbo Blonde Ale, Fox Sox Knox Rye Pale Ale, a new version of Eric's Red Ale, and a few others).  I probably should brew some Wetta Blonde Ale just to have some on-hand for the light-beer drinkers during the Thanksgiving / Christmas season.  Oh, and somehow I have to get time to make another X-Mas Ale.  And right now, my beer fridge is full, and I am pretty low on bottles.

So, it will probably be awhile before I am able to brew Dragon Spit again.

Geneva Park Campground

We went camping this past weekend at Geneva Park Campground, which is one of the campgrounds along Guanella Pass Road.  It was a pretty nice campground.  We had fun there.

Saturday, we drove up to the top of the pass, way up above the timber line.  We hiked up there for a few hours.

Daddy ended up carrying each of the boys.  He is either getting too old or the kids are getting too big.  Maybe both.

This photo (right above) is as high as we got.  I do not know the elevation, but it was pretty high.

For lunch, we came back down and hiked on the Mt. Bierstadt trail for a little while until we came across this little area by a little mountain lake.

After a few hours above timber line, we came back down and rested ...

... and played a bit.

The boys and Daddy went hunting large, dangerous game.  You can see the boys fighting off vicious attacks from wild animals while Daddy videos.

The boys took care of setting up the wood for the campfire.

It rained pretty hard on us, but we kept the fire going and stayed under the canopy as needed.

It was a great trip.  We'll have to go back to Geneva Park again sometime.

Riding the light rail

Late after the Rockies game riding the light rail.

Rockies game

We got some tickets to tonight's game. Row 9 from the field. I have never been this close at a professional baseball game.

The way the Rockies played makes me hesitate to call it professional.

The kids got to bed pretty late. Hope they get up ok tomorrow.

Girly berry

This past weekend, I was drinking one of my latest batch of Girly Berry Ale, and really thought it looked nice in the sun.

The picture does not really do it justice.  It is a beautiful blond ale. Light golden malts balanced with saaz and pearle hops. Yeast esters combined with the hops give this a subtle fruity taste. Nicely carbonated. Bubbles constantly to the end of glass.

Light crisp refreshing. Nice beer.

Mowing

Tyler expressed an interest in earning some money, so I let him mow our lawn for $5. He did pretty well for his first time.

Not sure he is quite ready for this to be his job, though.

AG Brew day

Well ...yesterday, on the way home, I stopped by my LHBS and purchased ingredients for my first all grain batch.  I decided to go with Buckwheat's BPA as my first attempt.

Today I brewed it up using my new mash tun and Bayou Classic propane burner.

The first step was to preheat the mash tun. I used about 3 gallons of boiling water to accomplish this.

Next, I heated up about 6.5 quarts of mash water to a little over 160F. I put this in the tun (after emptying the preheat water). Then, I poured all the grain on top of the water, and mixed it all together. My target temp was 150, and my thermometer said 150. Not bad.

Then, I let the mash sit for about 75 minutes. During that time, I poured myself and drank a Buckwheat BPA (from the last time I made it). Really enjoyed it. I also hydrated my yeast and started getting Rutt ready for fermenting (yes, I named my fermentors ... You have a problem with that?).

About an hour into it, I heated up my sparge water to around 170. I also checked the temp again. Still right at 150. I am happy about that.

Once the 75 minutes was up, I sparged and collected the wort. I eyeballed the water amounts on two sparges. Seems to have worked out.

After the second sparge, I started my boil. Even though I used fermcap, I got a little boil-over. Think maybe I need a bigger pot. The propane burner sure puts out more heat than the stove top.

The rest of the boil went pretty much as planned. Hops at 60. Irish moss at 15. Yeast nuitrient at 10. More hops at 5. Had a 90 minute IPA and read a little while waiting.

After the boil, I did my ice bath outside as well.

Filled Rutt. Put downstairs. Now I just have to wait for the yeasties to do their thing.

One thing I should note:  my mashing efficiency was horrible.  I was hoping for 70% (which is not that great) and only got about 61%.  I overfilled my fermenter a little, and the boil-over didn't help, so I figure the efficiency was not quite as bad as I saw, but still not great.

I will need to get that number up quite a bit to make this process "worth it".  One thing I forgot to do was stir in the sparge water and let it soak for a few minutes before draining.  So, I should be able to increase my efficiency next time just because I'll have a better process.  BUT ... I also think maybe I can improve the equipment a bit.  I won't go into details on that right now.

All-in-all I am pretty pleased with the way things went.  I do enjoy brewing outside.  I think my wife probably likes it as well as some of my later stages would have been during the time she was making dinner (tacos ... yum).  So, we were not getting into each others' way.

scooter

Con Con on the scooter.

Cascadian Dark Ale

Exciting news!  Well, not new news for beer geeks and readers of BYO (are there non-Beer-Geek readers of BYO?  ... I don't think so) .

A new beer style has been created!  Wooo Hooo!

BYO talks about it in Marc Martin's article Birth of a New Style: Cascadian Dark Ale.  I do not care much for the name, and apparently it has been "changed" to "American-Style India Black Ale".  "American-Style India Black Ale" is a better name, but I do not know why they don't just call it what home-brewers have been calling it:  Black IPA or Imperial Black IPA.  The BJCP doesn't update its guidelines every year, but I suppose it will be category 10D whenever the next publish date comes around.

In case you are not a beer geek enough to follow the link above, but still care enough to know, the numbers around the new style are:
Color = 30+ SRM
Original gravity = 1.060–1.080
Final gravity = 1.010–1.016
Bitterness = 50–90 IBU
Alcohol by volume = 6.0–8.5% 
The important distinguishing factor between a hoppy porter or stout is IPA-like hops in both flavor and aroma.

My Stone Soup IDA falls right into this new category, except I probably don't quite have a dark enough color, and I guess my FG is not quite low enough.  Personally, I think my IDA looks black, so maybe my SRM calculation is off.  I still consider mine in category.  Of course, when I created Stone Soup, there was no "American-Style India Black Ale", so I just called it a Category 23:  Specialty Beer .  Now there are guidelines, I can adjust color and work on my attenuation to get things right in line.  Although, perhaps, I would rather just keep it as is.  It is SOOOOOO good.

I've been telling myself for quite some time that I need to brew up another Stone Soup batch, but now that I have a category to shoot for, I'll have to make the extra effort to "make it happen".

Followers

I just noticed today that I have 10.  Yes, count them, 10 followers of my blog.  And only one of those is a family member.  9 are people I do not even know (at least I do not recognize any of their user names).

I have no idea if these people actually read my blog on a regular basis, but they must have come across it at least once and thought it was interesting enough to "follow".

Had no idea I was so popular.

All Grain Brewing

Sheppy Brew just made its first home-made Mash Tun.  I based it mostly on the plans posted on homebrewtalk.com:  Homemade Mash Tun Design.  My Tun is 5 gallons instead of 10, and probably as a result of that, I needed additional washers to take up enough space to tighten the ball value assembly sufficiently to prevent leaks. 

Now I can brew "All Grain" batches.  Real brewing snobs will tell you that if I was not doing all-grain until now, I have not been a real brewer.  I disagree with those people, but that doesn't really matter.  Now, I am an "All Grain Brewer".  Of course, I am still using Mr. Beer fermenters, there are probably still brewing geeks who will say I am not a real brewer.  Those people are just ignorant and wrong, so don't listen to them.

In case you don't know... mashing is the process that converts the starches in malted grains to sugars.  When you use extracts to brew, that process has already been done for you.  When you do a partial or full mash, you let the enzymes in the malted grain take of it.  It is pretty simple.  I do a single infusion mash, which means basically I add hot water to the grain and let it sit for an hour (give or take).  The reason that my mash tun was made out of a cooler is so that the hot water will stay hot for the right amount of time.  Once the mashing is done, you can remove the sugars by doing one or more "sparges", which is basically rinsing the mash with more hot water, collecting the sugars as it passes through.  Mashing and sparging can be a complex subject, but those are the basics.

Really all there is to my mash tun is a water cooler with a modified value for easier drainage of the wort.  It also has a piece that strains out the grains from the collected wort.

I do not know why I've waited so long to make a mash tun and make the "jump" to All-Grain.  Most of my favorite home brews have been partial mashes.  A partial mash is basically mashing part of your fermentables and using extract to fill in the rest of the fermentables.  So, really a partial mash is the same time / effort as a full mash, but high-level brewing snobs make fun of you because you are not "All Grain".  Actually, no one ever makes fun of me directly for not being an All-Grain brewer.  The only All-Grain brewers I know are either too nice (and /or not as ignorant as the high-level brewing snobs out there) or are the guys (or girls) who work in the LBHS's and want me to buy things from their shop.  There is a much higher margin on extracts, so I bet most of my LBHS buddies would rather I continue to use extracts... especially since I made my mash tun instead of buying it from them.  Anyway, whether or not anyone has made fun of me to my face, I do know that there are people who think you are not a "real" brewer unless you do All Grain.

The main advantage of doing All-Grain (other than the fact that you get ridiculed less by other brewers) is that buying enough grain to make a batch of beer is less expensive than buying the extract needed to make the same amount of beer.  Some people will tell you that All-Grain gives you better tasting beers.  I do not know about that necessarily, but we'll see.  Like I mentioned above, my best beers have been partial mash, so maybe a full mash will indeed give me even better beers.

I also recently purchased a Bayou Classic SP10 High-Pressure Outdoor Gas Cooker.  With this, I'll be able to do my boils outside rather than in the kitchen.  It will keep the inside a bit cooler and keep me out of the way when my wife is trying to make lunch or some other womanly kitchen activity.  Theoretically,  it will boil faster and will allow me to boil higher volumes of water than the stove.  That is not a critical factor right now, but if I ever move up to bigger batches, it will make a world of difference.

Stay tuned ... I'll let you know when I actually get to use my new brewing equipment.

Summer Sunday

I am sitting outside on my patio a beautiful hot summer late afternoon, listening to music. Almost supper time.

I am in the shade of our big backyard tree with a nice breeze blowing through. I'm enjoying a SheppyBrew (Blackhawk Black) as the aroma of grilling T-bone steaks floats around me.

I am not sure what else I could ask for.

Denver Zoo

We went to the zoo last weekend.

2nd Quarter Stats

Well ... here it is, the end of another quarter for the SheppyBrew Nano Brewery.  At the end of March, I published some of my brewing statistics for the 1st quarter of 2010.  Here is a quick run-down of how things are going after the 2nd quarter:

• 2010:  I have mixed 18 batches of beer.  I am still on pace for 36 batches this year.  (should be around 81 gallons)
  In 2009, I brewed 29 batches of beer.
  
  
• 2010:  I have brewed 15 different recipes.  9 of these are brand new to 2010.
  2009:  I had 18 completely different recipes.
  
  
• 2010:  I've done 1 lager.  It was a success, and I will be doing another one which I will probably start in August.  It is going to be an Oktoberfest lager.  I'm going to call it Rocktoberfest II.
  2009:  All my beers were ales.
  
  
• 2010:  All my beers so far have still been Sheppy Brew recipes.
  2009:  26 were Sheppy Brew recipes.
  
  
• 2010:  100% (so far) have been good, very good, great, or oh-my-god fantastic.
  2009:  93% were been good, very good, great, or oh-my-god fantastic.
  
  
• 2010:  9 batches have been partial mashes.
  2009:  I did 3 partial mashes.
  
  
• 2010:  13 batches have had no Mr. Beer ingredients.
  2009:  6 batches had no Mr. Beer ingredients.

One thing I have started doing is replacing Mr. Beer recipes with recipes that I came up with on my own.   Whisky Wife Wheat was a beer I made in 2009, and replaced it recently with Whisky Wife Wheat II.  And, currently both in the fermenters are both Dragon Spit Brown Ale (which was a favorite of mine in 2009) and Dragon Spit Brown Ale II.  I also formulated a new version of Tommy Hawk APA without any Mr. Beer ingredients, which I enjoyed quite a bit during the BlackHawks' quest for the Stanley Cup this year.  I still have quite a few Mr. Beer HME / UME combos that I will try to brew up next to Sheppy Brew originals so that I can compare the results side-by-side.

The Beer Model has a new favorite:  Buckwheat's BPA, which is probably going to have to be brewed up very often to keep up with demand.  I'm not sure why Tracy likes it so much.  It really is more of something I would think I would like (which I do).  Usually, if Tracy really likes a beer, I think it is good, but not great.  This is a rare beer that we both think is great.  I've already brewed this up twice in 2010.  It is probably the only beer I've ever made exactly the same twice without any tweaking of the recipe.

I also have a new favorite.  Well, I guess I have a couple of new favorites:  Quarter Life Crisis and Stone Soup IDA are both wonderfully extremely hoppy creations that have the malty backbones to combine into real beer-lovers' treats.  These were both beers that were brewed in the first quarter, although I did not taste Stone Soup IDA until April.  I've done Quarter Life Crisis twice so far this year, and will probably do another Stone Soup IDA soon.

Yes, I do realize that none of this is very interesting to very many people out there, but it does interest me.  It is fun to look back and remember what I have done.  Anyway, that is all for now.  I'll keep you posted on what is going on in the Sheppy Brew Nano Brewery (even if you don't care).

Chore

Here is Connor doing one of Tyler's chores because he "likes to vacuum".   Don't worry, I found other things for Tyler to do.  (FaceBook readers will have to go out to My Blog to see this video).

I do not know if you remember this blog post:  Extra Kids where Connor and his friend David told me that doing dishes was "the funnest thing ever".

Obviously, Connor does not get this attitude from his Dad.

Best Beers in America II

So, just a couple days ago, I posted that The AHA recently posted their 2010 Zymurgy Best Beers In America Poll, and that I had not had very many of them.

Since then, I stopped at the liquor store.  I wanted to buy Russian River Pliny the Elder (#1 on the list), but I could not find it.  Disappointing.  Instead, I picked up  Arrogant Bastard and Dogfish Head's 90 minute IPA.  So, now I've tried 3 of the top 5.  I've had 4 of the top 10, and 10 on the list.  I'll feel pretty good about myself if I can taste 5 or 10 more on the list.

Both  Arrogant Bastard and Dogfish Head's 90 minute IPA are fine beers.  Of course, neither of these are locally brewed, so they are pretty expensive.  I do not know for sure, but I assume if I were in a more local liquor store to either of these, they would be fresher than the beer I got.

Personally, for the cost, I would just as soon drink a local Imperial IPA as I would the 90 minute.  I do not think it is any better than the New Belgium Ranger IPA, for example.  It very well could change my opinion if I were to get one fresh out of the brewery, but Delaware is a long way from Colorado, so my Colorado beers are going to be fresher than anything I'll drink from Dogfish Head.  IPA is not really my preferred style of beer anyway.  Because of that, I do not really have one of my beers to compare to the 90 minute IPA.

Arrogant Bastard is a very interesting beer.  To me, it tastes like a more bitter, less hoppy version of the SheppyBrew Quarter Life Crisis, which is a beer style that I really do like.  And yes, as arrogant as it might sound, I like my beer better than I like Arrogant Bastard.  Again, freshness might be a factor in the "sample" I got.  Plus, I think it is somewhat human nature to prefer something that I, a home-brewer, created over another beer.  That being said, if you were to offer me an Arrogant Bastard, I would not hesitate to accept.  The beer is deep red in color, and aggressively bitter throughout the drink.  It has a nice malty / caramelly background with a healthy dose of American citrusy and piney hops and maybe just a touch of roasted malts.  It is really what I would call the perfect combination of flavors ... except mine just blends them better (IMAO).

Anyway... there you go.  I am on my way to trying more of the best beers in America.

USA

See the big flag Tyler made.


Reminds me of something cute that Connor did.  Last time we watched Miracle (which I have decided is the best sports movie of all time) during the Semi-finals game vs the Soviet Union, Connor asked us to stop the movie.  He ran upstairs and got a little American flag.  During the rest of the movie, he waved his flag and chanted "U S A".  Its real easy to get into that part of the movie.

Cable TV

Well, I've done it.

I've decided to drop cable TV for the summer.  I'm not going to replace it with anything until October (hockey season).  The over-the-air digital channels will do me just fine until then.  I have to return the DVR, but after that, I will be down to only the 15 or so channels I can get through an antenna.

When hockey season comes around, I'll get whatever service gives me the best option for the most Blackhawk games in HD (hopefully for the best price).

One thing that was sort of frustrating about my deal with Comcast is that phone service, internet service, and TV service are "bundled", so I never really knew how much I was paying for any individual piece.  But, a nice customer service lady helped me figure that out today.  She even helpfully suggested downgrade options that might work better for me than just dropping my service completely.  Such a nice lady.  In the end, though, we decided (mostly me  ... I think she still had her doubts that I really wanted to do this ... ) that completely dropping TV was the best option for me.

I'm not going to share with you the staggering amount of money I was spending on TV a month.  I'm a bit ashamed by it ... although if you have cable or satellite TV (especially if you are adding on HD), you are probably paying pretty much the same.  If I figure out how much I'm paying per hour of TV actually watched, the figure is even more embarrassing.  I wish I would have done this right after the Hawks won the cup.

Anyway, if you are visiting me this summer, and expecting to watch TV, your selection of channels is going to be greatly reduced.  Make sure you bring a book or a laptop or some other form of personal entertainment with you.

Best Beers in America

The AHA recently posted their 2010 Zymurgy Best Beers In America Poll. 

#1 is Russian River Pliny the Elder.  I've never had it.

In fact, I am ashamed to say that out of the top 5, the only one I've had is Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. 

Out of the top 10, I've only had 2.  Out of the whole list (top 50), I've only had 8.

As a home-brewer, I have a responsibility to at least taste a higher number of the top beers in America ... don't you think?  I do believe that I had better go out and get a few of these top beers and make myself drink them.

It will be a sacrifice, but I will force myself to perform this duty.

Weird Kids

My kids got hold of the digital camera and shot a series of videos.

This was the weirdest one.  In case you cannot tell, it is captain underpants spinning round and round and round.  If you don't know who captain underpants is, consider yourself lucky.  Although, I do prefer CU to Sponge Bob.

If you are a facebook reader, you'll have to go to blog.ericshepard.com to see the video.

Tra la la

Captain underpants!

My Brush with Fame

Do you know who I sat next to on my flight home Friday?  Do you?  Do you?

I sat next to Erin Glass on the way home from TN.  Can you believe it?

It is possible you do not know who Erin Glass actually is.  Erin Glass is the one and only wife of the one and only ... wait for it ... wait for it ... Gary Glass.  Can you believe it?  Yes, the one and only wife of the one and only Gary Glass sat next to me on the flight home from TN.  How cool is that?

And, yes, it is possible that some of you do not know who Gary Glass is either (other than being the one and only husband of the one and only Erin Glass).  I suppose he is probably not even the only Gary Glass in the world.  Perhaps Erin is not the only Erin Glass in the world either.

So, for those of you who do not know, Gary Glass (at least the one married to Erin, the lady who sat next to me on the way home from TN) is the Director of the American Homebrewers Association (AHA).  You're pretty jealous, aren't you?

Erin is actually a high-ranking member of the AHA as well.  The Contact Us Page on the AHA website lists her as the Brewers Association Membership Coordinator & Brewery Detective.  She told me one thing she does at the AHA is work with homebrewers who want to go that next step to actually starting up a commercial brew pub or microbrewery.   I'm sure she does many other fun beer-related things on a daily basis.  Sounds like a fun job to me.

The reason that Erin Glass, one and only wife of the one and only director of the AHA, was traveling back from TN was because she took her very small (and very cute) daughter to visit family while Gary was up in MN for the National Homebrewers Conference.  The very small child was not very happy most of the trip, and Erin spent most of the first hour apologizing to me about the loudness of her daughter's cries.  I kept telling her not to worry about it.  It was not that long ago that my children were that small, and I totally understand how hard it can be.  The poor mother ordered some wine, which was a mistake, as most of it ended up spilled.  I, of course, ordered a beer.  And, she mentioned that usually she would have ordered beer as well, but really was not wild about the choices on the flight.  It came out that I homebrew and then she mentioned who she was and we had something to talk about for a few minutes while both her daughter, and my 5-year-old finally slept.

She, of course, knows most of the big-shots in home brewing.  She told me what a nice guy Jamil Zainasheff, author of Brewing Classic Styles: 80 Winning Recipes Anyone Can Brew, is.  I, of course, have Jamil to thank quite a bit for my Quarter Life Crisis and my Buckwheat's Belgium Pale Ale. She told me that Charles Papazian, author of The Complete Joy of Homebrewing, is still pretty much a stove-top brewer (which sort of surprises me).  Apparently, Charles has a new daughter as well.  And, of course, she knows John Palmer (How to Brew: Everything You Need To Know To Brew Beer Right The First Time) as well.  I'm sure she knows other big shot authors in the homebrewing world, but those were the ones she mentioned.

Erin also told me I should join the AHA, and that I should attend the NHC in San Diego next year. 

Anyway, that was my brush with fame for the weekend.  It was nice to talk beer on the way home for a few minutes.

Sugar Free Honey

Making beer is a pretty easy process.  Yeast does all the hard work.  Yeast eat sugars (mostly from malted barley mashed to convert its starches to sugars).  The main waste product from eating all those sugars is alcohol.  Yes, yeast eat sugar and poop alcohol.

Another important byproduct of this process is carbon dioxide.  Most home-brewers rely on this carbon dioxide to carbonate their beers.  When I bottle my beer, I add some more sugar and let the yeast eat that up ... voila ... the little yeasties burp up just enough CO2  to dissolve into my beer and I've got carbonation.  Most commercial breweries and some home-brewers carbonate in other ways.  When you let the yeasties do it for you, it is called "natural carbonation".

Well, in my Whisky Wife Wheat beer, the sugars that I use to feed my little beasties come from honey.  Or at least, that is the plan.  When I was getting close to bottling time, I was in my local super walmart and grabbed a little bottle of honey.  I'm not that picky about the type of honey, so I just grabbed what was the least expensive per once.  Did not really look at it.

When I bottle my beer, I almost always do 2 or 3 liter PET (plastic) bottles and the rest in 12oz recycled glass beer bottles.  The nice thing about the PET bottles are that they firm up as the yeasties carbonate the beer, so you know that the process is progressing.

This time, though, my PET bottles were not firming up at all.  This has never happened to me.  I figured my yeast had gotten lazy, so I sort of shook all the bottles to maybe get the little guys working again.  But, after about 10 days, still nothing.  I assumed my yeast must have completely died for whatever reason.  So, my plan was to prepare a yeast slurry and re-open all the bottles, added a couple of drops per bottle.

For some reason, before I did this, I took a look at the bottle of honey.  Right there on the front were the words "Sugar Free Honey".  I turned the bottle over, and the nutritional information on the back confirmed:  Sugars ... 0 grams. 

What!?!  Ok ... I probably should have at least looked at the honey before buying it, but sugar free honey?  I do not know how a beer keeper teaches his bees to make honey with no sugars in it.  I do not want to know.  I do not even really know why anyone would want honey with 0 sugars of any type in it.  I thought honey was a healthy processed-sugar substitute.  Is the really honey?  Do bees make this stuff?  Again, I do not really want to know.

It is lucky that I looked, because the fix I was going to attempt (more yeast) would not have helped at all.  More yeast with nothing to eat will not burp any more CO2 than my existing yeast could with nothing to eat.  I ended up opening up all the bottles and added table sugar to each one.  My existing yeasties attacked that sugar and when I left for the TRASH reunion, the PET bottles were firming up nicely.

So, I guess there is a lesson in there somewhere.  My home-brewing blog-readers will probably check their honey now to make sure it is not sugar-free.  I suppose my non-home-brewing blog-readers might also check.

By the train

2010 Champions

What a goal!

Chelsea Dagger

I listened to this a lot last night... never really paid attention to the words before.  Here they are:

Well you must be a girl with shoes like that
She said you know me well
I seen you and little Steven and Joanna
Round the back of my hotel oh yeah

Someone said you was asking after me
But I know you best as a blagger
I said tell me your name is it sweet?
She said my boy it's dagger oh yeah

I was good she was hot
Stealin' everything she got
I was bold she was over the worst of it
Gave me gear thank you dear bring yer sister over here
Let her dance with me just for the hell of it

Well you must be a boy with bones like that
She said you got me wrong
I would've sold them to you
If I could've just have kept the last of my clothes on oh yeah

Call me up take me down with you
When you go I could be your regular belle
And I'll dance for little steven and Joanna
Round the back of my hotel oh yeah

I was good she was hot
Stealin everything she got
I was bold she was over the worst of it
Gave me gear thank you dear bring yer sister over here
Let her dance with me just for the hell of it

Chelsea Chelsea I believe when your dancing
Slowly sucking your sleeve
The boys get lonely after you leave
It's one for the Dagger and another for the one you believe!

Chelsea I believe when your dancing
Slowly sucking your sleeve
The boys get lonely after you leave
It's one for the Dagger, another for the one you believe!

49 years

Until young Mr. Kane scored that goal last night, I had been waiting 49 years to see the Blackhawks win the cup.

Well, I was not born until 1970, so I had only really been waiting 40 years.

Well, I never followed the hawks until Jr. High when my family moved to the far north suburbs of Chicago, so I have only really been waiting 28 years.

Those first few years, you probably could not even say I was a suffering fan, so lets call it 25 years that I have been waiting for the Blackhawks to win.  25 years is a long time, but not nearly as long as the Maple Leaf fans have been waiting (43 years) or even the St. Louis Blues or the L.A. Kings who entered the league in 1967 and never won the cup (I guess that is also 43 years).  Wow, I feel sorry for the fans of those teams.  It feels good to not have to have the longest drought anymore and be able to feel sorry for the others.

And we are not even going to mention the Cubs.

Before this year, the closest the Blackhawks came during my 25 years as a suffering fan, was in 1992 when the Evil Pittsburgh Penguins just destroyed the Mighty Blackhawks in a sweep.  I just looked back at the scores, and they were much closer than I had thought, but I am pretty sure I am remembering correctly that although there were a couple of one goal games in that series, the Blackhawks were not really close to winning any of those games.  That was really painful.  And, a few years later, the Blackhawks virtually disappeared for over a decade.  They were just so bad that it was almost impossible to follow them here in Colorado.  But, somehow recently, the front office got smart about signing great young talent and putting the right pieces in place to give the team a chance.

Last night they did it.  I'm very happy that it finally happened.

Feedback

I gave my friend, Woody, a 6 pack of Sheppy Brew for his birthday.  Actually, I guess technically, you would call him more of a boss, so you could say I was brown-nosing.

But, he gave me some very nice feedback on my beer.

The beers I gave him (in the order he ranked them) were:

1. Buckwheat's Belgium Pale Ale
2. Phat & Tyred Ale -- actually he called 2 and 3 a tie.
3. Tommy Hawk APA -- actually he called 2 and 3 a tie.
4. Blackhawk Black Ale
5. Monkish Wit
6. Tweedle Beetle Stout

Overall, he REALLY seemed to like 1 - 3.  Thought they were "great".  4 was good, but not as great as 1-3.  5 was ok.  6 he thought was bitter (which I translated to mean he did not really like it).

Considering how wide of a range there is in those beers, I am pretty pleased with 4 out of 6 greats or good.  Wits and Imperial Stouts certainly are not for everyone, so the fact that he didn't like them doesn't mean they are not good beers.  Tweedle Beetle Stout in particular is intense in the hops and dark roasted malts, and it is certainly not for the average beer drinker.

And, of course, if he is like me ... beer preference depends a bunch on what you feel like having.  Sometimes I feel like drinking ridiculously hoppy beers.  Sometimes I want a nice light blonde.  Sometimes I feel more like having a nice average amber.  I think most beer drinkers are like that.

Anyway, thanks to Mr. Woody for the feedback.

Lost Generation

This is better a bit bigger than it displays in my blog.  So, full screen it.

Those of you who read my blog via facebook can go to http://blog.ericshepard.com/2010/05/lost-generation.html

Buckwheat's Belgium Pale Ale

Recently (well .. relatively recently) I brewed Buckwheat's Belgium Pale Ale.  My wife picked out a recipe from Jamil Zainasheff's and John Palmer's book Brewing Classic Styles called "Antwerp Afternoon", and I scaled it down and modified it a bit based on some ingredient / process preferences I have developed.

In my humble opinion, the beer turned out great.  My wife says it is her favorite beer, so apparently she thinks it is pretty good as well.  It is a nicely balanced, clean tasting beer with a nice biscuit malt background.  I call it a little brother of my Phat & Tyred Ale.  It is very tasty.

I never had a Belgium Pale Ale before I tried mine.  But, since then, I have tried two beers that call themselves Belgium Pale Ales.  One is made by the Blue Moon Brewing company called Pale Moon.  The other was a seasonal brew at a local brew pub called C.B. & Potts.  Neither of these beers taste like mine.  They do not really taste like each other, either.  The Pale Moon tastes like maybe they included coriander and/or orange peel like a regular Blue Moon does.  The BPA at C.B. & Potts tasted like it had a similar grain bill and hop flavoring to mine, but it also had the funky yeasty flavor that I associate with Belgium wheat beers and / or Rye beers.  I think this is called a "Phenolic" taste.  If you have ever had a Mothership Wit from New Belgium Brewery, you probably know the taste I am talking about.  It is a taste I do not care for.  Apparently some people like it, because it comes through in lots of commercial beers I've had.  The BPA at C.B. & Potts had just a touch of it, not nearly as bad as many I've had, but I could detect it.  My wife's cousin (who was the one who actually ordered the beer) could detect it too (and liked it even less than I do).


So, I'm wondering ... since my Belgium Pale Ale tastes nothing like either of the commercial BPA's that I have had, is my BPA not really a BPA?  Of course, the two commercial examples I have had taste nothing like each other either. 

I suppose it doesn't really matter since I like the beer, and my wife likes the beer.  It is a beer that will not last very long.  I think what I am going to do is brew a double batch of Buckwheat's Belgium Pale Ale.  I'll split it into two fermenters.  In one, I'll use the same yeast I used for my first batch.  For the other, I'll use a more traditional Belgium-like yeast.  The key will be to make sure I keep the fermentation cold over the first couple days so that the phenolics don't come through too strong.

Not sure when I'll get a chance to try this.  My next batch will be a Whisky Wife Wheat II and then I need to brew up Quarter Life Crisis and Stone Soup IDA again.  Maybe after those three brews I'll have an opening for the great BPA experiment.

1961

The Chicago Blackhawks have not won the Stanley cup since 1961. I was not alive in 1961. All but 6 teams in the NHL did not exist last time the Hawks won the cup. The fact that a team can go almost 50 years without winning is baffling to me. I'm sick of it. Its about time for them to get it done.

Of course, before they won it in 1997, the Red Wings had gone from 1955 without winning. The New York Rangers went from 1940 to 1994 without winning the cup. The Boston Bruins have not won since 1972.

I wonder what it is about the American members of the original 6 and their long droughts.

I am really hoping the Hawks make it to the finals and win it finally. If not, I hope they can win it before the Bruins.