Popcorn Beer #HomeBrew

A couple of nights ago, I was listening to The Brewing Network Sunday Session February 13, 2012 episode with Sun King Brewery. The main part of the show was a great interview with Clay Robinson who is one of the founders, owners, and brewers at Sun King Brewery of Indianapolis, Indiana.

Sun King won a ridiculous number of medals at the 2011 GABF. If my memory is correct, they got 4 golds, 3 silvers, and 1 bronze. Getting any kind of medal at the GABF is an amazing feat. Getting 4 golds is mind-blowing. Getting 8 medals is downright unbelievable.

If I have had any Sun King beer, it was at GABF. It doesn't appear in my notes, so if I had any I don't remember anything about it. I hope I remember to try to find it this year.

My favorite part of the interview was when Clay talked about their Popcorn Pilsner. If you download the episode from the link above, this part is at about the 1:42:20 mark of the pod-cast.

One of the ingredients used in Popcorn Pilsner is (are you ready for this?): Popcorn.

Brewing PIRA

Enzymes at work inside the mash tun

Well, as I mentioned a few days ago, I designed a recipe as a tribute to Stone's Arrogant Bastard and CYBI's attempt to clone the beer. If you don't remember, go ahead and read the blog post "Pompously Illegitimate Red Ale".

You can review the recipe on the "Pompously Illegitimate Red Ale" page. It is hoppy and pretty big. I should end up a little over 7% ABV with somewhere around 76 IBU.

Just a note ... I will probably abbreviate Pompously Illegitimate Red Ale as PIRA on this blog. Don't let that confuse you.

Today was nice and warm, but it was windy, so I did the brewing in the garage. Tyler had a sleep-over birthday party over the weekend, and Tracy left this morning to teach Sunday school, so technically I probably should have been watching the kids, I suppose. Nothing bad happened to them and none of the parents complained that I appeared to be neglecting their kids when they got picked up. Well, for the most part everyone picked up while the mash was going on, so they probably did not realize that I was neglecting their kids.

The kids were fine.

Pompously Illegitimate Red Ale

Arrogant Bastard
It is not a secret that I am a fan of Stone Brewing Company and their Arrogant Bastard Ale.

It is not just that I like to drink the beer (although I really do). Stone just has this in-your-face craft beer arrogant attitude. They know they brew great beer and they celebrate a snobbish attitude that not everyone is going to like their beer.

As they say right on their bottles and website:

This is an aggressive ale. You probably won’t like it. It is quite doubtful that you have the taste or sophistication to be able to appreciate an ale of this quality and depth. We would suggest that you stick to safer and more familiar territory–maybe something with a multi-million dollar ad campaign aimed at convincing you it’s made in a little brewery, or one that implies that their tasteless fizzy yellow beverage will give you more sex appeal. Perhaps you think multi-million dollar ad campaigns make things taste better. Perhaps you’re mouthing your words as you read this.

Isn't that cool? Call me a sucker for marketing if you want, but that description influences me want that beer. Seeing half-naked women in multimillion dollar BMC advertisements doesn't make be want a particular beer, but I have to admit that Greg Koch telling me that I am unworthy sort of does make me want to drink the Arrogant Bastard. Of course the fact that I love the beer's flavor profile doesn't hurt.

Blogging in Feb of 2012

Well, you all get your money back.

In My 500th Blog Post, I guaranteed that there is NO WAY February would break the page view record. I even said "If I'm lying, all my readers get all their money back for the month."

Leave a comment on this post and I promise that I will refund every dime you spent on admission to this blog in February.

Yes, much to my shock, February broke the page-view record. You would think that by now this would not surprise me anymore (but you would be wrong). I've lost track on how many months in a row this has happened. I am pretty sure it can't continue forever, but perhaps I am wrong. It still mystifies me that anyone looks at this blog.

Brewing Free the Glutens! again

You may recall that the Beer Model and I have a kid-swapping arrangement with another family. We take care of their two boys on weekends when the parents want to get away from the kids and they repay the favor by taking our two boys on other weekends.

The matriarch of this family (whom I have decided to name "Gretchen" on this blog and on the SheppyBrew website to protect the innocent) has a gluten sensitivity. This gluten intolerance sort of sucks (really really really sucks) as she likes to drink beer from time to time. After I rudely gave "Gretchen" and her husband beer as a thank-you after they had taken care of our boys over the 2011 GABF weekend, I decided to design and brew a gluten-free beer. I called it "Free the Glutens! APA".  You can read about it on this blog on the posts "Free the Glutens!" and "Tasting Free the Glutens".

Apparently "Gretchen" likes the Gluten-free beer. As I still had half the base ingredient (brown rice extract syrup) left, and "Gretchen's" birthday is coming up, I decided to make another batch this weekend.

Racking on Puree

So, as you may remember, SheppyBrew is brewing an Apricot Lovin' Wheat Ale (see Apricot Lovin' Brew Day if you want to refresh your memory).

My last real fruit beer was a failure. My fifth batch of beer in March of 2009 was called "Girly Berry" that I brewed with raspberry flavoring specifically for the Beer Model to enjoy. She didn't like it that much. After that batch, I changed the "Girly Berry" recipe by simply pulling out the fruit flavoring. The new non-fruit attempt turned out great, and so the subsequent batches of "Girly Berry" contained no fruit or fruit extract at all. 

This failure was early on in my brewing career, but I have just never had the desire to try another fruit beer. Recently, though, one of the Pastors at my church (who will forthwith be called "Chad" on this blog so I don't have to keep typing "one of the pastors at my church") requested an apricot wheat beer, and I decided to go ahead and give fruit beer brewing another try. For Apricot Lovin', though I got some recipe advice from my LHBS and Dry Dock Brewing Company, so I think I should be ok.

Part of the recipe / process is adding 3lbs of Apricot Puree to a secondary fermentor and racking the partially fermented beer on top of the fruit. I had already decided to get another carboy, and so brewing this beer was an excuse to use a gift card I had for an order to Northern Brewer. The order came in this week, and on Thursday I finally added the fruit into the new carboy and put the base beer on top of the fruit.

I tasted the flat base beer and thought it was great. I face-booked "Chad" that if the apricot ruins the beer he can expect a couple of cases.

I am planning on leaving the beer on the fruit for a couple weeks or so. If it turns out good, I'll let you know. If it turns out bad, Chad will get a bunch of beer.

Still More @Untappd Badges

Despite the fact that I am quite sure no one cares, I've been sharing the badges that I've earned on Untappd (see First Month of Untappd and Running for Mayor @BallyFitness , and Some more Badges @Untappd ). I am not sure what is wrong with me. I just don't have anything interesting or insightful to write, so I just post uninteresting drivel like this. Hope you don't mind too much.

Mayor @BallyFitness

Bow before me fitness minions!


Remember, I made it my mission to become the foursquare mayor at my health club? (see Running for Mayor @BallyFitness)

After 60 days, I was still 1 day away from becoming the mayor. Back in December when I started the quest, the target was 30 times in 60 days, but the mayor I was chasing must have stepped up his game. I had checked in 37 days, and was still a day away. Bummer. I should have forced myself to get there more of those early mornings when I stayed in bed.

Apricot Lovin' Brew Day

Sunday was another brew day for me. This time, I brewed the base beer of my Apricot Lovin' American Wheat. It might be a little early in the year to be brewing a fruity light colored beer, but that's ok.

At some point during the day, I realized that this is really the first fruit beer I've brewed since one of my greatest brewing failures: the first attempt of "Girly Berry". Hopefully this fruit beer will turn out better. I have actually used fruit (cherries) in some of my older X-Mas Ales, but I don't really consider those fruit beers because the fruit in those is subtle enough that the malts still dominate the flavors in those.

And why did I decide to brew a fruit beer? I first got the idea from one of the pastors at my church who wondered on my facebook wall if I could make a Pyramid Apricot Ale. Apparently, he had tasted some at a restaurant somewhere in the area and really liked it.

2012 Bigfoot Barleywine @SierraNevada

A few weeks ago I saw on my facebook news feed that Sierra Nevada was announcing that it had released its 2012 Bigfoot Barleywine and that I should be on the lookout for it as shipments made their way East. You may recall that Sierra Nevada Bigfoot Barleywine was on Zymury's list of the best beers in America, and that I am drinking my way through as many of those beers as I can. You can look at this blog's "Zymurgy BBIA" label to see what I wrote about my experiences with this list.

I called my friends at Davidson's Liquor store and asked if they knew when they would have Bigfoot on their shelves. The guy who answered apologetically told me that Sierra Nevada was not brewing a 2012 Bigfoot, and that Davidson would therefore unfortunately not be carrying it. Poor guy sounded pretty disappointed, and genuinely bummed out for me. 

I shared the good news from Sierra Nevada's facebook page, which cheered him up considerably. Apparently he and his roommate are big fans and his roommate had told him that Bigfoot had been replaced this year. He happily went off to ask the beer buying manager when we could expect the Bigfoot to come in. The buyer didn't know, so I said I would check back later.

This past week I checked back, and yes, 6 packs of Bigfoot were indeed in stock and ready for me to purchase. Wonderful.

Beervertising and Snow Sculptures

Remember that back in May I posted 5 youtube videos by Breckenridge Brewery? The "Truth in Beervertising" videos are funny commercials making fun of some of the advertising concepts of big beer companies.

If you don't remember, check them out.

• If you touch it and it's cold, then it's cold
• "Sevendruple-Hopped"
•  Lucky U IPA
• "Gravity activated pouring."
• One that ties all these truth in beervertising commercials together

Recently, Breckenridge Brewery posted 2 new to the series: http://www.breckbrew.com/videos:

Neil Zhang

I got an email (see below) from Neil Zhang of the Asian Domain Registration Service in china.

He is trying to scam me. I doubt the emailer is actually named Neil Zhang and I am almost positive that he doesn't work for the Asian Domain Registration Service in china. He is simply a Tweedle Beetle screwing with me. It is fine. I'm used to it.

In his email, he claims that some Asian company is trying to register "sheppybrew" as its "Net Brand", and has applied for a number of domain names such as sheppybrew.asia, sheppybrew.cn, etc ... (look below for the whole list). He is concerned that as I currently own the domain name "sheppybrew.com", I may not want this Asian company to pick up all those similar domains. He is giving me the opportunity to let him know that I did not authorize this Asian company to register the domains.

Avery Maharaja

Recently, I was at a local liquor store when I was pleasantly surprised to see a bomber of Avery Maharaja. For some reason, I was under the mistaken impression that the Maharaja was a spring seasonal, but here it is January (or at least it was January when I bought it) and I have some to try.

Maharaja is an Imperial India Pale Ale made by Avery Brewing Company from Boulder, Colorado making it one of my local beers on the 2011 Zymurgy Best Beers in America poll. Obviously, seeing it meant I had to have it. Luckily, my local liquor store was completely willing to sell me this bottle.

The Maharaja is part of Avery's "Dictator Series" of beers, which are all big imperial beers designed to bring you on a " trek further into the depths flavor" and "stretch the boundaries of what beer can be". This is the kind of stuff beer geeks like me just eat up. As an Imperial India Pale Ale, the beer is hoppy and bitter. Avery lists the IBUs at 102 and tells us that they use Simcoe, Columbus, Centennial and Chinook hops. Its OG is 1090 and its ABV is 10.24%. They tell us their malt bill is Two-row barley, caramel 120L, victory. They don't claim to be a balanced beer. They do claim to be a monster hop bomb that pushes the boundries of hop utilization.

My 500th Blog Post

This is my 500th Blog Post.

Impressed at the big number, aren't you?

I'm sure you're not.

Sheppy Birthday

I looked it up. "Venus" by Shocking Blue was the #1 song on the day I was born.

Today, I'm 42 years old. That means that my life is more than 26% over.

Going to have to brew some more Quarter Life Crisis just for the hell of it.

35 Best Bars in Denver

 I got an email from my Contact Me form.

The email was from an employee at 5280 Magazine letting me know that their February issue contained an article about "The 35 Best Bars in Denver". I forget where exactly I read about it, but I do think I knew about the article. Well, I know I must have read it from one of the Denver area beer bloggers. I just don't remember which blogger.

You'll have to read the article to get most of the content. I'm embarrassed to say that I've only been to three of the 35 bars. I'm going to get this issue of the magazine, so maybe I'll use the article as a check-list and attempt to get to some more of the bars.

Seriously? Why? (poison rationality)

I really have not been myself this past week. I think maybe the Tweedle Beetles are screwing with me again, but I can't quite figure out why or even exactly how.

Last Sunday morning (AKA Eric's Red brew day), started off with me feeling like I had come down with a minor cold. A few sniffles. Slightly sore throat. Nothing to be concerned about. Didn't keep me home from church. Didn't prevent me from brewing. No big deal.

The brew day went great (see Eric's Red brew day if you have not already). After clean-up and the AFC Championship game, I felt a little worse, but I was totally able to chalk that up to finding out that New England was going to another Superbowl (makes us all feel a bit sick, I'm sure).

Hopslam Ale

 It has been awhile since I've had any of the beers on my Best Beers in America List (see A couple more beers from my list for the last report on this blog.) I am lucky that my buddy Scott (whom I usually refer to as CrazyBrody) has been looking out for me. Do me a favor and check out his Homebrew Blog.

Bell's Brewery has recently released its annual Hopslam ale and Scott (who lives in the mid-West where it is possible to purchase beers from Bell's Brewery) knew that this was a beer on my list and offered to pick up a some Hopslams and UPS a couple of them to me. I accepted his offer, he was able to pick some up and get a couple of bottles out to me in a UPS package that also contained a couple of his own home-brewed "Nanci's Brown Ale" (which is a fantastic beer, by the way).

He got them to me last weekend, but it was not until today that I took the time to open one of the Hopslam bottles.

47 Pints @bonfilsdotorg

I gave my 47th pint of blood to Bonfils Blood Center today. This means that next time I give blood, I will get my 6 gallon pin. Since 2003, I have averaged giving blood more than 5 times a year, which is a pretty good since the absolute maximum that Bonfils will let me give blood is 6 times a year.

I happen to "like" the Bonfils Blood Center facebook page, and from time to time I'll see them post a picture of someone reaching some incredible milestone. I'm sure I'll get there eventually, but I am always impressed at the dedication of these people. According to Bonfils' website, Bonfils’ highest gallon donor has donated 75 gallons of blood or 600 pints, saving and enhancing nearly 1800 patients lives. Now, that is impressive!  Actually, I'm not sure the math works out on that.

Eric's Red brew day

So, you may remember that last weekend, I tried to brew Eric's Red Ale, but failed miserably. See Eric's Red Failure if you want to review. I do have almost 5 gallons of Red Failure fermenting right now. We'll have to see how it goes.

This past Thursday, I purchased ingredients for another batch. Saturday, I made another yeast starter. Sunday, I started brewing up my 2nd attempt in as many weeks. Things went better this time, although on Saturday I discovered that my hops were missing. Usually when I bring home my hops I put them either in the beer fridge or in the beer fridge's freezer as soon as I bring them home. I guess this time I set them on the kitchen counter for some reason. It took me awhile to track them down, but eventually I did. You would think that I'm too young to have senior moments like this, but you would be wrong.

Eric's Red failure

As planned (see Eric's Irish Red #HomeBrew), I had a brew day yesterday. It didn't go very well. It made my Worst brew day ever seem perfect. The experience of adjusting worst brew day ever was sort of fun. Yesterday was not fun at all.

Eric Shepard and the King of Beers

This morning, a co-worker sent out a link to this Denver Post article: Disagreement between Denver, Boston mayors comes to a head. Apparently, the Boston mayor called Colorado beers "weak".

He told a Boston Globe reporter, "We have the best. . . . Colorado Rocky beer? Uck."

I was asked if what the Boston mayor said offended me. The answer is No, not really. I can't be angry at someone who is as obviously completely beer-ignorant as the Boston mayor. If the mayor had talked to Jim Koch of Boston Beer company (who actually knows a little about good beer), he would know that Denver, Colorado is one of the (if not THE) craft beer centers of the world. People who know good beer consider the Denver area "the Napa Valley of Beer".

Wanna have some fun?

Ok ... do you want to have some fun?

Here is what to do:

Open this link in several browser windows:  http://blog.ericshepard.com/2011/08/little-lion-man.html

5 to 8 windows works out great.

This actually doesn't seem to work for me anymore in the newest version of firefox. At the time I'm typing this, it works in IE8, so you probably want to take this into account when choosing a browser.

There is a video of Little Lion Man by Mumford and Sons on that page.

Once you have 5 to 8 (or more if you want) browser windows open, start the video on the first window. Wait a couple seconds and start the video on browser window #2. Repeat this process until all the videos are running.

Listen and enjoy. Fun fun fun.

Personally, I think it sounds best on earphones. For the best results, have a few SheppyBrews before you do it. If you don't have SheppyBrew, another type of home-brew probably works almost as well. If you don't have home-brews, I suppose some other beer would work. If you don't have beer, just do it sober. I don't think it is something you can enjoy with wine or hard-liquor.

Happy New Year everyone!

Eric's Irish Red #HomeBrew

When I shared my latest brew day for Stone Soup (see Another batch of Stone Soup), I mentioned that my next batch was going to be Eric's Irish Red.

I've made 6 batches of beer called Eric's Red, making it one of the most brewed beers at SheppyBrew brewery. In fact, only Buckwheat's Belgium Pale Ale (brewed 9 times) and my world famous Phat & Tyred Amber Ale (brewed 7 times) have been brewed more. For a long time, I considered Eric's Red to be SheppyBrew's "flagship" beer. But, I have not brewed it in over a year. And, strangely, until recently I didn't even convert the recipe to all-grain. In fact, all the Eric's Red iterations so far have been based on Mr. Beer Bewitched Red HME with Mr. Beer Mellow Amber UME. Very old-school. I always intended it to be one of my first all-grain conversions. I just never got around to it .... until now.

Prohibition was Bad

I came across the graphic below because I subscribe to Drink with the Wench (see Prohibition Did What?: A Beer-Goggled Look at the Volstead Act of 1920).

I found the graphic informative, educational and entertaining enough to share with my readers as well. Thank goodness prohibition was long over by the time I was of drinking age.

Enjoy.

Some more Badges @Untappd

So, I've been sharing the badges that I've earned on Untappd (see First Month of Untappd and Running for Mayor @BallyFitness). I'm sure you're not all that interested in my badges, but it gives me a topic to add to my blog, so I'll tell you what I've earned since last time.

If nothing else, untappd has some really nice looking badges that you might not ever see if you are not using untappd yourself. I get a strange sense of satisfaction and excitement to "earning" the untappd badges. Yes, I realize it makes me a childish geek. I've come to terms with my immature nerdishness (in all kinds of areas) long ago.

2011 SheppyBrew Stats

So, here at the SheppyBrew home-brewery we are at the end of another quarter (and the end of another year). You know what that means, don't you? It is time for me to share some more of my brewing stats (see SheppyBrew 2009 Stats, 1st Quarter Stats, 2nd Quarter Stats, 3rd Quarter Stats, SheppyBrew 2010 Stats, 1st Quarter Brewing Stats, 2nd Quarter Brew Stats, SheppyBrew Stats Q3 2011).

So here we go ... for the 4th quarter of 2011:

• I brewed 5 batches. This puts me at 23 for 2011 compared to 33 batches in 2010.
• 3 of the 5 batches were brand new recipes. This means I brewed 10 new recipes in 2011 compared to 18 in 2010.
• I brewed almost 25 gallons of beer this quarter putting me at almost 98 gallons for the year. In 2010 I brewed about 76 gallons of beer.
• I brewed another lager, bringing me to 3 in 2011. That tops the 2 lagers I did last year.
• I didn't brew any batches with Mr. Beer ingredients this quarter. The total for 2011 is still 2. Last year, I did 9.
• One of my batches was an extract recipe making my total for the year 3. Last year, I did 14 extract batches.
• I brewed a partial mash this quarter, which is my 2nd for the entire year. Last year I did 9 partial mashes.
• 3 of my 4th quarter batches were all-grain bringing me to 18 all-grain batches for 2011. In 2010, I did 10 all-grain batches.
• I kegged 2 of the batches this quarter. This makes 8 batches kegged this year. Last year, obviously, I didn't keg anything.

December Bogging

December, 2011 is now the 8th month in a row of increased "page views" for this blog. I know I say this every month, but there is no way January will be able to continue the streak.

Over the past 30 days, the most viewed posts on this blog have been:

X-Mas Ale Verticle Tasting

Every year, (since way back in 2009 when I started home-brewing) SheppyBrew brewery brews an X-Mas Ale. Every year (since way back in 2009 when I started home-brewing) I get out a bottle of all the years' X-Mas ales and try them together. This year was no exception, although it did take me longer this year to get around to it. New Year's Eve (yes the very last day of the year).

X-Mas Ale left to right 2009, 2010, 2011.

So today, I poured an X-Mas Ale 2009, an X-Mas Ale 2010, and an X-Mas Ale 2011 from the SheppyBrew brewery.

Bowen Beer Bottle Band

Here is a little Christmas music for your entertainment.

The Bowen Beer Bottle Band performs using only beer bottles, where each band member is in charge of two notes. They are really good:

Some Christmas Videos

I shamelessly stole these from Blog About Beer.specifically from the article "Christmas Beer Commercials – 12 Days Of Christmas Fun – Day 6".

Please visit the blog and let Logan know I sent you. This will ease my guilt for being a shameless thief.

Mayor of SheppyBrew Brewery

So, remember I told you I had joined foursquare and decided I was making it my mission to become the mayor of something? I mentioned that the health club I go to is probably the best bet (see Running for Mayor @BallyFitness). Just so you know, I am totally on track to become mayor of my Bally Total Fitness club. I've checked into Bally 6 times in 8 days, so I'm on pace to overtake the current mayor easily in the next 60 days as he is averaging one check-in every two days (30 check-ins in a 60 day period). If my calculations are correct, and if I maintain this pace, I will get to 30 check-ins in about 32 days from today.

Turns out that I was forgetting someplace I go even more ... SheppyBrew Brewery.

The Beer Song

Recently, a guy I know was telling me what a wine-snob he is.

For some reason, this reminded me of the  Beer Song by ElbowSkin. I posted it before on this blog (see Interesting / Amusing "news"). The video made me LOL, and I really enjoy the tune as well. I think the video deserves to be posted again.




Beer Song by ElbowSkin from Alister Robbie on Vimeo.

Pale Ale

According to the BJCP, an American Pale Ale can have an SRM anywhere from 5-14.

This beer is a 5 SRM:

and these are almost 13:

My APA is somewhere in between at 10:

Wandering through Golden

Connor and I visited Golden, CO on Saturday.We just sort of wandered around through the down-town area. Here are some pictures.

Right in the down-town area of Golden is the Clear Creek History Park. The park consists of a bunch of old-time buildings representing what life would have been like in the old gold-rush days. It is sort of fun to walk around and look at the buildings.

Running for Mayor @BallyFitness

After using Untappd for a month, I shared the badges that I had "earned" (see First Month of Untappd). Since then, I decided to check out foursquare . Mostly because Untappd can share its check-ins with foursquare.

The first place I checked in was my health club Bally Total Fitness. When I checked in, foursquare told me that "the mayor" was currently there. Interestingly enough, I recognized the face, although I don't really know the guy. I might have said "hi" to him once or twice, but maybe not. Of course, I had no idea what being a fourquare mayor meant, but I knew I had to try to become the mayor of something.

Not that it is a competition

I mentioned last year what a loser I am. Last year, I was completely dominated by my sister (Mrs. Bluefield) in our unofficial monthly blog post "competition". In the article, I mentioned that as of December 2010, I had "won" 3 months during the year to her 8 months. We ended up in a tie in December, and I had to work really hard to scrap for the tie. She coasted through the month effortlessly.

Stouticus Chili - icus

The former CEO of the company that I formerly worked for announced last Wednesday:

"Because of Beth’s recent chili smack talk, we will have a Chili-icus Cook Off.  The competition will be Monday, December 12th.  All types of chili will be accepted (...even potentially lame white bean and chicken chili from Ariel…)."

I had the former CEO's chili before, and while it is a fine chili, I would not characterize it as spectacular in any way. It is strikingly mundane. Personally, out of all the chili I've had in the past year, I would rank his somewhere around the 45th percentile. (leave a comment if you come across this, Tim)

I had not made chili in awhile, but I knew that I can make better chili than the chili he has given me.

So, this weekend, I made some chili.

Another batch of Stone Soup

Last Wednesday, I asked on Facebook and Twitter:

Might #HomeBrew this weekend but don't know what. Irish red? Black IPA? Regular IPA? Belgium black specialty ale? What do you think?

I got a vote for Irish Red (which would have been my new recipe of Eric's Red), and I got two votes for Black IPA. Since I really could have gone either way (and my wife didn't chime in with her typical override power), I found myself at the Brew Hut Thursday grabbing the ingredients for my Stone Soup IDA.

When I told Jeff (one of the guys who works at the Brew Hut) the grain bill and he saw the hops I was grabbing, he recognized that I was making a Black IPA. He mentioned that he hadn't brewed a Black IPA in awhile and really needs to make one. I told him that I have been telling myself forever that I need to make this recipe, but just never get around to it. Too many other beers to brew. If you brew beer, you probably know the feeling. He certainly did.

More #RepealDay Info

I got an email from the Contact Me form from a person who read my Happy #RepealDay post. She referred me to an article on the accreditedonlinecolleges.org blog: "28 Facts You Should Toast Post-Repeal Day". It is an interesting list of beer (and other alcohol ... but the beer stuff interests me the most) related factoids and links to more information on each of the facts.

I found it interesting and informative. You should check out the whole list:

---EDIT 05/10/2013 --- I got an email from a guy at accreditedonlinecolleges.org telling me that the link would go away and that I should remove it from my blog. That was nice of him. Now that the link is going away I am copying / pasting the post here so you can look at it. Credit goes to accreditedonlinecolleges.org

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28 Facts You Should Toast Post-Repeal Day

For those who just can't wait until St. Patrick's Day to celebrate the joy and joy-ness that is alcohol, Repeal Day fell earlier this week. Celebrating the passing of the 21st Amendment, which overrode the 18th outlawing the distribution and production of alcoholic beverages, it also stands as a lovely little way for the particularly patriotic to recognize America's freedoms. Most appropriately, with a cocktail or two in hand.

1. Responsible alcohol intake may help bolster memory:

   When enjoyed in low or moderate amounts, University of Auckland researchers noted that alcohol can actually improve one's memory and cognitive abilities. Low or moderate being the operative words here – depending on weight, gender, genetics and overall health, this means no more than one to three beers daily.

2. Red wine might help treat cancer:

   Great news for oenophiles! Red wine contains reservatrol, an antioxidant Rochester University scientists discovered helps kills cancer cells when combined with irradiation. Although it can't be considered a definitive cure-all, this might very well make wine an important ally in prevention and treatment alike.

3. Responsible red wine drinking might improve overall heart health:

   Along with reservatrol, red wine also contains flavanoids, antioxidants which encourage healthier hearts. When combined with a regimen of exercise and nutritious diet, they increase HDL cholesterol (the good kind), reduce inflammation and thin the blood to prevent dangerous clots.

4. Low to moderate drinkers live longer lives:

   More than heavy drinkers to abusers, obviously, but they also fare better than their teetotaler peers! Not only do they enjoy a lessened risk of heart disease and cancer, dementia, Alzheimer's (thanks to the improved memory!), strokes, enlarged prostates and arthritis – among other conditions – occur at a lower rate as well. In fact, researchers at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism discovered that low to moderate drinkers had the lowest death rate of all causes than anyone else on the consumption spectrum.

5. Despite its high calorie content, alcohol doesn't result in significant weight gain:

   It seems bizarre and obviously counter to what one would assume, but this is a thing. Researchers can't exactly pinpoint the exact reason why the phenomenon of high-carb beverages resulting in minimal (if any) weight gain exists. Some theories think alcohol's increase of metabolism plays a role, while some think it discourages consumers from noshing on sugars. Although this doesn't explain away their compulsion towards beautifully greasy tacos once the bars close…

6. Intentionally fermented beverages date back to at least the Neolithic Era:

   Assuming brewing, fermenting and distilling aren't even older than researchers already know, intentionally created alcohol has been pleasuring and plaguing mankind since around 10,000 BCE. Stone Age mugs likely housed honey and/or berry-based beverages, which most believe originated as "happy little accidents."

7. The Ancient Chinese were the first to ferment wine:

   Hardly surprising, considering how they invented a myriad of other useful products still seeing action today, like paper, printing, fireworks, noodles and the like. University of Pennsylvania's Dr. Patrick McGovern and crew noted residue evidence of a wine brewed from honey, rice, and hawthorn fruit and/or grapes sticking to pottery dating back to 7000 to 6000 BCE. If his conjectures are correct, this means the earliest (currently) known, regularly consumed wine hails from Jiahu in the Henan Province.

8. Nobody's exactly sure how toasting started:

   Some say the ancient Greeks (or were they Romans?) dunked actual toast into their wine. Others think the tradition started as a way to test beverages for poison, making sure to clink glasses in a manner spilling drops into one another's cups. Just share any of the theories on Repeal Day. They're all pretty much equally viable these days.

9. Ancient Sumerians drank beer from straws:

   Long before the straws known and loved today – about 5,000 to 7,000 years ago, apparently. Using natural products, the ancient innovators enjoyed beers without accidentally ingesting the solids left over after brewing.

10. In ancient Greece, only men could participate in ritual wine drinking honoring Dionysus:

    Females, by contrast, held the exclusive privilege of maenadism. Neither ritual servicing the god of wine himself existed as the orgiastic, ecstatic rampages as depicted in the mass media. That would actually be the Romans and their Bacchanalia, which eventually grew so frenetic the government had to heavily restrict worship and laid waste to a goodly chunk of shrinage.

11. The word "alcohol" has medieval Latin and Arabic roots:

    Interestingly enough, it didn't start out describing intoxicating liquids, but rather cosmetics (Arabic), particularly those containing antimony (Latin). Alcohol (and al-kuhul) first appeared around the 1540s with this definition, eventually broadening to include any pure substance in the 1670s. The first known time "alcohol" as understood in today's English was 1753, referring to wine.

12. Weihenstephan Abbey is the world's oldest brewery in continuous operation:

    Nestled in the formerly eponymous Bavarian village (now known as Freising), the Weihenstephan Abbey houses Benedictine monks (not all Christians abstain!) keeping their beer brewing tradition alive longer than any other brewery in the world. These days, it touts its actual founding year as 1040, though references to receiving hops as tribute start in 768, and focuses mainly on producing lagers and wheat beers.

13. The tradition of smashing a bottle of champagne during a ship christening ceremony began in the late nineteenth century:

    Christenings themselves actually date back to ancient times, but the first recorded instances of champagne's use in the proceedings happened on November 18, 1890. Then-Secretary of the Navy Benjamin P. Tracy's granddaughter shattered a bottle of bubbly against the first American steel battleship, Maine.

14. The world's oldest known alcohol was consumed in 2010:

    And it only took 200 years! South of Aaland in the Baltic Sea, divers stumbled across a shipwreck with 168 champagne bottles and an unknown amount of beer. They handed it over to a sommelier. Then they totally drank it. Apparently the booze, which kept nice and cool at the bottom of the ocean, tasted just as fresh as it would have back in the 1830s when it was originally whipped up.

15. Henri IV Dudognon Heritage is, for now, the most expensive bottle of booze on the planet:

    A bottle of this cognac, manufactured in France since 1776, will only set buyers back about $2 million. #OccupyLiquorCabinet, anyone?

16. American homebrewing likely started around 1587:

    Obviously, if not before. 1587 merely marks the first known homebrewed beer in the United States. Whipped up in the Virginia colonies, it was likely made with corn rather than the hops American beer is mostly known for today.

17. Even at a time when homebrewing could land producers in prison, A Treatise on Lager Beers sold over a hundred thousand copies:

    Despite stern cover warnings about the illegal nature of homebrewing, Fred Eckhert's 1970 manifesto praised the practice, offering up instructions, recipes, and welcome relief from the same old swill. About 110,000 copies of this self-published, now classic, read sold and required seven printings to meet demand.

18. The Maltose Falcons hold the distinction of being the United States' oldest homebrew club:

    Among others, including California's Homebrew Club of the Year winner in 2010! Since 1974, these passionate Los Angeles-based homebrewers have banded together to spread a love of craft beer and DIY sensibilities, inspiring hundreds (if not thousands) of local groups nationwide.

19. Homebrewing is not legal in every state:

    It is, however, perfectly legal on a federal level – but only fermented, never distilled, beverages. Be sure to check the latest information before pursuing homebrewing as a hobby or home-based business. Even the states allowing it still regulate how much and how strong one can make.

20. In 1978, Jimmy Carter legalized homebrewing at the national level:

    Until that point, lovingly crafting beer and wine at home was still illegal, thanks to lingering legislation from the sour old Prohibition days.

21. May 7 marks National Homebrew Day:

    Yes, Congress officially recognizes a National Homebrew Day as of 1988. Fans celebrate by guzzling down some of their favorite beers or trying something new, while many creators themselves participate in the American Homebrew Associations yearly Big Brew event.

22. Homebrewing is most popular in Texas and California:

    Definitive statistics on just how widespread homebrewing really is don't exist, but popular site USABeerTrends offers up the best insight so far. Thirty-six percent of its participating readers hailed from Texas, followed at 21% out of California. Whipping up craft brews at home also pique many creative connoisseurs in Florida, Colorado, Washington, Ohio, Wisconsin, Virginia, Oregon, Alaska, Indiana, Maryland, Missouri, and Pennsylvania.

23. No one age group is more likely to homebrew than others:

    The very same USABeerTrends survey noted that only the under-21 and over-50 crowd seemed to shy away from homebrewing. Every other demographic more or less enjoy it in equal measure, though 30% between 41 through 50 craft their own beers as opposed to 35% for both 21 through 30 and 31 through 40.

24. Most home brewers create between five and nine batches, at least in 2009:

    Thirty-nine percent, as compared to 13% for 1 to 4, 26% for 10 to 14 and 22% devotedly hammering out about 15 batches!

25. The American Homebrewers Association currently boasts over 27,000 members:

    And they partner up with over 1,300 breweries beneath The Brewers Association (founded 1941!) umbrella. Since 1982, thousands of members and beer aficionados have flocked to Boulder, Colorado to enjoy the Great American Beer Festival the organizations holds as a celebration of these hearty libations.

26. President Wilson actually vetoed the Volstead Act:

    An alternate name for the National Prohibition Act, Woodrow Wilson rejected the Volstead Act for technical rather than ethical reasons, only to be overridden by both the House of Representatives and the Senate the very same day.

27. FDR's Cullen-Harrison Act legalized the sale of beer and beer alone:

    Wine and spirits drinkers were left luckless when Franklin Roosevelt passed the Cullen-Harrison act in 1933, addressing Depression demand for something soothing to quell the…well…depression. This amendment to the Volstead Act legalized beer with an alcohol content of 3.2% or below.

28. The 21st Amendment repealed the 18th:

    Shortly after FDR passed the Cullen-Harrison Act, the federal government decided to repeal Prohibition altogether, meeting Americans' demands and intending to curb illegal profiteering. The 21st Amendment overrode the 18th, stoking the ire of the temperance organizations responsible for its initial passing.

---------------------------------------------


Obviously, the beer facts (especially those on home-brewing) are most interesting to me.

Do you find any of these interesting / informative?  (leave a comment).

First Month of Untappd

I started using the social media drinking site "Untappd" about a month ago. I've been aware of Untappd for awhile, but never realized that they allowed people to enter their own home-brews to the database. Since most of what I drink is home-brew, it didn't seem like something I would be real interested in.

It does turn out to be an interesting way to track the beers that you drink. If you are a craft beer fan (beer geek), it is somewhat worthwhile to track your beer consumption. It helps remind you what you drank and how you liked it.

Happy #RepealDay

Did you know that December 5th (today) is Repeal Day? I didn't know until I got my December CraftBeer.com newsletter last Thursday. CraftBeer.com has an informative article about today's holiday: Celebrate Repeal Day: December 5.

In case you are too lazy to follow the link and can't guess from the context, the 21st amendment was ratified and prohibition was repealed on December 5th, 1933. Seems like as good a reason as any to celebrate. Don't you think? I think I'll have a beer today to toast the occasion.

Strange ... today isn't a work holiday for me. Seems like it should be.

A couple more beers from my list

We visited my sister in Wisconsin for Thanksgiving. My sister was nice enough to go out and get a couple of beers for me to check off my "Best Beers in America List".

On Thanksgiving itself, I had the New Glarus Wisconsin Belgium Red. This beer was tied for #16 on the list, and I've been trying to get some since last year's list. Since New Glarus doesn't distribute to Colorado, and they didn't bring this beer to GABF, I am lucky to have family living in Wisconsin who were willing to help me get this beer. And I really enjoyed it with my Thanksgiving dinner. No one else at the table was much of a fan, which was fine since it meant I could have most of it. Both the aroma and flavor were full of cherry, but it had a nice Belgium malt backbone with nice funky notes from the yeast. This beer was indeed worthy of the list. It isn't something I would want to drink everyday, but it is nice for special occasions.

A little Shopping humor

This would have been a great video to share on Black Friday, but I didn't come across it until yesterday. I think this was very funny. It made me LOL. I was very close to ROFL. I didn't, however, LMAO.

You can view it right on youtube at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYbVpAwGGGs


Unrelated (and not-really-humorous) ... a couple articles I came across over the week that I thought were interesting:

NORAD is ready to track Santa's flight
I've shared before on this blog that the boys and I have followed the NORAD Santa Tracker on Christmas Eve. Apparently, the site is live for this year. Check it out at www.noradsanta.org.

Example - Hanson To Launch Mmmhop Beer
The band "Hanson" is apparently developing their own IPA. They are going to call it MmmHop. I didn't realize these guys were even around. I'm not sure I care they are making a beer. Someone tell me, did Hanson ever do anything besides their one "hit" MMMBop?

The history of the anthem at Hawks games
An article about how the National Anthem before BlackHawk games became such a phenomenon.



Have a good weekend everyone. Please leave a comment and let me know you read this.

November Blogging

I am shocked to report that November on this blog broke its "page view" record. This is the seventh month in a row of record breaking "page views" on this blog. After Thanksgiving weekend, I was sure that this month had no chance of getting its page views above October's, but these past few days showed pretty strong.

I am certain that December can't break this record. There is no way it can happen.

What have people been reading? This month, the most viewed posts on this blog have been:

Black Friday Beer Humor

Well, ok, these really have nothing to do with "Black Friday. But, I never participate in "Black Friday". If I ever did try to go shopping the day after Thanksgiving, it would certainly drive me to drink one or more beers.

Happy Holidays

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Not too long ago, I got an email from my Dad. I copied and pasted the text of the email below. I do not know exactly where the email originally came from. I don't know exactly how much of this is actually from Ben Stein and how much is editorialized. I do know that Ben said some of this and that he did NOT say it all.

"Urban Legends" on about.com says perhaps 1/3 of it was actually written by Ben Stein. (see http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_ben_stein_christmas.htm). Towards the end, in the analysis, the Urban Legend article links to Ben's website so you can see what he actually said.

I will point out that the end of the "Urban Legends" article, the author does make a point that the White House has never actually referred to "Christmas Trees" as "Holiday Trees". And, of course, Ben's commentary is from 2005 (4 years before Obama took office), so it would have been really hard for him to criticize the Obama administration for making that switch.

I liked the sentiment of the email (or at least the parts that I think are Ben), though, and I thought I would share:

fun picture

This is a picture of "Sue" eating 3 out of our 4 kids this weekend. Connor wisely stayed away from the vicious T-Rex.

Tasting Free the Glutens

Well, you might remember that not too long ago I talked about brewing up a #GlutenFree beer. If not, you can look back at the post: Free the Glutens! This past weekend, I tasted a bottle from the batch. My wife also gave it a try. Together, we decided it was good enough to present to the gluten-sensitive mother of the children we took care of over the weekend (for the purposes of this blog post we are going to call her "Gretchen" so I don't have to type "the gluten-sensitive mother of the children we took care of over the weekend" over and over). 

The beer model thought it was really good. I thought it was pretty good. It starts off a little sweeter and perhaps a little fuller in the body than I thought it was going to. I really wish I had taken an FG, because I sort of wonder if I should have let it ferment longer. I do think it is nicely balanced and has a pretty good citrus hop presence. The sweetness combined with the taste of centennial hops give it a little orange flavor, which is quite pleasant in this beer. It does not come across as bitter as an IPA. Naming it an APA was the right call.

Wally's my Hero

From Dilbert.Com:

from http://www.dilbert.com/strips/2011-11-16

Still More Beer Motivation

Just a continuation of the post a couple weeks ago ....

and the post from a couple weeks before that:

100 Gallons of Beer

Not too long ago, in SheppyBrew Stats Q3 2011, I mentioned "It looks like I have a shot at hitting my 100 gallon limit for the year". For those of you who don't know, it is legal in the United States for an individual adult to home-brew 100 gallons of  beer for personal (non-commercial) use. A household of two or more adults is allowed 200 gallons per year. State laws differ. Colorado's home-brewing law pretty much simply says it is legal to brew what is legal according to the federal law. There are still a couple of states that don't allow legal home-brewing at all. It sort of sucks to be a home-brewer in those states. But, luckily that is not something I have to deal with.

So, I am allowed to brew 100 gallons of beer. My wife and I together are allowed to brew 200 gallons. When I started home-brewing (way back in 2009), that 100 gallons seemed like a completely impossibly huge number to hit. The 200 gallon limit was way beyond my wildest dreams.

New Belgium Snow Day

Ever since the Beer Model and I took our tour of New Belgium Brewery back in June, I have been looking forward to the release of New Belgium's new winter seasonal Snow Day Winter Ale. You see, Bernie (our tour guide) told us that it was replacing 2 Below and that it was going to be a black IPA. If you pay attention to this blog, you might know that I am a big fan of the Black IPA style of beer (or Cascadian Dark or American Style Black or Indian Dark Ale or whatever-else-you-want-to-call-it). See "Black IPA / IDA", "Cascadian Dark Ale", "Stone Soup IDA", "Psycho Dark and Bitter" if you want to see some of what I said about the style.

Beer Flowcharts

This little bit of humor comes from Gizmodo and an article titled: Workflow Charts Finally Put to Good Use Show Fundamental Men vs Women Differences. Poking fun at the relative simplicity of the man's world vs. the complexity of how women operate. It just never gets old ... does it?

Evil Corporations

I saw this on facebook awhile ago.

One of my virtual friends had commented on it, so it ended up in my news feed. I don't know the guy who posted it, and I do not know where he originally got it (I sort of doubt he did it himself). But, it amuses me.

Click on Image to view larger version

It took me so long to actually post it, because I was going to add clever and insightful commentary on that whole situation. I never got around to it, and I don't feel like it now.

The picture probably stands on its own pretty well, anyway.

Connor at the Museum

Tyler had a couple of birthday parties today. Mom took him. Connor decided that he and I should go to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.

Here are some pictures from the day:

More Beer Motivation

Just a continuation of the post from a couple weeks ago:

Happy #StoutDay

So, here it is International #StoutDay. I hope you are having a good one. I'm hoping my sister can forgive me for saying this: "Happy #StoutDay!".

To be honest, Stouts are one of those styles that it took me getting into brewing to really appreciate. I would try one from time to time ... mostly as part of sample platters in brew-pubs, but would hardly ever get myself a pint. I never purchased stouts from liquor stores.

But, SheppyBrew has brewed a few Stouts, and I'm really beginning to seek them out more. And the more I drink, the more I like them.

I think most non-beer-geeks (at least here in America) think Guinness when they think Stout. But, "Stout" is a pretty wide range of beers, many of which are really unlike Guinness. Personally, I've never really been a big fan of Guinness. I still think the lack of carbonation make them taste too flat. I prefer more carbonation than the nitrogen smoothness I guess. I would say that I'm much more a fan of American Stouts than other types.

Arrogant Bastard tidbit

I was listening to the Sunday Session with Pizza Port's Jeff Bagby last Wednesday night while working out.

Jeff used to work for Stone and has brewed Arrogant Bastard. In fact, he was part of brewing the very first batch.

At the end of the interview, Tasty snuck in the question about what specialty malt was used in Arrogant Bastard. Jeff gave a hint that it was one high crystal malt ... not special B. He even said that 150 is about right. He also mentioned that the recipe is incredibly simple with one specialty malt and one hop.

Blogging Away

So last month, I mentioned that I didn't think October would be able to match September's page view stats (see 3218). I was wrong. October was the 6th month in a row of record-breaking page views. It didn't beat September by much, but it did none-the-less.

The theme remains the same: "If beer and women aren't the answer, then you're asking the wrong questions."

Here are the most viewed blog posts for the past 30 days:

#StoutDay Week

This week on Thursday is International #StoutDay.

What is International #StoutDay? I'm not sure I really know. The best way to describe it is #IPADay only instead of celebrating boring old IPA's, we are celebrating the rich and diverse style of Stouts.

I realize that if you don't know about #IPADay, my description doesn't make much sense. If you are a twitter tweeter and a beer geek, you know about #IPADay. If you are not, you don't really care and won't care about #StoutDay either. At least I don't think so.

Female vs. Male Brain

Here it is Friday again. Time to share some more humor, I guess. We are back to the spirit of the wildly popular "Visual Explanation of Women" series of posts.

Analyze and enjoy. Let me know if you LOL or ROFL.

Free the Glutens!

Image from Papazian's article

Glutens are nasty little creatures which hide in wheat (and wheat related) grains and attack an unsuspecting tribe of people know as the Celiacs. The Glutens perform bio-attacks on the Celiacs causing auto-immune reactions which are very unpleasant. Glutens are evil!

Actually, personally, I have nothing against glutens. I probably can't even begin to list the things that I enjoy eating and drinking that have lots of gluten in them. I doubt there is a day that goes by in which I don't consume multiple glutens. They are yummy. I'm glad I don't have to avoid foods that contain gluten.

One of my favorite sources of gluten is beer. Barley is full of gluten. So is wheat and rye. There are gluten-free beers out there, but they are sort of hard to find. I am told they don't really taste all that good either.

Bottling Hoptoberfest

So, I've mentioned that I bribed the people I work with in an attempt to get them to donate to the 2nd Wind Fund. It worked, so I had to brew up more Stouticus American Stout (darn!). I also brewed up a beer that I called Hoptoberfest , which is a Vienna Lager with much more late addition Hallertauer and Crystal hops than you would traditionally get in a Vienna Lager. You could almost call it a love-child between my 15 Year Anniversary Amber Ale and my Rocktoberfest Lager. It was designed with lots of Munich and Vienna malts, fermented with lager yeast at (mostly) lager temperatures, but hopped like the 15 year. Sounds absolutely yummy ... doesn't it? The sample I had certainly tasted like it would be good.

Beer Motivation

A few weeks ago, I started posting "Friday Humor" on my favorite online forum.  It started with the wildly popular post "Visual Explanation of Women" and continued for a few weeks in that same sort of theme.

The past two weeks, I skipped the Friday Humor and replaced them with "2011 #GABF Session 1" and the also-wildly-popular "Sexist Beer Labels"

Surprisingly, apparently a couple of my virtual friends made comments that make me think they miss the little Friday Humor feature of the blog.

I've stolen and posted funny motivational posters before on this blog. They amuse me.

SheppyBrew Stats Q3 2011

I just realized that it is now the 4th quarter of 2011 and that I have not done my quarterly posting of the quarter's SheppyBrew brewing statistics. (see SheppyBrew 2009 Stats, 1st Quarter Stats, 2nd Quarter Stats, 3rd Quarter Stats, SheppyBrew 2010 Stats, 1st Quarter Brewing Stats, 2nd Quarter Brew Stats)

For what it is worth, the 3rd Quarter Stats post from last year are the 9th most popular post all-time on this blog. I know you don't really care, but let's be honest, you've probably already lost interest and won't read the rest of this blog post anyway.

More Beer Labels

So, I got some feedback on my article "Sexist Beer Labels" that I thought I would share.

Some of my virtual friends from the Mr. Beer forum added in the following artwork:

Drinking Ellie's Brown Ale

While grilling some brats Saturday evening, I drank my third beer from the 5280 Seasonal Six Pack. Avery Brewing Company's Ellie's Brown Ale pours deep dark brown with a nice tan head. I do not know if I may have just been in the right mood for a brown ale, but I thought this beer was absolutely fantastic.

Back to the mash tun

Saturday, I took the wife and kids on a field trip to The Brew Hut to get ingredients for the 2011 version of SheppyBrew's X-Mas Ale. I brewed it up on Sunday.

The kids really like the Dry Dock

Of course, my big fermenter was full of Stouticus American Stout, so I got up early and bottled up Stouticus. This time, I mixed sugar and the beer in a corny keg and used my Beer Gun to bottle it up. It seems to have gone smoother this way, but that may have just been the fun of a new process. One decent advantage of using the keg is that it is easier to get every bit of beer out of the keg than it is out of a bottling bucket.

Brecken

Remember that not-too-long-ago I mentioned that I have hundreds of sister-in-laws? Well, with hundreds of aunts, that means my kids have thousands of cousins *.

Yesterday my wife and I got one more niece and the boys got another cousin.

The newest child is named Brecken ... I'm sure named after Breckenridge Brewery **. I think that is the coolest name I've heard in quite awhile.

Note: this is not a recent photo of Brecken.

I am a guy, so I don't remember any of the important stats other than everyone is doing fine. Congratulations to Carrie and Dave and Brecken!




* Actual numbers are not quite as high as described in this blog.
** Saying that "Brecken" is short for "Breckenridge Brewery" is speculation on my part. It is also most likely not true.

Sexist Beer Labels

Speaking of sexist ...I have mentioned before (see Beer Ads) that I am a fan of the BMC beer television commercials. They amuse me. Even the ones (maybe even especially the ones) that offend feminist beer geeks by objectifying women. Again, I am not proud of it, but it is the way it is. These sorts of commercials don't make me want to buy their product, but that is another story.

The BMC breweries may have the lead in great T.V. commercials, but craft breweries dominate in bottle labels. Here are just some of the wonderfully sexist labels out there. These are not even the most chauvinisticly offensive ones. I've never bought any of these beers (I did have samples of Lagunitas A Little Sumpin' Sumpin' Ale and Stumptown Tart Strawberry Ale at GABF ... both very good), but if I saw one of these in my liquor store, I would at least consider buying it for the clever labels.

Drinking Psychotically

You may recall that not too long ago I brewed a beer that I called "Psychotically Dark and Bitter IDA" (see Psycho Dark and Bitter on this blog). It was a beer that I brewed to use up some Mr. Beer ingredients. (see the recipe at SheppyBrew.com).

This weekend, I poured myself a couple of bottles.

Regardless whether you call this a black IPA, a Cascadian dark, American style black or India Dark Ale, SheppyBrew's Psychotically Dark and Bitter Ale is wonderfully dark and hoppy and pleasant to drink.

2011 #GABF Final? Thoughts

What a weekend!

If you've never been to the GABF, I won't be able to properly explain it to you, so I won't even try.

A couple of  "notes to self"...

471 Double IPA

So, remember last week, I mentioned the 5280 Magazine seasonal six pack? Sunday (yes, the day after GABF), I decided to use my new grill and while doing so I tried my second beer of the 6 pack. This beer was Breckenridge Brewery's 471 double IPA. 471 IPA is one of BB's small batch series. It is a year-round beer, but as a small batch beer, it is also in limited edition. I do not think I've ever had this one, although it is possible that at some point I've sucked one down at some point at the Breckenridge Brew Pub. It is a 9.2% ABV beer with 70 IBU's.

The aroma is full of wonderful American citrus hops, although I do detect a bit of an English ale feel to the finishing hops. The beer does use Fuggles hops and I don't know if the English feel is a function of the fuggles or the grain bill or a combination of the two. The malt does smell rich and full. Very nice.

3218

Remember when I thought getting over 1000 page views for a month on this blog was a big deal? It was not that long ago that I reported May broke my page view record. Since then, every month has broken that record.

The page view total for September was 3218. I know that real bloggers probably think that is nothing, but for my little blog, that is a really big number.

2011 #GABF Session 3

Since the Saturday afternoon session is for Brewing Association and American Home-Brew Association members only, their was no "members only" line to get in quickly. It really helps put into perspective how great having access to the quick line was for the other sessions. We got there about 11:50 or so and had to walk almost all the way around the huge Denver Convention Center to get in line. Luckily, once the line gets moving, it is quick. Still, it is much nicer to do the short line.

2011 #GABF Session 2

Did I mention how much I love having access to the members only line? Well, I do. It might be worth the cost of admission to the AHA just because of that little perk.

Friday night I was lucky enough to be accompanied by the hottest brew babe in Denver (quite likely the hottest brew babe in the world). She had to drop off the kids and traffic sucked we didn't meet up at the light rail station until around 5:30 pm. When we got there around 6-ish or so, the general admission line was still extremely long, but we got to walk right in. It is cool how fast the general admission line moves, but walking right in is better.