5280 pre- #IPADay ... Odell's IPA

Recently, while in the liquor store searching for ideas for #IPADay I came across the 5280 Summer Seasonal 6 Pack. Of course I had to buy it. 

I have blogged before about beers in these 5280 6 packs (see such classics as Drinking Ellie's Brown Ale, 471 Double IPA, Flashback India Brown Ale, and of course The Beer Clinic). 5280 Magazine, in collaboration with the Denver Zoo (of all places) puts out these 6 packs every season. The editors of the magazine pick the 6 Colorado beers that they think best represent the season and package them together.

When I remember and see them, I try to get them. When I think about it while drinking the beers, I blog about them. It appears that I missed the winter and spring six packs. Oh well.

It is just how I roll.

#IPADay Returns

It is coming back. Yep, even CraftBeer.com says so (see IPA Day Returns on August 2, 2012). My Daily #IPADay and #StoutDay News is starting to get activity again, so at least some people are preparing for it.

I suppose you could say if there is anything worse than a made-up Hallmark holiday, it has to be a fake Twitter #MadeUpHoliday.

You could say that, but I won't. I would much rather celebrate American hops than St. Valentine. Plus, I certainly don't want to risk subjecting myself to the wrath of The Beer Wench.

2012 Q2 SheppyBrew Stats

2012 continues to fly by and wouldn't you know it, but the 2nd quarter of the calendar year is over. Here at the SheppyBrew home-brewery this means that it is time again 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, 2011 SheppyBrew Stats, 2012 Q1 SheppyBrew Stats).

I've written this before, but (believe it or not), I have had people say they like to read these brewing stats posts.

So here we go:

Breckenridge Pictures

As the 4th was in the middle of the week this year, we decided to delay my wife's birthday get-away until the following weekend.

As usual, we went up to Breckenridge for this. As usual, we had lots of fun.

Here are some pictures ...

We headed up the gondolas to the Peak 8 Fun Park. We didn't really do much up there except walk around. The free gondola ride was fun, though.

Kegging Summer Lovin' #HomeBrew

I kegged up my Summer Lovin' American Wheat last night. I also had enough to fill a two liter growler in addition to the keg.

As you can see from the pictures below, it came out a pale gold color. The sample glass was slightly hazy.

The flavor was a delicate, clean wheat cracker taste with a touch of orange and a very slight amount of coriander (probably slight enough that I would not say it had any if I didn't know what I had put in it).

The beer finished with a gravity of 1.007, which makes it just over a 5% ABV beer. I think this is a perfect amount of alcohol for this beer.

July 4 Pictures

Usually, we are up in the mountains for the 4th of July. We try to make a long weekend of it with the Beer Model's birthday being on the 3rd. With the 4th being a Wednesday this year, and all the vacation I have to use up to see my wife's family, we stayed at home this year.

We did head out to Golden to wander around for their community celebration. Here are some pictures.

Sheppy's Rotisserie Chicken

Last October, Connor and I picked out and purchased a new grill. You may have seen part of the grill on a couple of beer pictures on this blog (like here and here and here). It is bigger and much nicer than my old grill, and I am glad we got it. One cool thing about this grill is that it has a rotisserie attachment and motor.

I didn't use the rotisserie for quite awhile. It was April when Connor finally got me to try it.

Sorry. I lied

Early yesterday, I prematurely announced that this blog's "page view" streak was over.

I was wrong. Yesterday turned out to be a very active Saturday and before the end of the day, June had 23 more "page views" than May.

I should have waited. I apologize.

I also listed Sheppy's Beer Can Chicken as the #7 most viewed page of the month. By the end of the day, it was up to #2 for the month.

A big part of the reason I got the extra Saturday traffic is that I posted a question on the Mr. Beer forum:

Blogging in June 2012

Speaking of Beer Can Chicken .... well, ok we weren't, but I thought maybe we should.

But first ... since May of last year, every month blog has had more "page views" than any other month in the history of this blog.

As I write this, it looks like this blog's streak of record-breaking months is going to stop with June. The number of page views don't look like they will get over May's total. Today is the last day of the month and weekends never get a whole lot of traffic here. It is close enough that had this been a weekday, I would feel more confident. But I think the streak will be over.

It was a good run. It looks like June will still be #2 all-time and had this been a 31 day month, it would easily get to the top spot even with this last couple days being weekend days.

Firestone Walker Union Jack

As I shared just a few days ago, I have moved on to Zymurgy's 2012 Best Beers in America list from the 2011 version of the list.

There were only 7 beers on the list that I have not tried, and amazingly enough, all except one are theoretically available here in Colorado.

A week ago Wednesday after working out, I stopped by my liquor store and found #11-Firestone Walker Union Jack and #16-Firestone Walker Double Jack.

I am pretty sure that Firestone Walker has been distributing to Colorado for less than a year, so it is nice for me that they appeared on the list this year (as opposed to last year or the year before when I would have had more trouble getting some).

Echo Lake Summer Pictures

This past weekend, we went up to Echo Lake to escape the Denver heat and wander around a bit.

I've posted pictures of my family around Echo Lake a few times on this blog. As far as I remember, the only other pictures have been during the winter (like this and this)

Here are some summer pictures for your enjoyment:

The kids in front of the lake

Brewing up some Summer Lovin'

I brewed one of my wife's favorite beers today.

SheppyBrew's Summer Lovin' Wheat was first made last year because my Beer Model (aka my wife), wanted to brew a crisp and refreshing summer wheat beer (see Beer Model Brew Day). It turned out as designed, and my wife really liked having it on tap until her family came to visit and wiped it out (see Helpful #HomeBrew Thieves).

It really was a nice summer beer to have around, and the Beer Model has mentioned a few times that she would like me to brew it again.

And, so I did.

Kegged the Cheap Bastard

This morning, I kegged my Cheap Bastard American Mild Ale. (see Brewing Cheap Bastard).

It finished with a 1.011 specific gravity, which makes it a 3.7% ABV beer. I am pretty sure this is the lowest alcohol beer that I have ever brewed. It is certainly the only time I have intended to brew something this low in alcohol.

It is also the least expensive beer I've ever created. Well, technically some of my Mr. Beer batches with the free ingredients cost me less to make, but this is much cheaper than what I should have paid for those.

I've been thinking about making this beer for some time, and I am looking forward to having it on tap.

Kegging and Bottling Wetta Berry

Tonight, I finally kegged up my Raspberry Wetta Berry "beer".

I blogged about brewing it with Wetta Berry Mr. Beer Batch.

I blogged about adding raspberry puree to it with Raspberry Wetta Berry.

I didn't take an original gravity reading, but based on other Mr. Beer batches, I figure it was about 1.045. It finished at about 1.010. This means that without the raspberry puree, the ABV would have been right around 4.4%. The raspberry puree doesn't add much sugar, so this is almost certainly under 5%. I would guess around 4.7% ABV.

Tonight, I mixed in 4.5 ounces of sugar into the keg and bottled 6 liter bottles, 3 bombers, and 4 12-ounce bottles. The rest (about half I would say) stayed in the keg.

2012 Best Beers in America

So, Zymurgy's 2012 Best Beers in America list just came out.

If you follow this blog at all, you know that for the past two years, I have been seeking out and writing about beers on previous versions of this list (see my Zymurgy BBIA label for the blog posts I have done). In fact, my last blog post was Sam Adams Noble Pils (tied for #20 on the 2011 list).

Now that the new list is out, I am done with 2011. I have tried 42 of the top 52 beers there. Now it is time to start trying to get through the 2012 list. Of course, lots of the same beers are on the 2012 list that were on 2010's and 2011's, so I have a pretty good head start.

Pliny the Elder is #1 for the 4th time in a row. You may remember that I liked Pliny (see Pliny the Elder), but did not really consider it in such high regard that I would call it the best beer in America. Obviously, this is a very subjective list.

Sam Adams Noble Pils

It has been awhile since I have had a beer from my list. In fact the last one was Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA back in March. Recently, though, I grabbed Sam Adams Noble Pils in the liquor store. I had one a couple weeks ago.

Noble Pils is tied for #20 on my Zymury's 2011 list of the best beers in America. I have to say I like it much better than many of the beers ranked higher on the list.

The Sam Adams website says Noble Pils is a traditional Bohemian Pilsner brewed with 5 Noble hops. When I first targeted this beer on my list, it was a spring seasonal, but I believe it is now a year-round beer.

It is very good with a distinct, unique (or at least I think it is unique) hop character in both the flavor and aroma.

Still More @Untappd Badges 4

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 , and Still More @Untappd Badges), and Still More @Untappd Badges 2 and Still More @Untappd Badges 3. Here are some more:

Sheppy's Beer Can Chicken

This past weekend, for the first time, I made beer can chicken on my grill. It turned out awesome. I loved it.

This is only the 2nd time I have done a whole chicken on my grill. My "new" grill (got it back in October, so it is not really all that new) has a rotisserie motor and spit rod, which I have used once. This beer can chicken blew away the rotisserie chicken that I made before.

What, you may ask, is beer can chicken?

Well, here are the basics:

1. Drink half a can of beer.
2. Stick the remaining half can of beer up a chicken's butt
3. Cook the chicken on the grill

Now, as you may imagine, there are tons of variations on just how you prepare the chicken. If you google Beer Can Chicken Recipes, you will get more ideas than you can ever actually make. At least, I will never go through and try them all.

Brewing Cheap Bastard

Back in the fall, I bribed my coworkers with beer. I told them that whoever donated to the 2nd Wind Fund of Metro Denver would receive some Stouticus and some of another yet-to-be-conceived beer (which ended up being HopToberfest). I got a fair number of people who responded by donating, which was awesome.

As I was distributing to the kind-hearted generous souls who were nice enough to help me out, I got a few comments like "Oh! I meant to donate, but just forgot" or (from one guy whose wife also works there) "Didn't we donate? Oh [my wife] was supposed to. Are you sure?"

One honest person told me that he would have liked to have donated, but was a lazy bastard, and just didn't do it.

Sand Dune Pictures

As you may have surmised from some of my recent blog posts, last weekend, we went camping with a group of people to the Great Sand Dunes National Park.

The Great Sand Dunes are always fun. My family spent a weekend in the park's campground last year, and had a blast (see Laser Camping in the Salt, Videos from Laser Camping in the Salt, and Guitar Lady Goofy Kid) . I especially suggest going back and looking at Videos from Laser Camping in the Salt as it features some pretty cool videos of sledding down sand dunes.

One cool thing about the dunes is a shallow, wide creek at the base of the dunes. It dries up in the summer, and so last year we didn't get to see it (or play in it). This year since it was earlier in the year, the creek was still around, making the whole experience even more fun.

Here are some pictures of this year's camping trip to the Great Sand Dunes National Park:

Killing the Glutens

As you may remember, my hot beautiful SheppyBrew Beer Model brewed up a batch of beer about a month ago (see Brewing the Laser Salt). We thought it would be fun to bring a keg with us to the Great Sand Dunes National Park where we had been invited to join a bunch of people at one of the group camp sites.

We were invited by our gluten-sensitive friend "Gretchen" whom I have mentioned quite a bit on this blog when writing about my Gluten Free brewing. She is also the person for whom I brewed Free the Glutens! APA.

May 2012 Blogging

It was May 2011 that this blog started its current trend of record-breaking "page views" every month. May 2012 continued the streak. I was pretty excited back in the blog post Record Breaking! Now that month's 1383 page views seems pathetically small.

May started out real active on the page views and slowed down a bit at the end, but it was still enough to carry.

This month, the majority of the most viewed pages are actually written this month. I suppose you would think this makes sense, but it is not usually the case.

Father and Son Backpacking trip Part 2

It is now time to continue the story of SheppyQuest Lite and Father and Son Backpacking trip Part 1.

When we last left you, the brave young adventurer and his timid frightened father had camped in a random spot just off a forest service road on the way to the Wigwam Creek trail head.

We woke up Saturday morning and had some granola bars for breakfast. We packed up our camp and continued along the road toward the trail head.

We got to the trail head around 9AM. I have never seen the parking lot here so crowded.

At the trail head

We got a photo of my son at the trail head. Not sure where the smoke haze was coming from. It was a bummer for scenery pictures.

Raspberry Wetta Berry

Last Friday while waiting to begin SheppyQuest Lite with my son, I brewed up a quick double batch of that last of my Mr. Beer HME / UME combos (see Wetta Berry Mr. Beer Batch).

This afternoon, I stopped by my LHBS and picked up some raspberry puree. Then, tonight while the kids were reading to me, I transferred the beer from the two Mr. Beer fermentors onto the puree.

I think perhaps the three pound can of raspberry puree is a bit much for this amount of beer. The color came out ruby red. It reminded me a bunch of the color of New Belgium's Frambozen. Perhaps you remember (although you probably don't watch my blog closely enough to have even read it), In Frambozen I wrote:

"It does have an amazing ruby red color that I would love to recreate in one of my beers."

It looks like now I have recreated the color. I suppose this means the raspberry flavor will be too much for me. I might end up giving away most of this beer.

I'll be letting this sit on the raspberries for another couple of weeks. I will most likely let you know how the Beer Model and I like it.

Father and Son Backpacking trip Part 1

As you may remember from yesterday, my son and I were backpacking this weekend in the Lost Creek Wilderness area. It was not a very long trip, but since it was his first time, we didn't want to over-do it.

Friday afternoon, I picked Scooter up from school. I had to take him back home because one of us had forgotten something. Weird, because it is something I (... er ... I mean one of us) NEVER forget(s) to take with me (... er... I mean us?)

He was excited. I was excited. It was an excited couple guys heading off to the wilderness.

Since it would be pretty late by the time we got to the trail - head, our plan was always to camp somewhere along the way out of the mini-van on Friday night. My intention was to try to stay in Kelsey Campground, which is an actual drive-in campground along the way. We got there and all the sites had been reserved for that night. This is weird because I am sure that the reservation site says there are supposed to be two "first come first serve" campsites there. So, we had to go on.

This got Connor even more excited. It meant that we would be finding a spot along one of the Pike National Forest service roads and just setting up the tent. My wife and I used to do this often, but since we've had kids we have camped in "official" camp-grounds. This whole drive-and-hope-you-can-find-a-spot-on-the side-of-the-road thing was new to him.

SheppyQuest Lite

Last year while we were camping, my youngest son surprised me by saying he wished he could go back-packing.

I like to think we are an outdoorsy (is that really a word? My spell check seems to think it is) family. Both our children started camping before they could walk (I even have online pictures ... follow this link for some of Connor's) and we go on more camping trips every year than most other families I know. The kids always have fun when we camp.

Sometimes (quite often, actually), though, my kids complain about hiking or biking on weekends we are home. If it were up to me, we would go on a hike or bike ride or do something active outside every weekend, but too often my kids tell me they would rather stay at home and play wii.

So, the fact that I have to force the kids to do something active outside made me think that getting my kids to back-pack would be an uphill battle. This is why it surprised me when Connor said he wanted to go back-packing.

Wetta Berry Mr. Beer Batch

I brewed today.

I have had some cans of Mr. Beer HME and UME (hopped malt extract and unhopped malt extract) for quite some time. In fact I am pretty sure I have not bought my own since Peter from Mr. Beer gave me some after the 2010 GABF. A couple of the "use by" dates on these cans are coming up.

So, today I had enough free time to whip up a batch of beer (a Mr. Beer batch, not a "real" batch) and decided to go ahead and use up these cans of extract.

It has been a LONG time since I've done a straight Mr. Beer batch of beer, but decided I didn't want to go through the effort of coming up with anything, so my recipe is simple.

SheppyBrew and the Sour Mash

I have mentioned a couple of times on this blog that SheppyBrew Brewery wants to brew a sour beer (most recently in 2012 Q1 SheppyBrew Stats). Unfortunately, I'm not quite as confident as Scott, my buddy at SNB Brewing with his Sour Ale Project. I just don't feel ready to introduce souring bugs into my fermentation process yet.

So, my solution is to try a sour mash.

Breast Flashing Cider

We are pretty close to the one year anniversary of my famous Cider Drinking and Breast Flashing blog post. Remember that?

Good times.

Today I found a bottle of the cider in one of my beer fridges, and decided to drink it as my New Brew Thursday drink (see just about any of my untappd articles if you need to know what that means).

The cider is still not as good as my beers, but it is not too bad, and I think people who drink hard cider might like it. Maybe.

I am pretty sure this is the last bottle of my "Breast Flashing Cider". I should probably make some more.

This year, as far as I know, no drunk female hockey fans have pulled out breasts and flashed them to any opposing teams' players in or out of the penalty box. Of course the Canucks were knocked out in the first round of the playoffs so maybe the crazy Vancouver chicks just did not have the chance to get to it.

Promiscuous drinker

Home-brew craft beer

I drink promiscuously.

Yes, I am pretty slutty about my beer selection.

When it comes to drinking beer, I have practically zero brand loyalty. I do not even stick to similar styles of beer. My favorite thing to order at brewery tasting rooms is the sampler platter so I can try small amounts of many beers. Quite often, I'll never see those beers again. I won't even call them the next day to let them know that it is over between us.

If I am having a beer when out to dinner, I always attempt to score something that I have never had before.

My untappd profile confirms this. Since I have started checking beers into untappd, I have tried 130 different beers.

Weekend Sans Kids

I have mentioned before on this blog that our family has a kid-swapping arrangement with another family. They have two boys who are each within a couple of weeks in age as our two boys. Every couple months or so, our families take turns taking all four boys for a weekend.

This past weekend was their turn to take all four boys. This made us sans-kids for the weekend.

Of course, if you have read this blog over the past couple of days, you know that one of the things we did was brew some beer (see Brewing the Laser Salt).

But we also did some other stuff.

For quite some time, I've been wanting to check out Dad and Dude's Breweria. Dad and Dude's is a little brewery / pizzeria close to where I work. I've heard really good things about their pizza crust, which they make from spent grain from their brewery.

Friday, I dragged my wife to the Breweria, and we were not disappointed.

Still More @Untappd Badges 3

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 , and Still More @Untappd Badges), and Still More @Untappd Badges 2. Here are some more:

Brewing the Laser Salt

We did it. The Brew Model and I brewed up the Laser Salt Sandy Blonde Ale, just like I told you we would (see Laser Salt and The Beer Model and Laser Salt and The Beer Model Part 2 ).

Yesterday, of course, was American Homebrewers Association's BIG BREW DAY. This has traditionally been an excuse to get the Beer Model brewing. Coincidentally, this was also a weekend that our kids were spending with the family we trade weekends with.

It is nice not having to do everything on the brew day. I still have to do the lifting of the heavy hot water, and for some reason, I always get stuck with the clean-up, but at least I didn't have to do everything.

Laser Salt and the Beer Model Part 2

Watch this video of my wife sliding down a sand dune:

When my wife (aka the SheppyBrew Beer Model) saw this video she asked me, "how did you know I would scream?"

I just gave her a look and said "I just knew". We have been married a long time.

So, when we last left you in part 1 of Laser Salt and the Beer Model, We had to narrow down "not too hoppy and not too dark" to an actual style of beer. We needed to do this so that we could develop a recipe. We needed the recipe to buy ingredients. We need ingredients to brew the beer.

There were a couple more requirements.

Laser Salt and The Beer Model

"Not too hoppy and not too dark".

She isn't just a gorgeous face and hot body. The SheppyBrew Beer Model also brews beer once and a while. She, of course, helped me brew the first batch of 15 Year Amber Ale. I helped her brew a batch one of her favorite beers, Summer Lovin' American Wheat. (see Beer Model Brew Day).

Both those beers turned out fantastic, so obviously she is a great brewer. And, let's be honest, the pictures on this blog of her brewing are much more pleasant to view than ones of the usual SheppyBrew Brew Master. She adds some tasteful class to the whole SheppyBrew Brewery persona. I am quite certain our sales would be practically nothing without her as our Beer Model and part time brewer.

April 2012 Blogging

Happy May Day.

It was extremely close, but April again broke the number of page views on this blog. April only beat March by 2 page views.

There was a slow start to page views in April. Until the very end I didn't think there was any chance of breaking the record again. It took a real strong last few days to make it. And, as I mentioned, the record was only broken by 2 page views.

Here are the most viewed posts over the past month:

Weekend Getaway

Perhaps you recall that our little yellow duck courageously fought his way to a 12th place finish in the 2011 Breckenridge Duck Race. Well, he did. (see Pictures from the 2011 Breckenridge Duck Races). When you are talking thousands of ducks, 12th place is pretty impressive.

It is in fact impressive enough that it earned the Colorado Shepards a prize.

That little yellow ducky won a gift-certificate to Beaver Run, which is a resort in Breckenridge. The amount on the gift-certificate was enough to cover one night in a two-bedroom suite during a non-peak time of year (it would have covered about half a night during ski season).

My wonderful wife figured out that based on everything else we have going, this weekend was when we would have to use this.

So, we headed up to Breckenridge this weekend.

Jalapeños in the Popcorn

Well, I got my second article posted on the HomeBrew Academy's blog. Jalapeños in the Popcorn is up there right now. Check it out and leave a comment. It is about adding jalapeños and tasting SheppyBrew's Gringo Cerveza Jalapeño Ale.

It is, of course, my follow up to the wildly popular article Popcorn Jalapeño Cream Ale . I can tell it was wildly popular because of the large number of facebook shares and tweets shown there on the post.

The new article has not generated nearly as much "buzz". Not sure why. I suppose everyone got everything they wanted out of the first article. The concept of popcorn in the mash with jalapeño flavoring is apparently old, worn out news.

Doesn't matter. I enjoy the beer.

TommyHawk Brewday

Sunday, I brewed my Tommy Hawk APA.

Tommy Hawk is actually more in the American IPA range, but it started out as an APA, and I just decided to keep the name as a bit of a reminder as to where this beer came from. Tommy Hawk is one of the beers that started out as a Mr. Beer recipe, got upgraded to a partial mash, and then upgraded again to all-grain. This is my 5th time brewing Tommy Hawk, although it is obviously much different now than batch 1 was.

It is essentially the same recipe as batch 4, except that I am using the hops a little differently. This time, rather than a traditional bittering addition at 60 minutes, I decided to try first wort hopping (FWH). Basically that just means that as I drain the wort from my mash tun, the hops are added and steep through the steeping process. Theoretically, this give a more smooth, less harsh bitterness with more flavor than a traditional bittering addition.

Connor's Ride to the Cowboy Playground

Since I reported that the youngest Sheppy clone had finally decided to learn how to ride his bike (see Connor the Biker), he has ridden a bunch. I love to come home from work and have my little boy ask me to go riding with him, and he does it a bunch.

So far, we have just been on the bike trails around our neighborhood. These are great for a quick ride between the time I get home and the time dinner is ready, but they don't make for the most exciting ride in the world. Last weekend, we took a "trip" to a local playground, but that really was not enough to be consider "out of the neighborhood".

Saturday, we decided to ride our bikes to "The Cowboy Playground". I actually have a post on this blog about another time we rode there (see Cowboy Playground). It is still true that I don't really know how to drive to this park. I've only ever been there by biking.

Pompously Apricot

The BlackHawks lost last night. This does not make me happy. All four games so far  went to overtime. It is possible that they come back to win the series, but not likely.  I sure hope they do, because at this point I cannot think of another hockey team I can endorse this year.

Any team that is as offensively gifted as the BlackHawks are but have such a pathetic power-play does not deserve to win a championship. Besides as a Hawks fan, I cannot be too greedy. I have already seen my once-every-50-years Stanley Cup.

Last night I needed a "New Brew Thursday" beer. As I didn't have any and really did not want to go out and buy one, I decided to try blending the two beers that are currently in my keggerator.

Blending, of course, is a technique a fair number of commercial breweries use. For the most part it is done with barrel aged and/or sour beers as a way to add consistency to the final product year after year. They can also use it to come up with new beer flavors that would be difficult to achieve with one beer.

New Belgium, for instance has the sour base of La Folie (they call this base something, but I cannot think of the name they give it). They blend it with different styles to get most of the sours in their "Lips of Faith" series of beers.

2012 Q1 SheppyBrew Stats

So, here at the SheppyBrew home-brewery we are at the end of another quarter. This means that it is time again 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, 2011 SheppyBrew Stats).

Believe it or not, I have had people say they like to read these brewing stats posts.

So...

@NewBelgium Prickly Passion Saison

At some point in the not-too-distant past I procured a 22 oz bottle of New Belgium's Prickly Passion Saison. It has been sitting in one of my beer fridges for quite awhile and I sort of forgot about it. A few days ago, while looking through my beer inventory I discovered the bomber and thought, "wow, I should drink that with Easter dinner." And so, when it was almost time for Easter dinner, I popped it open and poured it into my New Belgium globe glass.

It is, of course one of the New Belgium "Lips of Faith" series of beers. It does not disappoint.

It pours golden amber in color with a beautiful, thick just-barely-off-white head. It is nicely carbonated, almost sparkling in its effervescence.

Pompously Illegitimate vs Arrogant Bastard

About the time that I kegged up my Pompously Illegitimate Red Ale (PIRA for short), I picked up a bomber of Stone's Arrogant Bastard (AB for short) knowing that eventually I would like to compare the two beers. Of course if you are new to this blog (or were just not paying attention), you may not know that PIRA is the SheppyBrew Brewery's tribute brew to AB and the Brewing Network's "Can You Brew It" (CYBI) attempt to clone the beer. You can read a bunch about this on this blog by reading through the labels "Arrogant Bastard" and "Pompously Illegitimate".

Today, I popped open the bomber of AB and poured myself a glass of PIRA.

Session Beers

Going through my Google Reader this morning reminded me that tomorrow is Session Beer Day. Coincidentally, it is also National Beer Day.

If you check-in a beer under 4.5% ABV on untappd tomorrow, you will earn yourself not only a beautiful Session Beer Day 2012 badge, but also a National Beer Day badge. Two for the price of one.

Awesome.

Connor the Biker

One thing that frustrated me as a father has been that my youngest boy had no real interest in learning to ride his bike.

I actually taught him to ride almost two years ago when he was 5. If I held the back of his bike and gave him a little push, he could ride on his own for as long as he wanted. I had to run behind and help him stop, though. Actually, the whole balancing part took way less than a day and I figured he would be riding very quickly.

Then, for some inexplicable reason, he decided he was done with his bike. For almost two years every couple weeks I would ask him if he would like to finish learning. His answer was always no. I kept trying to explain that it would take very little work for him to learn to start and stop.

I think he was afraid he would fail. He did not trust me when I told him that he was SOOOOOO close and that he would be able to do it very quickly.

FINALLY this past weekend, I decided that I was done asking him and forced him to try (by bribing him with the promise of playing WII and watching TV).

Still More @Untappd Badges 2

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 , and Still More @Untappd Badges). Here are some more:

March 2012 Blogging

Does it seem to you that 2012 is just flying by? It does to me.

March broke the page view record for my little blog again. I am not sure it would have happened without the boost from my article on The HomeBrew Academy's blog.

Here is the list of the most viewed posts over the past 30 days:

Adding Jalapeños

Well, you might have heard that Billy B of the HomeBrew Academy allowed me to write a guest post on his blog. Check it out: Popcorn Jalapeño Cream Ale .

It describes my brew day for Gringo Cerveza Jalapeño Cream Ale. I talked about my inspiration and intention to brew this on this blog at Popcorn Beer #HomeBrew.

Being a guest blogger was a fun and interesting experience. The HomeBrew Academy's blog is followed more extensively than my little blog, so I am getting more exposure by posting there than I do here. If I add up the Facebook and Tweet numbers on the top of the page, just the people who posted it to Facebook or Tweeted the article would put this well into the top 10 all-time viewed posts on my own little blog.

6 Gallons @bonfilsdotorg

Well, I mentioned back in January that the next time I gave blood I would get my 6 Gallon pin from Bonfils Blood Center. Well, last night I stopped into a blood bus and donated my 48th pint (which is 6 gallons), and got my "6 Gallon Donor" pin.

Pretty cool, don't you think?

I don't go to the mobile buses as often as I go to donation centers. The other couple times I've given on a bus, it was not very crowded. Last night was pretty busy when I went in and the cramped area seemed more obvious. The bonfils workers did a great job as always, though.

I may have to seek out these mobile buses more often.

Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA

Generally speaking, I am a big fan of Sam Calagione, his brewery, and his brewery's beers. What craft beer drinker isn't? I have Sam's book and I have read most of it. I loved his brief T.V. series and am still hoping that it gets picked up again. The dogfish way defined (and continues to define) lots of what the craft beer movement is all about. Dogfish Head always has the longest line at GABF. I love the brewery and all that it stands for. 

I hate to say it, but I am not really a fan of the Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA. 

If you are a craft beer fan, especially if you are a hop-head, you probably think I'm an idiot, but I just don't rank the 120 minute IPA up with my favorite beers.

Don't get me wrong. It is a good beer. I would, of course, rank it above BMC beers, and I am extremely glad I tried it, but it is not something I am going to seek out again. For me, it is too expensive and contains too much alcohol for a beer.

6 Beer Terms

So, I got an email today from my "Contact Me" form on this blog.

It was the author of an article on the blog at bestonlinecolleges.com called 6 Beer Terms Every Beer Expert Should Know .

This author asked that I share the article with my blog audience (you who are reading this right now). She thought it might be informative and interesting to my readers. I certainly cannot disagree as I found it interesting.

Go and read it. Here is another hyperlink for you: 6 Beer Terms Every Beer Expert Should Know

Kegging PIRA

Last night, I kegged up my Pompously Illegitimate Red Ale (PIRA for short).

Of course as I have discussed on this blog, PIRA is a tribute to (not a clone of) Stone's Arrogant Bastard and the Brewing Network's quest to clone the AB recipe. You can see the posts Pompously Illegitimate Red Ale and Brewing PIRA for more information on PIRA and scroll down on the Arrogant Bastard label on this blog for information on the BN CYBI efforts.

I have to say that I am very pleased with the results so far. I have not had the AB in awhile, but I think the malt and yeast characters are pretty close. I am certainly going to do a side-by-side tasting at some point down the line (stay tuned for that SheppyBrew fans). I mentioned in Brewing PIRA that I was a bit concerned about how the yeast starter tasted, but in this beer (or at least the sample I had last night going into the keg) I really liked how the WLP 007 Dry English Ale yeast fermented. It gives a nice dry character and it flocculated extremely clear. I really should have harvested this yeast, but decided I would rather get it in the keg than delay to prepare the whole yeast washing process.

Bottling FTG

We have the kids of "Gretchen" this weekend. If you don't remember, "Gretchen" is the friend for whom SheppyBrew created the beer "Free the Glutens! APA" (FTG). You can read all about the story behind this beer on this blog by reading through the "Gluten Free" label on this blog and/or the Free the Glutens! APA on the SheppyBrew website. Follow those links and read away.

So, not too long ago, knowing that we would have "Gretchen's" kids this weekend, I brewed up my second batch of FTG. I gave myself more time than I did for the first batch, but still not as much as I should have. I decided that I would use the kids as bottling assistants and make "Gretchen" take home the FTG to carbonate herself.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

http://www.beertees.com/irish-womens-shirt-real-women-drink-beer-babydoll

http://www.123rf.com/photo_6419287_irish-woman-drinking-beer.html

http://www.sexycostumes.com/sexy-leprechaun-costume.html

http://blog.ericshepard.com/2011/11/100-gallons-of-beer.html

Eric's Red vs Failure

Well, if you read this blog regularly you may recall that a couple of months ago I tried to brew SheppyBrew's Eric's Irish Red Ale, but failed miserably. I did decide to go ahead and ferment out and bottle almost five gallons of the failure, naming this beer Eric's Red Failure.

A couple weeks later, I successfully brewed a batch of Eric's Irish Red as planned.

You can read about my intention of brewing an all-grain batch of Eric's Red on the post Eric's Irish Red #HomeBrew. You can read all about my miserable failure at Eric's Red failure. You can read all about my successful brew day of Eric's Red at Eric's Red brew day. 

The main problem with Eric's Red Failure is that my wort chiller came apart in the beer causing the whole batch to  be watered down considerably. I would say about a gallon and a half of water diluted down the wort. I was extremely close to just dumping this batch, because I really thought this was too much extra water to make this beer redeemable in any way. I figured it was worth the effort to ferment it out for the scientific information it would provide me.

Introducing the SheppyBrew Facebook Page

Well, I've done it. Last night, I created a public facebook page for SheppyBrew Brewery. Just to be clear ... SheppyBrew still is not a real commercial brewery. It still only exists in my garage, patio, kitchen, and basement. But it also has a pretty decent presence on the interwebs.

Now, in addition to this blog and the SheppyBrew Website, everyone can get a glimpse into the SheppyBrew beer on facebook here: http://www.facebook.com/SheppyBrew

Most of my regular readers are also the Beer Master's facebook friends, so most of you have probably already gotten a notification to come like the page. But, maybe a few more of you will come by and check it out too. PLEASE hit "Like" on the page.

Incidentally, last night, one of my brewing heroes, Mitch Steele was the first (besides me of course) to Like the page. If you don't know (although how could you not?) Mitch is the Head Brewer at Stone Brewing Company ... the maker of Arrogant Bastard.

Of course, I've talked quite a bit on this blog about Arrogant Bastard: http://blog.ericshepard.com/search/label/Arrogant%20Bastard

If the SheppyBrew Brewery FaceBook page is good enough for the guy in charge of Arrogant Bastard, how can you resist?

Again, come LIKE http://www.facebook.com/SheppyBrew

Happy Friday everyone.

P.S. I almost forgot ... I also have become "official" on untappd. Check out my SheppyBrew Brewery on untappd: http://untappd.com/sheppybrew

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.