#GABF Events

The GABF is less than a month away. Aren't you excited? I am.

I got an email from the Great American Beer Festival (actually a guy from the Brewer Association named "Spencer", pretending his name was "Great American Beer Festival"). The email announced that the GABF Beer & Food Pavilion Schedule was out.

It is very possible that it has been out for quite awhile, but this is the first I have looked at it. You can see at the GABF Event Schedule along with what is going on at the "Brewers Studio Pavilion" and other GABF events.

You see, GABF is not just about drinking beer. If you are a beer geek (even if you are not) you can attend presentations.

Mt Rushmore Pictures

I have mentioned our family trip to South Dakota a few times on this blog. It is hard to believe that was way back in July. Can't believe it is already September. I am not sure where the summer went.

I told you that my favorite part of the trip was the Badlands National Park (see Badlands National Park Pictures). My kids' favorite part was Mt. Rushmore National Monument. My youngest boy, in particular, wanted to go see it every day. His mean parents made him wait. Every once in awhile during our other adventures, we got a view from afar, which appeased him for awhile, but the day we visited the monument was the highlight of the trip for him.

3 Floyds Dreadnaught

When we went to South Dakota last month, we met my wife's sisters and their families about mid-way through the week. They all live in Illinois, and knowing that they had better access to 3 Floyd's Brewing company, I asked them to try to pick up some Zombie Dust. Zombie dust is one of the beers on the Zymurgy's 2013 Best Beers in America list that I am trying to drink my way through.

My brother in law made a heroic effort, but apparently, they don't live quite close enough to the Chicago Land area to get 3 Floyd's beers by them. He even made a road trip to a good craft beer store in attempts to pick some up.

August 2013 Blogging

August had more pages views on this blog than March 2013 did. It was not by much, but this makes August the new record holder. Aren't you excited?

Ok. I know you're not.

In case you are wondering, though, here are the blog posts that have been the most looked-at over the past 30 days:

Myrcenary Double India Pale Ale

So, if you follow this blog, you probably remember that I am trying to track down and drink the beers that I have never tasted on the Zymurgy's 2013 Best Beers in America list. Surprisingly, there was a beer this year from Colorado that I have never tasted.

Odell's Myrcenary Double IPA

There are lots of beers I absolutely love from Odell Brewing Company in Ft. Collins, Colorado. In fact their IPA is #1 on my Colorado 6 pack list. I am sure if I had tried Myrcenary before doing that list, I would have seriously considered adding this beer to it.

It is a great beer.

According to the Odell web site, the beer is "named for Myrcene, a component of essential oils in the hop flower" and is "brewed with a blend of hops containing the highest levels of Myrcene".

Guacamole -- Have Bug. Will Travel

My kids have sort of had a renewed interest in geocaching lately. Here it is two weeks in a row I am able to blog about it. As I mentioned last week, we have gone quite awhile without doing any geocaching. That was too bad, because it really seems like a great way to help enhance the whole outdoor experience with the family.

If you don't know what geocaching is, take a few minutes and check out "Geocaching in 2 Minutes" and / or  "Geocaching 101". Go ahead ... I'll wait.

Anyway, we have just "stepped up our geocaching game". Quite some time ago, I gave my oldest son a couple of Travel Bug tags. We didn't do anything with them and somehow they ended up lost in his room for months. If you have ever seen the normal state of his room, it does not surprise you that these were lost in the chaos.

2nd Family Backpacking trip

A couple of weekends ago I went backpacking for only the 2nd time with the whole family. You may remember our First Family Backpacking Trip last July. My youngest and I have gone a few times together, and my wife and I went quite a bit before we had kids. But, the four of us have now only gone backpacking twice.

We decided to go the same place we went last year (and the same place Connor and I have been on our trips) because big brother wanted to see some of the things little brother got to see last time. Rain prevented big bro from doing that last year.

Trail-head of Goose Creek Trail

Just like last year, I took Friday off and we headed out Thursday night to car-camp close to the wilderness so that we wouldn't waste early Friday driving to the trail-head. I don't have any pictures to share of Thursday night. It rained, and we had fun playing Mad Libs in the minivan while waiting for the storm to pass.

1st Loser ... Helles in a Hand Bock-sket

If you follow SheppyBrew Brewery on facebook or twitter, you may have already seen this picture:

That is right ... SheppyBrew now officially has two award - winning beers! Helles in a Hand Bock-sket placed first in its category and second in the Best of Show (aka 1st loser) judging in the "Battle of the Homebrews" at the Arapahoe Country Fair. In case you don't remember, Sasquatch Hunter German Altbier won a blue ribbon in the Denver Region of the National Homebrew Competition earlier in the year (see Kind of a Big Deal to refresh your memory).

SWMBO #HomeBrew Brew-Day

I brewed yesterday.

So far, since the first day of Summer, this is only the third batch of beer I've brewed. Things have been busy. It was good to get a brew day in.

I have decided to call the beer I brewed yesterday "She Who Must Be Obeyed Wheat". The SheppyBrew Beer Model (my wife) needs something in the keggerator, but when I asked her what she would like, she basically told me just make something she would like. Not much help. I considered some of the beers that have traditionally been her favorites, but nothing really jumped out at me as ones I necessarily wanted to brew at this time.

So, I came up with a new recipe, which as always you can review at the SheppyBrew Website (see She Who Must Be Obeyed Wheat). The recipe borrowed elements from several of the Beer Model's recent favorites. It is a wheat beer like so many of her favorites ( Summer Lovin' Wheat, Whisky Wife Wit, Apricot Lovin' American Wheat, Boo Berry American Wheat, etc ... ). The rest of the base is Marris Otter like Laser Salt Sandy Blonde Ale. It gets its specialty grain character from Biscuit and Caramunich like Buckwheat's BPA. It uses Tettnang hops  Ello Poppet.

Geocaching up to St Mary's Glacier

When I was typing up my Article about Letterboxing post yesterday, I realized that it had really been a long time since we had been geocaching. We actually tried to go two weekends ago when Grandma and Grandpa Shepard were visiting, but the battery ran out on our GPS right at the beginning of our hike. Since then, I've added a couple of fresh batteries to our Geocaching pack so this would not happen to us again.

Before that attempt, the last time we had been geocaching was way back in April on our Geocaching Bike Ride.

Before that, the last time I blogged about purposely geocaching was back in 2009 with Valley of Fire. We have actually done geocaching that I have not blogged about, but really not that much.

Yesterday, I decided to load up my GPS with a few stops on a hike up to St. Mary's Glacier.

Still More @Untappd Badges 11

Well, yes, I know that very few people care, but I keep sharing the untappd badges I earn on this blog.

I recently reached a milestone. Now I have 100 badges. Pretty exciting. Don't you think?

Despite the fact that the South Dakota beer scene sucks, my trip to South Dakota was pretty good to me badge-wise.

Since Still More @Untappd Badges 10, I have earned the following badges:

Article about Letterboxing

This morning, I got an email from the Contact Me form on this blog.

It was from the author of an article on a website called Part Time Nanny, who thought my readers might enjoy reading about Letter Boxing. As I mentioned just recently, pretty much whenever I get an email asking me to share an article, I do it. I'm pretty easy that way.

The article is:

21 Blogs to Read Before Letterboxing with Your Family

Badlands National Park Pictures

I've mentioned a couple times lately that my family went on a road trip to South Dakota a couple weeks ago. The craft beer scene was absolutely awful (see South Dakota Six Pack ... Kinda Sorta Not Really), but we really did a bunch of fun things as a family.

My favorite part of the trip was visiting Badlands National Park. I could have spent several days exploring the geologic formations. It was really awe-inspiring.

The first "trail" area we came to was my favorite. I guess we started at "Door Trail" (see the Hiking page of the National Park website), but once the boardwalk ended, the boys and I just took off in the wide-open space. We explored the various gullies and canyons. Most National Parks want visitors to stay on official maintained trails. Here, we were encouraged to go wherever we wanted. I honestly could have spent all day just in this place (if I had enough water).

If you are ever in the area, I strongly suggest visiting Badlands National Park. Make sure you bring sturdy hiking shoes / boots and lots of water. Also, you'll want sunglasses.

These pictures don't come close to capturing the awesomeness of the park, but here they are none-the-less.

Family Camping Tips

A couple of weeks ago, while the Sheppy family was vacationing in South Dakota, I got an email from the Contact Me form on this blog. It was from someone at summernanny.com telling me about an article they had just posted called 6 Tips for Having a Great Camping Trip With Your Family.

"Please free to feature or mentioning it in your blog"

I'm easy that way ... if you email me asking me to share something, I probably will. Of course, I can't promise it will do you any good, but I'll do it. For sure.

So, do me a favor and visit 

6 Tips for Having a Great Camping Trip With Your Family

July 2013 Blogging

For awhile I thought July had an excellent chance to set a new page-view record on this blog, but the traffic really slowed down in week 3 or so. The month ended up with the 5th most page-views all time. Not all that bad, but considering the strong start, July was a bit of a disappointment.

Here are the 10 most viewed pages of July:

#IPAday after

Well, according to some of the tweets I saw, #IPAday was a success.

It appears that the definition of success is how many #IPAday hash tags were tweeted in a 24 hour period. I don't really know how much that promotes the style as the people tweeting and looking at tweets were already beer geeks who for the most part already loved the style.

But, regardless of what I think ... and as I've said before many times, I don't quite get the whole twitter holiday thing, I will take the experts' word that the day was a success. The number of #IPAday tweets going out sure seemed impressive.

Awesome.

#IPAday Domination

I like American IPA's, but it amazes me a little bit how they have somehow become so pervasive in the craft beer landscape. Sometimes it feels like public perception is that IPA is the only craft beer style out there. There are so many great beer styles out there, but somehow the IPA gets the most attention.

Case in point ... my list ... Zymurgy's 2013 Best Beers in America. I can't think of a more quintessential group of beer geeks than Zymurgy's readers, and you would think that the 50 best beer list would be representative of all beer styles.

You would be wrong, though.

All 5 of the top 5 on the list are IPA's, and over half are IPA's, double IPA's, or imperial IPA's.

If that is not enough, there are several others that are very IPA-like such as Black IPA's or very hoppy pale ales.

My 2013 #IPADay Choices

This year, I didn't have nearly the selection of IPA's in my fridge that I had last year. However, last night I stopped by the liquor store after working out and did a little impulse buying.

Here is the IPA's and IPA-like beer that I have in my commercial beer fridge right now:

From left to right ....

Merry #IPAday 2013

I'm doing it again.

I'm participating in the made-up twitter holiday. I'm quite certain that the only thing worse than a made-up hallmark holiday is a made-up twitter holiday, but I don't care.

I figure, what the heck. I'm a blogger. I'm a beer geek. I like to drink the IPA style of beer. I should add to the madness.

Got my #GABF tickets again

Image from GABF Facebook Page

Well, Great American Beer Fest tickets sold out again in record time, and once again beer fans are frustrated to the point of anger.

Once again, I used my standing as an AHA member to take part in the members-only presale and was able to get all the tickets I wanted. Everyone that I know in the office who tried also got everything they wanted (including two co-workers who purchased an AHA membership JUST to get GABF tickets).

Lots of members got stuck with the Saturday evening session, though. Personally, if my choice is to go to the Saturday evening session or to not go, I would pick to stay away.

For me personally, things went much smoother than last year (see #GABF #TicketMasterFail), but the TicketMaster process was far from flawless. I got my Friday night tickets no problem, but when I went to try to get the Saturday afternoon tickets, TicketMaster was not recognizing my Membership Number.

NSFW Brewday

Remember my "Poll: which Belgium Strong Ale should I brew?" The post got 18 votes to tell me what to brew this past weekend.

• 18C. Belgian Tripel. got 0 votes
• 18E. Belgian Dark Strong Ale got 2 votes
• 18A. Belgian Blond Ale got 3 votes
• 18B. Belgian Dubbel for 6 votes

And the clear winner with 7 votes was 18D. Belgian Golden Strong Ale

I'm glad a winner came out, because for awhile it was looking like the Dubbel and the Golden Strong were going to tie.

South Dakota Six Pack ... Kinda Sorta Not Really

My family and I went on vacation last week to South Dakota. Before I left, knowing that when traveling I like to try different local beers, I tweeted my virtual friend @BryanDRoth asking if he had any South Dakota bloggers in mind for his "Six-Pack Project". I was hoping he had someone I could ask for suggestions on South Dakota local craft beer to try.

He answered that he didn't. He did suggest that I could provide research for South Dakota Beers. Not really what I was after, but I figured I would at least be able to share my beer experiences there.

While in South Dakota, we did all kinds of cool things.

Hennepin Farmhouse Saison

I was in the liquor store last week looking through the beer section when I found a four pack of Ommegang's Hennepin Farmhouse Saison. Knowing that it was tied for 46 on  Zymurgy's 2013 Best Beers in America list, I grabbed it. I tried the beer over the weekend.

Ommegang's Website says that Hennepin Farmhouse Saison is an "ale brewed with grains of paradise, coriander, ginger, sweet orange peel." It is 7.7% ABV and 24 IBU.

My sample was a hazy pale gold with a fluffy white head and lots of carbonation.

The aroma was lots of Belgium farmhouse funk blended with the various spices. I got significant orange (probably from the coriander and orange peel).

It tasted pretty much the same, although I think the orange was a little more lemony. It starts out sweet with spiciness in the middle and does finish off pretty dry (as a saison should).

Poll: which Belgium Strong Ale should I brew?

I have not done a "what should I brew" poll in awhile. The last one I did (see What should I #HomeBrew Next?) got lots of responses, although almost half of them came in after the decision was actually made.

The decision I am currently having trouble with is what Category 18 style should I brew?

If you are a regular reader, you probably know that I am home-brewing through the BJCP Categories. My goal is to have brewed at least one beer in all 23 beer categories of the BJCP Style Guidelines. As I type this post, I have 6 categories left.

One of the categories that is in my to-do list is 18. Belgian Strong Ale. There are 5 styles or subcategories in  Category 18, and I cannot really decide which one I want to brew, so I am letting my blog readers decide for me. Vote early. Vote often. Let me know what kind of beer I should make:

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

In case you are wondering what all these sub-categories are ... you can look it up on bjcp.org:

• 18A. Belgian Blond Ale
• 18B. Belgian Dubbel
• 18C. Belgian Tripel
• 18D. Belgian Golden Strong Ale
• 18E. Belgian Dark Strong Ale

2013 Q2 SheppyBrew Stats

It is that time again! It is time to post quarterly updates on how much the SheppyBrew Brewery  has brewed. I've been doing this for quite some time because it is fun for me to go back and look at how the brewery has been doing. Plus, believe it or not, readers have mentioned they enjoy looking at the brewing stats. You can see all of these reports (including the one you are reading right now) by following this link: http://blog.ericshepard.com/search/label/Brew%20Stats .

Still More @Untappd Badges 10

Earning untappd badges has gotten pretty rare for me. The last time I had enough to report on was mid-May (see Still More @Untappd Badges 9) and before that was mid-February (see Still More @Untappd Badges 8). Back in "the day", I was getting enough pretty much every month to do a new post.

Oh well.

Since last time, I have earned the following badges:

Tank 7 Farmhouse Ale

As you probably know, I've started trying to find beers that I have never had from the Zymurgy's 2013 Best Beers in America list.

At the same time I picked up Firestone Walker Wookey Jack, I also got a 4 pack of Boulevard Brewing Company's Tank 7 Farmhouse Ale, tied at number 32 on the Zymurgy list. This past weekend, I gave it a try. With all the IPAs on this list, a saison was a welcome change.

Boulevard Brewing Company is located in Kansas City, MO. Its website says it is Missouri's 2nd largest brewery. According to the Brewer's Association, it is the country's 12th largest craft brewery.

Boulevard distributes to Colorado. It seems odd that I've never had any of their beers. I'm glad the Zymurgy list got me to try Tank 7.

Brewing Gnasty the Gnome ESB

Remember Gnasty the Gnome?

As I've shared with you, I am terrified of Gnomes, but Gnasty is helping me get over my fear. We enjoy the same sorts of beers and of course we both love watching the Chicago Blackhawks. We even brew together. I still don't quite trust him. I am sure that his ultimate plan is to attack me in my sleep, but we have become friends.

As I mentioned back in January, Gnasty and I were going to design a home-brew recipe together. You might have noticed that some time ago we did that and already posted the recipe "Gnasty the Gnome ESB" on the SheppyBrew website.

If you didn't notice, you probably need to start following SheppyBrew Brewery on Facebook. Go ahead and "like" us. It is completely worth it.

Gnasty the Gnome ESB is a Category 8 English Pale Ale, subscategory C Extra Special Bitter. It is, in fact, the Category 8 representative of my initiative to make sure I've brewed everyone BJCP style category (see SheppyBrew Styles).

June 2013 Blogging

June ended up with the 2nd most page-views all-time on this blog behind March. For the most part, the whole month was pretty consistent. I always thought it looked like it would come in 2nd.

Here are the top 10 viewed posts over the past 30 days:

Factotum Brewhouse

I got an email through my Contact Me form on this blog from a guy starting a new Denver area brewery. The brewery will be called Factotum Brewhouse.

His concept is a little different than your typical brewery, though. Unique. Brilliant, really. Genius.

Factotum will give home-brewers an opportunity to brew on its system. In fact, it sounds like most of the beer served in its taproom will be brewed by home-brewers.

Read the press release he sent me below. Make sure to check out his kickstarter page. I am thinking about making a donation and I will certainly visit the brewery when it is finished.

Chelsea Dagger 2013

The Blackhawks won last night thanks in part to me and my little Gnome buddy. Obviously, game 6 was on the road so they were not going to be playing Chelsea Dagger in the stadium, but I took it upon myself to play it loud whenever I thought the Blackhawks needed a lift.

It worked.

I was also sure to save some SheppyBrew Blackhawk Black for the final period. You may think that my choice of beverage has little to do with how the hockey team did, but you would be wrong. Tommy Hawk APA helped get them to the finals, and  Blackhawk Black helped push them to the championship.

I waited all my life to see the Blackhawks win a Stanley Cup. I just had to wait 3 years to see them win a 2nd. Hopefully I'll get to see several more.

Go Blackhawks!

Firestone Walker Wookey Jack

Well, after seeing Zymurgy's newest Best Beers in America list, (see Zymurgy's 2013 Best Beers in America), I didn't waste much time looking in my local liquor store to see what I could pick up. Of course, I can't get T9. Lagunitas Sucks until December or January. The next highest ranked beer that I have not tried was #16. The Alchemist Heady Topper is not available in Colorado.

I found a 22oz bomber of the 3rd highest ranked beer I had not tried, though.

#20. Firestone Walker Wookey Jack
Beers from Firestone Walker Brewing Company are very available here in Colorado. In fact, you may remember that I've blogged about both Firestone Walker Union Jack and Firestone Double Jack since both appeared on my 2012 list.

Still More Sexist Beer Labels

Remember my post "Sexist Beer Labels"?

At the time I told you, "I've never bought any of these beers, but if I saw one of these in my liquor store, I would at least consider buying it for the clever labels."

Recently, Clown Shoes started distributing to Colorado, and I had an opportunity to pick up a four pack of Tramp Stamp Belgium India Pale Ale in my local liquor store. I took that opportunity because I wanted to try the beer behind the artwork. I couldn't resist the blogging opportunity.

From the Clown Shoes website:

"Like a stamp on a tramp, this beer is about not so subtle seduction.  Soft but complex malts, Chambly yeast, sweet orange peel, Columbus, Amarillo, and Centennial hops have merged to create a bodacious Belgian IPA."

Zymurgy's 2013 Best Beers in America

Zymurgy's 2013 Best Beers in America just came out.

None of SheppyBrew Brewery's beers made it this year.

Of course, if you follow this blog, you may know that every year I target this list to make sure I've tried as many of the beers as possible. From last year, I ended up with only 2 that I have not had (or at least that I don't remember ever trying).

The ones I missed from 2012 were:

• Troegs Nugget Nectar (#34)
• Russian River Pliny the Younger (#48)

Not a bad. Not bad at all.

So, now it is time to move on to the 2013 list.

Brewing the Un-Wheat

I was at my brew shop last Wednesday trying to purchase ingredients to make SheppyBrew's world famous Summer Lovin' American Wheat. I was talking to one of the employees there about my win, and scooped out German Pilsner malt instead of the Wheat malt I meant to add to the recipe. By the time I realized my mistake, I had it crushed and blended in a bag with the rest of my malts.

Ooops.

At that moment, I decided to change what I was going to make last weekend. I decided to make Summer Lovin' Un-Wheat instead. Initially, I thought the only difference was going to be the pilsner malt replacing the wheat malt, but since I was changing the beer, I decided to try another thing I had been thinking about. Rather than the orange zest I put in the wheat beer, I am going to add orange juice concentrate after a couple days of fermentation. I also reduced the coriander a bit.

You can look at the whole recipe by following this link to the SheppyBrew website.

Pictures at the Great Sand Dunes

For the third year in a row, my family went camping at the Great Sand Dunes National Park. Just like last year, we camped in a group site with the same people (mostly) that we camped with last year.

You can read all about our adventures in and around the Sand Dunes (including this post) by following this link.

Here are some pictures:

Another Father and Son Backpacking Trip Part 2

This is part 2 of "Another Father and Son Backpacking Trip". If you have not read Another Father and Son Backpacking Trip Part 1, go back and read it now. In fact, even if you have read it, go back and review it again. Who knows what important detail you may have forgotten. Go ahead, read it. We'll still be here when you are done.

So, it was Saturday of Memorial Day Weekend, and my youngest boy and I had spent a bunch of time exploring rock formations by the "Shaft House". After spending a couple hours up that way, we returned to camp and hung out / collected firewood / explored some more.

Another Father and Son Backpacking Trip Part 1

You may remember that last year, my youngest son and I went on a backpacking trip together over Memorial Day Weekend. If not, see SheppyQuest Lite, Father and Son Backpacking trip Part 1, and Father and Son Backpacking trip Part 2. This year, my wife and older son were gone for the same reason as last year, and we decided to do the same trip.

Like last year, I picked up my little boy right after school. Unlike last year, we were able to just leave straight for the wilderness because I didn't forget my wallet.

May 2013 Blogging

May did not did not beat the page-view record on this blog, but it did beat April and was second all-time behind March. Some days in May the traffic was pretty strong, some days pathetically light. Colorado 6 pack gave the blog a much-needed boost at the end to make the month finish somewhat respectable.

And ... for your reading enjoyment ... here are the top 10 viewed posts over the past 30 days:

Blind Pig at Parry's Pizza

I have not talked about it very much since GABF, but you may remember that for the past 3 years I have attempted to find and drink as many of the beers I have not had on Zymurgy's Best Beers in America lists. I started out having already tried most of the 2012 list (see 2012 Best Beers in America, so there has not been very much to report this year.

Last I reported, I had tried all but 3 on the list. I still needed:

• Troegs Nugget Nectar (#34)
• Russian River Blind Pig IPA (#37, tied)
• Russian River Pliny the Younger (#48)

Yesterday, I rode my bike to work and beforehand told my wife and kids that they could come "rescue" me with the mini-van and see my new work-location. Then we could go have pizza at a place we like called "Parry's Pizza".

Parry's has 4 locations. Before last night we had been to the one in Highlands Ranch, but when I bike home I always pass by the one in Greenwood Village, and I've thought to myself it would be nice to check it out.

The reason I like Parry's Pizza is that they have a spectacular selection of craft beer on tap. The Highland's Ranch and Greenwood Village locations each have 50 taps, and all of them are craft beer.

Plus, we all think that the Pizza is great.

Colorado 6 pack

Not too long ago, I got a tweet and then a subsequent email from one of my virtual blogging / brewing buddies, @BryanDRoth at This Is Why I'm Drunk. He had this crazy idea for a blogging collaboration. He wanted to get 6 different bloggers from six different states to each come up with a 6-pack of beers that "best represent your state and/or state's beer culture".

It is actually very similar to Denver's 5280 Magazine's 6 packs that they put out from time to time. Check out Billy Brew's article "What's Your State's Dream Team Six Pack" and you can also read more about the 5280 six packs on my blog.

@BryanDRoth had some rules:

• Must pick a six-pack of beers that you feel best represent your state and/or state's beer culture
• Beer must be made in your state, but "gypsy" brewers are acceptable, so long as that beer is brewed with an in-state brewery and sold in your state
• Any size bottle or can is acceptable to include
• Current seasonal offerings are fine, but try to keep selections to year-round brews as much as possible. No out-of-season brews preferred. (ideally that could be another post)

3 Balls per Barrel

Remember the whole thing last year around GABF about  Wynkoop's Rocky Mountain Oyster Stout? If not, check out that handy hyperlink I included.

Of course, you remember that my wife and I both tried it at GABF (see 2012 #GABF Friday Night). I didn't taste testicles at all. The Beer Model thought it tasted a little meaty ... almost like a bacon beer. I actually thought it just tasted like a standard Foreign Extra Stout. I didn't taste the 3 BPB at all.

Since GABF, the Wynkoop brewery has actually made more of this beer and even canning it 2-packs (I am not even making that up). I was at my liquor store awhile ago and made an impulse buy of one of those 2-packs.

It is honestly a little weird seeing that sign in a liquor store. The lady who rung up my purchases made a comment about the 2-pack before she realized what the beer was. I just thought it amusing that she commented on the packaging before making a comment about the bull testicles.

Everybody gets a certificate

If you follow this blog at all, or SheppyBrew's Facebook Page, or my twitter feed, or are just someone I have talked to in the past couple of weeks, you know that SheppyBrew's  Sasquatch Hunter German Altbier is now an award winning beer.

I won't go into the details on the 1st place winning beer here. If you want, you can read my posts "Kind of a Big Deal" and "Brewing for the Nationals". Feel free to shower me with praise and congratulations in any or all of the comment sections.

Lots of you know that I have been brewing since 2009 when my sister got me a Mr. Beer kit as a Christmas gift. Until this year, I've never entered a home-brew competition. I've been told that I should, and I always agree. Not that I necessarily expected that I would win anything. I mostly thought I should enter competitions to get objective feedback.

Bike to Work Week

Did you know it is Bike to Work Month? Did you know it is Bike to Work Week? I didn't know it until late Tuesday, but according to the League of American Bicyclists, May is Bike to Work Month and this week is Bike to Work Week. Today is even Bike to Work Day.

According to the League's 2013 Bicycle Friendly State Rankings, Colorado is ranked 2nd in "bike-friendliness", and since moving to Colorado I always told myself I should commute to work more. When I was a consultant, it was often hard as I had to be driving to various clients. I ended up riding a couple times a year.

Since joining a "real" company with an actual day-to-day location, though, I had ridden to work maybe 3 or 4 times in 3 years. My main excuse is that after a 15 mile bike ride, I am generally very sweaty. My old building did not have a shower, and I used that as an excuse not to ride.

Still More @Untappd Badges 9

It has been a long time since I've posted about my newly earned untappd badges (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 and Still More @Untappd Badges 4 and Still More @Untappd Badges 5 and Still More @Untappd Badges 6, and Still More @Untappd Badges 7 and Still More @Untappd Badges 8).

I just don't come across as many opportunities to get them. I have 92 of them, and am running out of ones I don't have, and other than the special day or event ones, most of them are ones that are not necessarily easy for me to get.

Laser Salt and Eldorado Canyon

Last year, we were invited to go with a group of people to the Great Sand Dunes National Park. The SheppyBrew Beer Model and I designed and brewed a beer to bring with us for that trip, calling it Laser Salt Sandy Blonde Ale. You can read quite a bit about the whole experience (including this blog post at http://blog.ericshepard.com/search/label/Laser%20Salt).

Once again, we are invited to go with the same group. The Beer Model and I were planning on brewing Laser Salt again on Big Brew Day, but as you may recall, we had to brew something else that weekend (see Brewing for the Nationals). So, we had to move this year's Laser Salt Sandy Blonde Ale brew day to this past weekend.

I got started much earlier Saturday than we got started Big Brew Day. In fact, I was starting to chill the wort this weekend about the time we got started last time. My wife doesn't believe in doing anything before the sun comes up, especially brewing.

Hurray for #HomeBrewing in Alabama

At the beginning of 2013, there were still 2 states in which Home-brewing beer was illegal.

In March, Mississippi finally passed a bill to legalize home-brewing, leaving Alabama.

And now, the Alabama senate finally passed a bill that legalizes home-brewing beer in their ass-backwards state. As soon as the Governor of Alabama signs the bill, thousands of home-brewers will officially be legal.

See the American Homebrewers Association's Alabama Homebrew Bill Passes Senate .

Congratulations on joining the rest of the country, Alabama. It is about time.

Brewing for the Nationals

Did I mention that my Sasquatch Hunter German Altbier won first place at the Denver Regional round of AHA's National Home-Brew Competition in Category 7 : Amber Hybrid Beer?

Yes, I have mentioned it to lots of people. Hopefully I am not coming across too much as an arrogant, bragging ass. At some point I'll share some of the humbling things about the other beers I entered to the competition to knock myself down a couple pegs.

As I mentioned in Kind of a Big Deal, the first place win advanced my beer to the finals of the National Home-Brew Competition. Unfortunately, I did not save enough bottles to send to the finals.

This meant I had to brew it again this weekend.

As lots of you know, the first Saturday of May is National Homebrew Day, and for as long as I remember, the American Homebrewers Association has organized a Big Brew Day. Basically it is just an excuse for homebrewers to get together in packs and brew together.

The SheppyBrew Beer Model (aka my wife) and I have made it a tradition to brew together on Big Brew Day. You can follow lots of posts (including this one) by going to my Big Brew Day label on this blog. Originally, I was planning on brewing Laser Salt Sandy Blonde Ale with her, but the home-brew competition win changed that plan. We had to brew Sasquatch Hunter German Altbier. Luckily, the Beer Model was ok with this.

The Business of Brewing

Ooops!

I'm late. I had every intention of getting this posted Friday. I actually started the article a few weeks ago. I was going to finish it up Thursday night, but as it turns out, something exciting happened in my imaginary Brewing life that made me work on a different blog post on Thursday night. It was Kind of a Big Deal for me.

So, I decided to post this a little later. We can call it a Beer Blogging Sunday instead. Hope the rest of beer blogging community understands and doesn't shun me for my late submission.

Here it is ... time for another month's "The Session" (aka Beer Blogging Friday).

This month's topic comes from Chuck at allbeers.

He is interested in reading about The Business of Brewing. 

He writes:

 "In this Session, I’d like to invite comments and observations from bloggers and others who have first-hand knowledge of the complexities and pitfalls of starting a commercial brewery. What were the prescient decisions that saved the day or the errors of omission or commission that caused an otherwise promising enterprise to careen tragically off the rails?"

Well, here at the SheppyBrew Brewery,  we have not "gone commercial", but we like to make believe that we are a real brewery, or someday could become one. So, I don't have the "first-hand knowledge" that Chuck is looking for, but for the purposes of this article I will pretend I know what I am talking about.

Kind of a Big Deal

If you follow SheppyBrew Brewery's Facebook page, you already know this, but I am now officially an award-winning brewer. If you don't follow the SheppyBrew Brewery's Facebook page, you really should. Go like SheppyBrew!

Yes, believe it or not, my Sasquatch Hunter German Altbier won first place at the Denver Regional round of AHA's National Home-Brew Competition in Category 7 : Amber Hybrid Beer. It also had a mini-best-of-show designation. I'm not sure what exactly the mini-bos means, but it is better than not getting a mini-bos.

I'm kind of a big deal.

April 2013 Blogging

April did not beat the page-view record on this blog, but it did end up in 2nd place all-time behind March. I think this is more reasonable behavior than the steady rise the blog had from May of 2011 through January of this year. Some months should be up some should be down.

Since I know that the curiosity is killing you (yeah, right) the top 10 most viewed posts in April are:

Kegging TommyHawk and Grilling Steaks

The regular season is over for my Blackhawks. Tonight the playoffs start. The Blackhawks did finish with the President's trophy, which means they will have home-ice advantage all the way through the Stanley Cup finals.

The mighty Blackhawks will soon be opening up against the eighth seed evil Minnesota Wild.

SERIES E TIME (ET) #1 Chicago vs. #8 Minnesota Networks
Tuesday, April 30 8 p.m. Minnesota at Chicago       NBC Sports Network, CBC
Friday, May 3 9:30 p.m. Minnesota at Chicago       NBC Sports Network, CBC
Sunday, May 5 3 p.m. Chicago at Minnesota       NBC, CBC
Tuesday, May 7 9:30 p.m. Chicago at Minnesota       NBC Sports Network, CBC
*Thursday, May 9 TBD Minnesota at Chicago       CBC
*Saturday, May 11 TBD Chicago at Minnesota       CBC
*Sunday, May 12 TBD Minnesota at Chicago       CBC

I can't wait. Go Blackhawks!

Geocaching Bike Ride

My son making pancakes

It was a glorious spring weekend day this past Saturday. The kids told their mom that they would like to go on  a bike ride. Connor said he didn't want to go to the Cowboy Playground and didn't want to do the Waterton Canyon trail again. He wanted to go on a new bike ride. 

I decided to introduce the boys to the Highland Canal path. The Highland Canal is one of the Denver Metro's biggest bike trails. It runs from south of C470 up to Aurora, snaking along quite a bit. Depending on where I try to get the information, the total distance is anywhere from 48 miles to 71 miles.

Follow this link and you can see a map: http://www.denvermetrotrails.com/maps/highline%20canal%20trail.html

Of course the total distance does not matter that much. My wife and kids were not going to ride the whole thing.

I picked a little 7 mile section running from Writers Vista Park in Littleton to deKoevend Park in Centennial. Both these parks are right on the bike path.

Biking to Work

We are a one-car family this week. This is inconvenient. My work hours do not really correspond well with school and various other activities my kids engage in. Most days, my wife needs the car to get my kids where they need to be. My work place is far enough away that it doesn't really make sense for her to drop me off and pick me up.

The most obvious solution is that I can ride my bike to work. My workplace is about 15 miles away from my home. On a good day, my drive is a little bit over half an hour. With normal "rush-hour" traffic it can take 45 minutes. I should be able to bike it on my trusty hybrid in a little over an hour.

Brewing TommyHawk, doing Taxes

As far as I can remember, I have always left doing my taxes until the last weekend before they are due. This is partially because I know I always owe money, and I don't want to write the government a check until I absolutely have to. More to the point, though, is that I am a procrastinator when it come to doing things I don't like to do. I have always been this way and for the most part it works out very well for me.

Well, Sunday, in addition to being the day I had to prepare to file my tax returns, was a brew day. I had to brew TommyHawk APA (which is actually an IPA). Also, there was a BlackHawk's game I had to watch. Of course, Sunday I need to take the family to church as well.

So, it was going to be a busy day.

Will Drink in May

 Not too long ago, I facebook "liked" SheppyBrew's Helles in a Hand Bock-sket with the comment:

Kegging my Helles in a Hand Bock-sket #homebrew beautiful gold beer 7.5 ish abv. Will drink in May.

One of my facebook friends commented:

I like "Will drink in May" - I know what you mean but it sounds so decisive. Like an event, or a bumper sticker

Kinda like "will work for food," but not sad and needy.

Well, as you may remember (but quite likely don't), the SheppyBrew Brewery does have official brewery merchandise that we sell on Zazzle. Not very many people have ordered from the store (I can count them on one finger), but it is there in case the brewery ever gets fans who might want a hat or a mug or a stein or something else that says SheppyBrew on it.

More Grilled Chicken

I grilled another whole chicken the past Sunday. (see Grilled Chicken along with some of the links from that blog post). This time, I grilled the bird standing up as if it were a Beer-Can chicken, but I skipped the can of beer. According to "MeatHead" in Debunking Beer Can Chicken: A Waste Of Good Beer (And It Is Dangerous), this is the best way to grill a whole chicken (other than cutting it up in pieces).

Soaking in Brine

2013 Q1 SheppyBrew Stats

As you may know, the Brewery likes to post quarterly updates on how much we have brewed. You can see all these updates (including the one you are reading right now) by following this link: http://blog.ericshepard.com/search/label/Brew%20Stats .

It has been busy brewing quarter. As you may or may not remember, I decided to try to round out my brewing experience by making it my goal to have brewed at least one recipe in all 23 beer categories of the BJCP. At the beginning of the quarter, I had 11 categories left. After having brewed Sasquatch Hunter Altbier, Snowball's Chance Helles, Khazad-dûm Black Lager, and Helles in a Hand Bock-sket, I now only have 7 more categories (English Pale Ale, English Brown Ale, Porter , German Wheat and Rye Beer, Belgian Strong Ale, Strong Ale, Smoke-Flavored and Wood-Aged Beer ) to brew. See SheppyBrew Styles for additional information on this little project.

Biking with the Sheep

It was about a year ago when I reported that my youngest son had finally finished learning to ride his bike. Hard to believe it has only been a year. Very soon after that, he started asking me to get him a mountain bike. The little one-speed bike apparently was not doing it for him. He wanted a bike with multiple gears and hand brakes like the rest of the family. He always enjoyed riding his little bike, but thought it could be better.

The boy turned 8 on Friday, and we finally got him that mountain bike. He loves it and was very excited to try it out. We made the mistake of giving it to him very close to dinner time, and it took us awhile to get him back to the house to eat.

We let him decide what our family Saturday activity would be. He picked (not surprisingly) to go on a bike ride.

Finding Beer Balance

Here it is ... time for another month's "The Session" (aka Beer Blogging Friday).

This month's topic comes from Bryan at This Is Why I’m Drunk. Bryan wants to know about "Finding Beer Balance".

He says:

"It’s a discussion I hope will offer a variety of responses as people consider their interests outside of finding the perfect pint."

Basically, I think he wants to know what us beer geeks do when we are not beer-geeking. 

Brewing Some Buckwheat BPA

I don't have a favorite beer. I drink way too promiscuously to profess one beer to be my preferred. My wife, on the other hand, does say that she has a favorite, and it just happens to be a SheppyBrew creation. As it is my wife's official favorite beer, it is the one beer recipe that I have brewed the most. It is also the beer I have experimented with the most.

The beer is called Buckwheat's Belgium Pale Ale , and I brewed it again on Saturday.

The recipe is pretty close to how it started. The recipe has gone from a partial mash to the old 2.5 gallon single infusion mash to BIAB to my bigger all-grain batches. I've experimented with different yeasts, picking based on my wife's blind taste test. But, basically, the recipe is still pretty close to where it started.

March 2013 Blogging

Well, you may or may not remember that February was the first month in forever in which this blog did not break its "page view" record. March recovered nicely and blew past the record.

And since I know you're dying to know what people have been looking at most, here are the top 10 most viewed blog entries for the past 30 days.

Arvada Beer Co.

Arvada Beer Co. is one of the tons of little Denver-area breweries that have popped up in the past couple of years. Shamefully, I had not visited them until this past weekend when I had to drop of my 2013 National Homebrew Competition entries*.

According to Google Maps, Arvada Beer Co is located a mere 12.6 miles straight North of my house, which is less than a half hour drive. Heck, I should be able to ride my bike there in around an hour.

5600 Olde Wadsworth Boulevard
Arvada, CO 80002

I had never been there, but I felt sort of like I knew Cary and Kelly Floyd, because I hear them about once a month on my pod-casts of the Colorado Craft Beer Show, which I listen to every week. Turk and the Gubna currently broadcast once a month from Arvada Beer Co.

Denver Breweries

I came across my Beer Drinkers Guide to Colorado map the other day. If you are unfamiliar, it is much like the map they are selling here: http://www.beerdrinkersguidetocolorado.com . It is a real cool full-sized map which lists every brewery in Colorado.... or at least it listed every brewery in the state at the time the map went to the printer.

It also has a ton of information and lots of coupons. They say over $250 in value.

Mine is the 5th edition, and has significantly fewer breweries in it than the current 6th edition. Based on the ridiculous number of breweries that seem to be opening every month round here, I have to assume the 6th edition is woefully out-of-date already too. I know the couple who put it together tried to include breweries that were on their way .... but still ... there is no way a map like this can be up-to-date.

In case you didn't know, Colorado has lots of breweries. Lots of these breweries are in the Denver area, and I am sad to report that I have not been to most of them. Actually, I have been to a pitifully small proportion of them.

Brewing Helles in a Hand Bock-sket

I brewed Helles in a Hand Bock-sket Saturday. This was my 5A. Maibock/Helles Bock beer for my goal to expand my brewed recipes to at least one beer in all 23 BJCP beer categories. After finishing up this Maibock, I now only have 7 more categories I need to cover.

I got a much later start than usual for a brew day. Until around 9 AM or so I had not decided whether I was going to brew Saturday or Sunday. As I usually get started before the sun comes up, this brew day felt sort of weird.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

It might just be that I am a geek, but I love this song ...

Alcohol

This past weekend, I was looking at the "insights" section of the SheppyBrew Brewery Facebook page (please go like it if you have not already). I was shocked to see a big jump in the numbers of people "reached" and "talking about this".

Looking through the posts on the page for the week, it was easy to see that the article from 9 news.com, Suits: More water, less buzz in Bud, Michelob beer is what got most of the attention. You can go ahead and read the article if you want. The gist of the article is that Anheuser-Busch is defending itself from class-action lawsuits which accuse the company of watering down its beers.

The Problem with Mr. Beer

I am a fan of Mr. Beer.  I have made no secret of the fact that I started home-brewing after receiving a Mr. Beer kit from my sister for Christmas of 2008. I got hooked so quickly that my wife got me a second fermentor for my next birthday which was less than a month after brewing my first batch of beer.

If you look back in the SheppyBrew Brewing Calendar for 2009 and 2010, you will see a crazy amount of brewing, all done in Mr. Beer fermentors. By my count, over those first two years, I did 62 batches of beer at 2.4 gallons a pop. I started with the super simple Mr. Beer recipes. I moved to other extracts with steeping grains and then to partial mashes. Finally, I stepped up to all-grain brewing . All of this in the Mr. Beer fermentors.

The streak is broken

Every month since May of 2011, this blog has gotten more and more page views. February did not have more page views than January, so this epic streak is now over. Part of me is relieved that this happened. The streak was unnatural and creeped me out a bit. According to the average views per day, had this been a 31 day month, the streak would have continued. If it were a 30 day month, we still would have missed it.

If you feel like reviewing the magic ride, feel free to read through the posts at http://blog.ericshepard.com/search/label/Blogging. As it turns out, February comes in 5th all-time behind Oct 2012 thru Jan 2013.

For what it is worth, March is off to a great start.

Beer Audit

Here it is ... time for another month's "The Session" (aka Beer Blogging Friday).

This month's topic comes from Adam at Pints and Pubs. He wants us to take a Beer Audit of our beer cellars. What is in there? What does it tell us about our drinking habits?

I encourage you to read his post: The Session #73 Announcement: Beer Audit. for the nitty-gritty details around his topic. I'm sure I wouldn't do it justice if I tried.

Ok ... so if you are already familiar with this blog, you already know what a nerd I am. I hope those "first-timers" of you who might come across this blog post won't judge me too harshly. It is interesting to me that Adam says that he takes stock of his beer supply a couple times a year, because I know at all times more or less what beers I have in my "cellar". Of course, it sounds like I have less beers in mine than Adam has in his.