2022 Fathers' Day Camping at Turquois Lake Part 2

As I mentioned in 2022 Fathers' Day Camping at Turquois Lake Part 1, my family took me camping at Turquois Lake, which is just West of Leadville, Colorado for Fathers Day weekend.

I promised more pictures. Here there are.

Part 1 was pretty much all kayaking and SUP pictures. 

This post will have more camping and hiking pictures.

2022 Fathers' Day Camping at Turquois Lake Part 1

The past few Fathers' Days, I've posted photos of camping trips my wife and kids have taken me on.

I love camping, and my family knows this so Fathers' Days are pretty consistently times that I actually get to go camping.

Last year, in fact, the only camping trip I went on was Fathers' Day weekend. (see Fathers' Day 2021 in RMNP (Part 1) and Fathers' Day 2021 in RMNP (Part 2).

This past weekend was Fathers' Day 2022, and my family took me camping at Turquois Lake, which is just West of Leadville, Colorado.

It just happens to be the same place we went for Father's Day Weekend 2020Father's Day Weekend 2020.

It is a nice camping area and has the lake where we can Kayak and SUP, which is a lot of fun.

KFC Thighs

KFC. Kettle Fried Chicken. 

Chicken thighs are probably the meal I make most on my weber kettles.

For awhile, I was really experimenting a bunch with KFC. Lately, I have made more non-kettle-fried.

Last Sunday, I found a box of "Easy Bake Chicken Seasoned Coating Mix" in the pantry. I don't remember buying it, but I must have at some point. Since I had it, I thought I'd try it out.

So I did.

The box had two bags in it. I applied one bag to my chicken. As it turns out, this covered exactly half of the chicken thighs I had.

So, I made some of my own coating to cover the rest of them. Some flour. Some seasoning.

A is for A Bit Twisted Brewpub

It was just last week that I posted A to Z Denver Breweries Round 3.

As I mentioned, it looks like there are still enough breweries in the Colorado Brewery Map & List that I believe we can do a round 4.

This past weekend, we decided to go ahead and start round 4 with an "A" brewery.

There were a couple of good candidates on the List.

When it came right down to it, though, there was one that made more sense than the others ...

Big A. Little A. What begins with A?

A is for A Bit Twisted Brewpub

Jethro Bud Nelson Merican Lite Lager (Batch 312)

I've been married to the SheppyBrew Beer Model for a long time ... almost 27 years ... but I've known her even longer.

We met in college at Bradley University in Central Illinois when she was 20 years old.

Her parents were a tad over-protective of their daughter, and they didn't really like me much. Luckily, they lived about 3 hours from the University.

One weekend, they were down visiting, and the future Beer Model thought it best that we avoid each other.

So, even then, I knew that I must obey this woman. 

I disguised myself in sunglasses, a big floppy hat, and a flannel shirt. I instructed my friends not to call me Shep or Sheppy or Shepardieux while her parents were there.

Instead, they called me Jethro. Jethro Bud Nelson was my alias.

Colorado Vienna Lager vs Upslope Mexican Dark Lager

Remember in Colorado Vienna Lager vs Modelo Negra, I compared my Colorado Vienna Lager to both Modelo Negra and to  Prost Munich Dunkel.

While the styles have similar characteristics, these are not really Vienna Lagers.

I mentioned that I had cans of Upslope's Mexican Dark Lager in my fridge that I also should have compared (see U is for Upslope Brewing Company).

I typed "Maybe I'll do that side-by-side sometime soon."

Last Sunday, I did my side-by-side.

Upslope's Mexican Dark Lager still isn't a Vienna Lager. Honestly, it is closer to Modelo Negra than either of the other beers. But still, it was fun to compare.

Eric's Pale Ale (batch 311)

It is difficult for me to believe that I posted Updating the Homebrew Colorado 6 pack over a year ago.

Since that time, I brewed Sin Lima Mexican Lager (batch 293) to represent Ska's Mexican Logger and Caliente Fuerte Mexican Stout (Batch 300) to represent Copper Kettle Mexican Chocolate Stout in the 6 pack.

I actually decided that T.Ra.Sh. Light Mexican Lager (batch 292) was a better match for Ska's Mexican Logger. (see T.Ra.Sh. Light Mexican Lager vs Ska Mexican Logger)

Anyway ... that left one last beer for my Colorado Homebrew 6 Pack.

A beer inspired by a Colorado classic, Dale's Pale Ale ... 

Eric's Pale Ale

A to Z Denver Breweries Round 3

Ok ... well ... as of Z is for BruZ Beers, the SheppyBrew Beer Model and I are done with Round 3 of our A to Z Denver Breweries series of posts.

In November of 2020, I posted A is for Altitude Brewing & Supply.

And just a few days ago, I posted Z is for BruZ Beers. 

If my math is correct, that's 26 breweries in about 18 months.

That's faster than either Round 1 or 2. Mostly because the Beer Model has been more involved than in earlier rounds, and has been keeping us "on track".

Colorado Vienna Lager vs Modelo Negra

So ... I've been drinking Colorado Vienna Lager.

I think I've already had more of Colorado Vienna Lager (Batch 310) than I ever had of Colorado Vienna Lager (Batch 306) before the Disappearing Beer tragedy occurred.

At some point, I thought it would be fun to compare my Colorado Vienna Lager with commercial Vienna Lagers.

Unfortunately, it isn't real easy to find Vienna Lagers to buy. I remember hearing that Modelo Negra was considered a Vienna Lager, but when I looked it up on Untappd, it is listed as a Munich Dunkel.

I looked around at my favorite beer store, and I didn't see anything labeled Vienna Lager.

So I picked up Modelo Negra. Just for fun, I also picked up a six pack of Prost Munich Dunkel cans.

Z is for BruZ Beers

Big Z. Little Z. What begins with Z?

A Zizzer-Zazzer-Zuzz as you can plainly see. Well ... not in this case.

Hard to believe that after today's blog post, we're done with round 3 of the A to Z Denver Breweries series of posts.

Round 3 began with A is for Altitude Brewing & Supply in late 2020.

Considering the CoVid craziness, this round has gone surprisingly quickly. The SheppyBrew Beer Model is keeping us on track.

So ... According to the Colorado Brewery Map & List, the only "Z" brewery that we have not already covered is in Fort Collins, which is a bit farther than we would want to travel to go to a "Denver area" brewery.

So ... we had to take a little artistic license...

Z is for BruZ Beers

My 4th of #10Everestsin2022

As of today, I've climbed 118,625 feet on my bikes this year. Over 4 times the elevation of Mount Everest.

The peak of Mount Everest is 29,032 feet above sea level. 4 x 29,032 = 116,128. So, 118,625 feet is 4.02 Everests.

My goal in 2022 is to climb 10 Everests, 290,320 feet. Today, I'm ahead of  "schedule" ... just barely.

Y is for Wild Blue Yonder Brewing Company

We're almost done with round 3 of the A to Z Denver Breweries series of posts.

Since mid - April, we've done V is for Vision Quest Brewing Company, W is for Wah Gwaan Brewing Company, and X is for Bruz Off FaX.

After "X" comes "Y", so obviously we needed to come up with a "Y" brewery.

In round 1, we went to Y is for Yak and Yeti Restaurant and Brewpub.

In round 2, we used Y is for Over Yonder Brewing Company.

As I mentioned in X is for Bruz Off FaX. we wouldn't be traveling to the Yampa Valley to check off the "Y" brewery. So, we'll have to take a little artistic license again.

The SheppyBrew Beer Model scanned the Colorado Brewery List, and came up with a few possibilities. When it came right down to it, there was only 1 real choice ...

Y is for Wild Blue Yonder Brewing Company

Chuck Roast in the Snow

Chuck Roast is something I end up smoking quite a bit.

Ever since Chuck Roast on Weber Kettle and Crock-pot ... way back in late 2019, my process in cooking Chuck Roast is to smoke it for 3 or 4 hours, and then put it in the crock pot for the rest of the day.

This allows me to get done with the smoking early in the day. When the chuck is in the crock pot, I don't have to pay attention to it.

So ... I can spend the part of the day when the rest of my family is up doing something else.

It works out great. At some point I may try the same process with a pork butt.

Anyway ... as I mentioned in a couple of posts recently, the Denver area got a bunch of snow Friday night into Saturday. I cleared out the snow to get a chuck roast on the kettle.

Catching up on #5000MilesIn2022

So ... 

Today is the 22nd of May. 

If you've been following my updates on my #5000MilesIn2022 goal, you know that my Strava mileage goal is 5,000 miles.

You also know that so far this year, I've been behind plan. As of the beginning of this month I was 30 miles behind plan.

To reach 5,000 miles, I need to average 12.7 miles per day. If I'm counting right, today is the 142nd day of the year.

To be "on plan" for my goal, I should be at 1945 miles today.

Manitou Incline

On May 19, 2022, Alexa told me that the temperature out side my home was 89 degrees.

Today is the 20th and I'm watching it snow. The high temperature was 39.

50 degree drop overnight. Awesome. 

We are going to get a significant amount of snow. One of the things I love about living in Colorado is these late spring snow storms ... but still ... this is crazy.

Anyway ... today I climbed the Manitou Incline.

The Manitou Incline is a popular but strenuous hike up 2744 steps over around .87 miles and climbing over 2000 vertical feet. The average grade is over 45% and the maximum is 68%.

It is a difficult hike.

Mothers' Day Kettles

This past Sunday was Mothers' Day.

My wife's parents were visiting so we had two mothers in the house.

My older son also came home from college.

The two mothers decided they wanted grilled ribeye steaks for their dinner, which at our house means I had to cook.

As I generally reverse-sear my steaks, the 6 ribeyes fit just perfectly around my vortex on the 26 inch kettle.

In order to get sides done, I needed to pull out both of my Weber Kettles, and do the sides on my 22 inch.

The main side I made was the dish I made for Easter, Pecan Smoked Potatoes Au Gratin. I also grilled some corn.

SheppyBrew Beer Names

So ... one of my favorite homebrew podcasts is the The Brülosophy Podcast.

One of their recent episodes ... Episode 232 | exBEERience: Naming Beers ... got me thinking about how I go about naming beers.

Apparently, not all homebrewers name all their beers, but I certainly do. Some of these names only make sense to me, but they all have at least some thought put them.

So ... what are some of the themes in my beer names?

Sports teams

Lots of my beers are named for my favorite sports teams ... lead, of course, by the Chicago Blackhawks.

Blackhawk Black Ale is pretty obvious. Tommy Hawk APA is named after the Blackhawks' mascot. Chelsea Dagger Pre-Prohibition Lager celebrates the Blackhawks with the song that plays after each of their goals. 

I've also celebrated the Cubs' world series with Cubs Win! Munich Dunkel. And the Colorado Rockies making it to the world series with Rocktoberfest Lager.

I even named a beer based on my hatred of a football team: Pats Disliker New England Pale Ale.

Mid-week Pork Butt

It is rare that I get to cook during the work-week. Even more rare to do a long BBQ / Smoke.

Due to the covid shutdowns, I now work at home, so there is really no reason not to do long cooks like Pork Butt and Brisket. We just mostly think of those as weekend meals.

Anyway ...

This past week, my nephew, AKD Bluefield (my sister's son), was on a post-college road-trip with 3 of his friends and stayed with us a couple of nights.

My wife worked on Tuesday, and we thought we should feed AKD and his friends. I decided to smoke a pork butt for dinner so she wouldn't have get home and try to get something cooked for a larger-than-normal group.

Colorado Vienna Lager (Batch 310)

Remember that in my post "Disappearing Beer" I shared that I didn't get to drink most of my first batch of Colorado Vienna Lager?

Heck ... I didn't even get to check it in on Untappd! (Yes, I check in most of my homebrewed beers on Untappd).

I've been wanting to brew Colorado Vienna Lager again so I could enjoy more of the beer.

Friday, I got the Root Shoot malts at my favorite homebrew shop, so that I could brew it on the weekend.

On Saturday, I prepared my water and set the timer to heat up while I was sleeping. I got up early Sunday to brew ...

 Colorado Vienna Lager

X is for Bruz Off FaX

Last week I posted W is for Wah Gwaan Brewing Company.

If you've been following along on the A to Z Denver Breweries series of posts, and are familiar with the English alphabet, you know that it is time for us to post about an "X" brewery.

Well ... according to the Colorado Brewery List ... there are no breweries in Colorado which start with the letter X.

In round 1, we took artistic license with X is for WestFaX Brewing Company.

In round 2, we shamelessly cheated with X is for Mad Jack's [JaX] Mountain Brewery.

This past Saturday, the SheppyBrew Beer Model and I had to take artistic license again with ...

X is for Bruz Off FaX

Biking update ...

Today is May 1st.

Last year by May 1st, I'd ridden 1,689 miles and climbed 104,466 feet on my bikes.

This year, I'm still behind last year, but I think I'm catching up. So far this year, I've ridden 1,627 miles and climbed 88,448.

Last time I reported my cycling numbers, I was 108 behind "plan" to reach #5000MilesIn2022. Now I'm only 30 miles behind plan.

I was 8,327 feet behind plan to get to #10EverestsIn2022. Now, I'm 7,795 feet behind.

Pulled Pork Shepard's Pie

Remember a few weeks ago I made Brisket Shepard's Pie? It turned out awesome.

At the time I mentioned that I would probably like to try a pulled pork Shepard's pie at some point too.

Well ... I had some frozen left over pork butt in my freezer that I decided to put into Shepard's Pie this past weekend.

W is for Wah Gwaan Brewing Company

Can you believe we're already at "W" in round 3 of our A to Z Denver Breweries series of posts?

Back in February of 2015, I was embarrassed by the huge number of Denver Breweries that I had never visited.

It struck me that if I went down the list, the starting letters of the brewery names represented almost every letter of the alphabet. That was when I started my A to Z Denver Breweries Project on this blog.

I finished Round 1 in February of 2019.

At that point, I started back at A, and got through round 2 by November of 2020.

And ... now here we are at "W" of round 3.

As I mentioned in V is for Vision Quest Brewing Company, we actually had quite a few "W" breweries to choose from.

Saturday, we picked one ...

W is for Wah Gwaan Brewing Company

Easter Ham

As I mentioned in Easter Saturday Ribeye Roast, I made the mistake of asking my kid what he wanted for Easter dinner.

His answer was "Ham".

I guess the good news is that I've cooked enough "Double Smoked" Hams over the years that I've pretty much have it down.

Basically I follow the "recipe" that I used for the 2019 Easter Ham and the Christmas of 2018 Double Smoked Ham.

The only real difference this time was that I did the actual cooking on the Weber Kettle.

Just as I did last time, I created a glaze. The ingredients were a little different, but it was the same idea.

Easter Saturday Ribeye Roast

Last Easter, I bought a 12 pound Ribeye Roast, and cooked half of it for Easter dinner.

The other half, I vacuum sealed and froze to use at a later time.

I cooked New Year's Ribeye Roast, this year, but since it was on sale, I bought a fresh one for that meal. The one from last Easter remained in the freezer.

I got the roast out to thaw for this year's Easter dinner, but made the mistake of asking my son what he wanted as the main dish for Easter dinner.

He said "Ham".

So, as I had thawed Ribeye Roast, I decided I would make it for dinner Saturday.

Easter Saturday.

Spare Ribs

Just yesterday, I posted that the previous Sunday I had brewed my 2022 Melting Stream Spring Saison (Batch 309).

Later that day, I smoked a rack of Spare Ribs on my Weber Kettle.

At some point between the time I wrote that post and now, I was looking at Sheppy's Blog: Melting Stream, and noticed the title of blog post last time I brewed Melting Stream ...

Melting Stream and Spare Ribs.

I thought it was a cool coincidence that I smoked ribs last time I brewed this recipe.

I guess it isn't that amazing. I brew the Spring Saison every year, and I almost always smoke something on Brew Days.

I just thought it cool and I thought I'd share. So, that is what I'm doing now. Here are some pictures of my ribs:

2022 Melting Stream Spring Saison (Batch 309)

Spring has sprung here in the Front Range of Colorado.

Here ... that means a few nice sunny days in the 50's, 60's, or 70's followed by a couple cold snowy (or rainy) days followed by more sunny warm weather.

Because of this spring cycle ... melting snow from the mountains makes its way into streams. Rivers flow down into the high plains by Denver and to the East.

I love the image of the melting snow filling up the streams during this time of year.

This is what inspired the name for the SheppyBrew Spring Seasonal Saison ...

Melting Stream Spring Saison

Last weekend, I brewed it again. I've been brewing these Seasonal Saisons since 2014, and this is the 8th time I brewed Melting Stream.

V is for Vision Quest Brewing Company

Believe it or not ... we're getting really close to the end of the third round of our A to Z Denver Breweries series of posts.

About a month ago, we ventured out of the Denver area into Boulder for U is for Upslope Brewing Company.

This, of course, means that we needed a "V" brewery.

For round 1 ... we used V is for Vine Street Pub and Brewery.

In round 2 ... we just happed to have a trip planned to Vail at the right time and were able to use V is for Vail Brewing Company.

Believe it or not, if we're willing to travel a bit, there a few more "V" breweries we can use for this round, and any future rounds we might do.

This past Saturday, we decided to take a trip to the closest of these options in Boulder.

V is for Vision Quest Brewing Company

McShepardSons Comparison

Remember a couple weeks ago I brewed a double batch of McShepardSons Irish Ale (Batch 308)?

Well ... I did.

In one fermentor, I pitched Voss Kveik Ale Yeast. In the other I used SafAle English Ale.

The Voss ferment finished up in a few days. The English ferment finished about a week later.

Friday after work, I decided to compare the two beers.

They are both beautiful red ales, but the colors are slightly different. The kveik ale is just a touch darker. I think this is mostly due to the Voss beer having more time to clarify. 

Groomsday Pic Pint

My friend "Joe" contacted me again a couple weeks ago, letting me know that he wanted to send me another gift to help promote a new site ... "Groomsday".

He thought I might like one of the company's laser-engraved Personalized Groomsmen Beer Glasses.

I agreed, and sent him a picture of myself so that he could send me a Laser Engraved Pic Pint.

All glasses are engraved by our amazing artist, who extracts your guys out of the pictures you send him and engraves them on the glass. This beer glass holds 15 oz, the perfect amount to enjoy.

Brisket Shepard's Pie

Last time I made brisket, I vacuum sealed and froze most of the point.

See Superbowl Brisket.

Since then, the brisket point has been sitting in the freezer waiting for an opportunity for me to use it in a relatively quick meal.

This past weekend, my wife and kid wanted to go out and watch The Batman, and as it is a long movie, I knew I wouldn't have a whole lot of time in the afternoon to prepare dinner.

I thought a Shepherds (Shepard's) Pie would be something good to make with left-over brisket.

This is something I thought would be great to prepare in the morning and just pop on the Weber Kettle for an hour or so.

So ... Saturday morning, I made some mashed potatoes, and heated up the brisket in a gravy with onion and corn.

2022 Q1 SheppyBrew Stats

We have completed Q1 of 2022, which means we can report the SheppyBrew Brewing Stats for the quarter.

Compared to Q1 of 2020 (when we brewed 7 batches for 35 gallons) and Q1 of 2021 (when we brewed 8 batches for 42 gallons of beer), the first quarter of 2022 has been pretty low.

We've only brewed 5 batches. We've only brewed 30 gallons.

Arctic Vortex Winter Saison

This puts me on pace for my 3rd highest year for volume of beer brewed, but certainly 1 quarter doesn't mean very much for projecting a total for the year.

The beers I brewed this quarter were:

• Arctic Vortex Winter Saison
• Colorado Strong IPA
• Colorado Vienna Lager
• Boo Berry American Wheat
• McShepardsons Irish Ale (double batch)

I.Hate.Beer

I've decided to give up beer.

This morning I woke up with an over-whelming hatred of beer.

I hate the smell. I hate the taste. I hate making it. I hate drinking it. I hate looking at it. I hate thinking about it. I hate taking photos of it. I hate blogging about it.

I. Hate. Beer.

Pork Butt on the Kettle

Over the weekend, I smoked a Pork Butt on the Weber Kettle for pulled pork sandwiches.

As I mentioned on Hickory Smoked Mac and Cheese blog post, my son was home from college.

Hickory Smoked Mac and Cheese

If you follow this blog ... you may have read this before ... but my kids really like the Smoked Mac and Cheese that I make.

Whenever my oldest is home from college, and we ask if there is anything he'd like to request, Smoked Mac and Cheese is close to the top of the list.

He has been home for Spring break, and Saturday I made some.

I'm not real good at following recipes, but my reference starting point is always the one I have listed on "Smoked Mac and Cheese".

McShepardSons Irish Ale (Batch 308)

As I mentioned last week in Disappearing Beer, my Beer Inventory is very low right now.

I have a keg of Boo Berry American Wheat, and a little bit of beer in my keg of Colorado Strong IPA.

Boo Berry is mostly for my wife (aka the SheppyBrew Beer Model), and Colorado Strong will blow any time now.

So, if I want homebrew to drink in the near future, I had to brew this past weekend.

To help catch up quickly, I decided to do a 10 gallon batch.

I also decided to go with a low-ish ABV beer to help ferment faster.

Since I was doing a double batch anyway, I decided that one of the fermentors would use Kveik yeast in hopes to speed up fermentation.

As St. Patrick's Day recently occurred ... I thought I'd brew an Irish Red ... sort of a belated seasonal. 

McShepardSons Irish Ale (double batch)

Disappearing Beer

I discovered something sad on Sunday afternoon. 

I was intending to write a blog post about my two recent "Colorado" beers. Both Colorado Strong IPA and Colorado Vienna Lager feature a malt bill completely composed of malts from local Root Shoot Malting.

On Friday, I noted that Colorado Vienna Lager was

 "pretty much perfect now. Carbonation and clarity right where I want them. Yummy flavor. Beautiful color."

In other words ... this beer was ready to start drinking more than just samples. Drinking "for reals".

U is for Upslope Brewing Company

If you follow this blog, you know that a couple weeks ago, I posted T is for Tivoli Brewing Company.

If you're familiar with the A to Z Denver Breweries series of posts, you know that next up was a "U" brewery.

According to the Colorado Brewery List, there is one brewery in the Denver area that starts with the letter "U", and I used that one in Round 1 way back in January of 2017 ... 

U is for Ursula Brewery.

I had to get a little creative in Round 2 with U is for oUter Range Brewing Company. Not only does "Outer Range" not start with a "U", but it is not really in the Denver area.

So ... for this round of the A to Z project, I had to expand my criteria a bit. As it turns out, Boulder, Colorado has a few breweries that start with the letter "U" including ...

U is for Upslope Brewing Company

Boo Berry Wheat (Batch 307)

My wife (aka the SheppyBrew Beer Model) brewed with me Sunday.

We'll brew together from time to time. Sometimes I say I do it so that I'll have a second adult brewer in the household, making it legal for me to brew more than the 100 gallons per year.

Honestly, though, I'm quite certain no one pays that close attention to the homebrewing law, and I don't really have to establish her as a brewer to be ok with the law.

The real reason is that it is fun to pretend that she's in charge of brewing.

I'm not sure why she does it. Apparently she thinks it is fun to brew with me from time to time as well.

Sunday, we brewed one of her favorite recipes ...

Boo Berry American Wheat

Catching up #5000MilesIn2022 and #10Everestsin2022

Today is March 6th. 

Last year by March 6th, I had cycled around 787 miles and climbed 52,937 feet while biking.

As I mentioned last month, I've started much slower this year than last. I think mostly this is has to do with less cooperative weather, but I've also perhaps been a bit more lazy this year than last.

So far in 2022, Strava says I've cycled 783 miles and climbed 4,217 feet.

I'm actually catching up. If I were to divide my riding equally over the year, order to reach 5,000 miles for the year (my Strava goal #5000MilesIn2022), I am now 108 miles behind plan.

I'm 8,327 feet behind plan to get to #10EverestsIn2022. 

T is for Tivoli Brewing Company

When I posted S is for Smash Face Brewing, it had been almost 2 and a half months since I had added to my A to Z Denver Breweries series of blog posts.

Now ... about a week later, here I am already adding another one.

On Saturday, my wife (aka The SheppyBrew Beer Model) picked a "T" brewery for us to visit.

This particular brewery actually opened in 1859.

They had to "pivot" when prohibition hit, producing low ABV cereal beers to survive.

In 1933 when prohibit ended, they started up again brewing full strength beers.

By 1950, the brewery was making over 150,000 barrels a year, making it one of the biggest breweries in the Country.

Unfortunately, in 1965, record floods in Denver severely impacted this brewery and forced it to close its doors.

In 2012 ... the brewery was brought back to life in the same building with new state of the art equipment ...

T is for Tivoli Brewing Company

SheppyBrew Seasonals

While out for a walk earlier in the week, I was thinking about homebrewing (surprise surprise).

One of the things that popped into my mind was beers that I always brew about the same time of year.

I was wondering if I had seasonal beers for every month of the year.

An obvious example is my Seasonal Saison series of beers. January is almost always when I brew Arctic Vortex Winter Saison. I usually brew Melting Stream Spring Saison in March or April, Hail Storm Summer Saison in June or July, and Falling Leaves Autumn Saison in September or October.

May is easy. The tag line for Helles in a Hand Bock-sket is "Will Drink in May". 

Will-o'-Wisp Pumpkin Ale makes the most sense for October.

Decemberfest Lager has "December" right in the name. 

S is for Smash Face Brewing

Its been over 2 months since I posted R is for Raices Brewing Company.

For various reasons, the Beer Model and I just have not been going out a whole lot recently. 

A side effect of that is that we have not done anything with our A to Z Denver Breweries series of blog posts.

As a reminder ...

Back in February of 2015, I was embarrassed by the huge number of Denver Breweries that I had never visited.

It struck me that if I went down the list, the starting letters of the brewery names represented almost every letter of the alphabet. That was when I started my A to Z Denver Breweries Project on this blog.

We are on our third round through the alphabet.

So ... after R, next up was S. We had a ton of S breweries to choose from. The Beer Model picked one Saturday ...

S is for Smash Face Brewing

Superbowl Brisket

If you follow this blog, you know that I brewed Superbowl Sunday.

Colorado Vienna Lager (Batch 306)

I also smoked a brisket.

Fairly recently, at my neighborhood Sam's club, I found a 10 pound prime brisket.

As I'm sure I've mentioned before, 10 pounds is about perfect to fit on my 26" Weber Kettle, so I had to pick it up.

It was in my freezer for awhile, and I decided brisket would be a good meat to have on Superbowl Sunday.

So ... I smoked it for our Superbowl dinner during and after the brew day.

Colorado Vienna Lager (Batch 306)

I brewed a Vienna lager yesterday.

It is only my third batch of beer this year, but it was my 306th of my brewing "career".

As I've mentioned a few times on this blog, I've been using Root Shoot malts quite a bit lately.

One of my favorite homebrew shops has been featuring their malts, and I have really like the character that I get from the ones I've used so far.

Much like the Colorado Strong IPA (Batch 305), I designed the recipe with all Colorado malts. As I mentioned I really like the Vienna malt from Root Shoot, and this beer used it as its base.

I called the recipe:

Colorado Vienna Lager

#5000MilesIn2022 and #10Everestsin2022

I started a little slow this year.

By the 10th of February last year, I had cycled 541 miles with 34,687 feet climbed.

Here it is the 10th of February ... and this year I've only cycled 370 miles with 20,279 feet climbed. Not even 1 Everest.

There are various reasons for my slow start this year. I won't go into them. Honestly, 370 miles with 20,279 feet elevation gain in a Colorado winter isn't really all that bad for an old couch potato such as myself.

I'm sure at some point I'll catch up. If not, I'll still ride more than most people.