Drinking the Arctic Vortex Saison

It is Spring now.

About a month ago, when I brewed my Arctic Vortex Winter Saison, the weather seemed much more winter-like. It was, in fact winter. I probably should have brewed it earlier in the winter months so that I could drink it during the winter season. Oh well, something to think about for next year.

If you want to read about the brew-day, see Brewing Arctic Vortex Black Saison.

I have been drinking this beer recently, and find it truly awesome. I mean, I really like this beer. The Beer Model says she likes it too. She said to me "it doesn't taste black", which from her is a compliment.

It does look very black. There are redish-brown highlights at the "corners" when held up to the sun light. The head is thick, cream colored, and long-lasting. Lots of tiny bubbles rise up throughout the drink.

Lent 2014

I am writing this blog post on a notepad. It is an actual notepad made of paper. Weird, right?!?

Why am I writing a blog on a notepad (to be typed into the computer later)? Well, because my family has decided to to ban the use of electronics on the Sundays during Lent.

The Sunday before Ash Wednesday, the wife and children were in our church's version of Sunday School learning about Lent. I was not there, so I'm not sure exactly how it went down, but apparently the kids thought it would be a good idea to sacrifice the use of electronics on Sundays. It became a family decision.

The Business of Craft Beer Infographic

I got another one of those emails from this blog's Contact Me form. The author of the email thought I might like to share with you an infographic on

The Business of Craft Beers and Microbreweries

As you may remember from other blog articles, I am generally pretty easy when it comes to sharing things people ask me to share. So, make sure you go and visit The Business of Craft Beers and Microbreweries.

This is only the top of the infographic. To see the whole thing, follow this link.

 

Wings over the Rockies

Here in the Denver area we have the awesome ... Wings over the Rockies Air and Space Museum. It is located in a huge hanger which was part of the old Lowry Air Force base, and contains all kinds of military aircraft.

Best of all, on the 2nd Saturday of every month, they open up quite a few of the cockpits. The kids love this. Why wouldn't they? It is really really cool.

We headed over there last month and had a great time.

My Best Beers in America

If you follow this blog at all, you probably know that every year I seek out beers I have not had on Zymurgy's Best Beer in America list. Sometimes I even tell you about the beers and/or my progress (see http://blog.ericshepard.com/search/label/Zymurgy%20BBIA). I voted for the list a couple years ago, but missed the voting last year.

I actually voted for this year's list a couple days ago. I even posted on the SheppyBrew Facebook Wall that I would share my vote ... so here we go.

February 2014 Blogging

This blog got 7 more "page views" in February than it did in January.

7. Seven.

So, February is the new "page view" record holder, by a real tiny amount, but when you consider 28 days as opposed to 31 days, it was actually a real strong month.

By far, the most-viewed post this month was The Problem with Mr. Beer from Mar 4, 2013. You may remember it was #2 last month and #3 the month before. It has gotten enough attention lately that it is now in the top 10 all-time most viewed posts on this blog. I figure lots of people got Mr. Beer kits for Christmas. They, or in the case of December, the people who purchased the gift, got to googling, and came across my site. It is interesting (at least to me) that I have not done a Mr. Beer batch in more than 2 years, but I still get from time to time questions about Mr. Beer brewing. At this point, I just send them on to the Mr. Beer Discussion Forums.

Brewing Arctic Vortex Black Saison

Last Friday, I brewed a Black Saison. Why? Mostly because I can. I've never brewed a saison before. You might argue that I still have not brewed one just based on the color. The BJCP Style Guidelines say that a saison is "pale orange but may be golden or amber in color" (5-14 SRM). Mine is really dark brown to black, around 24 SRM if Beer Smith calculated my color correctly. It certainly does not look like a typical saison.

But, I am hoping it will finish out dry with the spicy, farmhouse character you would expect in a saison with lots of Saaz hop character. I expect despite its color it will smell and taste like a saison. I guess we will see.

I am calling the beer Arctic Vortex Winter Saison, and you can view the recipe by following this link.

Still More @Untappd Badges 14

Wow. It has only been really long time since I've done a report on my untappd badges. Mostly, I was waiting to get to 500 unique beers, which is quite a milestone. Plus, I have not been earning them all that fast since Thanksgiving or so.

I can't imagine why you would want to, but you can look at all the posts (including this one) by going to the "untappd" label on this blog.

Since Still More @Untappd Badges 13, I've earned the following:

biking.answers.com

I got an email from a guy at Biking - Answers.com. He was nice enough to point out a couple of broken links I had on Bike to Work Week. Not only did he point out the broken links, but he told me how to fix them. As lazy as I am ... I probably would have just removed the link has he not shared where the new links should go.

Actually, not only did he email me once, but I forgot about it, and he nicely reminded me. I think I got everything fixed on my article.

Thanks, "Jake".

He also asked me to check out Biking - Answers.com, which I did briefly. I think it is an awesome site for those of us who like to bike. Made me wish for snow-free roads so I can start biking more.

Check it out ....

Biking - Answers.com

My bike is just hanging around. Need to get back on it.

Why Gender Matters?

A couple of weeks ago I noticed that the blog on Women Enjoying Beer, in their article Why Gender In Marketing Beer Matters linked to one of my blog posts. The author linked to Still More Sexist Beer Labels as an example of highly sexualized images on beer bottles (yes, Virginia – there’s a massive problem).

Not  surprisedly, she (I assume the author is Ginger Johnson, but the article doesn't specifically say) is not a fan of highly sexualized images used to market beer. I don't blame her. 

Brewing Gnasty the Gnome ESB Again

Do you remember Gnasty the Gnome? Just as a very quick reminder, last year my loving wife and kids (aka the SheppyBrew Beer Model and Brewing Assistants) bought me a Chicago Blackhawks Gnome to help me get over my irrational fear of gnomes. 

Of course, Gnasty the Gnome being a Blackhawks fan gives us something in common, and although I still have a lingering distrust of the creature (probably more my fault than his) we have become friends. Coincidentally, he also loves the same beers that I do and we collaborated last year to create a recipe for the BJCP Category 8 English Pale Ale (see SheppyBrew Styles). The recipe we created and brewed was Gnasty the Gnome ESB.

Caution Brewing West

Recently, Caution Brewing Company opened a second location, that just happens to be very close to my home brewery.

Shamefully, I've never been to their original location, and until last weekend, had not made it to the new one either. Last Saturday, though I needed to get my wife a growler so she'd have something to drink watching the SuperBowl. I used this as an excuse to stop by Caution Brewery West.

SWMBO and Schnockered

Here it is February already.

Merry Ground-Hogs Day Eve, by the way.

Have you noticed that I have not done a brew day post since  Schnockered to Comfortably Numb, which was my last brew day of 2013? Well, I have brewed in 2014. I am just late getting the brew day blogged about. I brewed my She Who Must Be Obeyed almost 3 weeks ago. I kegged it last weekend. It has been in the keggerator under pressure most of the week. It is in fact almost ready to drink. I tasted it last night, and it still needs carbonation, but other than needing some more bubbles, it is ready to go.

If you follow the SheppyBrew Facebook Page, you probably saw the brew day pictures. If you don't already, PLEASE go like us.

You may remember that I first brewed She Who Must Be Obeyed Wheat back in August when I needed to get something brewed for my wife to drink out of the keggerator, but didn't really know what to brew. I sort of put together pieces of different recipes to come up with a new beer.

Blogging Jan of 2014

This blog started off the year with another page-view record, just barely beating December, but beating it none-the-less. For awhile it didn't look like it was going to happen, but the blog had really strong traffic that last week of the month.

The posts most viewed this past 30 days were:

9 Beers I don't Drink

There is something I feel I must clear up.

I am not Eric Shepard, executive editor at Beer Marketer's Insights.

I'm not.

He and I are different Eric Shepards.

You may remember the other Eric Shepard from my post "Eric Shepard and the King of Beers", or more likely from one of these more recent (and more popular) posts:

No More Ads

I decided to remove the Google Adsense adds from this blog.'

They didn't make me much money and some of the ones that popped up didn't seem like things I would want to support. Plus, they were a bit annoying and on some browsers some of took awhile to load.

I think some of them threw javascript errors from time to time as well.

At some point I may bring them back, but for now, this blog is free of Google Adsense advertisements.

2013 SheppyBrew Stats

2013 has ended. SheppyBrew Brewery was pretty busy last year, and since the Brewery likes to post quarterly updates on how much we have brewed, it is time for another Brew Stats post.

If you are interested, can see all these past updates (including the one you are reading right now ... and if any I do in the future) by following this link: http://blog.ericshepard.com/search/label/Brew%20Stats .

Of course, as I've shared before, I entered my first home-brew competitions in 2013. I entered 3 competitions (4 if you include the National Round of the NHC as separate) , and two of my beers won blue ribbons. One also won 2nd in the Best of Show.

Against the Grain

I keep meaning to do more posts for "The Session" (aka Beer Blogging Friday), but I keep not getting around to it. Maybe I'll be better in 2014.

In case you have no idea what I'm talking about,  "The Session" is simply an opportunity once a month for beer bloggers from around the world to get together and write from their own unique perspective on a single topic. Each month, a different beer blogger hosts the Session, chooses a topic and creates a round-up listing all of the participants.

If you want to know more ... feel free to visit Brookston Beer Bulletin and read about "The Sessions".

Anyway, the first topic of 2014 comes from Rebecca at The Bake and Brew. In her article, Announcement! The Session #83 – Against the Grain, she asks ....

"How much is our taste or opinion of a craft beer affected by what friends and the craft beer community at large thinks? What beer do you love that no one else seems to get? Or what beer do you say “no thanks” to that everyone can’t get enough of?"

Interest topic ... right? Personally, I think there is lots of "peer pressure" in the craft beer community.

Brew Day: Schnockered to Comfortably Numb

Back at the beginning of November (see Fall Back ... Brew a Morlock Porter), I brewed my Category 12 Porter. This meant that I only had one more BJCP Category left to brew in my quest to have brewed at least one batch in all 23 BJCP Categories (see SheppyBrew Styles).

Since then, I've brewed a couple of old favorites, leaving the last category for the very end of the year. Monday, I took the day off work to brew a Category 19 Strong Ale. (Actually, I took the day off because my employer has a use-it-or-lose-it policy on vacation days. The brew-day was just a bonus)

If you want to see the recipe, go to the SheppyBrew website and look at

Schnockered to Comfortably Numb Barleywine

December 2013 Blogging

December had more page-views than November, making December the new all-time page view record holder. For most of the month, it looked like it would easily blow away the record, but the week between Christmas and New Year's was really slow ... very similar to how things were at my workplace. The page views beat November's by a very narrow margin, needing that whole extra December day to do it.

Anyway, just in case you are wondering ... the 10 most viewed posts in December were: