Diamond Lake Trail

Yesterday, the Sheppy Family headed up to Nederland Colorado for a hike.

Winter is beginning to show its face in the high country, but the hike wasn't too terribly cold.

Here are some photos from the hike...

2016 Q3 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 .

Q3 of 2016 at the SheppyBrew Brewery, we only brewed one batch of beer.

One.

Only one.

• Kucumber Kölsch

This is the fewest batches of beer I've brewed in a calendar quarter since I started home brewing.

2016 Will-o'-Wisp Pumpkin Ale

I brewed Will-o'-Wisp Pumpkin Ale this past Sunday.

Why would I brew a Pumpkin Ale? Well ... the reason I brew one is that the SheppyBrew Beer Model likes Pumpkin Spice Beers. 

.... Duh! ...

I started early in the morning by mashing the base-beer grains.

I had to run to the grocery store to pick up pumpkin.

Pike's Peak Pictures

We drove up Pike's Peak on Saturday.

Here are some pictures ...

Kucumbering the Kölsch

 So ... remember the SheppyBrew Kucumber Kölsch?

I brewed it in July and shared the brew day right here on this blog. (see Kucumber Kölsch)

Of course, when I brewed it ... it had no kucumber in it (or cucumbers either).

You may remember from the brew-day blog post, that I was not sure how much cucumber I should use. I also did not really know if I should peel the cucumbers or not.

I decided on 3 pounds of cucumbers because I found a saison recipe that used 3 pounds.

I decided on leaving the peels on the cucumbers because I wasn't sure cucumber flavor would properly make its way into the beer without the peels.

Brewing Laser Salt

Perhaps you remember the story of "Gretchen" and the things I tried to make a decent "Gluten Free" beer for her.

Eventually, I ended up on White Labs' Clarity Ferm, which is an enzyme designed to eat haze-generating proteins from beer. It has the side effect of breaking down gluten proteins, making beers gluten-free.

The first beer I really tried this with was Laser Salt Sandy Blonde Ale.

I first made Laser Salt in May of 2012 with the intention of bringing it on a group camping trip to Great Sand Dunes National Park. "Gretchen" and another Gluten Sensitive person agreed to be testers of the beer.

Apparently, as advertised, neither test subject reported any reaction to the beer.

They were extremely happy and amazed. "Gretchen" has nick-named Clarity Ferm "The Gluten Killer".

K is for Kokopelli Beer Company

It has been a long time since I've done one of these A to Z Denver Breweries.

I have excuses, but you don't care what they are. They are sort of lame anyway.

I'll try to do better.

What is this series of A to Z Denver Breweries? you ask?

Well ... as a reminder ...

Back in early 2015, I composed a list Denver Breweries that I had not visited (see Denver Breweries II). As I was composing the list, I realized that most of the letters in the alphabet were covered by the first letters in these brewery names.

I started with A ... A is for Alpine Dog Brewing Company

The most recent one was J ... J is for JoyRide Brewing Company

There are 8 in between which you can review by looking at Sheppy's Blog: A to Z.

If you know your alphabet, you probably suspect that the letter K is up next.

K is for Kokopelli Beer Company

Mt Evans Photos

Saturday, the Sheppy boys and I drove up the Mt. Evans highway.

Here are some pictures from the adventure ...

If you've ever been to the top of Mt. Evans, you know that you can drive most of the way. We did ...

Once we got to the top, the views were spectacular.

Kucumber Kölsch

For some reason, The SheppyBrew Beer Model is under the impression that she likes cucumber flavored kölsch.

I suspect it is because she has tasted a cucumber kölsch that she enjoyed. Maybe more than one ... although how many Cucumber Kölsch beers can there be out there?

Anyway ... I was thinking about what to brew. I thought maybe that a Cucumber Kölsch might be fun to try to make. I asked the Beer Model and she said it was a good idea. She liked it much better than the spruce tip beer idea that I was also thinking about.

So ... it seems to me that a Cucumber Kölsch should be pretty simple. Brew a Kölsch. Add Cucumbers. Not very hard. I've already brewed a Kölsch, which was a big success. My local grocery store sells cucumbers. The only question is how many cucumbers should I add?

Lost Park Backpacking Photos

Two weekends ago, we went backpacking in the Lost Creek Wilderness.

We didn't pack in real far ... maybe 3 or 4 miles, but we sure did hike a lot.

It is a beautiful area. My photos don't do it justice. NOTE: some of the pictures I took with my cell phone (which was basically a camera and GPS device for this weekend since we were way out of phone or data range). We also took pictures with a "real" camera.

This post only has the cell phone pictures. I'll post the camera pictures later.

Here are cell phone pictures:

The first night, we drove into Lost Park Campground and set up camp before the trail head.

2016 Q2 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 .

Q2 of 2016 at the SheppyBrew Brewery was fairly busy. I brewed 2 batches in April, 1 in May, and 3 in June.

That is 6 batches for the quarter:

• Mor'du Scottish Ale
• Muggled Pale Ale
• Tortuga Golden Ale
• #WeAreGroot
• Hail Storm Summer Saison
• T.Ra.Sh. Light Mexican Lager

Mor'du Scottish Ale

Finished up Great Cycle Challenge

Well, as you know if you know if you've been following my posts on "The Great Cycle Challenge", I signed up to ride my bike throughout June to raise money for the Children's Cancer Research Fund.

I promised to ride 645 miles over the month of June. As a result, donors pledged $727.08 some of which included a matching gift from various sponsors of the program.

I had to finish early because I visited my in-laws in Nevada for the last few days of the month.

I am glad to say, I got in all my promised miles.

I officially finished the month with 659.1 miles, which is obviously more than the 645 miles I promised.

I am pretty certain that this is the most biking I've done over a month ... probably ever and certainly a lot more than I've done since I was a kid. It was worth the effort.

Thank you everyone who donated. That was awesome of you.

My page is still up for now ... so check it out if you want ...

Eric Shepard's Great Cycle Challenge Page

You can still make donations if you want too.

T.Ra.Sh. Light

I have not shared how my T.Ra.Sh. Light Mexican Lager brew day went.

I brewed it the Sunday before last, Brew day went great. Thanks for asking.

So, you may recall that I have brewed T.Ra.Sh. Mexican Lager a few times before. Stylistically, it was closest to a Vienna Lager, but it probably isn't as dark in color and it is hoppier than you would expect a Vienna.

But still, most of the people who the T.Ra.Sh. Mexican Lager are more light lager type drinkers, and I always thought that I would need a lighter beer for most of those drinkers. Lighter in color. Lighter in body. Lighter in alcohol.

So, the T.Ra.Sh. Light Mexican Lager simply did that. It become a lighter version of T.Ra.Sh.

Weekend Camping and RMNP Photos

Well, as you may remember from yesterday's Weekend Camping and Kayaking Photos, we went camping over Father's Day Weekend.

Day 1 was kayaking ... and I showed you those photos already. (Weekend Camping and Kayaking Photos)

Day 2 was spent in Rocky Mountain National Park.

Here are Day 2 and 3 pictures....

The first part of the day Saturday was spent hiking along the Colorado River ...

Weekend Camping and Kayaking Photos

This past weekend was Fathers' Day Weekend and my kids decided to go camping for the weekend.

With the help of their mother, they reserved us a campsite on Granby Lake. It was an awesome weekend. Perfect weather. Lots of fun activities. Great fun.

Here is the view from our campsite ...

Here is our tent and canopy in the photo to provide context.

Great Cycle Challenge: Halfway Through

Well ... the month of June is half-way done.

Yesterday, the Ides of June, was "Kick Cancer's Butt Day". Every donation made (up to 250,000) to the Great Cycle Challenge was matched by various anonymous donors and sponsors.

Pretty cool, but I wish this would have been announced / implemented sooner. I didn't feel it right to ask people who have already donated to donate again for the double credit. If I would have known it was coming, I could have mentioned it and let people know to hold off donating.

Oh well. I did post to my facebook page that the matching was happening. My total dollar amount did increase a little because of it.

Feel free to go out and look at my Great Cycle Challenge Page to make a donation or just to see how I'm doing.

2016 Hail Storm Summer Saison

I brewed my Hail Storm Summer Saison on Sunday. Technically it isn't Summer, yet, so it is a little early to be brewing it, but it will be Summer by the time I'll be drinking it. It will be nice to have it available early in the season.

This is the third time I brewed this beer.

The recipe this year is the same as it was last year other than hop boil times moving a bit to take into account differences in alpha acids.

Hail Storm, is the summer version of my Seasonal Saisons series of beers. It is fairly hoppy, and its ABV is a bit on the low end of saisons stylistically. It is pretty light in color. Other than the fact that I brew this recipe to be cosummed in Summer, there is nothing really special about it making it a "Summer" saison rather than Winter, Spring, or Autumn.

Week 1: Great Cycle Challenge

Well, I've been doing this "Great Cycle Challenge" thing for a little more than a week, and I've gone a little more than 210 miles for the cause.

Feel free to go out and look at my Great Cycle Challenge Page.

In order to accomplish the 645 miles that I've committed to, I need to average 21.5 miles per day.

After 8 days, I'm averaging a little over 26.5 mile per day, so I am easily on track to complete the goal.

I do need to work a little bit on increasing my cushion between what I've ridden and what I need to do, because I think there will be whole days toward the end of the month where I won't be able to ride at all.

But, that shouldn't be too difficult to accomplish.

I've done some Mountain Bike riding. I've done lots on my "road" bike. I've even done some on the stationary bike at 24 Hour Fitness.

#WeAreGroot Sweet Potato #HomeBrew

At some point in my life, I thought that it would be fun to brew a beer using potatoes as an ingredient.

Not sure why. I just thought it would be an interesting thing to try.

Recently, I got it into my head that really sweet potatoes would be an even better idea.

Not sure why. I just thought it would be an interesting thing to try.

In principle, brewing with potatoes or sweet potatoes isn't much different than brewing with corn, rice, or pumpkins. Starch gets converted into sugar by enzymes on your grain. Sugar gets eaten by yeast. Alcohol is formed.

Day 1: Great Cycle Challenge

Just a couple days ago I mentioned on this blog that I was participating in the Great Cycle Challenge. (see 19 Miles a Day)

The Great Cycle Challenge raises money for the Children's Cancer Research Fund.

At the time, I had committed to riding 560 miles ... almost 19 miles a day.

Since then, I got another pledge, which forced me to increase my goal to 595 miles. I have committed myself to ride 20 miles a day in June.

If you want to make me do even more (or if you just want to check up on to how I'm doing) ... feel free to visit

Eric Shepard's Great Cycle Challenge Page

So, yesterday being June 1, I officially began my challenge month riding by riding my bike to work.