Irregular Eric vs Deviant Dales

Recently, I brewed Irregular Eric Double IPA ... the 5th beer in my Homebrew Colorado 6 pack.

Good stuff. If you're interested, you can read about my brew day at Irregular Eric Double IPA (Batch 273).

I designed Irregular Eric Double IPA as a tribute of Oskar Blue's Deviant Dale's IPA.

Sadly, Deviant Dale's doesn't exist anymore.

Spare Ribs

I smoked some spare ribs last Sunday.

I love to eat them, but out of all the things I smoke, I feel like I'm most inconsistent on my spare ribs.

I never really know how best to fit them on my Weber Kettle.

I use my Web Rib Rack. Sometimes I leave the ribs pretty much whole. Sometimes I cut them in half.

Sometimes I place them down the middle with charcoal on each side. Sometimes I only have charcoal on one side of the kettle.

I never really know if I should trim them up or just dump them on the smoker.

Sometimes I go a bit hotter and less time. Sometimes I do more of a traditional 3-2-1 method.

They always turn out wonderful, and I think Sunday's version turned out the best, but I'm not sure I've figured out the best way.

25 Beers of December part 1

On the 1st of December, my wife brought home a Stone Brewing Company "Twelve Days of IPA's" 12 pack.

I thought this was a cool idea for a mixed 12 pack. I don't think I've ever seen one quite like this. You can have a different beer every day for 12 days.

Taking that line of thought a step farther ... \I thought it would be fun to drink a different beer a day until Christmas. Sort of an Advent calendar of drinking. I had almost half covered with Stone IPA's. I am sure I can come up with another 13 different beers to drink before Christmas.

So ...  

Schreck Gartenzwerg Pilsner (Batch 275)

Schreck Gartenzwerg. Fright Gnome. 

Last year, I came up with a German Pilsner recipe.

The grain bill was 100% floor malted German pilsner malt.

The flavor hops were the "new" German hops Hallertau Blanc and Huell Melon. I also included an ounce of each in dry hops.

Maybe not a completely traditional German Pilsner, but it was really delicious.

I thought it was an awesome beer. I even brought the keg into work to share at a "happy hour". It was well received.

Of course, that meant it didn't last long. 

At the time I thought I should brew it again. Maybe multiple times. Since that first batch, I have not brewed it.

Until the weekend after Thanksgiving.

Schreck Gartenzwerg Pilsner

2020 Thanksgiving Turkey

I smoked my third turkey last Thursday (Thanksgiving).

I'm pretty comfortable doing it now, although since I only smoke a turkey once a year, it still makes me a little nervous that I'll screw it up.

I didn't screw it up. I am pretty sure this was my best one so far.

Last year, I spatchcocked the turkey. I didn't like it as much as the previous year, so I went back to smoking the whole bird without cutting out the backbone.

Just like both my previous turkeys, I brined the bird around 24 hours before cooking it.

It was a simple brine this year.

• One gallon of SheppyBrew beer
• 1 gallon water
• 3/4 cup salt
• 1/4 cup garlic salt

The brine went into a large plastic bag which I put into a bucket. Over the bag, I put a bunch of ice. I stored that in the garage overnight. 

It was cold enough here in the Denver area to keep the bird cold. There was still ice on top in the morning.

C is for Cerveceria Colorado

If you read this blog, you probably know that round 3 of our A to Z Denver Breweries Project is underway.

If you missed A to Z Denver Breweries Round 2, go ahead and take a few minutes to read up on it.

Then, just for the fun of it you can check out A is for Altitude Brewing & Supply and B is for Bierstadt Lagerhaus.

With colder weather coming on and the rising number of COVID cases in Colorado, I don't know how likely it is that we'll make a whole lot of progress in the next few months.

But, we do have a "C" brewery for you. Actually, we hit our "C" brewery before either A or B. 

C is for Cerveceria Colorado

On a nice sunny Halloween day, the Beer Model and I packed a lunch, got on our bikes, and headed to Downtown Denver to check it out.

Puppy Monkey Baby (274)

Puppy. Monkey. Baby. PuppyMonkeyBaby.

There was an incredibly stupid commercial during Superbowl 50. (Go Broncos!)

Puppy. Monkey. Baby. PuppyMonkeyBaby.

The commercial was for some sort of weird Mountain Dew flavor. Not something I ever tried. I am fairly certain I'm not missing anything.

I keep a list of potential beer names on my phone, and for some reason, at some point (I assume during or shortly after the Superbowl), I added "Puppy Monkey Baby" to my list of names.

A couple weeks ago, I decided that my next beer would be a low alcohol American Blonde ale, and I as I was trying to decide on a name, "Puppy Monkey Baby" jumped out at me.

I honestly don't know why. It is a stupid beer name. But, it does amuse me. I guess that is reason enough to choose a name.

I brewed it last Sunday on my Anvil Foundry.

Puppy Monkey Baby Blonde Ale

Irregular Eric Double IPA (Batch 273)

Early in 2020 ... I started seeing a lot of traffic to my "Colorado 6 Pack" post on the blog, and I decided that it would be fun to take that list and homebrew batches that matched up with the list. 

See Sheppy's Blog: Homebrew Colorado 6 pack.

So far, from the "6 Pack" ... I've brewed:

• Stone Soup IDA (inspired by Tommyknocker's Hop Strike Black IPA)
• Foothills IPA (inspired by Odell IPA)
• Blackhawk Black (inspired by New Belgium's 1554)
• One Hundred Hoppy Brown Ale (inspired by Boulder Beer Company's Flashback India Brown Ale)

Next up, it was time for me brew something like Oskar Blue's Deviant Dale's IPA. 

Deviant Dale's doesn't exist anymore, but the idea was that it was essentially Dale's Pale Ale, only more. More hops. More malt. More ABV. More Body. More deliciousness. It was an 8% ABV, 85 IBU double IPA with lots of citrus, grapefruit rind and piney resins in the aroma and flavor.

I didn't really have a recipe that was close, so I designed one.

Irregular Eric's Double IPA

B is for Bierstadt Lagerhaus

If you follow my blog fairly regularly, you likely know that I began round 3 of my A to Z Denver Breweries Project with A is for Altitude Brewing & Supply.

If you follow the English alphabet, you likely realize that after "A" comes the letter "B".

And ... it doesn't take a huge leap of deductive reasoning to conclude that next up I would be trying to add a brewery that starts with the letter "B".

The Colorado Brewery List has quite a few "B" breweries in the Denver area. In fact, "B" looks to be the most common letter to start a brewery name with in the Denver area.

... Or maybe it is "C" ... I didn't actually count. 

Regardless, I had lots of  "B" breweries to pick from, but in my mind there was one logical choice.

B is for Bierstadt Lagerhaus

Honestly, it is a little crazy that I have not visited this brewery. I've enjoyed their beers on several occasions, but never made my way to the brewery.

Lithuanian Autumn vs. Falling Leaves

When I kegged Lithuanian Autumn Ale, and tasted the sample of the beer, I thought "Wow ... that really tastes a lot like Falling Leaves Autumn Saison".

A couple days later, on election day, I thought I'd run a blind triangle test on myself between these two beers.

Traveling Brew Checklist

 Remember in Lithuanian Autumn Ale (Batch 270), I mentioned that I actually spent the time to make a checklist to help remember what to bring along with me when I travel to other Home Breweries to brew.

Here is that List:

• 5 gallon BB P.E.T. Carboy with air lock and Star San. (x 2)
• Brew kettles and measuring stick. 
• Propane and burner
• Brew Bucket 
• Mash and Kettle hoses
• Mash paddle 
• Metal spoon
• Star San spray bottle
• Floating thermometer 
• Whirlfloc
• Fermcap
• Refractometer 
• Small bowl
• Mash tun
• Grains / hops / etc ...
• Wort chiller (if host doesn't have one for me to use)
• Beer

I think this is all I brought. I may add to this list if I come up with other things I may need.

Learn to Homebrew Day: X-Mas Ale 2020 (272)

Saturday was the AHA's Learn to Homebrew Day. The SheppyBrew Beer Model and I have made it tradition to brew together on that day every year.

Of course we both know how to homebrew, but Saturday was the first opportunity for the Beer Model to brew with the Anvil Foundry I recently purchased (see Bud Lite Lime (271) on the Anvil Foundry).

There are two main reasons that the idea of electric brewing was extremely attractive to me.

First: most of the electric units I know about allow the ability to set a timer to start heating water. This means you can get your water all ready the night before and have the strike water to temperature when you get up in the morning.

That way, you can start the mash process immediately when you get up. 

Both times I've used the Anvil Foundry, I've taken advantage of this feature, although when brewing with the Beer Model, we get started so late, it wasn't as big a deal for me.

A is for Altitude Brewing & Supply

Here we go! 

Round 3 of my A to Z Denver Breweries Project.

The SheppyBrew Beer Model and I finished A to Z Denver Breweries Round 2 with Z is for Zuni Street Brewing Company (again), and we're starting right over at the beginning of the alphabet.

As I mentioned in A to Z Denver Breweries Round 2, I have breweries for A through C picked out already.

In fact, the Beer Model and I biked to a "C" brewery last weekend.

You'll have to wait to see what that "C" brewery is, but I'll tell you right now what I picked for "A".

Big A. Little a. What begins with A?

A is for Altitude Brewing & Supply 

A. A. A.

Altitude Brewing & Supply is actually primarily a Denver Homebrew Shop, but they also have a little tap room area with a decent selection of beers.

Bud Lite Lime (271) on the Anvil Foundry

Well ... I got a new toy. A new piece of brewing equipment. 

I decided to enter the world of electric brewing with the Anvil Foundry.

If you looked closely at my pictures on Lithuanian Autumn Ale (Batch 270), you might have noticed I actually used it during that brew, but I only used it to heat strike water on that day.

So, what is the Anvil Foundry?

It is one of the many electric "all-in-one brewing systems" that have become popular over the past few years.

According to my friends at The Brew Hut (my local home brew shop) ... the Anvil Foundry is extremely popular, they told me it is their favorite "all-in-one brewing system". It is not as pricey as most of the similar systems, and seems to get great reviews.

A to Z Denver Breweries Round 2

I made it through round 2 of my A to Z Denver Breweries Project. Hooray for me!

What is the A to Z Denver Breweries Project? 

Well... 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.

In some cases, I couldn't find breweries that started with whatever letter I was on, so I took some artistic license, but every letter was represented. Twice.

Round 1 started in March of 2015 and ended in January of 2019. That's almost 4 years. 0.55 breweries per month.

I made it through Round 2 much quicker. It started in February of 2019 and ended earlier this month with Z is for Zuni Street Brewing Company (again). Less than two years. 1.32 breweries per month.

Groovy Guy Gifts: Viking Beer Horn

As I mentioned in Groovy Guy Gifts: Louisville Chugger ... my buddy "Joe" recently sent me a couple of items from the Groovy Guy Gifts website. 

In addition to the Louisville Chugger, he kindly sent me a Viking Beer Horn.

I thought the  Viking Vessel looked completely bad-ass. Really really cool looking. 

Lithuanian Autumn Ale (Batch 270)

If you've been following the blog over the past few months, you may remember that I've been playing with a Lithuanian Farmhouse yeast that I was able to harvest from a local brewery.

The awesome thing about this yeast is that it ferments fairly clean beers when fermented in the 80's and 90's Fahrenheit. 

I've brewed Sveikas Lithuanian Farmhouse Ale, Lithuanian Lovin' Wheat and Lithuanian Strong Pale Ale in the heat of the summer.

But, Denver weather has been cooling down. I still have some harvested Lithuanian Farmhouse yeast. I thought it would be interesting to see how the yeast performed in Autumn weather.

And, so I designed an Autumn Ale recipe ...

Lithuanian Autumn Ale

Z is for Zuni Street Brewing Company (again)

Ok. Yes. 

I already did Z is for Zuni Street Brewing Company.

After Y is for Over Yonder Brewing Company, the Beer Model and were thinking about "Z" breweries last weekend.

As far as I know ... there are not any breweries in the Denver area that start with the letter "Z" other than Zuni Street Brewing Company.

There are a couple breweries that have the letter Z in their name, but Saturday was such a beautiful day, we thought we should take a bike ride. 

I didn't think she would like the busy roads we'd have to ride on to get to those.

Zuni Street Brewing Company is a fairly convenient location for bicycling. From our house, we can get within a mile or two on bike paths and the rest of the way on bike-friendly city roads.

Last time I went to Zuni Street Brewing Company without the Beer Model, and she convinced me that we should be able to use it as our "Z" brewery again because she had never been.

Well ... ok. 

Z is for Zuni Street Brewing Company

Groovy Guy Gifts: Louisville Chugger

 Do you remember Groovy Guy Gifts? Groovy Guy Gifts from Groovy Guy Gifts: Big Slug Mug?

Joe at Groovy Guy Gifts got back in touch wondering if I'd be interested in to try out anything else from the Groovy Guy Gifts website.

I responded, "Yes, I would be interested".

He mentioned that the site was promoting:

• Viking Vessel
• Brew Bearer
• Gunmetal Mug 
• Bro'ster Holster
• Louisville Chugger

2020 Falling Leaves Autumn Saison (Batch 269)

It is autumn. 

The weather is getting cooler and the leaves are beginning to fall.

... and you know what that means .... right?

Time to brew my Falling Leaves Autumn Saison.

Falling Leaves is, of course, the Autumn version of my Seasonal Saisons series of beers. It is darker in color than the Spring and Summer Saisons, but not as dark as the black Winter Saison.

Last Sunday, I did. I brewed it. I brewed the SheppyBrew Autumn Saison.

Obviously, I brew a lot of saisons. There isn't any question that I brew more saisons than any other style of beer.