T is for Tommyknocker Brewery

Well ... as I'm sure you know if you've been following along on the A to Z Denver Breweries series of posts, we've made our way all the way through "S" in our 4th round.

We posted S is for 6 and 40 Brewery just a couple weeks ago.

If you're at all familiar with our concept ... it doesn't take much intellectual ability to figure out that next we need a "T" brewery.

There are tons of "T" breweries on the Colorado Brewery Map & List.

However, after filtering out breweries the start with "The", breweries that are too far away from our house, and breweries we've already blogged about in the A to Z Denver Breweries list ... there is really only one good choice....

T is for Tommyknocker Brewery

Tapache!

While going down the whole Ginger Bug rabbit hole, I came across another home-made-soda-type drink called "Tepache".

"What is Tepache?" you ask:

Tepache is a fermented beverage made from the peel and the rind of pineapples, and is sweetened either with piloncillo or brown sugar, seasoned with powdered cinnamon, and served cold.

The natural bacteria and yeast on the pineapple rind ferments the liquid, but not enough for much alcohol.

I thought I'd have to give it a try, and had my wife (aka the SheppyBrew Beer Model) pick up a pineapple from the grocery store.

No Drums Jack Black Lager (Batch 331)

As I was composing 2021 BCJP Styles to Brew, I was thinking about what I'd like to brew next.

The first style on that list is 2C. International Dark Lager, and as I'm playing around with Pressure Fermentation of Lagers, a Dark Lager seemed like a good choice.

One of the commercial examples of the a Dark Lager is Shiner Bock.

I came across BYO's Shiner Bock clone. One of the ingredients on the clone jumped out at me ...

Grits.

I've never brewed with grits, but I've considered trying it out as a replacement for flaked or popcorn that I've used in other recipes.

I wasn't really that interested in brewing a Shiner Bock clone, but I decided to make my own recipe of an International Dark Lager using grits in the fermenatables.

Hostile Takeover of SheppyBrew

The beer model has been plotting with big beer to execute a hostile takeover of SheppyBrew Brewery.

Shocking, I know. I feel like I've been stabbed in the back.

 

Grumkins and Poppers

My oldest son was home from college this past week. He had never had my homemade Jalapeño Poppers, so I thought I'd better make some.

If you need the recipe ... see Jalapeño Poppers. They are awesome, and everyone should make them from time to time.

I had some of my Grumkins and Snarks Oatmeal Stout while grilling the poppers and chicken.

If you follow along on my Brewing Notes on the Grumkins and Snarks recipe page, you probably read that I have really been enjoying this beer.

Ginger Beer

Remember my Ginger Bug post? If not ... feel free to go off and read it.

Go ahead. I'll wait.

Obviously, I didn't make the Ginger Bug for the sake of making Ginger Bug. 

I had to do something with it. Hopefully I'll make several things with it.

I decided to start with Ginger Beer.

I mentioned the @FermentationAdventure Youtube Channel in the Ginger Bug post, and they have lots of videos where they use their Ginger Bug to make homemade sodas.

For my version of Ginger Beer, I decided to use lemonade / limeade as a base.

More Chicken in the Vortex

Well ... like I mentioned in Whole Chicken in the Dutch Oven, I was pretty sure that next time I grilled a whole chicken I would do it in the Vortex ...

... Like I did in Whole Chicken in the Vortex ...

... and ... Another Whole Chicken in the Vortex ...

Lots of people say spatchcock is the best way to cook birds, but I have not found spatchcocking to make my birds turn out as good as cooking the whole thing upright like beer can chicken.

Cooking the bird upright on the kettle brings the top of the chicken close to the lid of the kettle, so at some point I decided to try to cook on the charcoal grate rather than the cooking grate.

The Vortex (or the Dutch Oven) protect the meat from too much direct heat while allowing the bird to be down with the coals.

S is for 6 and 40 Brewery

Well ... if I'm counting correctly, we only have 8 more letters in the alphabet to finish up round 4 of our little A to Z Denver Breweries series of posts.

We're flying through the alphabet!

We posted A is for A Bit Twisted Brewpub mid-June of 2022 and a little over a month ago we posted R is for River North Brewery.

And ... now ... of course we needed an S brewery ...

The Colorado Brewery List has tons of "S" breweries to choose from. 

But when it came right down to it, there was really only one I thought we should visit.

S is for 6 and 40 Brewery

2021 BCJP Styles to Brew

So you know that as of 17B. Old Ale, I have successfully brewed at least one beer in all 2021 BJCP Categories.

Well ... actually, since "I Lied" ... this isn't technically true, but let's pretend that we're still in the days where we didn't really realize there additional categories past 27. Historic Beer. I promise that I'll get to 28. American Wild Ale and 33. Wood Beer at some point this year. 

But ... I spent the time typing up this post before I realized that I Lied, and I hate to think I've wasted that effort.

Looking through the guidelines, there are still lots of individual styles I'd like to brew, so I think I'm going to start seeing how many I can get through before the next version of the Guidelines come out.

I don't think I want to brew one of every style because there are a couple I don't really think I'd like to drink.

If I'm counting correctly, there are 42 styles of beer (see below) that I need to brew to have one batch of each in the guidelines (WOW!).

For now, I'll remove Historical Beers, Sours, and 3 "Specialty" IPA's that I don't really like to drink.

I'll also remove Eisbock and Rauchbier for now.

If my math / counting is correct ... that leaves 25 styles of beers to brew. That will almost certainly take me over a year, especially because I won't JUST be brewing these.

But ... here are a list of styles that I have not brewed yet ... 

Ginger Bug

So ... after my Ginger Kombucha post, I have gone down a few youtube rabbit holes which have lead me to being interested in homemade sodas.

This lead me to making a Ginger Bug starter last week.

Considering how long I've been border-line obsessed with fermentation, I'm a little surprised I have not come across ginger bug until last week, but I had not heard of it until I started watching youtube videos on Ginger Beer.

What is Ginger Bug?

A ginger bug is a wild-fermented starter culture made with sugar, ginger, and water. It takes about a little less than a week of daily diligence to make one, and you can use it to make probiotic, naturally bubbly soft drinks, sodas, herbal beers, and tonics.

 

I lied

I lied!

As of 17B. Old Ale, I claimed to have successfully brewed at least one beer in all 2021 BJCP Categories.

Well, apparently, I completely missed entire categories after 27. HISTORICAL BEER.

For some reason, I thought the Historical Beer category was at the end. There were a couple more pages to go:

17B. Old Ale

After brewing Grumkins and Snarks Oatmeal Stout (Batch 326) and Doodle Bop Belgium Single (batch 328), I have successfully brewed at least one beer in all 2021 BJCP Categories.

In Followup on BJCP 2021 Style Guidelines, I also wrote that I also needed a beer in Category 17, Strong British Ale.

However after a little research and thinking about it some ... I decided that I have actually satisfied this category with some of my bottled X-Mas Ales from previous years.

Specifically ... 17B. Old Ale.

"A stronger-than-average English ale, though usually not as strong or rich as an English Barley Wine, but usually malty. Warming. Shows positive maturation effects of a well-kept, aged beer.

Deep amber to very dark reddish-brown color, but most are fairly dark. Age and oxidation may darken the beer further. Clear, but can be almost opaque. Moderate to low cream- to light tan-colored head; retention average to poor."

Pressure Fermentation (sort of) Fail

As I'm typing this blog post, I'm drinking the Mardi Bock that I brewed on Super Bowl Sunday. 

You may recall (if you read that article) that this is the first (and so far the only) batch on which I've used my new 7.9 Gallon Fermenter King Chubby.

I got the "Chubby" because I thought it would be fun / interesting / educational to try Pressure Fermentation.

Pressure fermentation is the process of fermenting beer inside a closed and pressurized vessel. 

Typical fermentations allow CO2 to escape the fermenter through an airlock or blow-off tube. In pressurized fermentation, the fermenter is sealed and the CO2 produced by the fermentation is trapped inside.

You can't just let all the pressure remain in the fermenter, you need a valve that allows pressure to escape above a certain psi. This valve is called a "spunding" valve.

Dubble Minor at Du's Brewery

Well ... damn ... in SheppyBrew 2022 Year End Brewing Stats, I mentioned that I would probably brew less this year than I have for the past few "covid" years.

But, as of now, I'm on track to brew 160 gallons, which is about as much as I brewed in 2020.

Despite evidence to the contrary, I do still think my 2023 totals will be down. It's still early in the year.

But, for now, I'm brewing a bunch.

I brewed this past weekend, because my friend "Du" invited my friend "Doc" and me to his house in Ft. Collins.

It would have been rude to say "no". So ... on Saturday, I traveled to brew a new recipe ... 

Dubbel Minor

Ginger Kombucha

Since Sauerkraut Yogurt Kombucha in 2023, I've pretty regularly been "brewing" up kombucha.

I've brewed 4 batches this year. 2 green tea and 2 black tea. 

One of those black tea batches is currently carbonating with Black Cherry Pomegranate juice right now.

One of those green tea batches is in the kombucha jar right now, fermenting.

 

R is for River North Brewery

Ok ... we got through "Q" fairly unscathed in our A to Z Denver Breweries series of posts.

We're getting close to the end of Round 4.

Next up ... "R", which you can probably deduce is much more straight forward than "Q" was.

The Colorado Brewery List has tons of "R" breweries to choose from.

In fact, it was a little intimidating to choose just one.

As luck would have it, I actually got an e-gift card from my employer for one of the local "R" breweries ... and that basically made the decision for me.

Well, technically it narrowed the choices down considerably, because this brewery has two locations ...

R is for River North Brewery

Mardi Bock and other Sunday Activities

Yesterday was Super Bowl Sunday. 

It was also my first Brew Day after Fixing the Foundry.

And ... it was my first brew in which I'm using a new toy and trying out Pressure Fermentation.

Of course, it being Super Bowl Sunday, I had to make food for the game.

And ... it was beautiful out, so obviously I had to get a bike ride in.

It was a busy day for me.

I was up ridiculously early. Not necessarily because I wanted to be. I just couldn't sleep.

But, regardless, I woke up at 4:00am. I sort of half heartedly tried to go back to sleep, but it was not happening. I got up and started brewing ....

Mardi Bock

Whole Chicken in the Dutch Oven

So ... remember Another Whole Chicken in the Vortex?

At some point I realized that I could basically do the same thing in a cast iron Dutch oven.

So ... fairly recently I gave it a try.

It was a snowy work day back in January. 

I placed the Dutch oven down on the charcoal grate and place lit charcoal around it. 

The chicken went on the Beer Can stand up in the middle.

You can see what I mean in the following pictures.

Basically the same as in the Vortex ... only in the Dutch oven.

Fixing the Foundry

As I mentioned in 2023 Arctic Vortex and Chucky and Doodle Bop Belgium Single (batch 328), my Anvil Foundry had an issue. 

It stopped working. It would not power on.

This is not ideal. In fact, it really made me sad. 

I'm well past the warranty, so I had to fix it. I really missed having the Electric Brewing capabilities on my Doodle Bop Belgium Single (batch 328) brew day.

According to my records, I've brewed 48 batches of beer on this thing. When it works, I really like it.

I don't remember what I paid for it. Currently according to the Anvil Foundry it costs $425. I know I paid less than that, but let's use that cost ....

My first brew on the Foundry was Bud Lite Lime (271) on the Anvil Foundry on 11/1/2020. I discovered that it didn't work on 1/15/2023.

If I assume the $425, it means I paid 53 cents per day for the Foundry. That doesn't sound too bad.

I've brewed 48 batches of beer on the Foundry (although I did use it even on a couple of other brew days). Again, assuming the $425 that it costs now ... I paid $8.85 per batch. That is basically a pack of liquid yeast per brew day.

Doodle Bop Belgium Single (batch 328)

I brewed this past Sunday. It was extremely cold out, so it was a brew-in-the-garage day ...

As I mentioned in 2023 Arctic Vortex and Chucky, my Anvil Foundry need fixing. Based on some troubleshooting, I believe the Foundry's power switch needs replacing.

I've ordered a new switch and according to UPS it should be arriving today. Maybe my next brew will be back on the Foundry.

Regardless, it wasn't ready for Sunday's brew day, so I used my "old" cooler-mash-tun-propane-burner-boil brewing system.

The beer I brewed is a new recipe resulting from my desire to brew a beer in the BJCP Category 26, Monastic Ale.

As I mentioned in Followup on BJCP 2021 Style Guidelines, the style I wanted to most brew in this category was  26A. Belgian Single, and so awhile ago I designed the recipe ....

Doodle Bop Belgium Single