12 5k's of December

So ... I mentioned on Bobcat that I've been following some running plans by Runna. 

I'm currently in week 4 of 9 of their "5k Improvement Plan". I do a couple of runs a week that are designed to improve my 5k time. 

At some point, I noticed the 12 Days of 5ks on Facebook virtual challenge advertised in my Facebook feed.

Taking a look at my Runna plan, I was already going to do 8 runs of 5k or more in December, and I thought to myself, "How hard can it be to run 4 more 5k's in a month?"

Well, I decided to go ahead and sign up.

I'm not pushing the fundraising like I did for the Great Cycle Challenge, so currently I'm the only one who donated to my challenge. If you'd like to help out, it is a Facebook Fundraiser at:

I’m Doing 12 Days of 5ks for the American Cancer Society

November Update on 2025 Cycling Goals

I do quite a bit of cycling for a middle-aged couch potato.

With all the BBQ I make and eat, and all the beer I brew and drink, biking a ridiculous amount helps keep me somewhat in shape.

So ... I spend lots of time cycling around the foothills of Denver.

If you're interested, I always track on Strava. (even if you're not interested)

Anyway ... as you may remember from 2025 Cycling Goals, I have 5 cycling goals this year:

#MetricCenturyEveryMonth / #8200MilesIn2025 / #16EverestsIn2025 / Triple Bypass Ride / #GCCUSA

We're getting close to the end of the year ... and ...

Here is an update for these goals as of the end of November, 2025: 

2025 Thanksgiving Turkey

This past Thursday was Thanksgiving.

Since 2018 (Cherry Wood Smoked Thanksgiving Turkey), I've been the one in charge of cooking / smoking / grilling the turkeys at the SheppyBrew house.

It's fun for me, and it frees up the oven for the various sides my wife generally makes.

And, I think smoked turkey tastes better than it would if we cooked it in the oven.

Over the years, I've tried several techniques for actually cooking the turkey.

I've smoked a few roasted whole. I've done spatchcocked. I've halved the bird and last year, I quartered the bird.

My plan this year was to repeat the Quartered bird like I did with the 2024 Thanksgiving Turkey. However, for whatever reason, this bird was just being difficult when I was cutting it.

I ended up just deciding to try the spatchcock method again.

2025 Thanksgiving Beers

Thanksgiving is here! Merry Thanksgiving from SheppyBrew Brewery.

In lots of ways, it honestly feel like 2025 just began and now it's getting close to being over.

Here at the SheppyBrew Home Brewery, we have a pretty decent lineup of beers available for the Thanksgiving holiday.

Tri-tip photos

I've had a tri-tip in my freezer since sometime in mid-ish October. 

Tri-tips were on sale I guess and I purchased two. One I grilled on October 13. The other I grilled this past Saturday.

I never posted about the first one. Now, lucky reader, I'm posting photos from this past cook.

I really enjoy grilling eating tri-tip, but they are expensive enough that I never buy them unless they are on sale.

Tri-tips are pretty simply to make, and my process is always pretty much the same. I apply a salt / pepper / garlic rub hours before I want to cook.

I generally prepare my grill around an hour and a half before dinner. I'll set up the grill for a reverse sear. Indirect for the first hour to hour and fifteen minutes and then direct for the last little bit.

Gnomeberry Hollow Cherry Porter

Style: Cherry Porter
Brewer: SheppyBrew
ABV: 6.2%
IBU: 28
SRM: 40 (shadow-black)

Appearance 👀

Pours inky black with a dense tan head that settles into a creamy cap. Held to light, faint ruby glints flicker at the edges, like fireflies escaping a hollow log. The body is opaque and shadowy, cloaking the cherry secrets within.

Aroma 👃

Roasted malt and cocoa rise first, followed by a burst of tart cherry—bright, fresh, and slightly wild. Beneath it all, hints of vanilla, toasted almond, and damp earth evoke the forest floor after rain. It smells like dessert and mystery.

Yoker Belgian Tripel (Batch 385)

As I mentioned in Learning to Homebrew: 2025 X-Mas Ale (Batch 384), I was hoping to get together with at least one of my homebrewing buddies coming up soon.

It turns out that this past weekend, we were able to do this.

The SheppyBrew Beer Model and I packed up our brewing equipment Saturday and headed over to Doc's Brewery for a brew day.

Getting started at Doc's Brewery starts even later than when I brew at home with the Beer Model, but Saturday I still got up fairly early to get things ready for the Travel Brewing.

I put a Chuck Roast on the weber kettle to smoke for a few hours so that I could leave it in the crock pot most of the day.

That way we'd have dinner ready when we got home.

Yoker Belgian Tripel

Style: Belgian Tripel
Brewer: SheppyBrew
ABV: 8.5%
IBU: 24
SRM: 5 (golden brilliance)

Appearance 👀

Pours radiant gold with a creamy white head that rises like a crown and lingers like a stat line. The body is crystal clear, shimmering with hints of straw and sunlight. Tiny bubbles race upward like fast breaks, promising energy and finesse.

Aroma 👃

Aromas of pear, white pepper, and clove swirl with subtle floral hops and a whisper of honeyed malt. The yeast esters are expressive—spicy, fruity, and regal. It smells like a monastery garden in spring… or a locker room after a win.

Bobcat

I was out running this morning. Yes, running. 

Well ... I'm not sure I was going fast enough to really call it "running", but it went down as "3.25mi Long Run with Runna" on Strava.

After Strava bought Runna, I've been trying some of the Runna plans to add a little balance to my workouts.

It is funny how I can do a Century Ride on a bike without really much of a huge effort whereas a 5km run is somewhat difficult for me.

Hopefully these Runna plans will change that.

Anyway, while out on this 3.25mi Long Run, I was at a park fairly close to my house (close enough that I can get there and back over 3.25miles) ... I looked off to the side of the path and saw a Bobcat.

Learning to Homebrew: 2025 X-Mas Ale (Batch 384)

Saturday was Learn to Homebrew Day. Originally I thought maybe I'd be brewing with one or more of my homebrewing buddies, but Doc was busy and Du has moved away ... so it was just me and the SheppyBrew Beer Model this year.

Doc and I might get together in a couple weeks, but we'll see.

You may remember from Roll-a-Style 20: 17D. English Barley Wine (X-Mas Ale 2025) that this year's X-Mas Ale is a little different than the usual Winter Warmer that I generally brew.

This year, I'm marking 17D. English Barley Wine off my Roll-a-Style list, and since a Barley Wine is a bigger beer than I usually brew, I decided to pitch right onto the yeast cake of Gnomeberry Hollow Cherry Porter (Batch 382).

This meant, I had to keg Gnomeberry Hollow before getting started on Saturday. 

October Update on 2025 Cycling Goals

I do quite a bit of cycling for a middle-aged couch potato.

With all the BBQ I make and eat, and all the beer I brew and drink, biking a ridiculous amount helps keep me somewhat in shape.

So ... I spend lots of time cycling around the foothills of Denver, which I always track on Strava.

Anyway ... as you may remember from 2025 Cycling Goals, I have 5 cycling goals this year:

#MetricCenturyEveryMonth / #8200MilesIn2025 / #16EverestsIn2025 / Triple Bypass Ride / #GCCUSA

Here is an update for these goals as of the end of October, 2025: 

Crock-pot Smoked Pork Butt

There are quite a few posts on this blog about my Pork Butt cooks.

Generally, this is an all-day commitment (or at least a significant portion of the day), and although most of the time allows multi-tasking, I have to mostly stay around to make sure things are going ok.

The past few pork-butts I've cooked, I've borrowed a "technique" that I've been using for Chuck Roast for quite awhile, and it helps free up time for other things.

Basically, I'll smoke the pork for 2 to 3 hours on my Weber Kettle and then move the butt inside and finish it off in the crock-pot.

Roll-a-Style 16: 26C. Belgian Tripel

Well ... if you follow this blog at all, you are familiar with my BJCP Goal and Roll-a-Style list.

Of course, the idea is that I have a list of beer styles that I've never brewed. I roll a virtual 20-sided online die, and brew the style that corresponds with the number that comes up.

Originally, I had 20 beers on the list and several on "the bench". I've reduced the list so that I'm still rolling a 20-sided die, but not all the numbers have a style assigned to them. In fact, soon I'll be rolling a 12 sided die.

You also likely know that quite often I know what I want to brew next and "pretend" to roll that die to correspond with the style I want to brew next.

Part of the reason I recently picked Tafel Mystère Belgian Single (Batch 383) to brew was to build up some Belgian yeast so that I could get to a style I've had on the list since the debut of the list.

So ... I pretended to roll a 16

Tafel Mystère Belgian Single (Batch 383)

I brewed last Friday morning.

Friday!??! Yes Friday.

As I mentioned on Gnomeberry Hollow Cherry Porter (Batch 382), my homebrew inventory is pretty low right now, and I potentially might be hosting a brew day on the 8th of November.

Homebrewers tend to drink beer when they get together, and need a decent selection.

So ... just in case, I thought I'd better get at least one more batch of beer in that would be ready to serve in early November.

I actually THINK I'll be heading over to Doc's Brewery, but we have not finalized plans, and it is better to be safe than sorry.

So ... Friday I decided to do a quick "Short and Shoddy" type brew and brewed:

Tafel Mystère Belgian Single

 

Double Spare Ribs

So ... remember not too long ago I did "hot and fast" Individual Spare Ribs for the first time.

I really liked how they turned out.

The past Tuesday I had another rack of Spare Ribs, and decided I would do something similar.

I trimmed the ribs on Tuesday morning. This time, I cut them into pairs of two ribs instead of the singles I did last time.

Then, I applied rub and let them sit until the afternoon.

As I mentioned in Individual Spare Ribs, I thought I could have put them on the grill about half an hour later than I did. This time I did wait and got them on just after 3:30 for a 6pm supper time.

Gnomeberry Hollow Cherry Porter (Batch 382)

I brewed Sunday. 

I've gotten myself into a situation where I'm running low on beer "inventory". The last time I brewed before this batch was 1519 Barker Exportbier (Batch 361) in early September.

And this ... with Learn to Homebrew Day coming up ...

I'll probably be brewing quite a few batches between now and November, which is likely to put me in the opposite situation.

Anyway ... I posted about this recipe back in JULY ... Roll-a-Style 10: 29C. Specialty Fruit Beer, but I took a break on the Roll-a-Style beers with Johnny McClure Rainier Lager and 1519 Barker Exportbier.

Plus, I thought the name was more appropriate to brew in October. Now ... it's time to get back into it ...

Gnomeberry Hollow Cherry Porter

 

Roll-a-Style 20: 17D. English Barley Wine (X-Mas Ale 2025)

Every year since I started homebrewing (way back in 2009), I've brewed an X-Mas Ale to have around the holidays.

The base beer was always a very similar "Winter Warmer", and I'd add various ingredients to make it more of a "Holiday" Beer.

Over the years, I added wood spirals, vanilla, cherry pomegranate, chocolate, peppermint, peanut butter, hazelnut, cherry, and many other flavorings.

But, if you follow this blog at all, you probably have read that I want to concentrate more on my BJCP Goal this year, and when I was thinking about brewing my 2025 X-Mas Ale, I wanted to pick a style on my Roll-a-Style list.

Looking through the list, I decided that the closest to my "traditional" X-Mas Ale recipe was 17D. English Barley Wine.

So, I pretended to roll a 20 on my 20-sided online die.

 

2025 Q3 SheppyBrew Stats

Here it is October already. We're over three quarters through the year! 2025 is flying by.

At the SheppyBrew Brewery, Q3 was another lighter than average brewing quarter, with only 4 batches of beer and 20 gallons of beer.

This means we've brewed 14 batches and 70 gallons so far in 2025, putting us on track to hit 92 gallons this year.

I don't expect I'll pick up my volume all that much in Q4, but I guess we'll have to see how it goes.

My Q3 batches were:

• Cuttlefish Czech Amber Lager
• Voodu Magic Tropical Stout
• Johnny McClure Rainier Lager
• 1519 Barker Exportbier

As I'm typing this, Cuttlefish is gone, and Voodu Magic, Johnny McClure, and 1519 Barker are still "on tap". 

Cuttlefish Czech Amber Lager

 

Finished #GCCUSA2025

If you follow this blog or any of my socials, you know that I finished up the 2025 Great Cycle Challenge at the end of September.

There is still plenty of time to donate if you'd like to help fight childhood cancer. You can do that on my rider page: 

https://greatcyclechallenge.com/riders/EricShepard.

During the month, I logged 49 outdoor rides along with 1 indoor one for a total of 1,210 miles. On those rides, I climbed a total of 52,769 vertical feet.

More importantly, I raised $3,384 for cancer research, thanks to all my generous sponsors. 

Another successful GCC!

Johnny McClure vs Rainier Lager

If you follow along on this blog, you know that after my wife and I visited the Seattle area, I brewed a beer that I called Johnny McClure Rainier Lager.

It was inspired by a beer I remember seeing a lot when I was a kid living in Washington, Rainier Beer, but I wasn't really looking to clone Rainier at all. I purposely added more hops than Rainier to make it a SheppyBrew recipe.

Regardless, this past weekend I thought I'd pour my beer next to Rainier and compare the two.