New Tommyknocker

I've talked about Tommyknocker Brewery quite a bit in this blog. It is a brew-pub in Idaho Springs that the Colorado Shepards go to quite a bit.  I like the location. I like their story. I like their food. I like their beer. Additionally, they have the best AHA pub discount out of all the places I've used my discount so far.  We end up there for lunch quite a bit after spending the morning in or around Idaho Springs. Quite often, we plan return trips from the mountains so that we end up by Idaho Springs around lunch time as well.

Recently, Tommyknocker Brewery significantly updated their website. I think the new site looks much better than the old one. They also updated the look of their graphics for logos, packaging, etc. Personally, I thought the old logo and other graphics were great, but I will probably get used to the new look.

According to their web-site, they are expanding. That is good too.

But, to me, the best news is that they decided to make their Hop Strike Black IPA a regular member of their beer lineup. Last time I asked, the bartender I was talking to told me that it was just a seasonal and would not be around too much longer. I communicated my disapproval.  I told him that Hop Strike was the best beer they make. Apparently, he agreed and convinced the owners and / or brewers to keep it on tap permanently.  I'm sure all he had to tell them was "Hey ... Shep wants us to serve Hop Strike year-round".

Not only are they keeping the Hop Strike Black IPA as year-round brew, but they have started bottling and distributing it. Personally, I rarely buy Tommyknocker beers from a liquor store since I go to the pub so much, but it is nice to know I can get it if I want to "down here" in the metro area if I want to. And, in fact, when I saw some in the liquor store, I did grab a couple of bottles.

Yesterday, we decided to go to Idaho Springs and visit the Argo Mine and Mill. This gave me the opportunity to go to Tommyknocker and buy a hat with the "old" logo on it. Of course since we were there, we had lunch and I had a couple of beers.

Here the boys are in jail at the Argo mill.

Here the boys are at Tommyknocker Brew Pub.

Tyler thought it would be funny to steal my hat.

This is some random pirate who made his way into our house.

Sunday (after coming to terms with the fact that we had not been raptured), the Beer Model and I kegged up her Summer Lovin' American Wheat Ale. We had over 88% attenuation, which means the beer is almost 6% ABV. That is a bit higher than we were shooting for, but the sample tasted pretty much exactly how I had expected it to taste. It is light with just a touch of citrus flavor from the orange peal and coriander.

We are force-carbonating it right now at about 31 psi. Its carb level should be a bit higher than my first keg. Tracy is hoping to share this with her family when they come to visit in July. I'm a little afraid that if that is the goal, we should have brewed it a bit later. We'll see if it lasts.

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

Stone Soup IDA

Remember my post "Homebrew Colorado 6 pack"?

Well ... I'm starting off the project by brewing a beer that represents TommyKnocker's Hop Strike Black IPA.

Back in 2013, when I made my Colorado 6 Pack list, Black IPA's (or Cascadian Dark Ales) were much more popular, and Hop Strike was the Black IPA to which I compared all others.

For quite some time, it was my favorite Tommyknocker beer.

At some point, Black IPA's / Cascadian Dark Ales went out of favor among the masses. I don't know when, but it looks like Tommyknocker stopped brewing Hop Strike.

Still, I have fond memories of the Black IPA style in general and Hop Strike specifically.

I'm going to brew a Black IPA.

Stone Soup IDA

Geocaching up to St Mary's Glacier

When I was typing up my Article about Letterboxing post yesterday, I realized that it had really been a long time since we had been geocaching. We actually tried to go two weekends ago when Grandma and Grandpa Shepard were visiting, but the battery ran out on our GPS right at the beginning of our hike. Since then, I've added a couple of fresh batteries to our Geocaching pack so this would not happen to us again.

Before that attempt, the last time we had been geocaching was way back in April on our Geocaching Bike Ride.

Before that, the last time I blogged about purposely geocaching was back in 2009 with Valley of Fire. We have actually done geocaching that I have not blogged about, but really not that much.

Yesterday, I decided to load up my GPS with a few stops on a hike up to St. Mary's Glacier.

Still More @Untappd Badges 12

As you may know if you've been following this blog long enough, I've been reporting on the untappd badges I earn. 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 11, I've earned the following:

Still More @Untappd Badges 7

I have been sharing the untappd badges that I earn (see First Month of Untappd and Running for Mayor @BallyFitness , and Some more Badges @Untappd , and Still More @Untappd Badges), and Still More @Untappd Badges 2 and Still More @Untappd Badges 3 and Still More @Untappd Badges 4 and Still More @Untappd Badges 5 and Still More @Untappd Badges 6).

Yes, I know this is getting ridiculous. No one really cares what untappd badges I have, and if anyone ever does, it is a simple of matter of going to untappd and looking. In fact, here are all my badges: http://untappd.com/user/esheppy/badges . I do not think you even need an untappd account to see them.

But, it is a tradition. At this point I just have to keep on sharing the badges that I've earned on Untappd. Why? I don't know ... I just have to.

2012 Best Beers in America

So, Zymurgy's 2012 Best Beers in America list just came out.

If you follow this blog at all, you know that for the past two years, I have been seeking out and writing about beers on previous versions of this list (see my Zymurgy BBIA label for the blog posts I have done). In fact, my last blog post was Sam Adams Noble Pils (tied for #20 on the 2011 list).

Now that the new list is out, I am done with 2011. I have tried 42 of the top 52 beers there. Now it is time to start trying to get through the 2012 list. Of course, lots of the same beers are on the 2012 list that were on 2010's and 2011's, so I have a pretty good head start.

Pliny the Elder is #1 for the 4th time in a row. You may remember that I liked Pliny (see Pliny the Elder), but did not really consider it in such high regard that I would call it the best beer in America. Obviously, this is a very subjective list.

Still More @Untappd Badges 3

I've been sharing the badges that I've earned on Untappd (see First Month of Untappd and Running for Mayor @BallyFitness , and Some more Badges @Untappd , and Still More @Untappd Badges), and Still More @Untappd Badges 2. Here are some more:

Colorado 6 pack

Not too long ago, I got a tweet and then a subsequent email from one of my virtual blogging / brewing buddies, @BryanDRoth at This Is Why I'm Drunk. He had this crazy idea for a blogging collaboration. He wanted to get 6 different bloggers from six different states to each come up with a 6-pack of beers that "best represent your state and/or state's beer culture".

It is actually very similar to Denver's 5280 Magazine's 6 packs that they put out from time to time. Check out Billy Brew's article "What's Your State's Dream Team Six Pack" and you can also read more about the 5280 six packs on my blog.

@BryanDRoth had some rules:

• Must pick a six-pack of beers that you feel best represent your state and/or state's beer culture
• Beer must be made in your state, but "gypsy" brewers are acceptable, so long as that beer is brewed with an in-state brewery and sold in your state
• Any size bottle or can is acceptable to include
• Current seasonal offerings are fine, but try to keep selections to year-round brews as much as possible. No out-of-season brews preferred. (ideally that could be another post)

Homebrew Colorado 6 pack

I've noticed recently that my May 2013 post "Colorado 6 pack" has been getting some traffic.

Unless you just followed the link, you probably don't remember much about "Colorado 6 pack", but it was basically a blogging collaboration that @BryanDRoth at This Is Why I'm Drunk. set up.

He wanted to get 6 different bloggers from six different states to each come up with a 6-pack of beers that "best represent your state and/or state's beer culture".

So I did that back in 2013 for Colorado. The blog post seems to have been fairly popular over the past month or so. It has been getting more traffic than my more recent posts. 

It got me thinking ... wouldn't it be fun to brew up beers inspired by this "Colorado 6 pack"?

My answer to myself was "Yes".

So ... here are the beers I picked:

Still More @Untappd Badges 16

Well, as you probably know if you follow this blog even semi-regularly, I share from time to time which untappd badges I've earned. 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.

As I mentioned last time, I have a few badges that could have been shared at that time, but I decided to share them for the next post (which is now this one).

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.

Foothills India Pale Ale

If you follow this blog, you may remember that I decided to brew one beer to represent each of the beers I had in my Colorado 6 pack years ago.

See Homebrew Colorado 6 pack if you need a little reminder.

The first of these beers was Stone Soup IDA, which was very similar to the Hop Strike Black IPA that Tommyknocker brew pub used to make.

Second up on the list was Odell Brewing Company's IPA.

I've never really brewed a beer based on it, but the AHA has an Odell IPA Clone that I was able to borrow for pointers.

So, I went ahead and made a recipe using the Odell IPA Clone as the base.

Foothills India Pale Ale

#IPADay: My Last 6 IPAs

Here I am contributing to the HashTagging of this made-up twitter holiday again.

#IPADay.

When I first started homebrewing (way back in 2009), I was not really a fan of IPA's. I started understanding hop bitterness vs. hop flavor vs. hop aroma and how to extract each in the brewing process. It wasn't until I started getting a handle on how hop bitterness balances malt sweetness that I started getting an appreciation for bitterness. It wasn't until I got that appreciation of bitterness that I started to understand and like IPA's.

So, I really have my brewing experience to thank for my appreciation of IPA's.

Black IPA / IDA

Remember back in July when I told you all about the new Black IPA (Cascadian Dark Ale) style?  Since then, it seems like everyone is making one.  Lots of breweries are still calling it Cascadian Dark Ale.  This name sort of annoys me, but certainly not enough to keep me from drinking it when I get a chance.  If I'm at a bar / brew pub / restaurant and they tell me they have a Black IPA (or even a Cascadian Dark Ale) on tap, you know for sure what I will be ordering first.

Recently, I have had one or more at Rock Bottom Brewery, TommyKnocker Brewery, and Dry Dock Brewing Company.  I tried a bunch at GABF.  I loved them all.  The good-old American hoppy goodness with the complexities of darker malts really blend together into a flavor that I completely enjoy.  And, every Black IPA that I've had has been awesomely made.

That being said, my favorite of this style is still SheppyBrew's Stone Soup IDA.  I know that makes me sound a bit (or maybe more than just a bit) of an Arrogant Bastard, but it really is true.  And, yes, there may be something to the fact that I made it and so of course I love it.  But, there is just something about the Stone Soup IDA that I think makes it better than all the rest.  It might be the dry-hopping.  It might be the slightly fuller body.  It could be the significant amount of wheat malt extract in the recipe.  It might be the brown sugar or the honey.  It could be that little bit of cinnamon in the brew.  It might be a combination of all-of-the-above.  But bottom line, I like my IDA better than all the other Black IPA and/or Cascadian Dark Ales I've tried.  It is, of course, one of the beers that I refuse to share with anyone, so I cannot get an impartial third party confirmation, so you'll have to trust me (would I lie to you?).  It's the best.

I drank my last Stone Soup quite awhile ago, and have not gotten it back into the brewing schedule.  Obviously, I need to make a another batch soon.  It should be a big batch so I won't run out.  Actually, recently, Connor (my 5 year old son) has requested that I brew it again.  He has actually requested and re-requested a few times.  I'm not sure if I should consider this cute or if I should be worried (I'm going to go with cute for now).  The reason he wants me to brew it is because he made a label design change he wants on the new bottles.  Both my boys helped me design the original label, but it was mostly Connor's idea.  Unfortunately, his design change is pretty specific to Christmas, so it might be inappropriate by the time I actually get it brewed, but we'll see.

Anyway,whether or not I use Connor's new label design, I need to get it brewed again.

great beer

GREAT, wonderful, fantastic, glorious, awesome,  beer.

Snowshoeing in the Mt. Evans Wilderness

 We went snowshoeing in the Mt. Evans wilderness last weekend.

I love snowshoeing. It is so peaceful to be out in the wilderness and there is something about the pure white snow that makes it even more amazing to me. I also really like the opportunity to get exercise. As a bonus, dragging the kids along gets them exercise too.

Blackhawk Black (batch 258) and Pork Butt

If you follow this blog, you may remember that I decided to brew one beer to represent each of the beers I had in my Colorado 6 pack years ago.

See Homebrew Colorado 6 pack if you need a little reminder.

So far, I've brewed Stone Soup IDA, which is a black IPA designed to be like an old Tommyknocker Beer, Hop Strike. And, I've brewed Foothills India Pale Ale, which was designed to be like Odell Brewing Company's IPA.

Next up on my Colorado Homebrew 6 Pack list was New Belgium's 1554 Enlightened Black Ale for which, I decided to brew SheppyBrew's Blackhawk Black.

To be honest, Blackhawk Black was never REALLY designed to match the taste of 1554, so I doubt that a side-by-side tasting will be as close as the last two, but I am interested to see.

So ... brew day was Sunday. I also had a pork shoulder to smoke, so I was up early to get that on the Weber kettle.

U is for BlUe SprUce Brewing Company

It wasn't too long ago that I posted T is for Tommyknocker Brewery.

Of course if you're familiar with our  A to Z Denver Breweries series of posts, you know that next up comes "U".

Even if you're not familiar ... it isn't really all that difficult to figure out.

You see ... 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 .. and worked my way through the alphabet.

We're on our 4th round of the alphabet ... almost done ... we're up to "U".

Anyway ... there are no "U" breweries on The Colorado Brewery List.

Beer Ads

So, a couple of days ago, I mentioned an article that "The Beer Wench" has on her website.   Her first sentence pretty much sums up the whole point of the article:  "If you are a self-respecting woman and, after reading this post, you still want to drink corporate beer. Well, then. I don’t know what to think."

I am not a self-respecting woman.  I am pretty much a male-chauvinist pig, so I actually enjoyed looking through the adds that the Wench was complaining about.  I'm not proud of it, but I am totally guilty of being the kind of guy who is meant to be the target audience of those ads.  However, and I guess this shows why I will never understanding marketing or advertising on a philosophical level, I don't buy any of those beers, and no matter how many of these ads I see, they won't change my mind. 

I spend much of my Sunday afternoons during football season in front of the TV.  I also watch a bunch of hockey.  TV sporting events tend to show lots of beer commercials.  Usually, I use the DVR to zoom through most of the commercials, but if I glimpse  one of those "Here we go" Bud Light commercials, I will quite often go back and watch it.  Actually, I do the same thing for most of the BMC (Bud / Miller / Coors) commercials.  I find the mega-breweries do really entertaining TV commercials.  Some objectify women, but most of them I enjoy just because they are amusing.  So, the corporate beer advertising people did their job and got my attention.  But again, I do not buy their product.  So, really, what is the point?

So, the Beer Wench got me thinking about why I buy the beers that I buy.

The last beer I bought (TommyKnocker Cocoa Porter) was because I wanted a beer to use as a comparison of my own chocolate beer (which I brewed this past weekend, by the way).  Lately, that might be the number one reason I buy a commercial beer, because I am brewing something similar and I want to be able to make some sort of comparison.

The beers I bought before the Cocoa Porter six pack were some of the Lips of Faith series from New Belgium Brewery.  I bought those, because I was looking to buy some Eric's Ale or La Folie, and the liquor store did not have any of those in stock.  At GABF, I really enjoyed those 2 sour beers and wanted to grab some to enjoy at home.  Since the liquor store didn't have the ones I wanted, I decided that I might as well give these other beers a try.  New Belgium got my attention by giving me a beer that I enjoyed, and closed the sale because they had the benefit of the doubt based on my experience other beers they had done.

New Belgium is a pretty big craft brewery, but it is tiny in comparison to any corporate mega-brewery.  I don't ever remember seeing a TV ad for New Belgium, and I know for certain I've never seen a scantily dressed chick try to sell me a New Belgium beer.  But, I've probably bought more New Belgium beer in the past 10 years than any other beer.

Boston Brewing Company (Sam Adams) is a huge craft brewery (it is actually on the verge of technically being too big to fall under the definition of craft brewery).  I have seen Sam Adams TV commercials, but never one that compares to the entrainment value of BMC commercials.  All the Boston Brewing commercials are pretty much the boring spots with Jim Koch talking about quality and taste and innovation or how his company is a group of home-brewers at heart.  Jim is never dressed in a bikini in any of the TV advertisements I've seen (thank goodness).  But, I do buy various Sam Adams beers because I know I can get a bunch of styles, and I know that I have liked the taste of most of what I have tried from Jim's brewery.

Another big reason I buy the beers that I do is because they have been suggested to me by someone whose opinion I respect.  Quite often this is someone like the Beer Wench or one of the beer bloggers you see on the right side of this blog.  Or, it could be a beer spotlighted on one of the Brewing Network shows.  Or, it might be one from the Zymurgy's Best Beers in America poll.  I have also been know to try a beer that the Beer Model asked me to try (don't tell my wife that I respect her opinion on beer).

So, I guess I'm wondering:  does anyone actually buy beer because of amusing or sexually suggestive commercials or whatever clever hook the marketing people can come up with?  I guess the question can be expanded to other products as well, but beer is really a great example.  I think beer sales in our country is pretty flat over the past few years.  Craft beers are doing very well (double digit growth in sales), and the mega - brews are down in sales.  So, it seems pretty apparent that the clever commercials don't necessarily translate to growth in sales.

Who knows?  This seems like a fundamental flaw in corporate advertising, but what do I know?

BTW ... I brewed my Bluefield Chocolate Ale this past Sunday.  Fermentation is going well today, and the chocolate aroma is very nice (and strong).  One thing I did not take into account in the recipe is how much the unsweetened cocoa would increase the starting gravity reading.  Based on the fermentable sugars and the lactose in the recipe, I expected an OG of 1.061.  The pre-boil gravity was pretty much right on track, so I am assuming that without the cocoa, I would be pretty close to 1.061.  With the cocoa, my OG reading was 1.088.  That is a huge difference.  I am assuming that the cocoa is all unfermentable, so I am looking at a really thick, full-bodied beer.  I'm afraid that will be disgustingly thick in a beer.  I won't know for sure until I can give it a taste, and that won't be for awhile, so I guess I'll have to just RDWHAHB.  Assuming I am right, the very first adjustments I'll have to make are to leave out the lactose and to significantly reduce the amount of cocoa.  I should probably make my mash temperature lower as well.

But, my sister did ask for a beer that doesn't taste like beer, so maybe this will be exactly what she is looking for.  I think she likes hot chocolate and chocolate milk.  I'm thinking this will be similar in the mouth-feel to chocolate milk.  I guess we will have to see.

Bluefield Experiment Part I

I home-brew my own beer. I like brewing. You might say I am a bit obsessed with brewing. If you have been following this blog for awhile, you probably know that my sister is to blame for this obsession, as she is the one who bought me my first beer kit. Actually, if you have been reading my blog regularly, chances are you are my sister. Hi Tera.

Ironically, my sister does not like beer. Sad, I know. The one time she tried one of my beers, she made a horrible disgusted face that still hurts me when I think about it. Often, I see that look in my nightmares. But, I really can not take it personally. At least I know that she's very unlikely to ask me if I can brew something that tastes like Coors Light.

Recently, she asked me to brew a no-calorie dark chocolate non-beer tasting beer, so that if she tastes it, she doesn't say "yuck, that tastes like beer". She has nagged me a bit after the initial request. Obviously, I cannot brew a no-calorie beer. I cannot make a non-beer tasting beer, but I can make one that doesn't taste like any beer she has ever tasted. I can certainly make it dark and I can add chocolate to it. I do not think she would like this type of beer, and since she is at the Sheppy Brew nano-brewery so seldom, chances are she'll never get a chance to taste it anyway.

But, part of the spirit of home-brewing is experimenting with different ingredients to make unique flavors. And this could be an exciting unique beer to play with.

I started my recipe based on Jamil's Chocolate Hazelnut Porter from his Brewing Classic Styles. I converted it to a Mr. Beer sized batch and added in some lactose to give it more sweetness. I increased the cocoa powder and reduced the hops. You can see the recipe at the Sheppy Brew website.

This past weekend, I bought some unsweetened Hershey cocoa powder and then stopped by the liquor store for some Tommyknocker brewery Cocoa Porter Winter Warmer to get me in the mood for this great experiment.

Weekend purchases

Today, I headed to the Brew Hut  for the rest of the ingredients. Brew day will probably be Sunday.  Hmmm... I just realized that I need to get propane sometime.

I expect this will be a recipe that I have to tweak several times.  I might even tweak it a few times before my sister even gets a chance to taste it.  Who knows ... I might get sick of brewing this before she ever gets a chance to try one.  Unfortunately, I do not know what she means by "beer taste".  There are so many different styles of beer that can taste so radically different that I am not sure I know what I mean when I say a "beer should taste like beer".  I do know that her definition of what would taste good in a beer is radically different than mine.  My buddy Charlie has said that when people tell him that they don't like beer, he doesn't believe them.  He strongly believes that if you try hard enough that eventually a beer can be found for every taste.  My sister is probably the exception to the rule.  Maybe if the Great Bluefield Chocolate Experiment fails, I need to give Charlie a call and have him work on finding a beer for my sister.


I'll be posting results.  Hope you are looking forward to seeing them.