I have in the past referred to SheppyBrew as a "nano-brewery" in this blog.
Last night, while listening to a podcast of the Brewing Network's "The Sunday Session", I discovered that there is actually a classification (unofficial) of commercial breweries of "Nano-Brewery". I thought I was being clever coming up with the term, but apparently, I was not so original. Basically, a "nano-brewery" is one that brews commercially on a home-brew scale. One of the guest of the show was actually brewing in his home.
I just want to make it clear, you cannot buy my beer. If you want to drink it, you have to come over, ask nicely, and let me give you some. Sorry, but that is just the way it has to be.
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I'm thinking about brewing a Rye Beer sometime in the near future. My recipe will sort of be based on the "Can You Brew It: Terrapin Rye Pale" podcast. I have not plugged it into Beer Smith yet, but here is what I'm thinking:
70% - 2 Row / Light LME
10% - Munich Malt
10% - Malted Rye
5% - Victory Malt
5% - Honey Malt
14 IBU Magnum Hops (60 minutes)
5 IBU Fuggle Hops (30 minutes)
2 IBU EKG Hops (20 minutes)
2 IBU EKG Hops (10 minutes)
2 IBU Cascade (1 minute)
Amarillo Gold Hops -- Dry Hop (.75 oz)
Probably Fermentis US - 05 (Terrapin Brewing company uses WY1272 ... which is what I use for Phat & Tyred and BlackHawk Black, so maybe I'll harvest that from my current batch of P&T)
Eventually, I'll plug this into Beer Smith and get a finalized recipe. Might brew it up right after Phat & Tyred gets bottled up.
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I tried one of my Tweedle Beetle Stouts side-by-side with an Old Rasputin Imperial Stout. I have to say, my beer compares very favorably. Color of both the beer and the head is identical. Body is identical. The roasty malt flavor is identical. The only differences are that my beer is a bit more carbonated and seems to have a better head, and that my beer has a bit more of a hoppy bite to it. I expect that if I am able to save some of my beer for a few months, the beers will taste identical, though.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Playoffs start
If it were not for this time of year, I probably would not own a big-screen HD TV or pay ridiculous amounts of money for cable TV. The HD is nice to have for football, but if I were not a fan of hockey, I probably would not have bothered. Quite frankly, I know a couple of guys with big-screen HD TVs who don't watch sports at all. And, I cannot figure out why they spent the money. I guess most TV shows (other than sports) hold no interest for me, and those that do don't really improve that much with a crystal-clear big picture. Maybe these other guys have found shows much more interesting than any that I watch.
And, of course, here in Colorado, even the local Avalache coverage is not on free TV. I suppose I could head out to the bars like I did in my younger years to catch hockey, but if I'm at a bar, I want a beer or seven, and I just cannot recover quickly enough to be a productive member of the work-force in the morning if I go out to the bars every night.
So, I paid for a huge TV and I overpay for cable T.V. most of the year mostly just for watching hockey, and more specifically, playoff hockey.
And the playoffs started last night. Life is good. To make matters even better, the Red Wings lost and the Avs won. The only thing that would have made it even better would be if the Blackhawks won too, but they don't start until Friday night. Most likely, the Wings will end up winning their series, and the Avs will end up losing theirs, but right now, I can take pleasure in having watched both of the games last night.
Hawks are going all the way this year ... I can feel it!
And, of course, here in Colorado, even the local Avalache coverage is not on free TV. I suppose I could head out to the bars like I did in my younger years to catch hockey, but if I'm at a bar, I want a beer or seven, and I just cannot recover quickly enough to be a productive member of the work-force in the morning if I go out to the bars every night.
So, I paid for a huge TV and I overpay for cable T.V. most of the year mostly just for watching hockey, and more specifically, playoff hockey.
And the playoffs started last night. Life is good. To make matters even better, the Red Wings lost and the Avs won. The only thing that would have made it even better would be if the Blackhawks won too, but they don't start until Friday night. Most likely, the Wings will end up winning their series, and the Avs will end up losing theirs, but right now, I can take pleasure in having watched both of the games last night.
Hawks are going all the way this year ... I can feel it!
Another LHBS
Not too long ago, I mentioned my LBHS's (Local Home Brew Shops) on this blog.
I have recently started working in "the Tech Center" of the Denver Metro area, which means I no longer work close to Stomp Them Grapes . But, now I work close to another LHBS called The Brew Hut. I went there today to get grains for my Phat & Tyred Ale.
I like this place too. Their grain price is slightly better than Stomp and seems to have similar selection. Their hop prices are better than Stomp, but not quite as good as Beer at Home. Their extract prices are better than Beer at Home but not as good as Stomp Them Grapes.
So, now, I guess I have 3 LHBS's that I will go to. If I want extract, I should go to Stomp Them Grapes. If I want hops, I should go to Beer at Home, and if I want grains, I should go to The Brew Hut. Of course, when it comes right down to it, Stomp Them Grapes probably will not get a ton of my business just because I will not be "up North" very much. I think what I need to do is work on the guys at Beer at Home and The Brew Hut to improve on their negatives.
Anyway ... just another benefit to living in the Denver area ... choices when it comes to LHBS's.
Oh ... a couple other advantages that The Brew Hut has: it is attached to a brewery with a tasting room (Dry Dock Brewing) and it is open 7 days a week!
I have recently started working in "the Tech Center" of the Denver Metro area, which means I no longer work close to Stomp Them Grapes . But, now I work close to another LHBS called The Brew Hut. I went there today to get grains for my Phat & Tyred Ale.
I like this place too. Their grain price is slightly better than Stomp and seems to have similar selection. Their hop prices are better than Stomp, but not quite as good as Beer at Home. Their extract prices are better than Beer at Home but not as good as Stomp Them Grapes.
So, now, I guess I have 3 LHBS's that I will go to. If I want extract, I should go to Stomp Them Grapes. If I want hops, I should go to Beer at Home, and if I want grains, I should go to The Brew Hut. Of course, when it comes right down to it, Stomp Them Grapes probably will not get a ton of my business just because I will not be "up North" very much. I think what I need to do is work on the guys at Beer at Home and The Brew Hut to improve on their negatives.
Anyway ... just another benefit to living in the Denver area ... choices when it comes to LHBS's.
Oh ... a couple other advantages that The Brew Hut has: it is attached to a brewery with a tasting room (Dry Dock Brewing) and it is open 7 days a week!
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Friday, April 09, 2010
Tweedle Float
This probably would have been better with my Leprechaun Stout. The hoppiness of Tweedle Beetle Stout clashes a bit with the ice cream, whereas the chocolate peppermint of the Leprechaun probably would have complimented the taste. Of course, the Leprechaun Stout is gone, so that will have to wait until I brew more.
Thursday, April 08, 2010
Hoppy Spring
When I started brewing beer (way back in 2009) ... I did not consider myself a "hop head". I never really cared for really hoppy beers. I never ordered IPA's. I stayed away from APA's whenever possible. Anything that was considered dominated by hop flavors would usually not be something I asked for. My preferences were clearly with balanced or malty beers.
Somewhere along the way, I have discovered that I really like what higher amounts of hops bring to a beer. I started to see that malts really need some hop bitterness to balance the beer out. I think the first beer where I really started realizing that I needed to start paying attention to balancing out my recipes was my first attempt at Dragon Spit. My notes mentioned that the beer would be better if I basically took the hops from Northern Amber with what I had done with Dragon Spit. On my second batch, I thought I had overdone the hops until I tasted the beer, when I realized that it was better than I had imagined it could be.
After that, I made a real effort to make sure my Bitterness to Gravity ratio was at least .50. I still thought I preferred balanced beers, so the closer I got to .5, the better.
But lately, I've started moving toward IPA hoppy. My Tweedle Beetle Stout is .976 on the BU:GU scale. My Quarter Life Crisis was "only" at .785, but significantly "dry hopped" to add an intense hoppy taste and aroma. And my Stone Soup IDA has a high .976 ratio plus is dry hopped even more than the QLC, which gives it a double IPA taste in a black beer. And, I think at the moment, these are my favorite beers. I mixed up my second batch of Tommy Hawk APA on Saturday, and at the last minute added more hops than I had planned to. My initial reaction to my Brother Bear Bock was "wow ... that could really use some hops" even though we all know dopple bocks are purposely low on the BU:GU scale.
I might as well admit it: I am a "hop head". I am not sure when this occurred. I think maybe I always was one, just didn't realize it until I could start exploring beer flavors in my own recipes. I like how hop bitterness balances out malty sweetness in a beer, and I really like the intense hoppy taste that dry hopping adds.
The beer model is not a "hop head". I do not think she will ever be a "hop head". She is already prejudiced against anything darker than Phat & Tyred despite my attempts to explain to her that "dark" is not really a flavor. I think eventually I can convince her that "dark" beers can be ok. But, I do not think I'll be able to alter her tastes to prefer my Stone Soup or even my Tommy Hawk. She will probably never even be a fan of my Dragon Spit even if I can nudge her towards appreciating some "darkness".
That is ok. In fact, it is probably good, because it means I'll continue to brew beers lighter in color and lighter on hops. Most (all?) non-beer drinkers ... those who claim to like Coors Light, Bud, Rolling Rock, etc... will prefer those beers over my intensely hoppy, highly flavorful beers. And, if I am going to have beers on hand that appeal to guests, the fact that my wife forces me to brew some of those beers means I am more likely to have beers that appeal to everyone, not just "hop heads" like me.
Of course, ideally, everyone would like what I like so I can just brew the good stuff. But, quite frankly, that is not going to happen.
Hoppy Spring, everyone.
Somewhere along the way, I have discovered that I really like what higher amounts of hops bring to a beer. I started to see that malts really need some hop bitterness to balance the beer out. I think the first beer where I really started realizing that I needed to start paying attention to balancing out my recipes was my first attempt at Dragon Spit. My notes mentioned that the beer would be better if I basically took the hops from Northern Amber with what I had done with Dragon Spit. On my second batch, I thought I had overdone the hops until I tasted the beer, when I realized that it was better than I had imagined it could be.
After that, I made a real effort to make sure my Bitterness to Gravity ratio was at least .50. I still thought I preferred balanced beers, so the closer I got to .5, the better.
But lately, I've started moving toward IPA hoppy. My Tweedle Beetle Stout is .976 on the BU:GU scale. My Quarter Life Crisis was "only" at .785, but significantly "dry hopped" to add an intense hoppy taste and aroma. And my Stone Soup IDA has a high .976 ratio plus is dry hopped even more than the QLC, which gives it a double IPA taste in a black beer. And, I think at the moment, these are my favorite beers. I mixed up my second batch of Tommy Hawk APA on Saturday, and at the last minute added more hops than I had planned to. My initial reaction to my Brother Bear Bock was "wow ... that could really use some hops" even though we all know dopple bocks are purposely low on the BU:GU scale.
The beer model is not a "hop head". I do not think she will ever be a "hop head". She is already prejudiced against anything darker than Phat & Tyred despite my attempts to explain to her that "dark" is not really a flavor. I think eventually I can convince her that "dark" beers can be ok. But, I do not think I'll be able to alter her tastes to prefer my Stone Soup or even my Tommy Hawk. She will probably never even be a fan of my Dragon Spit even if I can nudge her towards appreciating some "darkness".
That is ok. In fact, it is probably good, because it means I'll continue to brew beers lighter in color and lighter on hops. Most (all?) non-beer drinkers ... those who claim to like Coors Light, Bud, Rolling Rock, etc... will prefer those beers over my intensely hoppy, highly flavorful beers. And, if I am going to have beers on hand that appeal to guests, the fact that my wife forces me to brew some of those beers means I am more likely to have beers that appeal to everyone, not just "hop heads" like me.
Of course, ideally, everyone would like what I like so I can just brew the good stuff. But, quite frankly, that is not going to happen.
Hoppy Spring, everyone.
Monday, April 05, 2010
Happy Birthday Con-Man
My "little" boy is always getting bigger. Today, he turned 5. It blows my mind that he could be so old. It seems just yesterday he was a tiny little baby in Tyler's arms.
I do not know how I got so lucky to have two such a wonderful little boys.
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Palm Sunday
Our church put on its annual Passion Service today. Every year it seems it becomes a bigger and more impressive production.
Most of the churches I have been part of in the past probably have less people attending on a typical Sunday than were putting on the service today. The choir alone was about 50 people. The orchestra was probably 30 more. The main cast was probably about 15 people, but I have no idea how many extras there were plus children who sang and danced. It was a lot of people. Whoever coordinated all that did a great job.
It was a wonderful show.
1st Quarter Stats
Well, I mixed up Monkish Wit in Rutt yesterday. Tuke still has another week to finish up Buckwheat's Belgium Pale Ale, so for all practical purposes, the first quarter of 2010 is done. You may remember in SheppyBrew 2009 Stats I discussed the beers that I had made in 2009. I was curious to see how I've been tracking in 2010, so I took a look through my brewing calendar for what I have done so far this year.
So:
Lately, I've been doing big hoppy darkish beers. The beer model does not prefer big, hoppy, or dark. We are running dangerously low on Wetta Blonde and Girly Berry, which are the Beer Model's favorites. It has been requested that I work on getting the light beer inventory up. I have started doing that. Buckwheat's Belgium Pale Ale, and Monkish Wit are answers to that request. I am pretty sure that one of my next batches will be a Girly Berry, and I certainly want to do a Whisky Wife Wheat so that it will be ready for early summer. I have to take care of my #1 customer, you know.
So:
- 2009: I brewed 29 batches of beer.
2010 so far: I have mixed 9 batches ... putting me on pace for 36 batches in 2010 (around 81 gallons give or take)
- 2009: There were 18 completely different recipes.
2010: so far, all of them have been different recipes. 7 of them are brand new in 2010. 2 (Phat & Tyred, Fools Gold) were repeats (with minor tweaks) of recipes I brewed last year.
- 2009: All my brews were ales.
2010: I have done a lager (Brother Bear Dopplebock)
- 2009: 26 Sheppy Brew recipes.
2010 all so far have been SheppyBrew recipes. Monkish Wit might be debatable, but I did come up with the additions on my own, so I am counting it as mine.
- 2009: 93% were good, very good, great, or oh-my-god fantastic.
2010: 100% (so far) have been good, very good, great, or oh-my-god fantastic. (of course 4 have not really been tasted fully carbonated, yet. I'll let you know if I have to modify this stat).
- 2009: 5 batches were partial mashes.
2010: 3 have been partial mashes (2 are new recipes in 2010: Quarter Life Crisis and Buckwheat's Belgium Pale Ale).
- 2009: 6 batches had no Mr. Beer ingredients.
2010: 6 already have had no Mr. Beer ingredients.
- 2009: The person who consumed the most SheppyBrew (other than the Brew Master) was Tracy Shepard.
2010: Still the Beer Model.
Lately, I've been doing big hoppy darkish beers. The beer model does not prefer big, hoppy, or dark. We are running dangerously low on Wetta Blonde and Girly Berry, which are the Beer Model's favorites. It has been requested that I work on getting the light beer inventory up. I have started doing that. Buckwheat's Belgium Pale Ale, and Monkish Wit are answers to that request. I am pretty sure that one of my next batches will be a Girly Berry, and I certainly want to do a Whisky Wife Wheat so that it will be ready for early summer. I have to take care of my #1 customer, you know.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Snow Blowers
There are only a couple of times a year when I wish that I had a snow-blower. Usually those days are during one or more of our annual March (or sometimes April) snow storms. Today was one of those days for awhile. The snow today, like most of the Denver snowstorms in March (and April) was deep and wet. Translate as HEAVY.
My neighbor started his driveway just a bit before I started mine. It took him just as long with the snow blower as it took me without a snow blower. In fact, he started before me and I finished a little before him, so I guess I was faster than he was. He had to keep stopping to clear out clogged snow from the machine. He swore at it a few dozen times (and those were just the times I heard him swear. I assume he did more swearing that I could not hear).
Our driveways are about the same size ... not big. It only takes a few minutes to clear our driveways when the snow is light and fluffy, so I would not need mechanical help on those days. And apparently, on days like this, when the snow is wet and heavy, and I would like to have help removing snow, there is no real advantage to having the snow blower either. I'll have to remember that when I am thinking of buying one next time.
Of course, I was a lot more tired after shoveling than my neighbor was after pushing his machine. But, I did swear less.
The boys were off school today due to snowy roads. Both my wife and I worked from home. It is much easier to deal with wild children as a team effort.... especially when work is expected to be completed during the time with those wild children.
My neighbor started his driveway just a bit before I started mine. It took him just as long with the snow blower as it took me without a snow blower. In fact, he started before me and I finished a little before him, so I guess I was faster than he was. He had to keep stopping to clear out clogged snow from the machine. He swore at it a few dozen times (and those were just the times I heard him swear. I assume he did more swearing that I could not hear).
Our driveways are about the same size ... not big. It only takes a few minutes to clear our driveways when the snow is light and fluffy, so I would not need mechanical help on those days. And apparently, on days like this, when the snow is wet and heavy, and I would like to have help removing snow, there is no real advantage to having the snow blower either. I'll have to remember that when I am thinking of buying one next time.
Of course, I was a lot more tired after shoveling than my neighbor was after pushing his machine. But, I did swear less.
The boys were off school today due to snowy roads. Both my wife and I worked from home. It is much easier to deal with wild children as a team effort.... especially when work is expected to be completed during the time with those wild children.
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Picture Day
Somehow, we lost 3 months of pictures off the SD card of our camera. It is unusual that I go 3 months without copying our pictures to the home computer so that I can work on our yearly calender and/or the Colorado Shepard DVD, but for various reasons, I had not copied the pictures yet this year. So, most of those pictures are really truly lost. This sucks, but I suppose worse things have happened.
So, today, we started off the day with the task to get family photos for January, February, and March. Luckily, it was just a beautiful sunny day after a day of pretty decent snow fall. This combination makes for great family pictures.
Here are some (not even close to all of them) of the pictures we took today.
Here we are at Red Rocks. Not a very original picture for those of you who get the calendar every year, but it is a nice view ... especially in the snow.
The boys at Red Rocks.
This is the family in front of the Table Rock in Golden. The boys used their snowshoes to get up this path, to this point. We didn't go too much further up the path ... even though I had geo-cache coordinates loaded into the GPS. Apparently, when my kids spend hours playing in the snow, socks and feet end up wet and cold even when they are wearing snow boots.
This is a picture of the boys in front of Golden City Brewery, which is Golden's 2nd largest brewery. We have been past this several times, but I've never been in to try a beer from here. Today, we did stop in and get a sampler platter. Both the beer model and I think that SheppyBrew has a better lineup of beers, but GCB does have some pretty decent beers. Unfortunately, the beer I was most interested to try, their Evolution IPA, was out-of-stock. I guess I'll have to go back sometime and try that one. They also have some interesting sounding seasonals that I will have to try.
Here is another picture of the boys.
So, we did get great pictures today to cover the first 3 months of the year of our calendar. I guess it was not worth crying over losing the photos we lost after all.
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This morning was also a decently busy day at the SheppyBrew brewery. I bottled up my Stone Soup IDA. The beer finished up with a final gravity of 1.016, which makes this the best attenuated beer that I have ever done. Based on the sample, the dry hopping really seems to have turned out well, making this a great example of a double IPA ... except the chocolate malt makes it almost black (IDA stands for imperial dark ale). I am really looking forward to trying this beer after carbonation.
I also did a yeast starter of Wyeast's 3944 (Belgium witbier) yeast. My intent on this starter is to divide it up to use in 3 or 4 batches of various witbier recipes that I have designed. Since my last few brews have been darker and/or extremely hoppy beers, my supply of lighter beers for my beer model have been dwindling, so I need to brew some beers that my wife will enjoy. My first of these will be Buckwheat's Belgium Pale Ale, and the next one after that will be one of those witbiers. I think I'll brew up the Buckwheat tomorrow. The first of the witbiers will probably be a Tuesday night project.
Everyone have a good weekend.
So, today, we started off the day with the task to get family photos for January, February, and March. Luckily, it was just a beautiful sunny day after a day of pretty decent snow fall. This combination makes for great family pictures.
Here are some (not even close to all of them) of the pictures we took today.
So, we did get great pictures today to cover the first 3 months of the year of our calendar. I guess it was not worth crying over losing the photos we lost after all.
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This morning was also a decently busy day at the SheppyBrew brewery. I bottled up my Stone Soup IDA. The beer finished up with a final gravity of 1.016, which makes this the best attenuated beer that I have ever done. Based on the sample, the dry hopping really seems to have turned out well, making this a great example of a double IPA ... except the chocolate malt makes it almost black (IDA stands for imperial dark ale). I am really looking forward to trying this beer after carbonation.
I also did a yeast starter of Wyeast's 3944 (Belgium witbier) yeast. My intent on this starter is to divide it up to use in 3 or 4 batches of various witbier recipes that I have designed. Since my last few brews have been darker and/or extremely hoppy beers, my supply of lighter beers for my beer model have been dwindling, so I need to brew some beers that my wife will enjoy. My first of these will be Buckwheat's Belgium Pale Ale, and the next one after that will be one of those witbiers. I think I'll brew up the Buckwheat tomorrow. The first of the witbiers will probably be a Tuesday night project.
Everyone have a good weekend.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Leprechaun Stout
I brewed a special beer for St. Patrick's day, and called it Leprechaun Stout. Right up until the last 5 minutes of the boil, my plan was to just do a pretty typical stout, but right at the very end, I added 1/2 tsp of pepermint extract. My "logic" was something like: "This has to be special for St. Patrick's Day. Everyone wears green on St. Patrick's Day, but there is no way I am going to make a stout green. Mint is green. I will add peppermint to my beer." Not sure that all adds up, but that was my thought process. I added the peppermint.
For most of the fermentation process, I was sure that peppermint was a mistake. While tasting my first sample before bottling, my fears were "confirmed" .... The mint taste was way too strong. My sample at bottling time was not as bad, but still I thought "that is too minty".
But, my QA tastes got better. The beer got to tasting a bunch like a thin mint girl scout cookie. Too much mint for an everyday beer, but not a bad "dessert" beer.
Today, I think the beer has the perfect amount of peppermint to compliment the dark roasty chocolate malts. This is no longer just a "not-bad dessert beer", but a good everyday brew. Maybe it is just my mood today, but today I think this is a great St. Patrick's Day Brew. It still reminds me of a thin mint with the chocolaty dark malts and the now-not-so-strong peppermint, but it is a bit more restrained than it was. I've never really had (or even really heard of) a beer with peppermint in it, but if I were to try one, this is how I would want the peppermint to come through.
I am very glad that this beer turned out so nice. Most beers to which I've tried to add experimental flavors have turned out a bit disappointing (the first batch of Girly Berry, Maple Brown Ale, Vanilla Porter). This one, I might brew again next St. Patrick's day. I may even put some peppermint in my next X-Mas Ale.
Happy St. Patricks's Day everybody!
Here is a photo of Connor after finishing off Tyler's birthday cake. Sometimes I am frightened of this child.
But, my QA tastes got better. The beer got to tasting a bunch like a thin mint girl scout cookie. Too much mint for an everyday beer, but not a bad "dessert" beer.
Today, I think the beer has the perfect amount of peppermint to compliment the dark roasty chocolate malts. This is no longer just a "not-bad dessert beer", but a good everyday brew. Maybe it is just my mood today, but today I think this is a great St. Patrick's Day Brew. It still reminds me of a thin mint with the chocolaty dark malts and the now-not-so-strong peppermint, but it is a bit more restrained than it was. I've never really had (or even really heard of) a beer with peppermint in it, but if I were to try one, this is how I would want the peppermint to come through.
I am very glad that this beer turned out so nice. Most beers to which I've tried to add experimental flavors have turned out a bit disappointing (the first batch of Girly Berry, Maple Brown Ale, Vanilla Porter). This one, I might brew again next St. Patrick's day. I may even put some peppermint in my next X-Mas Ale.
Happy St. Patricks's Day everybody!
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Bike Directions
I just found out from New Belgium's Facebook page that maps.google.com now has the ability (in beta right now) to map a bike route for you.
I've actually been wondering (actually even mentioned it out loud to some people) when google would add this functionality.
Here are directions I just did. These will take me from around my house to around where I will be working on a daily basis in a couple of weeks.
As I mentioned, the bike directions are in beta. Who knows how good they are, but I'll be using them. I think this is awesome! It is about time!
I've actually been wondering (actually even mentioned it out loud to some people) when google would add this functionality.
Here are directions I just did. These will take me from around my house to around where I will be working on a daily basis in a couple of weeks.
As I mentioned, the bike directions are in beta. Who knows how good they are, but I'll be using them. I think this is awesome! It is about time!
Tuesday, March 09, 2010
Extra Kids
We had extra kids this weekend. We had an extra 4-year-old and an extra 7-year-old for the whole weekend, and we had 3 additional extra 7-year-olds Saturday night. One the the seven-year-olds could not stay the whole night, so we only had a total of 6 boys (7 if you count me) spending the night Saturday.
The 2 4-year-olds did the dishes Friday night. Not sure why they think that is so much fun. Very weird children. (note to facebook readers: videos don't come through the facebook import of my blog. If you want to see the videos, you'll have to go to the actual blog post: http://blog.ericshepard.com/2010/03/extra-kids.html)
Batman and a fireman playing LeapPad.
Here are the older goofballs that came over for Tyler's birthday party. Clockwise starting with the birthday boy: Genghis Khan, Mongolian Warrior, Dead Man, General Straub (not sure I am spelling that right), and General Zaharas.
The above is a video of us exploding diet coke using mentos. This was not the time that Mongolian Warrior got completely soaked. (don't tell his mom that we doused her kid with diet coke).
A video of the singing of the birthday song. Cha cha cha.
A picture of cake and kids.
Fun was had by all. It was much easier than I expected. Sort of makes me wish we had 7 boys all the time.
By the way... in case DeadMan's and Oso #4's parents come by, here is a link to the youtube video we told you about: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKoB0MHVBvM (others can look too)
The 2 4-year-olds did the dishes Friday night. Not sure why they think that is so much fun. Very weird children. (note to facebook readers: videos don't come through the facebook import of my blog. If you want to see the videos, you'll have to go to the actual blog post: http://blog.ericshepard.com/2010/03/extra-kids.html)
Batman and a fireman playing LeapPad.
Here are the older goofballs that came over for Tyler's birthday party. Clockwise starting with the birthday boy: Genghis Khan, Mongolian Warrior, Dead Man, General Straub (not sure I am spelling that right), and General Zaharas.
The above is a video of us exploding diet coke using mentos. This was not the time that Mongolian Warrior got completely soaked. (don't tell his mom that we doused her kid with diet coke).
A video of the singing of the birthday song. Cha cha cha.
A picture of cake and kids.
Fun was had by all. It was much easier than I expected. Sort of makes me wish we had 7 boys all the time.
By the way... in case DeadMan's and Oso #4's parents come by, here is a link to the youtube video we told you about: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKoB0MHVBvM (others can look too)
Wednesday, March 03, 2010
My LHBS's
This past Sunday, I went to one of my LHBS's to get ingredients for Stone Soup IDA.
I consider myself pretty lucky in that I have 2 good Local Home Brew Shops (LHBS) that I am able to frequent. Lots of homebrewers do not really have any shops close by, but the Denver area has several. I have one that is about a 15 minute drive from my house, and one that is about a 15 minute drive from where I work. The one close to my house is called Beer at Home. The one close to where I work is called Stomp them Grapes.
They are both good places to obtain beer-making ingredients. I prefer Stomp them Grapes slightly because it has a better selection of grains and I just feel more familiar with where everything is and how the store is set up. It also has better prices on extracts, and its website is far superior, which is nice when I need to formulate recipes and can actually look up what is in stock. Beer at Home, though has GREAT prices on hops. For the most part, I get my hops at B@H and everything else at STG.
Sunday, though, I decided to get all my grains / extracts and hops for Stone Soup IDA. There were 2 women working the shop this particular Sunday afternoon, which was a surprise. I have rarely seen women in LHBS's, and when I have, the woman has obviously been along with her husband or boyfriend, just because she did not want to wait in the car. Obviously, there are women who brew (I talked to one on Sunday), but homebrewing is certainly a male-dominated hobby.
My understanding is that this has not always been the case. Back in the days before commercial breweries, just about every home had a home-brewer. If you wanted beer back then, there was really no other choice. And, for the most part (from what I have heard / read), this was one of the wifely duties around the house. Apparently, 4000 years ago in the Babylonian empire, all brewers were priestesses. And, as you go through the history of beer making you can find other examples of women being the primary beer-brewers.
But now-a-days, the fact that I ran into two beer-brewing women working the LHBS is a rare occurrence. I probably should have taken a picture so I'd have proof that it actually happened.
I consider myself pretty lucky in that I have 2 good Local Home Brew Shops (LHBS) that I am able to frequent. Lots of homebrewers do not really have any shops close by, but the Denver area has several. I have one that is about a 15 minute drive from my house, and one that is about a 15 minute drive from where I work. The one close to my house is called Beer at Home. The one close to where I work is called Stomp them Grapes.
They are both good places to obtain beer-making ingredients. I prefer Stomp them Grapes slightly because it has a better selection of grains and I just feel more familiar with where everything is and how the store is set up. It also has better prices on extracts, and its website is far superior, which is nice when I need to formulate recipes and can actually look up what is in stock. Beer at Home, though has GREAT prices on hops. For the most part, I get my hops at B@H and everything else at STG.
Sunday, though, I decided to get all my grains / extracts and hops for Stone Soup IDA. There were 2 women working the shop this particular Sunday afternoon, which was a surprise. I have rarely seen women in LHBS's, and when I have, the woman has obviously been along with her husband or boyfriend, just because she did not want to wait in the car. Obviously, there are women who brew (I talked to one on Sunday), but homebrewing is certainly a male-dominated hobby.
My understanding is that this has not always been the case. Back in the days before commercial breweries, just about every home had a home-brewer. If you wanted beer back then, there was really no other choice. And, for the most part (from what I have heard / read), this was one of the wifely duties around the house. Apparently, 4000 years ago in the Babylonian empire, all brewers were priestesses. And, as you go through the history of beer making you can find other examples of women being the primary beer-brewers.
But now-a-days, the fact that I ran into two beer-brewing women working the LHBS is a rare occurrence. I probably should have taken a picture so I'd have proof that it actually happened.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Stone Soup IDA
My littlest boy asked me if I would put his "dressed up" picture on a beer label. Since I am such a nice dad (some people would disagree with that sometimes, but really I am a nice dad), I told him I would certainly do that. Unfortunately, all the brews I had planned near future already had labels or were really not ones that I wanted to put a cute little boy on.
Obviously, I needed to come up with a new recipe for Connor's label. The name of the beer came to me almost immediately: Stone Soup. Connor loves the story of Stone Soup. Quite often he collects rocks and other ingredients to make his own stone soup. And, I've always thought that Stone Soup would make a good name for a beer ("always" might be an exaggeration considering I've only really been thinking about good beer names for a little over a year).
I called Connor over to help me design the label. Of course, Tyler saw Connor's picture on the label and wanted me to add his too. Together, the boys decided they wanted the river background (rushing over stones) and came up with their own beer quote. The quote is not quite as funny as some of my others, but that is just my opinion. The boys like it.
So, what kind of beer would be called "Stone Soup"? Well, you probably know the story, but basically, in the book, stone soup started out as a real simple recipe of stones and water. As villagers got more and more curious, everyone started bringing and adding their own additions until a wonderful meal was made for the whole town. So, a beer called "Stone Soup" should be highly flavorful, and probably pretty complex. But, I do want a good beer, so I don't want to add too much random stuff to the recipe. Really, the way I declared Tweedle Beetle Ale as a way to use up unused hops would make sense for something named "Stone Soup" as well. Since, that philosophy would make for a hoppy beer, I thought maybe an Imperial IPA would be an appropriate style.
However, I recently listed to Jamil's Can You Brew It on Nogne 100 . The head brewer at Nogne told Jamil that the idea behind the 100 was the desire to make a huge hoppy American -style Imperial IPA, but that his partner said that he really liked dark beers. The two guys ended up compromising by making an Imperial IPA and simply adding enough black patent malt to get the SRM up into the dark beer range. I've never tried it (don't even know if my liquor store has it, and I sort of doubt it does), but Jamil and his crew really liked the Nogne 100, and were amazed how such a simple recipe yielded such an interesting tasting beer.
This approach really appealed to me, so I decided that rather than make a regular old Imperial IPA, I'd darken it up a bit and see what happens. I added in a few extra ingredients that have been in other beers I've brewed, but really this ends up being simple enough that I do not think I am over-doing the flavors. We'll see.
I was going to call it an Imperial Red Ale, which is what Jamil proposed that the Nogne 100 might be appropriately categorized as. But, I would have to abbreviate to fit in the site menu, and I did not want IRA in the name, so I decided to go with IDA (Imperial Dark Ale).
You can review the recipe at the Stone Soup IDA page at the SheppyBrew website. I have no idea when I'm going to brew it. I do have my brewing schedule pretty full, but I may bump other things back to get this one in sooner. Not sure.
By the way ... I bottled up my Quarter Life Crisis Red Ale, using 14 of the cool customized bottle caps that my sister's family got me for my birthday. I actually hit both my OG and FG numbers on this beer. The sample tasted great. It was not as intensely hoppy as I figured it would be, but great non-the-less. Might have to increase the dry-hop on the Stone Soup to get more hop intensity into this one.
Another BTW ...I tried a QA taste of Tweedle Beetle Ale today (technically yesterday) after the bottling session. It is simply the most Tweedleicious beer ever created. It is dark and roasty / chocolaty / coffee-like with an amazing head and is wonderfully balanced with the hops. It is absolutely a "stay-at-home" beer, and I could really feel the alcohol, but absolutely no alcohol taste. This is a great beer. Of course, I am supposed to let this condition for a long period of time. I cannot imagine it will get much better, but I will wait another month or so before trying it again. That is, unless, I crave it and find myself "needing" another QA taste.
Obviously, I needed to come up with a new recipe for Connor's label. The name of the beer came to me almost immediately: Stone Soup. Connor loves the story of Stone Soup. Quite often he collects rocks and other ingredients to make his own stone soup. And, I've always thought that Stone Soup would make a good name for a beer ("always" might be an exaggeration considering I've only really been thinking about good beer names for a little over a year).
I called Connor over to help me design the label. Of course, Tyler saw Connor's picture on the label and wanted me to add his too. Together, the boys decided they wanted the river background (rushing over stones) and came up with their own beer quote. The quote is not quite as funny as some of my others, but that is just my opinion. The boys like it.
However, I recently listed to Jamil's Can You Brew It on Nogne 100 . The head brewer at Nogne told Jamil that the idea behind the 100 was the desire to make a huge hoppy American -style Imperial IPA, but that his partner said that he really liked dark beers. The two guys ended up compromising by making an Imperial IPA and simply adding enough black patent malt to get the SRM up into the dark beer range. I've never tried it (don't even know if my liquor store has it, and I sort of doubt it does), but Jamil and his crew really liked the Nogne 100, and were amazed how such a simple recipe yielded such an interesting tasting beer.
This approach really appealed to me, so I decided that rather than make a regular old Imperial IPA, I'd darken it up a bit and see what happens. I added in a few extra ingredients that have been in other beers I've brewed, but really this ends up being simple enough that I do not think I am over-doing the flavors. We'll see.
I was going to call it an Imperial Red Ale, which is what Jamil proposed that the Nogne 100 might be appropriately categorized as. But, I would have to abbreviate to fit in the site menu, and I did not want IRA in the name, so I decided to go with IDA (Imperial Dark Ale).
You can review the recipe at the Stone Soup IDA page at the SheppyBrew website. I have no idea when I'm going to brew it. I do have my brewing schedule pretty full, but I may bump other things back to get this one in sooner. Not sure.
By the way ... I bottled up my Quarter Life Crisis Red Ale, using 14 of the cool customized bottle caps that my sister's family got me for my birthday. I actually hit both my OG and FG numbers on this beer. The sample tasted great. It was not as intensely hoppy as I figured it would be, but great non-the-less. Might have to increase the dry-hop on the Stone Soup to get more hop intensity into this one.
Another BTW ...I tried a QA taste of Tweedle Beetle Ale today (technically yesterday) after the bottling session. It is simply the most Tweedleicious beer ever created. It is dark and roasty / chocolaty / coffee-like with an amazing head and is wonderfully balanced with the hops. It is absolutely a "stay-at-home" beer, and I could really feel the alcohol, but absolutely no alcohol taste. This is a great beer. Of course, I am supposed to let this condition for a long period of time. I cannot imagine it will get much better, but I will wait another month or so before trying it again. That is, unless, I crave it and find myself "needing" another QA taste.
Friday, February 26, 2010
Powerless
The power just went off to the house while I was on the computer.
A couple months ago, the power went off in our house right before my wife needed to make a conference call for work. Must have been a snow day or something. She had a heck of a time finding the right number to call since it was in her email and the computer was off. Eventually she figured it out without missing much of the call. Not a huge deal, but it certainly was not an ideal situation.
After that experience, I went out and got a battery backup for our computer and cable modem. So, now I am able to keep working while the power is out. I am pretty sure this is the first time we have tested the battery backup. Good news ... apparently I got everything plugged into the right spots!
I tried some mead last night. It was horrible. Yes, I brewed it. I do not know if I am just not a fan of mead, or if I just screwed it up. My guess was a combination of the two. Oh well, I wasn't expecting much out of it, anyway.
Well, I will shut down the computer now. I am not sure how much life the battery has in it.
A couple months ago, the power went off in our house right before my wife needed to make a conference call for work. Must have been a snow day or something. She had a heck of a time finding the right number to call since it was in her email and the computer was off. Eventually she figured it out without missing much of the call. Not a huge deal, but it certainly was not an ideal situation.
After that experience, I went out and got a battery backup for our computer and cable modem. So, now I am able to keep working while the power is out. I am pretty sure this is the first time we have tested the battery backup. Good news ... apparently I got everything plugged into the right spots!
I tried some mead last night. It was horrible. Yes, I brewed it. I do not know if I am just not a fan of mead, or if I just screwed it up. My guess was a combination of the two. Oh well, I wasn't expecting much out of it, anyway.
Well, I will shut down the computer now. I am not sure how much life the battery has in it.
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