Gnasty the Gnome

I have an irrational fear of gnomes.

It creeps me out the way these little creatures sneak around causing mischief. The way they pretend to act like real people is unnatural. Their little voices send chills down my spine. Oddly enough, leprechauns and tommyknockers don't bother me. I can't completely put my finger on what it is, but something about gnomes are completely frightening. Quite often when I see several gnomes together, I scream like a little girl.

I can't help it, they freak me out. My wife has a similar issue with spiders.

The thing that freaks me out the most about gnomes is the unnecessary silent g. I want to pronounce it "Ga-nome", and I can see them smirk when I do that. Even when I don't actually see a gnome, the silent g makes my mind flash to those little smirks. Oddly enough, the g's at the beginning of gnats and gnus don't affect me nearly as strongly as the gnome g (probably because gnats and gnus don't flash me that evil smirk when I try to pronounce the hard g sound).

Brewing Snowball's Chance

As I mentioned last week (see 1D. Munich Helles), I was planning on brewing Snowball's Chance (in) Helles this weekend. I followed through with the plan Sunday.

Snowball's Chance (in) Helles  is a Munich Helles, a German light lager which I am brewing to take care of BJCP Category 1, Light Lagers (see SheppyBrew Styles). Of the Light Lager styles, the Munich Helles is the most flavorful with a significant, slightly sweet, somewhat rich malt profile.

Brew day started early. I was wondering as I dug my propane and burner out of the shed how many home-brewers have to use a flashlight as part of their brewing equipment. It is an important part of mine, as the sun is usually not up when I start brewing.

Thank you John

EDIT ... 01/23/2013

The following "Dear John" letter is meant to be ridiculously sarcastic. Apparently, I failed miserably in conveying the sarcastic tone.

Today, I got an email from my Contact Me form asking how much of a "boatload" of money I was able to get. It sounds like the individual who emailed me got a similar email from John or someone else and was considering my "response" as validation that he might himself become wealthy from this "opportunity".

As I mentioned in Neil Zhang, the emails I got and others like them are [obvious] scams.

I do apologize for my apparent failure. If you come across this blog post because you are considering contacting John or Neil or others like them DON'T.

see

• http://www.firetrust.com/en/blog/chris/domain-name-scams?page=13
• http://www.hoax-slayer.com/domain-name-application-scam.shtml
• http://blog.ericshepard.com/2012/02/neil-zhang.html
• http://blog.eset.com/2012/07/24/asia-domain-name-scams-still-going-strong
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_name_scams
• or just google Domain Name Scams.

1D. Munich Helles

I mentioned not-to-long-ago that my 2013 brewing goal is to expand my resume of beer styles. I want to have at least one beer brewed of each of the 23 BJCP style categories. After my 7C Düsseldorf Altbier, I now have 10 more categories to brew.

Next up, is Category 1 — Light Lager. Specifically, I have decided to brew 1D. Munich Helles. A Helles is a light-colored German lager. It has a clean, slightly sweet, malty flavor with low to moderately-low spicy noble hop flavor and aroma. It is low in hop bitterness. It is low in alcohol and easy drinking, making it a great session beer. It is also one of those beers that will ease non-craft-beer-drinkers into more flavorful craft beers (aka gateway beer).

Blending the Sour Pumpkin Wit

Today, bottled up some beer.

Remember when I brewed my Whacko Wife Pumpkin Witbier, I had about one extra gallon of wort that I let ferment in a separate fermentor? If you don't remember, you can refresh your memory at Whacko Wife Pumpkin Brew Day. I mentioned that my plan for that extra gallon was to blend it with my Rationalité Poison d'Ereeeek, which is my sour Flanders Red style beer.

It has been awhile, but finally decided to go ahead and blend the two beers and bottle up the result.

My bottling experience was a bit "old-school" for me. For quite awhile, when I've bottled beers, I have used my keg and Beer Gun to fill the bottles. Today, I decided to use my Mr. Beer "bottling bucket" and bottle-filling wand. I don't even remember the last time I bottled using this technique before today.

First, I transferred the gallon of Witbier from the fermentor to the bottling container. I added enough priming sugar to handle 2 gallons of beer.

Brewing and Drinking

I skipped last month's "The Session" (aka Beer Blogging Friday). I just had a hard time focusing on the topic. Nothing against the topic. I actually do think about beer hype quite a bit. I just didn't feel I had my blogging head around it last month.

When I saw the announcement for this month's topic, though, I had JUST been talking to someone about it. Yes, surprising as it sounds, sometimes I talk to people about beer. Quite often, really.

This month, John at Home Brew Manual is hosting the topic Brewers And Drinkers. He brings up that it surprises him how many beer bloggers out there don't brew. For him (as for me), the overall enjoyment of beer has changed since becoming a brewer.

I have shared several times with lots of people (I've probably even mentioned it on this blog) that I never really appreciated (or really liked all that much) American IPAs until I had been brewing for awhile.

I've shared similar sentiments about Belgium beers. I sort of doubt I would necessarily be into Sour Beers without being a brewer. It is clear that I have a much deeper knowledge and appreciation for beer now that I brew my own beer.

2012 SheppyBrew Stats

Yes, 2012 is over. SheppyBrew Brewery was busy this year.

As you may know, the Brewery likes to post quarterly updates on how much we have brewed. You can see all these updates (including the one you are reading right now) by following this link: http://blog.ericshepard.com/search/label/Brew%20Stats .

For quite awhile I was thinking my 4th quarter was just crazy, but as I told you in Correction: 2012 Q3 SheppyBrew Stats, I accidentally ended the 3rd quarter early on my brew stats spreadsheet. So, I was thinking that Q3 was low and Q4 was high. Since then, I have fixed my spreadsheet.

Sasquatch Hunter Brew Day

As I mentioned, New Year's Day 2013 was a brew day for me. I brewed my Sasquatch Hunter Düsseldorf Altbier, which is SheppyBrew's first Altbier. You can see the recipe by following the hyperlink.

I got started before 6 AM and as it was dark and cold, I brewed in the garage.

The mash went pretty smoothly. I did over-shoot my strike water a bit, and had to cool down the mash to 152, but I got there quickly and the temperature remained constant for an hour and 20 minute mash. While waiting for the enzymes to do their magic, I played Wii Mario Kart, which is a pretty amusing game. 

December 2012 Blogging

So, December continued this Blog's infamous streak of increasing monthly record breaking page-views. I needed all 31 days to beat November's total. That last week between Christmas and New Years Eve was pretty slow, but the blog viewers got it done for me.

And as I know you are incredibly curious, following is a list of the most viewed blog posts from December. This month, unlike November, I got a few posts that were actually written during the month.

7C Düsseldorf Altbier

I mentioned not-to-long-ago that my 2013 brewing goal is to expand my resume of beer styles. I want to have at least one beer brewed of each of the 23 BJCP style categories. Up until now, I have brewed at least one all-grain batch in 12 of them. In 2013, my goal is to brew at least one beer in each of the 11 remaining categories.

For the list of what the categories are and what I have and have not brewed, see SheppyBrew Styles.

On New Year's day, I am planning on brewing a Düsseldorf Altbier, which is in Category 7 — Amber Hybrid Beer.

I've already shared on this blog the recipe I'm making .... Sasquatch Hunter Düsseldorf Altbier.

An Altbier is an amber German ale fermented cool. This cool fermentation gives the beer a nice crisp clean finish with low yeast-derived esters. In other words, it is very much lager-like in its character. Thus, it is a hybrid between an ale and a lager.

2012 X-Mas Ale Verticle Tasting

Every year, (since way back in 2009 when I started home-brewing) SheppyBrew brewery brews an X-Mas Ale. Every year (since way back in 2009 when I started home-brewing) I get out a bottle of all the years' X-Mas ales and try them together. This year's vertical tasting was (appropriately enough) on December 25 (Christmas for those of you who don't know).

Yesterday, I poured an X-Mas Ale 2009, an X-Mas Ale 2010, an X-Mas Ale 2011, and, yes, an X-Mas Ale 2012 from the SheppyBrew brewery.

They are all relatively high in alcohol with a dark brown color and substantial body and head. Visually, it is amazing how close they are. 

I feel fine

Good thing it isn't a competition

I was dominated even worse this year than I was last year or the year before.

Sigh.

SheppyBrew Styles

I think the SheppyBrew Brewery has done a pretty good job of brewing a wide variety of beer styles. Recently, I decided to go through the BJCP categories and see which of those categories I have not brewed. As it turns out, of the 23 categories, I have brewed at least one all-grain batch in 12.

A little over half is pretty good considering I've only been brewing all-grain batches since Saturday, July 24, 2010 (see AG Brew day). I thought an interesting 2013 goal would be to brew up the style categories that I am missing. With 11 categories left, that is totally doable.

So, I have decided to give it a try. Once I have all the categories checked off, I may start looking at making sure I have all the sub-categories covered.

 Following is a list of the BJCP categories to give you an idea what I will brewing over the next year.

New Truth in Beervertising

Breckenridge Brewery put out another of its Truth in Beervertising videos, and I think it may be the best one yet.

You know how I feel about those absolutely awful mass-produced low-carb beers.

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.

Correction: 2012 Q3 SheppyBrew Stats

I was looking at my brew-stats spreadsheet and realized that I made a significant error on SheppyBrew's last quarterly report (2012 Q3 SheppyBrew Stats).

Rationalité Poison d'Ereeeek

I made that post thinking that the 3rd quarter ended at the end of August instead of the end of September. I prematurely reported.

Whacko Wife Pumpkin Brew Day

Saturday I mentioned that I was going to brew Whacko Wife Pumpkin Witbier Sunday. I didn't lie.

It has been awhile since my wife (aka the SheppyBrew Beer Model) killed the keg of Boo Berry Wheat, and we have not really had anything in the keggerator for her since then. We have bottles of stuff she can enjoy, but she likes being able to pour from a tap.

So, I knew I had to make something for the Beer Model.

In September and October, I had been thinking of brewing a pumpkin beer, but just never got around to it. My wife really targeted pumpkin beers at GABF, so I was pretty sure she would like a pumpkin beer. At one point I had a crazy thought about making Whisky Wife Wit with pumpkin. It was just crazy (whacky) enough to be a good idea.

I had to first convert WWW  to all-grain to use as a base beer. Then I just thought I would add pumpkin and appropriate spices to complete this new beer.

On Whacko Wife and other things SheppyBrew

I am not brewing today, but the SheppyBrew Brewery had a somewhat busy morning.

I made a yeast starter for Whacko Wife Pumpkin Witbier . I am brewing Whacko Wife tomorrow, so I probably should have made the starter sooner. Of course if you have been paying attention to my last few brews that used yeast starters, you realize this has become somewhat typical for me. It does seem to get the main fermentation started quicker.

Whacko Wife is interesting. It uses a base of Whisky Wife Wit, which is a beer that I have brewed before as a partial mash. Very recently, I converted that to an all-grain recipe, but I have not brewed the all-grain version of the base, yet. So, for this pumpkin beer, I am brewing the derivative fruit beer before the main beer has been brewed. Just sort of backwards. It will turn out fine. It is just sort of interesting.

I hit 100 Gallons

According to the spreadsheet on which I track this sort of thing, Sunday, I brewed my 21st batch of beer for the year. More significantly, BlackHawk Black brought my 2012 total to exactly 100 gallons of beer.

You may remember that last year I mentioned that I might hit 100 Gallons. Later, at the end of the year, I reported that I had come short and only reached 98 gallons for 2011.

This year, though, I hit the 100 gallons. I am planning on brewing at least one more batch, so my 2012 total will actually break the 100 gallon mark.