Brisket Flat

I cannot tell a lie. I. Love. Brisket. 

I love cooking it. I love eating it. I even love having left-overs. It is GUUUD!

For quite awhile during the whole Covid Shelter in Place reality, it was difficult to get brisket. Then, you could get it, but it was too expensive for me to want to buy.

Recently, it has become more available and much less expensive.

My wife was going to Sam's Club a week or two ago and asked if I wanted her to pick up anything.

Sveikas Lithuanian Farmhouse (262)

If you follow the SheppyBrew Facebook or Instagram pages ... you may have seen that I was able to pick up some yeast from Great Frontier Brewing Company.

Great Frontier makes a beer called "Lithuanian Farmhouse Ale". 

It is my favorite beer they make, and I was interacting with the brewer / owner on facebook. He offered to pull some yeast from one of his tanks and let me play with it.

Of course, I didn't need to be asked twice. 

I stopped by the brewery and as promised, he got me a mason jar full of the Lithuanian Farmhouse yeast.

The yeast apparently comes from a local Denver yeast lab, but isn't something they offer to just anyone.

I'm told they literally collected it from a farmhouse in Lithuania. 

This Lithuanian Farmhouse yeast is similar to Kveik strains in that it ferments real hot (80's / 90's / 100's) and finishes in 2 or 3 days. Even at these ridiculous hot fermentation temperatures, it ferments (fairly) clean.

Barbecue Sauce Recipe

If you follow this blog ... especially the BBQ posts, you might have figured out that I make my own BBQ Sauce.

This past weekend, I made some pulled pork for my son's graduation party. Along with that, I made my BBQ Sauce.

A bunch of people said they really liked it and a few said they'd like the recipe.

I sort of have a recipe. I don't really follow the recipe. But, I thought I'd publish a starting point.

July Progress on #5000MilesIn2020

If you follow this blog fairly regularly, you might remember that I've made it a goal to ride 5000 miles in 2020.

If you don't know what I'm talking about ... you can catch up by checking out Sheppy's Blog: #5000MilesIn2020.

Now that July is complete, I thought I'd give another quick update.

As you may remember from June Progress on #5000MilesIn2020, my July goal was to ride 700 miles.

T is for Two22 Brew

As I mentioned in T is for ... Time Out, my A to Z Denver Brewery Project has been on hold due to the Covid-19 pandemic protocols.

I published S is for Station 26 Brewing Company at the beginning of March. Since then, we've been buying beer to-go from breweries, but not really going to breweries to drink.

Until that point I had been flying through my 2nd time through the alphabet. 

After that point ... not at all.

But ... breweries have been opening up some lately, and this past Saturday, I thought I'd check out the "T" brewery I've been targeting. 

We took a bike ride to ...

T is for Two22 Brew

More on the Jaded Hydra Chiller

As you may remember if you've read any of my recent brewing articles on this blog ... I recently purchased:

The Hydra - World's Fastest Immersion Wort Chiller

T.Ra.Sh. Light Mexican Lager (batch 261)

It was only a couple months ago that I brewed T.Ra.Sh. Light Mexican Lager (see T.Ra.Sh. Light Mexican Lager (batch 256))

We might be seeing some of the T.Ra.Sh family towards the beginning of August, so I thought I'd brew it again.

It is a nice clean golden beer with just enough hops to balance out the malt sweetness and give a little herbal noble flavor in the finish.

Great simple lager beer.

I'll have to turn this beer around quicker than a "traditional" lager process, but I actually don't usually follow traditional lager processes anyway.

Still ... this may be quickest I've ever brewed a lager grain-to-glass.

We'll have to see how it goes ...

Anyway, Sunday was brew day for me.

T.Ra.Sh. Light Mexican Lager

Blackhawk Black vs. New Belgium 1554

A little over a month ago, I brewed SheppyBrew Blackhawk Black as the third beer in my Homebrew Colorado 6 pack.

This is the 5th time I've brewed this recipe. The recipe has been tweeked quite a bit over the years, but I think the spirit of the beer has remained the same.

It was never meant to be an actual clone, but the beer that inspired me to brew it was New Belgium's 1554.

I don't think I've ever tasted it side-by-side to 1554 ... until this batch. I was assuming the two beers would be significantly different.

I kegged this batch on 6/24, and it was ready to drink by early July.

Jaded Hydra Chiller

So ... I mentioned in my last 2 brew days (see 2019 Hail Storm Summer Saison (batch 259) and On Your Left (batch 260)) ... I've recently purchased a new brewing toy ...

The Hydra - World's Fastest Immersion Wort Chiller

On Your Left (batch 260)

If you follow SheppyBrew on the blog or facebook or instagram, you probably realize that the Brew Master (aka me) has really done a lot of cycling over the past few years.

In fact, my goal in 2020 is to log 5000 miles on the bike, and at this time am well ahead of accomplishing the goal. See Sheppy's Blog: #5000MilesIn2020.

While out on the bike, several times a day, I will announce himself to slower riders and pedestrians with "On Your Left". At some point I thought ... "that would make a good beer name".

I thought the low alcohol of the Ordinary Bitter style of beer would be appropriate for a cycling themed beer, but I didn't want to just make an English bitter.

I decided to add Golden Naked Oats and keep the color on the lighter side of the style. I also decided to add more of an American hop flavor, using Galena hops.

Check out the recipe:

On Your Left

Keg Kooler

So ... for my birthday this year, my lovely wife (aka the SheppyBrew Beer Model), bought me a Pancho's Keg Kooler.

It is sort of a portable kegerator for homebrew.

Really, it is a 20 gallon round cooler with a tap and beer line attached.

It is a perfect fit for a corny keg and a 2.5 pound CO2 canister.

With a little ice ... voila ... bring your homebrew anywhere.

Awesome!

With the whole COVID SIP situation this year, I have not used this Keg Kooler as much as I thought I would.

2020 Q2 SheppyBrew Stats

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: Sheppy's Blog: Brew Stats.

And ... believe it or not ... the 2nd quarter of 2020 is done. Finished. Complete.

Colorado Strong

As I type this, I'm drinking SheppyBrew's Colorado Strong Pale Ale.

The recipe was based on the beer that Left Hand's Brewing Foundation came up with to help raise money for the Colorado Strong Fund.

Many breweries across Colorado have brewed their own versions, donating a certain percentage of the sales to the fund.

They all start off with the recipe and basic ingredients. They are free to modify the recipe to make it their own, but the basic recipe is similar across all the breweries.

As part of my civic duty to support local businesses, I have been picking up quite a few to-go crowlers from local breweries, and I've been searching out the various versions of this beer.

June Progress on #5000MilesIn2020

It's July. If not for the whole COVID situation, I would have ended my Great Cycle Challenge yesterday.

But, with the whole COVID pandemic a reality ... the Great Cycle Challenge has been postponed until September.

I would have had a goal of 1000 miles.

I still cycled quite a bit in June, as I still am trying to log #5000MilesIn2020, but not as much as I would have.

2020 Hail Storm Summer Saison (batch 259)

Summer Saison Time. Last Sunday, I brewed SheppyBrew's Hail Storm Summer Saison.

This is the 7th time I've brewed the Hail Storm Summer Saison.

Has it really been that long? I must really like saisons. I must really like the WY3711 yeast.

Yes. Yes I do.

I also had a pork shoulder in my freezer left over from a Sam's Club two pack. I decided to make that Sunday too.

I was up a little after 4AM to get started on the pork butt.

It was a little smaller than last time, but it also was not completely thawed, so I got started pretty early.

Father's Day Weekend 2020

Quite often, we go camping on Fathers' Day weekend.

I think that is because the father in the household really likes camping and gets sad that we don't do it as much as he would like.

This past weekend was Fathers' Day. And, we went camping.

This year, we went to a campground at Turquois Lake, which is just West of Leadville, Colorado.

It was very nice.

I took a couple days off work so we could make it a 4-day weekend and camp three nights.

Anvil Cooling to Lager Temperatures

I've been brewing quite a bit lately. 2020 is easily on pace to be my biggest brew year ever.

Cool.

That doesn't have anything to do with this post. But, I thought I'd mention it. Not sure why.

Anyhoo ...

Remember Latest on my Anvil Cooling System?

I made a couple of small modifications to my process of temperature control. Basically, I went back to pumping cold water through my Anvil Cooling System to maintain low fermentation temperature.

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.

Update on Foothills IPA vs Odell IPA

Well ... my Foothills India Pale Ale is almost gone.

It didn't last very long. It is so delicious, and Shelter-in-Place means I am drinking beer.

Well ... I drank beer before Shelter-in-Place so I probably can't blame SIP.

But, anyhoo ....

As I'm sure you remember, Foothills IPA is designed to be similar to Odell Brewing Company's IPA, and I used the AHA Odell IPA Clone recipe as the base.

Thus, it makes sense that I would compare Foothills IPA to the Odell Brewing Company's IPA.

A couple of weeks ago, I did the comparison ... see Foothills IPA vs Odell IPA.

Colorado Strong Pale Ale (Batch 257)

With all the Covid-19 Shelter-in-Place and Safer-at-Home directives, the small local businesses all struggled to stay in business.

Colorado craft breweries obviously were affected.

Left Hand's Brewing Foundation came up with a fund raising idea to try to help local breweries ... The Colorado Strong Fund.

Basically, they came up with a recipe and bought ingredients for breweries to brew it. Several of the local breweries I visit signed up.

Seeing this, I asked if I could get a homebrew recipe, and the answer was "yes". I made a donation to the fund, and they sent me the recipe.

The recipe they sent included locally produced malts, hops, and yeast.

Of course, I made a few minor modifications, but for the most part stayed as true to the recipe as I could.

Because the idea is to raise a little money, I am not posting my recipe on the SheppyBrew Website yet ... but there is still a "recipe page" here ...

Colorado Strong Pale Ale