Puppy Monkey Baby (274)

Puppy. Monkey. Baby. PuppyMonkeyBaby.

There was an incredibly stupid commercial during Superbowl 50. (Go Broncos!)

Puppy. Monkey. Baby. PuppyMonkeyBaby.

The commercial was for some sort of weird Mountain Dew flavor. Not something I ever tried. I am fairly certain I'm not missing anything.

I keep a list of potential beer names on my phone, and for some reason, at some point (I assume during or shortly after the Superbowl), I added "Puppy Monkey Baby" to my list of names.

A couple weeks ago, I decided that my next beer would be a low alcohol American Blonde ale, and I as I was trying to decide on a name, "Puppy Monkey Baby" jumped out at me.

I honestly don't know why. It is a stupid beer name. But, it does amuse me. I guess that is reason enough to choose a name.

I brewed it last Sunday on my Anvil Foundry.

Puppy Monkey Baby Blonde Ale

Irregular Eric Double IPA (Batch 273)

Early in 2020 ... I started seeing a lot of traffic to my "Colorado 6 Pack" post on the blog, and I decided that it would be fun to take that list and homebrew batches that matched up with the list. 

See Sheppy's Blog: Homebrew Colorado 6 pack.

So far, from the "6 Pack" ... I've brewed:

• Stone Soup IDA (inspired by Tommyknocker's Hop Strike Black IPA)
• Foothills IPA (inspired by Odell IPA)
• Blackhawk Black (inspired by New Belgium's 1554)
• One Hundred Hoppy Brown Ale (inspired by Boulder Beer Company's Flashback India Brown Ale)

Next up, it was time for me brew something like Oskar Blue's Deviant Dale's IPA. 

Deviant Dale's doesn't exist anymore, but the idea was that it was essentially Dale's Pale Ale, only more. More hops. More malt. More ABV. More Body. More deliciousness. It was an 8% ABV, 85 IBU double IPA with lots of citrus, grapefruit rind and piney resins in the aroma and flavor.

I didn't really have a recipe that was close, so I designed one.

Irregular Eric's Double IPA

B is for Bierstadt Lagerhaus

If you follow my blog fairly regularly, you likely know that I began round 3 of my A to Z Denver Breweries Project with A is for Altitude Brewing & Supply.

If you follow the English alphabet, you likely realize that after "A" comes the letter "B".

And ... it doesn't take a huge leap of deductive reasoning to conclude that next up I would be trying to add a brewery that starts with the letter "B".

The Colorado Brewery List has quite a few "B" breweries in the Denver area. In fact, "B" looks to be the most common letter to start a brewery name with in the Denver area.

... Or maybe it is "C" ... I didn't actually count. 

Regardless, I had lots of  "B" breweries to pick from, but in my mind there was one logical choice.

B is for Bierstadt Lagerhaus

Honestly, it is a little crazy that I have not visited this brewery. I've enjoyed their beers on several occasions, but never made my way to the brewery.

Lithuanian Autumn vs. Falling Leaves

When I kegged Lithuanian Autumn Ale, and tasted the sample of the beer, I thought "Wow ... that really tastes a lot like Falling Leaves Autumn Saison".

A couple days later, on election day, I thought I'd run a blind triangle test on myself between these two beers.

Traveling Brew Checklist

 Remember in Lithuanian Autumn Ale (Batch 270), I mentioned that I actually spent the time to make a checklist to help remember what to bring along with me when I travel to other Home Breweries to brew.

Here is that List:

• 5 gallon BB P.E.T. Carboy with air lock and Star San. (x 2)
• Brew kettles and measuring stick. 
• Propane and burner
• Brew Bucket 
• Mash and Kettle hoses
• Mash paddle 
• Metal spoon
• Star San spray bottle
• Floating thermometer 
• Whirlfloc
• Fermcap
• Refractometer 
• Small bowl
• Mash tun
• Grains / hops / etc ...
• Wort chiller (if host doesn't have one for me to use)
• Beer

I think this is all I brought. I may add to this list if I come up with other things I may need.

Learn to Homebrew Day: X-Mas Ale 2020 (272)

Saturday was the AHA's Learn to Homebrew Day. The SheppyBrew Beer Model and I have made it tradition to brew together on that day every year.

Of course we both know how to homebrew, but Saturday was the first opportunity for the Beer Model to brew with the Anvil Foundry I recently purchased (see Bud Lite Lime (271) on the Anvil Foundry).

There are two main reasons that the idea of electric brewing was extremely attractive to me.

First: most of the electric units I know about allow the ability to set a timer to start heating water. This means you can get your water all ready the night before and have the strike water to temperature when you get up in the morning.

That way, you can start the mash process immediately when you get up. 

Both times I've used the Anvil Foundry, I've taken advantage of this feature, although when brewing with the Beer Model, we get started so late, it wasn't as big a deal for me.

A is for Altitude Brewing & Supply

Here we go! 

Round 3 of my A to Z Denver Breweries Project.

The SheppyBrew Beer Model and I finished A to Z Denver Breweries Round 2 with Z is for Zuni Street Brewing Company (again), and we're starting right over at the beginning of the alphabet.

As I mentioned in A to Z Denver Breweries Round 2, I have breweries for A through C picked out already.

In fact, the Beer Model and I biked to a "C" brewery last weekend.

You'll have to wait to see what that "C" brewery is, but I'll tell you right now what I picked for "A".

Big A. Little a. What begins with A?

A is for Altitude Brewing & Supply 

A. A. A.

Altitude Brewing & Supply is actually primarily a Denver Homebrew Shop, but they also have a little tap room area with a decent selection of beers.

Bud Lite Lime (271) on the Anvil Foundry

Well ... I got a new toy. A new piece of brewing equipment. 

I decided to enter the world of electric brewing with the Anvil Foundry.

If you looked closely at my pictures on Lithuanian Autumn Ale (Batch 270), you might have noticed I actually used it during that brew, but I only used it to heat strike water on that day.

So, what is the Anvil Foundry?

It is one of the many electric "all-in-one brewing systems" that have become popular over the past few years.

According to my friends at The Brew Hut (my local home brew shop) ... the Anvil Foundry is extremely popular, they told me it is their favorite "all-in-one brewing system". It is not as pricey as most of the similar systems, and seems to get great reviews.

A to Z Denver Breweries Round 2

I made it through round 2 of my A to Z Denver Breweries Project. Hooray for me!

What is the A to Z Denver Breweries Project? 

Well... Back in February of 2015, I was embarrassed by the huge number of Denver Breweries that I had never visited.

It struck me that if I went down the list, the starting letters of the brewery names represented almost every letter of the alphabet. That was when I started my A to Z Denver Breweries Project on this blog.

In some cases, I couldn't find breweries that started with whatever letter I was on, so I took some artistic license, but every letter was represented. Twice.

Round 1 started in March of 2015 and ended in January of 2019. That's almost 4 years. 0.55 breweries per month.

I made it through Round 2 much quicker. It started in February of 2019 and ended earlier this month with Z is for Zuni Street Brewing Company (again). Less than two years. 1.32 breweries per month.

Groovy Guy Gifts: Viking Beer Horn

As I mentioned in Groovy Guy Gifts: Louisville Chugger ... my buddy "Joe" recently sent me a couple of items from the Groovy Guy Gifts website. 

In addition to the Louisville Chugger, he kindly sent me a Viking Beer Horn.

I thought the  Viking Vessel looked completely bad-ass. Really really cool looking. 

Lithuanian Autumn Ale (Batch 270)

If you've been following the blog over the past few months, you may remember that I've been playing with a Lithuanian Farmhouse yeast that I was able to harvest from a local brewery.

The awesome thing about this yeast is that it ferments fairly clean beers when fermented in the 80's and 90's Fahrenheit. 

I've brewed Sveikas Lithuanian Farmhouse Ale, Lithuanian Lovin' Wheat and Lithuanian Strong Pale Ale in the heat of the summer.

But, Denver weather has been cooling down. I still have some harvested Lithuanian Farmhouse yeast. I thought it would be interesting to see how the yeast performed in Autumn weather.

And, so I designed an Autumn Ale recipe ...

Lithuanian Autumn Ale

Z is for Zuni Street Brewing Company (again)

Ok. Yes. 

I already did Z is for Zuni Street Brewing Company.

After Y is for Over Yonder Brewing Company, the Beer Model and were thinking about "Z" breweries last weekend.

As far as I know ... there are not any breweries in the Denver area that start with the letter "Z" other than Zuni Street Brewing Company.

There are a couple breweries that have the letter Z in their name, but Saturday was such a beautiful day, we thought we should take a bike ride. 

I didn't think she would like the busy roads we'd have to ride on to get to those.

Zuni Street Brewing Company is a fairly convenient location for bicycling. From our house, we can get within a mile or two on bike paths and the rest of the way on bike-friendly city roads.

Last time I went to Zuni Street Brewing Company without the Beer Model, and she convinced me that we should be able to use it as our "Z" brewery again because she had never been.

Well ... ok. 

Z is for Zuni Street Brewing Company

Groovy Guy Gifts: Louisville Chugger

 Do you remember Groovy Guy Gifts? Groovy Guy Gifts from Groovy Guy Gifts: Big Slug Mug?

Joe at Groovy Guy Gifts got back in touch wondering if I'd be interested in to try out anything else from the Groovy Guy Gifts website.

I responded, "Yes, I would be interested".

He mentioned that the site was promoting:

• Viking Vessel
• Brew Bearer
• Gunmetal Mug 
• Bro'ster Holster
• Louisville Chugger

2020 Falling Leaves Autumn Saison (Batch 269)

It is autumn. 

The weather is getting cooler and the leaves are beginning to fall.

... and you know what that means .... right?

Time to brew my Falling Leaves Autumn Saison.

Falling Leaves is, of course, the Autumn version of my Seasonal Saisons series of beers. It is darker in color than the Spring and Summer Saisons, but not as dark as the black Winter Saison.

Last Sunday, I did. I brewed it. I brewed the SheppyBrew Autumn Saison.

Obviously, I brew a lot of saisons. There isn't any question that I brew more saisons than any other style of beer. 

One Hundred Hoppy Brown Ale vs Flashback India Brown Ale

So ... if you've been paying attention ... you know that fairly recently I brewed the 4th beer in my Homebrew Colorado 6 pack.

See One Hundred Hoppy Brown Ale (266).

Y is for Over Yonder Brewing Company

As you know if you follow this blog, I am in the process of working my way through local breweries alphabetically.

If you don't know what I'm talking about, take a look at Sheppy's Blog: A to Z ... and I think you'll get the idea.

After the complete debacle of X is for Mad Jack's [JaX] Mountain Brewery, I thought I should redeem myself fairly quickly with a "Y" brewery.

Even though it wasn't my fault. That was all the Beer Model's doing.

Luckily, she's extremely attractive, and so people are able to overlook these sort of things.

This past Saturday, we went on a hike in the foothills over Golden, Colorado. After the hike, we stopped by Golden's 

Y is for Over Yonder Brewing Company.

2020 Q3 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.

On Your Left

Just like Q1 and Q2 we brewed a bunch in Q3, and I am on pace to brew over 150 gallons in 2020 ... significantly more beer than any year in the past. 

In the third quarter, I had 8 brew days, 9 batches, 47 gallons of beer.

#GCCUSA 1000 Miles

I did it. I cycled over 1000 miles over the month of September for the Great Cycle Challenge, and thanks to several generous donors, I raised over $3100 to help fight Childhood Cancer.

It certainly wasn't easy, but I knew I could ride over 1000 miles in 30 days because I did it last year.

X is for Mad Jack's [JaX] Mountain Brewery

Before I go too far .... I'm just going to say ... this was completely the SheppyBrew Beer Model's idea.

I agreed because ... well ... you know ... Happy Wife. Happy Life.

Blame her. Not me.

We didn't have any local "X" breweries. 

Even last time around, we cheated (errr ... I mean we took artistic liberties) with X is for WestFaX Brewing Company.

The SheppyBrew Beer Model suggested we head over to Bailey, Colorado and use Mad Jack's Mountain Brewery as our "X" brewery.

What?

2020 Will-o'-Wisp Pumpkin Ale (batch 268)

The SheppyBrew Beer Model (aka my wife) brewed this weekend.

Really, she did.

I helped, but she was the Brew Master Sunday. In fact, I had to leave right when the boil started, so for a significant portion of the brew day, she was the only brewer.

Every Autumn since 2014, SheppyBrew has brewed a pumpkin spice ale, "Will-o'-Wisp Pumpkin Ale".

The base beer is an awesome Autumn Ale, and we basically flavor it with a pumpkin pie spice tincture.

I wouldn't brew it if the SheppyBrew Beer Model didn't like pumpkin spice beers, but you know what they say ... Happy Wife - Happy Life.

Anyway, Sunday we brewed it. 

As with all brew days that the Beer Model participates in, we got started later than my usual start time.