Pecan Smoked Potatoes Au Gratin

We received a Honey Baked Ham as a gift this year.

My kids had already told me that they wanted Ham for Christmas dinner, and I decided to just heat up the gift ham.

The ham came with various sides, some of which we prepared with Christmas dinner, but my wife told me she wanted "real" Au Gratin Potatoes.

So ... I made some.

As I rarely cook inside, I decided to cook my Au Gratin Potatoes on one of my Weber Kettles with a little Pecan wood to add a little smoke flavor.

As far as I remember, this is the first time I've ever made Au Gratin Potatoes. I googled recipes and decided to use one I found on All Recipes as a starting point.

Soapy Mole

My wife has this box of recipes, and one of the cards in this box is labeled "Sopa & Mole".

It is an old family recipe from a grandmother or great-grandmother or something. One of those that my wife had to write down by interrogating her mom, because it actually was never written down.

It's sort of been a tradition to have this on Christmas Eve when my in-laws are in town for the holidays.

I love it. One of my favorite meals. I usually refer to it as "Soapy Sheep" or "Soapy Mole". Weird, I know.

This year, for reasons I won't go into, I cooked for Christmas Eve and decided to try it out ... sort of.

You know me and the trouble I have following recipes ... luckily, it isn't a real precise recipe anyway, so I feel like it is sort of expected that you take liberties with it.

Kombucha

Until recently, it had been quite awhile since I've made any Kombucha.

In fact, I neglected my SCOBY  last year, and let it die. I have not made any since then.

A month or two ago, I tried propagating up SCOBY from commercial kombucha, but that never ended up growing.

So, I went the lazy-man way and simply ordered one from Amazon.

On 11/13, I brewed up a batch of Green Tea kombucha for the SCOBY to start working on.

The process is really simple.

• Dissolve 1 cup of sugar into water.
• Steep tea in the water.
• Add to a gallon jar, cooled with ice / water.
• Put in the SCOBY with a little "starter" to keep the pH down.
• Let the kombucha ferment for a few weeks.
• Bottle with whatever flavoring you would like.

Decemberfest Lager (Batch 303) and Pork Butt

I brewed my 303rd batch of beer this past weekend.

It was my 27th batch of beer in 2021, and my 29th brewed in my Anvil Foundry.

It might be my last batch of the year.

Or ... it might not. We'll have to see.

Regardless, this will be my 2nd most volume of beer brewed, behind only the ridiculous amount of beer I brewed in 2020.

I feel like I say this a lot ... but it blows my mind that 2021 is already almost over. I don't feel like I'm ready for a new year yet.

Anyway ... the recipe I brewed this past Sunday was ...

Decemberfest Lager

This is the 2nd time brewing this recipe, although this time I substituted the Vienna malt with some from local maltster Colorado's Root Shoot Malting.

The Root Shoot Vienna malt lists its color as 6 Lovibond vs the 3.5 Lovibond Vienna malt I usually use, so this batch is likely to be a couple of shades darker than last year's version. 

Caliente Fuerte Mexican Stout vs. Copper Kettle Mexican Chocolate Stout

Remember Caliente Fuerte Mexican Stout? It was my Homebrew 6 Pack Project beer inspired by Copper Kettle Mexican Chocolate Stout.

I brewed it on Halloween (see Caliente Fuerte Mexican Stout (Batch 300)). I kegged it around 3 weeks later.

Since then, I've carbonated and been drinking it.

The design (see Designing Caliente Fuerte Mexican Stout) was intended to be chocolatey with a bit of heat from cinnamon and Ancho and Cayenne Chile powder.

I purposely took it easy on the spices. 

As it turns out, I was too easy on the spices. It is nice, rich and chocolatey, but the cinnamon barely comes through and the peppers not at all.

R is for Raices Brewing Company

It was only a few days ago that I posted Q is for barQuentine Brewing Company.

If you've been following my A to Z Denver Breweries series of blog posts, you know that next up, I needed an "R" brewery.

As a reminder ...

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.

And ... as I mentioned in Q is for barQuentine Brewing Company, I had an "R" brewery in mind.

R is for Raices Brewing Company

X-Mas Ale 2021 (Batch 302)

It blows my mind that we're already in December and so Christmas is just around the corner.

This also means that it is time to get the Annual SheppyBrew X-Mas Ale made.

Actually ... it is sort of late to get the X-Mas Ale brewed. I usually like to be drinking it by Thanksgiving.

Last year, I had the X-Mas Ale brewed on Learn to Homebrew Day, which is the first weekend in November.

For various reasons ... I didn't get around to brewing the 2021 version until this past weekend, about a month later than last year's version.

I even considered not making an X-Mas Ale this year, but eventually, my desire to maintain the tradition overroad my laziness. It might be ready later in the year, but ... Oh Well ...

X-Mas Ale 2021

Country Style Ribs

Last weekend I made some more Country Style Pork Ribs.

I'm still not sure why they are called "Ribs". 

I do make them similar to how I do spare ribs .. 

• Apply rub. 
• Smoke for a couple or three hours. 
• Wrap for a couple more hours.
• Remove from wrap and finish off with BBQ Sauce. 
• Serve and Enjoy.

They turn out delicious.

This time, I used the Vortex to hold the charcoal, but other than that, exactly the same as last time. 

Yummy!

Q is for barQuentine Brewing Company

If you're following along, you know that I recently posted P is for Prost Brewing Company.

You are probably familiar enough with the English alphabet to know that after "P" comes "Q".

Q is tough for my A to Z Denver Breweries series of blog posts.

In round 1, I wasn't able to find and "Q" breweries in the Denver area, but I was able to use a Meadery with Q is for Queen Bee Brews.

In round 2, I still couldn't come up with any "Q" breweries, so I had to take "artistic license" with Q is for LiQuid Mechanics Brewing Company.

Here it is ... round 3 ... as far as I know, there are still no breweries in the Denver that start with the letter "Q".

So, once again, just like last time ... I had to take "artistic license" to come up with a "Q" brewery.

Q is for BarQuentine Brewing Company

2021 Thanksgiving Turkey

This past Thursday (yesterday) was Thanksgiving.

The Sheppy Family generally eats turkey on Thanksgiving. 

Weird ... right? (no not really)

Since 2018 ... I've been in charge of cooking the turkey (see Cherry Wood Smoked Thanksgiving Turkey).

It generally turns out better smoking it on the grill than in the oven. Plus, it is one less thing we have to juggle the plans around what gets cooked in the oven.

Plus, I really enjoy doing it.

So ... 2021 Thanksgiving was my forth time smoking the Thanksgiving turkey.

YUM!

At some point, my wife picked up a 14 pound frozen turkey from our local King Sooper. The kind that is always on sale this time of year.

300,000 feet in 2021

According to Strava, over the weekend, I passed 300,000 feet climbed on my bikes this year.

#10EverestsIn2021

300,000 feet was my yearly goal for 2021. I still have over a month of cycling to go before the end of the year, but with the cold weather, I probably won't do a whole lot of climbing in the next month.

As I mentioned when I first mentioned the goal, to get to 300,000 feet in the year, I was going to have to average 822 feet climbed every day. 

That is quite a bit. As of today, I've averaged 928 feet per day, which is even more. This is certainly the most climbing I've done in my life.

For what it is worth, I've also cycled more miles this year than last year, which makes this the highest number of miles I've ever ridden in a year. 

Not bad for an old couch potato.

I'm not sure what cycling goals I'll have for next year. We'll see what I come up with.

Stay tuned and you can find out ... Sheppy's Blog: Biking

P is for Prost Brewing Company

2021 started out pretty slow for my A to Z Denver Breweries series of blog posts.

It was December of last year that I posted C is for Cerveceria Colorado.

Mostly due to covid guidance, it wasn't until May until I posted D is for Dead Hippie Brewing.

I got in E is for Evergreen Brewery a couple weeks later.

Then, it was another couple months before I posted F is for Fiction Beer Company.

After that, though the SheppyBrew Beer Model (aka my wife) and I have been speeding through the alphabet. We seem to be making pretty good progress.

We got from "F" to O is for Oasis Brewery pretty quickly. 

Now ... as you can imagine if you've been paying attention ... it is time for a "P" brewery. As I mentioned, I had a brewery in mind.

Big P Little P what begins with P?

P is for Prost Brewing Company

Mr. Awesome vs. Mountain Time

As you may remember if you follow this blog ... not too long ago I brewed Mr. Awesome Merican Lager (Batch 300).

This is my first recipe that I've called an American Lager style of beer. 

I was inspired by New Belgium's Mountain Time Premium Lager, which has become a favorite local commercial beer for the Beer Model and myself over the summer.

I kegged a couple of weeks ago. I added gelatin a couple days later, and it has been carbonating since then.

I poured some a couple days ago and noticed its carbonation and clarity was about perfect. Not to mention it was delicious.

I had some Mountain Time in the fridge and thought it would be fun to compare the two beers.

So, I did.

Learn to Homebrew Day: Dudocs English Mild (301)

This past Saturday was the AHA's Learn to Homebrew Day.

This year, my friend "Doc" decided he wanted to host a brew day, so I packed up my equipment and traveled to his brewery.

The recipe that I designed for this brew day, was Dudocs English Mild.

It is a pretty simple English Mild recipe fermented with Lallemand Voss Kveik Ale Yeast.

It should be an easy drinking flavorful dark, malty session beer. I'm looking forward to trying it out.

As usual, I started the mash at home and let the amylase enzyme do their thing while I was driving.

This way, when I got to Doc's I just had to drain the wort into the kettle and start heating to boil.

10th Everest of 2021

According to Strava, I've climbed 291,913 feet on my bikes this year. This means I passed up my 10th Everest in my #10Everestsin2021 goal.

Mission accomplished. Sort of.

For my official Strava climbing goal, I rounded up to 300,000 feet. (see #10Everestsin2021), so I still have some climbing to do over the next couple months.

With shorter days, especially with the end of daylight savings time, I'll have less time to bike outside, so I'll probably slow down.

Even so, another 8,000 feet should be easy to accomplish.

I'll probably let you know when I pass up 300,000 feet. Follow Sheppy's Blog: #10Everestsin2021 to see.

Go Bears!

O is for Oasis Brewery

It is somewhat amazing that I'm already over halfway through my 3rd round of the A to Z Denver Breweries series of blog posts.

As a reminder ...

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.

I finished my first round in February of 2019 with A to Z Denver Breweries.

I finished round 2 in November of 2020 with  A to Z Denver Breweries Round 2. 

Now, I'm up to "O" in round 3. As I mentioned in N is for Novel Strand Brewing Company, we had actually visited our "O" brewery already. I just had to write and publish this post.

O is for Oasis Brewery

Caliente Fuerte Mexican Stout (Batch 300)

When I bought my Anvil Foundry ... there were two main reasons I thought I would like electric brewing. 

The first thing is something I take advantage of quite a bit ... I can set a timer on the Foundry to start heating strike water while I'm sleeping so that I can start brewing right when I get up in the morning.

The other big thing is that the electric boil doesn't get affected by a windy day as much as my propane burner.

As I've brewed with the Foundry, there are two disadvantages I've found over my old mash tun / propane burner system.

The first disadvantage isn't that big of a deal to me, but especially for bigger ABV brews, my mash efficiency isn't as good as it was with the "older" method.

The second disadvantage is that it takes much longer to get from mash temperature to boiling. Generally, it takes about 45 minutes to get from 155 degrees to 200, which is boiling for me at my high-altitude.

N is for Novel Strand Brewing Company

It has been awhile since we biked to M is for Mountain Toad Brewing.

I actually don't think the Beer Model had been on her bike at all since Mountain Toad.

But this past weekend, we decided to continue our exploration of A to Z Denver Breweries.

As I mentioned in M is for Mountain Toad Brewing, there was really only one logical choice for our "N" brewery.

I'd actually ridden my bike by this brewery a couple times on my various biking journeys.

It is a nice ride from our Home Brewery along bike paths to ...

N is for Novel Strand Brewing Company 

Rocktoberfest vs. Odell's Oktoberfest

In Mid-September, I brewed  Rocktoberfest Lager (Batch 296). It was the 7th time I've brewed this beer, although I had not brewed it since 2018 before this batch.

I have a few cans of Odell Brewing Company's Oktoberfest Marzen Style Lagers in my beer fridge and thought I'd do a quick comparison. 

Stylistically, my Rocktoberfest Lager design is right in the middle of Style Guidelines for OG and Color. 

It's actually on the low end for ABV. It's on the high end for bitterness.

Mr. Awesome Merican Lager (Batch 300)

If you were paying attention to the SheppyBrew Instagram Feed, you know that I brewed this past Sunday.

This was my 23rd batch of beer of 2021, and my 9th lager of the year.

It was the 28th batch that I've brewed on the Anvil Foundry.

It was my 299th batch of beer that I've brewed since I started this whole homebrew thing way back in 2009.

My past few batches have been very Autumn themed.

Rocktoberfest Lager (Batch 296)

Will-o'-Wisp Pumpkin Ale (Batch 297)

Falling Leaves Autumn Saison (batch 298)

I thought it was time to brew something lighter and drinkable. I decided to brew an American-style lager.

Mr. Awesome Merican Lager