My 4th of #10Everestsin2022

As of today, I've climbed 118,625 feet on my bikes this year. Over 4 times the elevation of Mount Everest.

The peak of Mount Everest is 29,032 feet above sea level. 4 x 29,032 = 116,128. So, 118,625 feet is 4.02 Everests.

My goal in 2022 is to climb 10 Everests, 290,320 feet. Today, I'm ahead of  "schedule" ... just barely.

Y is for Wild Blue Yonder Brewing Company

We're almost done with round 3 of the A to Z Denver Breweries series of posts.

Since mid - April, we've done V is for Vision Quest Brewing Company, W is for Wah Gwaan Brewing Company, and X is for Bruz Off FaX.

After "X" comes "Y", so obviously we needed to come up with a "Y" brewery.

In round 1, we went to Y is for Yak and Yeti Restaurant and Brewpub.

In round 2, we used Y is for Over Yonder Brewing Company.

As I mentioned in X is for Bruz Off FaX. we wouldn't be traveling to the Yampa Valley to check off the "Y" brewery. So, we'll have to take a little artistic license again.

The SheppyBrew Beer Model scanned the Colorado Brewery List, and came up with a few possibilities. When it came right down to it, there was only 1 real choice ...

Y is for Wild Blue Yonder Brewing Company

Chuck Roast in the Snow

Chuck Roast is something I end up smoking quite a bit.

Ever since Chuck Roast on Weber Kettle and Crock-pot ... way back in late 2019, my process in cooking Chuck Roast is to smoke it for 3 or 4 hours, and then put it in the crock pot for the rest of the day.

This allows me to get done with the smoking early in the day. When the chuck is in the crock pot, I don't have to pay attention to it.

So ... I can spend the part of the day when the rest of my family is up doing something else.

It works out great. At some point I may try the same process with a pork butt.

Anyway ... as I mentioned in a couple of posts recently, the Denver area got a bunch of snow Friday night into Saturday. I cleared out the snow to get a chuck roast on the kettle.

Catching up on #5000MilesIn2022

So ... 

Today is the 22nd of May. 

If you've been following my updates on my #5000MilesIn2022 goal, you know that my Strava mileage goal is 5,000 miles.

You also know that so far this year, I've been behind plan. As of the beginning of this month I was 30 miles behind plan.

To reach 5,000 miles, I need to average 12.7 miles per day. If I'm counting right, today is the 142nd day of the year.

To be "on plan" for my goal, I should be at 1945 miles today.

Manitou Incline

On May 19, 2022, Alexa told me that the temperature out side my home was 89 degrees.

Today is the 20th and I'm watching it snow. The high temperature was 39.

50 degree drop overnight. Awesome. 

We are going to get a significant amount of snow. One of the things I love about living in Colorado is these late spring snow storms ... but still ... this is crazy.

Anyway ... today I climbed the Manitou Incline.

The Manitou Incline is a popular but strenuous hike up 2744 steps over around .87 miles and climbing over 2000 vertical feet. The average grade is over 45% and the maximum is 68%.

It is a difficult hike.

Mothers' Day Kettles

This past Sunday was Mothers' Day.

My wife's parents were visiting so we had two mothers in the house.

My older son also came home from college.

The two mothers decided they wanted grilled ribeye steaks for their dinner, which at our house means I had to cook.

As I generally reverse-sear my steaks, the 6 ribeyes fit just perfectly around my vortex on the 26 inch kettle.

In order to get sides done, I needed to pull out both of my Weber Kettles, and do the sides on my 22 inch.

The main side I made was the dish I made for Easter, Pecan Smoked Potatoes Au Gratin. I also grilled some corn.

SheppyBrew Beer Names

So ... one of my favorite homebrew podcasts is the The Brülosophy Podcast.

One of their recent episodes ... Episode 232 | exBEERience: Naming Beers ... got me thinking about how I go about naming beers.

Apparently, not all homebrewers name all their beers, but I certainly do. Some of these names only make sense to me, but they all have at least some thought put them.

So ... what are some of the themes in my beer names?

Sports teams

Lots of my beers are named for my favorite sports teams ... lead, of course, by the Chicago Blackhawks.

Blackhawk Black Ale is pretty obvious. Tommy Hawk APA is named after the Blackhawks' mascot. Chelsea Dagger Pre-Prohibition Lager celebrates the Blackhawks with the song that plays after each of their goals. 

I've also celebrated the Cubs' world series with Cubs Win! Munich Dunkel. And the Colorado Rockies making it to the world series with Rocktoberfest Lager.

I even named a beer based on my hatred of a football team: Pats Disliker New England Pale Ale.

Mid-week Pork Butt

It is rare that I get to cook during the work-week. Even more rare to do a long BBQ / Smoke.

Due to the covid shutdowns, I now work at home, so there is really no reason not to do long cooks like Pork Butt and Brisket. We just mostly think of those as weekend meals.

Anyway ...

This past week, my nephew, AKD Bluefield (my sister's son), was on a post-college road-trip with 3 of his friends and stayed with us a couple of nights.

My wife worked on Tuesday, and we thought we should feed AKD and his friends. I decided to smoke a pork butt for dinner so she wouldn't have get home and try to get something cooked for a larger-than-normal group.

Colorado Vienna Lager (Batch 310)

Remember that in my post "Disappearing Beer" I shared that I didn't get to drink most of my first batch of Colorado Vienna Lager?

Heck ... I didn't even get to check it in on Untappd! (Yes, I check in most of my homebrewed beers on Untappd).

I've been wanting to brew Colorado Vienna Lager again so I could enjoy more of the beer.

Friday, I got the Root Shoot malts at my favorite homebrew shop, so that I could brew it on the weekend.

On Saturday, I prepared my water and set the timer to heat up while I was sleeping. I got up early Sunday to brew ...

 Colorado Vienna Lager

X is for Bruz Off FaX

Last week I posted W is for Wah Gwaan Brewing Company.

If you've been following along on the A to Z Denver Breweries series of posts, and are familiar with the English alphabet, you know that it is time for us to post about an "X" brewery.

Well ... according to the Colorado Brewery List ... there are no breweries in Colorado which start with the letter X.

In round 1, we took artistic license with X is for WestFaX Brewing Company.

In round 2, we shamelessly cheated with X is for Mad Jack's [JaX] Mountain Brewery.

This past Saturday, the SheppyBrew Beer Model and I had to take artistic license again with ...

X is for Bruz Off FaX

Biking update ...

Today is May 1st.

Last year by May 1st, I'd ridden 1,689 miles and climbed 104,466 feet on my bikes.

This year, I'm still behind last year, but I think I'm catching up. So far this year, I've ridden 1,627 miles and climbed 88,448.

Last time I reported my cycling numbers, I was 108 behind "plan" to reach #5000MilesIn2022. Now I'm only 30 miles behind plan.

I was 8,327 feet behind plan to get to #10EverestsIn2022. Now, I'm 7,795 feet behind.

Pulled Pork Shepard's Pie

Remember a few weeks ago I made Brisket Shepard's Pie? It turned out awesome.

At the time I mentioned that I would probably like to try a pulled pork Shepard's pie at some point too.

Well ... I had some frozen left over pork butt in my freezer that I decided to put into Shepard's Pie this past weekend.

W is for Wah Gwaan Brewing Company

Can you believe we're already at "W" in round 3 of our A to Z Denver Breweries series of posts?

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 Round 1 in February of 2019.

At that point, I started back at A, and got through round 2 by November of 2020.

And ... now here we are at "W" of round 3.

As I mentioned in V is for Vision Quest Brewing Company, we actually had quite a few "W" breweries to choose from.

Saturday, we picked one ...

W is for Wah Gwaan Brewing Company

Easter Ham

As I mentioned in Easter Saturday Ribeye Roast, I made the mistake of asking my kid what he wanted for Easter dinner.

His answer was "Ham".

I guess the good news is that I've cooked enough "Double Smoked" Hams over the years that I've pretty much have it down.

Basically I follow the "recipe" that I used for the 2019 Easter Ham and the Christmas of 2018 Double Smoked Ham.

The only real difference this time was that I did the actual cooking on the Weber Kettle.

Just as I did last time, I created a glaze. The ingredients were a little different, but it was the same idea.

Easter Saturday Ribeye Roast

Last Easter, I bought a 12 pound Ribeye Roast, and cooked half of it for Easter dinner.

The other half, I vacuum sealed and froze to use at a later time.

I cooked New Year's Ribeye Roast, this year, but since it was on sale, I bought a fresh one for that meal. The one from last Easter remained in the freezer.

I got the roast out to thaw for this year's Easter dinner, but made the mistake of asking my son what he wanted as the main dish for Easter dinner.

He said "Ham".

So, as I had thawed Ribeye Roast, I decided I would make it for dinner Saturday.

Easter Saturday.

Spare Ribs

Just yesterday, I posted that the previous Sunday I had brewed my 2022 Melting Stream Spring Saison (Batch 309).

Later that day, I smoked a rack of Spare Ribs on my Weber Kettle.

At some point between the time I wrote that post and now, I was looking at Sheppy's Blog: Melting Stream, and noticed the title of blog post last time I brewed Melting Stream ...

Melting Stream and Spare Ribs.

I thought it was a cool coincidence that I smoked ribs last time I brewed this recipe.

I guess it isn't that amazing. I brew the Spring Saison every year, and I almost always smoke something on Brew Days.

I just thought it cool and I thought I'd share. So, that is what I'm doing now. Here are some pictures of my ribs:

2022 Melting Stream Spring Saison (Batch 309)

Spring has sprung here in the Front Range of Colorado.

Here ... that means a few nice sunny days in the 50's, 60's, or 70's followed by a couple cold snowy (or rainy) days followed by more sunny warm weather.

Because of this spring cycle ... melting snow from the mountains makes its way into streams. Rivers flow down into the high plains by Denver and to the East.

I love the image of the melting snow filling up the streams during this time of year.

This is what inspired the name for the SheppyBrew Spring Seasonal Saison ...

Melting Stream Spring Saison

Last weekend, I brewed it again. I've been brewing these Seasonal Saisons since 2014, and this is the 8th time I brewed Melting Stream.

V is for Vision Quest Brewing Company

Believe it or not ... we're getting really close to the end of the third round of our A to Z Denver Breweries series of posts.

About a month ago, we ventured out of the Denver area into Boulder for U is for Upslope Brewing Company.

This, of course, means that we needed a "V" brewery.

For round 1 ... we used V is for Vine Street Pub and Brewery.

In round 2 ... we just happed to have a trip planned to Vail at the right time and were able to use V is for Vail Brewing Company.

Believe it or not, if we're willing to travel a bit, there a few more "V" breweries we can use for this round, and any future rounds we might do.

This past Saturday, we decided to take a trip to the closest of these options in Boulder.

V is for Vision Quest Brewing Company

McShepardSons Comparison

Remember a couple weeks ago I brewed a double batch of McShepardSons Irish Ale (Batch 308)?

Well ... I did.

In one fermentor, I pitched Voss Kveik Ale Yeast. In the other I used SafAle English Ale.

The Voss ferment finished up in a few days. The English ferment finished about a week later.

Friday after work, I decided to compare the two beers.

They are both beautiful red ales, but the colors are slightly different. The kveik ale is just a touch darker. I think this is mostly due to the Voss beer having more time to clarify. 

Groomsday Pic Pint

My friend "Joe" contacted me again a couple weeks ago, letting me know that he wanted to send me another gift to help promote a new site ... "Groomsday".

He thought I might like one of the company's laser-engraved Personalized Groomsmen Beer Glasses.

I agreed, and sent him a picture of myself so that he could send me a Laser Engraved Pic Pint.

All glasses are engraved by our amazing artist, who extracts your guys out of the pictures you send him and engraves them on the glass. This beer glass holds 15 oz, the perfect amount to enjoy.