2023 Thanksgiving Turkey

If you've been following along on my blog, you already knew that ...

1) I was going to smoke a turkey for Thanksgiving. 

2) I was planning on Spatchcocking and halving it on my weber kettle. 

3) I was going to use Crack as my spicing.

This past Thursday was Thanksgiving, and I did indeed smoke a spatchcocked turkey on my Weber kettle and spiced it with Crack.

Since 2018, which was the year I started becoming obsessed with BBQ, I've been in charge of making the Thanksgiving turkey outside on my smoker.

3 Redheads and a Blonde

I feel like I've brewed a lot of Amber / Red beers lately. Currently, I have 4 homebrews on tap, and they are all in that color range.

• Falling Leaves Autumn Saison ... my Autumn "Seasonal Saison". Sort of an Oktoberfest with a French Saison character.
  
  
• Steamacularly Common ... a "California Common" brewed in tribute of Anchor Steam upon closing of the brewery.
  
  
• Buckwheat's Belgium Pale Ale ... SheppyBrew classic BPA. Favorite of the Beer Model. Currently the lightest in color, but still in that amber range. 

• Humdinger of a Hootenanny ... Kentucky Common. currently the darkest of the beers I have on tap. Almost a "brunette", but still in the red range.

 

Chicken Crack

You might remember in Humdinger of a Brisket, that I went down a little rabbit hole that included hitting my 2020 Thanksgiving Turkey post.

I had used Crack Seasoning on that Turkey, and I remember liking it quite a bit.

I decided to track some down and grabbed some for this year's Thanksgiving Turkey.

As I was ordering the spice, I saw they now have "Spicy Crack Seasoning", and I picked some of that up along with the "Original Crack Seasoning".

I had to try it out, and I had planned to cook a chicken, so I used the Spicy Crack Seasoning on my chicken last Sunday.

Humdinger of a Brisket

Soooo ... As I am typing this post, I just went through a weird rabbit trail to realize I had not posted my latest Brisket cook ...

I just picked up "Crack" because I remembered that I really enjoyed it on my 2020 Thanksgiving Turkey.

As I was looking through Turkey posts on this blog, I started looking through Smoked posts.

At some point ... I started looking through Brisket posts, and saw that my last one was my Easter Brisket from earlier this year.

I thought that was weird ... because I knew I had cooked a brisket much more recently than that. 

In fact, I cooked one just on the 29th, which as I type this, was Sunday of last week.

I cooked one on my Humdinger of a Hootenanny (Batch 345) brew day. I'm absolutely sure I intended to blog about it. But, I have not. Yet. Until now.

Smoked Chicken Bombs

I subscribe to and watch various BBQ Youtube channels. One of my favorites is Hey Grill Hey.

Recently, Susie had a video called Amazing Smoked Chicken Bombs with a cheesy jalapeno center! So easy anyone can can do it!.

 

Golly Jeepers Wild Mango Ale (Batch 346)

If you read Roll-a-Style 13 ... Wild Specialty Beer, you know that Saturday was Learn to Homebrew Day, and that I brewed Golly Jeepers Wild Mango Ale.

My friend "Doc" wanted to host another brew day, so I headed over to his "brewery".

Generally, when I "Travel Brew", I like to start my mash at home and let it convert during the drive over. Then, when I arrive I can just transfer to a boil kettle and therefore have a head-start.

I do this in my old-style gott cooler / propane burner system.

But, my friend "Du" also was heading over, and he asked to use a propane burner and boil kettle.

E is for El Rancho Colorado

We're well on our way through round 5 of A to Z Breweries Series of Posts.

A is for AC Golden Tank Room

B is for Black Shirt Brewing Company

C is for Cannonball Creek Brewing Company

D is for Diebolt Brewing Company

So far, so good. No issues at all filling out the alphabet.

As you probably can figure out, it is time to get to something that starts with the letter "E". Unlike the past couple of letters, we only really had one choice ....

E is for El Rancho Colorado

Roll-a-Style 13 ... Wild Specialty Beer

I brewed Humdinger of a Hootenanny (Batch 345) the weekend before Learn to Homebrew Day. I obviously had to have something to brew on the first Saturday of November (today if you're reading this the day it publishes)

About the time I discovered that I Lied about the 2021 BCJP Categories ... I came across some Wildbrew Philly Sour yeast in my favorite local homebrew shop.

That yeast has been sitting in my fridge since then, and I always had expected I'd use it to brew a Category 28. American Wild Ale with it.

I decided that Learn to Homebrew Day would be the day. It was on my Roll-a-Style list ... so ...

I pretended to roll the Online 20 sided die and pretended that I rolled ... 13

13 corresponds to 28C. Wild Specialty Beer, a pretty wide-open style.

An American Wild Ale with fruit, herbs, spices, or other Specialty-Type Ingredients.

I decided to go with a simple base beer with mango fruit. The "Wild" character would come from the Wildbrew Philly Sour yeast.

My recipe is 

Humdinger of a Hootenanny (Batch 345)

I brewed on a snowy Sunday this past weekend.

Due to poor planning, this was probably my worst brew day in awhile, but a bad brew day is better than a good work-day, so it was still pretty good.

I'm sure the beer will still turn out great.

If you read this blog and are able to remember, you may know what I was planning on brewing next as I mentioned it in Roll-a-Style 9 ... Historical Beer: Kentucky Common.

This was my 345th batch ever. My 20th of 2023. My 63rd batch of beer brewed in my Anvil Foundry.

It was a new recipe, my 222nd unique recipe since I started brewing beer (if I am counting correctly).

Humdinger of a Hootenanny

Another Chicken Spatchcocked and Halved

Well ... in Chicken Spatchcocked and Halved, I mentioned that I wanted to try the technique again.

Just as a reminder ... the "new" chicken technique was to Spatchcock the bird, cut it in half and cook it as two halves of a chicken.

It turned out nicely the first time I did it, and I had another bird to cook this past weekend, so I tried it again.

Last time, the only change I thought I needed to make was to give myself a little more time.

So ... last Saturday, I got the Weber Kettle fired up in time to cook a little less than 2 hours.

I started earlier in the day by cutting out the backbone and dry brining the chicken. I then let it sit in the fridge for a few hours.

D is for Diebolt Brewing Company

As you know if you've been following along with the A to Z Breweries Series of Posts ... the Beer Model and I have started a 5th round through the alphabet.

We started our 5th round a couple months ago with A is for AC Golden Tank Room.

We continued earlier this month with B is for Black Shirt Brewing Company, and then followed up with C is for Cannonball Creek Brewing Company.

D is another letter that has still has a few choices.

As it turns out, the SheppyBrew Beer Model (aka my wife) and I had the same brewery in mind for our "D" brewery ...

D is for Diebolt Brewing Company

C is for Cannonball Creek Brewing Company

Well ... as you know if you've been following along with the A to Z Breweries Series of Posts ... the Beer Model and I have started a 5th round through the alphabet.

We started our 5th round a couple months ago with A is for AC Golden Tank Room.

We continued earlier this month with B is for Black Shirt Brewing Company.

So ... as you know if you're familiar with the alphabet, next up, we needed a "C" brewery.

According to the the Colorado Brewery Map & List, there are a ridiculous number of "C" breweries we had choose from.

I narrowed the list down to 3 breweries I was interested in.

The Beer Model then narrowed down that list of 3 to 2 breweries based on what the websites said they had on tap.

I made the final decision based on potential parking issues ...

C is for Cannonball Creek Brewing Company

Over 6000 miles in 2023

If you follow this blog, or the SheppyBrew Facebook Page or Instagram Page, you know that recently I finished my #1000MileSeptember #GCCUSA2023.

This past weekend, I did an October Metric Century, have have passed 6000 miles for the year.

My Strava cycling goal for 2023 is to basically get the number of miles and elevation gain I got last year, which would be 6250 miles and 326,749 feet climbed.

To reach 6250 miles before the end of the year, I have to average something like 2 miles a day for the rest of the year.

To reach 326,749 feet climbed, though, I have to average about 741 feet per day for the rest of the year.

2023 Falling Leaves Saison (Batch 344)

Here it is Autumn. Time to brew my Autumn Seasonal Saison.

I knew I was going to brew sometime in the next week or two, so I had actually biked to my favorite LHBS on Sunday.

See Sunday Ride on Strava.

More than anything I was interested in seeing how the ride would be.

It turned out to be an awesome 40 mile round-trip ride, so I will probably do this commute more in the future.

The LHBS was out of the dark Munich malt I like to use in this recipe, so I modified it "on the fly". This resulted in a slightly darker beer, but I don't think it will taste too significantly different.

I brewed ...

Falling Leaves Autumn Saison

Chicken Spatchcocked and Halved

Lots of people say that spatchcock is the superior way to cook whole chickens and turkeys, but as I have mentioned a few times on this blog, I've never really found spatchcocking to turn out as good as cooking the whole thing upright like beer can chicken.

However, as I wrote in More Chicken in the Vortex ... I mentioned:

"I did realize that I've never spatchcocked a chicken on my Weber. To be fair, I should probably give that a shot."

In case you don't know, spatchcocking a bird is basically cutting out the backbone of the bird so that the whole thing can be laid out flat. People who believe in this method say it helps cook more evenly.

It also theoretically will cook the bird faster.

It makes sense to me, and it has worked out fine for me. I just find the other way results in juicier more delicious chicken or turkey.

B is for Black Shirt Brewing Company

So ... I it is official now ... we're doing a 5th round of the A to Z Denver Breweries series of posts.

I guess.

We certainly have a bunch more breweries to visit on the Colorado Brewery Map & List, but there are several letters in the alphabet that are not straight forward to fill in.

For now ... we are good ... once we start hitting letters without breweries, we'll figure out what to do.

If you read #1000MileSeptember #GCCUSA2023, you know that Saturday I finished off my Great Cycle Challenge. There is still plenty of time to donate, and of course I'll doing it again next year, but I think for now, this is the last time I'll mention the Great Cycle Challenge for awhile.

But the 2nd ride of the day was with the SheppyBrew Beer Model (aka the Pedego Owner aka my wife).

#1000MileSeptember #GCCUSA2023

If you follow me at all on this blog or facebook or instagram .. you know that I've been participating in the Great Cycle Challenge all last month.

I've pledged to ride September to raise money and awareness for the Children's Cancer Research Fund.

https://greatcyclechallenge.com/Riders/EricShepard 

 

2023 Q3 Brewing Stats

The summer just flew by. We are now into October and therefore it is time to report my Brewing Stats for the 3rd Quarter.

I brewed 6 batches in each of Q1 and Q2. I keep saying that I'll start to slow down ... but again ... I brewed 6 batches in Q3.

For what it is worth, in July I brewed 3 batches. 2 batches in August. I only brewed 1 batch in September. So, I am sort of slowing down I guess.

The recipes I brewed in Q3 were:

• Hail Storm Summer Saison
• Gypsy Magic Bière de Garde
• Helles Won't Kellerbier
• Steamacularly Common
• Buckwheat's Belgium Pale Ale
• Shoddy IPA

2023 #GABF Saturday Photos

I posted 2023 #GABF Friday Photos just a couple days ago.

As I mentioned, I took a break from my Great Cycle Challenge for the weekend to attend both the Friday night and Saturday afternoon sessions. 

Sunday was a rest day.

As I post this, I have actually finished up my #1000MileSeptember, so I was fine taking that break.

The Saturday afternoon "Brewers Only" session has always been my favorite session.

It was interesting have family attend with us.

Anyway ... here are some photos from Saturday night ...

2023 #GABF Friday Photos

This past weekend, I took a break from my Great Cycle Challenge.

Don't worry, I'll still finish my #1000MileSeptember with miles to spare.

There is still plenty of time to donate to fight kids cancer ...

https://greatcyclechallenge.com/riders/EricShepard

This year, the Great American Beer Fest was earlier in the year by a couple of weeks than usual, so it interrupted the Great Cycle Challenge. Next year it will be back in October so I won't have to worry about it.

Anyhoo ... it is a tradition for the Beer Model (aka my wife) to attend GABF. 

Like usual, we attended both Friday night and Saturday afternoon ...