Sheppy Brew Home Brewing
My sister got me a Mr. Beer Home Brewing kit for Christmas 2008. I
am so happy she did. Brewing beer
has turned out to be a great hobby for me.
Amazingly, my wife purchased another
brewing keg
and some
more
bottles
for my birthday! I named my kegs Rutt and Tuke after the moose from
Brother Bear. I didn't want to
name them something boring like Keg 1 and Keg 2, and I thought Rutt
and
Tuke were good names. The original is Tuke since Tuke was the big
brother of Rutt in the movie. All my beers are fermented in these
Mr. Beer kegs making about 2.4 gallons of beer. Currently, I
make 3 types of recipes. The first is a combination
of a Mr. Beer hopped malt extract (HME), a unhopped malt extract, and
some steeping grains with extra hops. These recipes might include
extract adjunct sugars or flavorings, but the base is Mr. Beer
ingredients. The best of these is Dragon Spit
and Eric's Red.
Girly Berry and Wetta Blonde
are also very
good. The second type of recipe is the extract recipe. These
include unhopped liquid malt extract (LME) and steeping grains
from my Local Home Brew Shop (LHBS) . I hop these to taste.
These recipes are designed with the help of Beer Smith software.
Fools Gold and
Tweedle
Beetle Stout are good examples of these. I expect to start
making more of these types of recipes and less of the Mr. Beer recipes
in 2010.
 The
third type of SheppyBrew recipe are my partial mashes. These are
also designed using Beer Smith. The difference between these and
the extract brews are that they include a significant amount of grains
that have to be converted to sugar with the mashing process.
Phat &
Tyred Ale and
Blackhawk Black are my two partial mashes, and these are my two
favorite beers. Partial mashes are the most cost-efficient brews I
make.
Of course, starting out, all my beers
were Mr. Beer extracts. Eventually, I got brave enough to head
over to my LHB shops to get myself steeping grains for Eric's Red in
mid-May. After that, I have not made any beers without extra
grains and hops from one of my LHBSs. Toward the
beginning of July, I did my first Partial Mash recipe,
Phat &
Tyred Ale. Now, I pretty much design
my own recipes.
Although I still use Mr. Beer extracts in quite a
few of my beers, I am attempting to move to a point where most of my
beers do not use any HME's. Some day, I may go all-grain, but I do
not think that will be any time soon.
For a list of the beers currently bottled, check
out my inventory
page. Beer Lineup
I have many more ideas for beers I want to brew than capacity to
keep
up. You can look on the Other
Beers Page
in the Future Brews section to see some of what is likely to come up
in
the near (near is a relative term) future. I am slowly, but surely
compiling a list of "regular" beers ... beers which I hope to keep
on-hand most of the time. Right now, this includes
Eric's Red,
Wetta Blonde,
Dragon Spit, Phat &
Tyred Ale, and BlackHawk
Black. I
think I am very close to declaring Girly Berry
part of the regular lineup as well. This list will grow as I try
new things.
There are several beers that I know I am going to brew again, most
likely
as seasonal beers: Rocktoberfest
Ale,
X-Mas Ale, Whisky Wife Wheat,
and maybe a couple of others. I have not decided if
Tommy Hawk
APA is a regular or a seasonal,
but I will certainly beer it again. Tweedle
Beetle Stout is another that will be brewed again (and again and
again). Of course, it is rare that I make a recipe exactly the
same as it was before. I am always experimenting and trying to
improve my recipes and processes. I hope by the end of 2010, most
of the Mr. Beer recipes will be converted to be either a SheppyBrew
extract or a partial mash.
Gifts for Sheppy?
So, I have been asked to post beer-related things I would like for
Christmas or Birthdays or whatever. You do not have to, but if you
would like to get me something, to see some of my "wish list" items,
click here to follow
this link.
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