My new years brewing resolution, if you’d call it that, is to thoroughly enjoy my brewing hobby. That’s going to include trying really hard to not get tangled up in stuff that was ruining it for me. I’m not going to allow myself to enter a competition, or change my recipes just to get the little green check mark that shows that my numbers meet the approved style parameters. Beer is more than numbers ain’t It?
I’m going to continue to keep my mind open for opportunities to simplify my process without hindering my fun or the quality. I’m seeking simplest possible!
I ordered up some fresh 2017 hop pellets. I’m a little bummed that no one seems to have cheap pounds of simcoe, which I used to hate, but have grown to tolerate. So the new load is cascade, centennial, chinook, and tettnanger.
I’m going to allow myself to rebrew beers that I love. Who cares if that’s not innovative? I’m going to also brew some styles I haven’t brewed, like English IPA, hoppier than BJCP approved German lagers, etc.
So what’s up with you? Excited about anything? Got new stuff coming? Trying to beat down some brewing demons?
I dig the cryo hops but they are a little harder to use.
My Brewyears resolution is to continue to improve my already existing techiques, to go in and fine tune a few recipes and to start experimenting with bottle conditioning on a commercial scale.
Happy Brewyear to you all! Hope it is a fruitful year!
Jim, I’m right there with you on my New Year’s resolution – thanks to your topic on “cruise control.” See my latest reply there. Happy, happy brew year!
Aside from other changes to my brewing process, I’m pretty thrilled with the combo of spunding (for complete O2 purging of kegs and quick, natural carbonation) and the floating dip tube of the Clear Beer system (which draws from top of the keg). All in all, better, clearer beer quicker than before for me.
I’m dragging my feet on resuming brewing, but I’ve made some progress.
Need to finish cleaning the new (used) kegs that I bought. Finish repairing/refitting the MoreBeer Tippy-Dump that I bought used.
On the actual brewing side of things, my goal is to cask more. I’ve got an idea of using kegs as somewhat of bright tanks for storage, probably spund to a (very) low level of carbonation to keep oxidation at bay. Then when ready rack to cask, prime, settle, tap, spund, etc. I’ll still primarily keg, but the hope is to have something on cask when the garage is cool enough to support that.
Definitely will only spund keg beers from here on out, right before I stopped brewing I bought some spunding valves so I’ve still got to try them.
As much as I want to start taking more steps towards low oxygen brewing, I don’t know how much of that I’ll get done this year. With my personal brewing focus being on historical British beers, and likewise a preference for historical German beer, I don’t see myself spending the money to get there.
Once I start brewing and end up with stale beer that might change some, but we’ll see.
In 2018 I plan to hit my 75th all grain batch in ~Feb (a Stout to drink for St Pat’s Day mid Mar). I will probably hit ~12 batches or so of the recipes I’ve found to be the best over the 73 all grain batches I’ve brewed to date.
I plan to stick with simple recipes, blue cooler, batch sparge, single kettle, single fermenter gravity fed system I have now.
Nice post Jim, I always reflect back on my brewing every year. I think of what I have done, what I have brewed, what have I learned and what have I improved on. I go into the new year with some of that in mind. I too like to keep it simple but I have made a few changes to improve my process and techniques. This year I want to just keep improving my habits to produce better beer.
Last year’s resolution was to improve my cleaning and sanitation habits. I have done much better. Maybe this year I will brew more lagers and German styles in general. I also want to lay out a few go to “House beers”.
Brew day just got easier with the Klickmann Master Blaster! Big burners, shiny table, cheap n easy! Those are 15 gal kettles. I’m excited to try it out tomorrow!
I’m adding a new lazy brewer procedure today. I used to let my wort settle about 15 minutes after recirulation chilling, then rack it to fermenter with an auto siphon. I’ve heard enough evidence to convince me to just pump it straight to fermenter as soon as I hit pitching temp. I’m looking forward to not staring at my timer trying to Zen 15 minutes away. I’m looking forward to not sanitizing my auto siphon. I’m looking forward to not cleaning my auto siphon. And I’m looking forward to even more amazing beer from just leaving the trub in there.
