Brew years resolutions?

[obscure]

1. Start routinely reusing liquid yeast
2. Expand out my range of styles perhaps, some Quads, Kolsch plan to have a go at a wheat beer soon as well.
3.Try entering a few forum comps if nothing else some feedback would be useful

 

[MmmBeer]

My stocks have become depleted by the festive period, so:

• Start off with a simple Pale, get it in a keg
• Make another variant of my house bitter (Abbot ale based), kegged
• Make use of the cool weather and make my first lager, I recently had a bottle of Pilsner that was actually nice, it had a mix of noble and American hops, so was thinking Saaz and Cascade. That's one for bottles, as I don't want to tie up a keg for months.

 

[AXW123]

Brew bigger batches. 10litres isn’t enough.
Learn how to use my shiny new Brewmonk.
Get a better pipe line. Neither famine nor feast.
Try and develop just three house styles to aim for better consistency.
Sort out temperature control to finally nail lager.
Try and create somewhere dedicated for brewing. I don’t really want to use the brewmonk indoors.
But mainly keep on enjoying it. I wish there were more home brewers locally to exchange beer and ideas with.

 

[Brewnaldo]

Brew some belgian

Get into using my beer gun

Water treatment

 

[Seaside brew]

Start doing water chemistry, measuring mash p.h and basically getting my head all grain brewing a bit more then the bear minimum I do at the moment. As many others above also settle on a couple of house beers and try get a bit of consistency. Roll on 2021.

 

[An Ankoù]

Continue to share my home brew with friends - for me that is the biggest joy of this hobby!

Absolutely. Well said.

 

[chrisb8]

Kegging. After 2 years of bottling I am totally fed up with it so I have just ordered a corny keg kit. If all goes well then I would like to expand to 2 or 3.

Plus I need to work out why my mash tun tap/filter/false bottom blocks the moment I turn on the tap - happened the last 3 brews in a row even when I turned the tap on immediately after mashing in to recirculate. And yes it starts off completely clear. Very frustrating

 

[AnimatedGIF]

1. Do full size (20L+) all grain brews
2. Brew a larger using my corny with a spunding valve attached (same as in OP)
3. Source a beer engine (new or used)

 

[Richard_H]

Improve my knowledge on what different grains and hops taste like and what amount is the sweet spot when building my own recipe's. Since switching to all grain I have never actually followed a tried and tested recipe (although I have read plenty so I wasn't completely in the dark). All my beers have been good, some excellent but choosing 2%/4%/6% with regards to certain grains can have a far bigger impact than first thought.

Brew more simple weaker beers in the 4-5% range.

Build up a bigger collection of properly aged strong bottle conditioned beers, about 5 months is the longest but it would be nice to have a variety at the 1 year or even 18 month age.

Brew an imperial stout.

 

[Broken Toe]

For me it's getting around to getting the parts for a keezer. If all plays out and I clear out the other half of the garage then also putting it together.

 

[Honk]

I noticed quite a few people want to start using liquid yeasts and that would of been me 2 or 3 years back but i've now decided i'm good with dried yeasts. Whilst liquid yeasts give you much more choice I have come to the conclusion that to my tastes dried yeasts give just as good a result with a lot more convenience. however im willing to be convinced otherwise if anyone suggests a must try liquid yeast I havn't used before

I'm wanting to simplify my brewing and as I mainly brew UK real ale styles I am going to concentrate in that direction, I have just ordered a beer engine and see myself brewing exclusively for that. At the moment I have four taps on my kegerator and whilst Id like to keep at least one can see myself selling off the other taps. thereby having less choice but hopefully one or two great beers available at all times.

i'm going to experiment a bit with bag in a box to move away from my reliance on co2 for dispense but cant see myself moving completely away from corny kegs but maybe reducing the number I currently own.

 

[Alastair70]

Get kegging. I've had enough of bottles for the meantime.
Brew more regularly, minimum 12 batches this year.
Drink less commercial beer and more homebrew.
Get my schedule sorted. First spring lager already in the fermenter. Pale ales and wheat beers coming up next then dark beers in the summer for autumn winter drinking.

Most importantly, get back to having homebrew keg parties, roll on the vaccine so i can have my mates back round for a few.

 

[Jakeyboi]

Brew the “dark lord” by three floyds. I have almost all the ingredients just waiting on some CO2 hop extract, and lots of new equipment, that really was necessary! and I will ready to go. It’s a mammoth beer over 6 hours of boiling wort and a final gravity of 1051!! If I can brew it this month it should be getting good for this years secret Santa!

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Well, I took my brew years resolutions seriously and have made some progress across the board:

My first was to buy some more kegs. I bought three. I don’t think I’ll need any more so I’ll call that resolution done.

Next to better organise my ingredients and spares. Three tip-runs later I’ve made space in the garage and bought clear plastic storage boxes. Everything is now accessible but I still have some organising and labelling to do. This resolution is coming on nicely.

Third was to finish the outstanding jobs on my brew-shed. There were four jobs left and I did two of those a couple of weeks ago.

My biggest challenge was to do a better job of record keeping. I’ve made a start on this but probably have more to do than I’ve achieved so far. I’ve developed a record sheet for logging my brew-days but it is still evolving. This is the latest incarnation for a beer I brewed a couple of days ago.

How are you all doing with your resolutions?

 

[Clint]

Continue with the Tribute clone... ingredients in stock.
Make more bitter...as above!
Make a lager. Done!
Kegs...garage is in a woeful state...but looking at the kit required.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Continue with the Tribute clone... ingredients in stock.
Make more bitter...as above!
Make a lager. Done!
Kegs...garage is in a woeful state...but looking at the kit required.

So progress made! I’m going to award us both gold stars

 

[fury_tea]

Well, I took my brew years resolutions seriously and have made some progress across the board:

My first was to buy some more kegs. I bought three. I don’t think I’ll need any more so I’ll call that resolution done.

Next to better organise my ingredients and spares. Three tip-runs later I’ve made space in the garage and bought clear plastic storage boxes. Everything is now accessible but I still have some organising and labelling to do. This resolution is coming on nicely.

Third was to finish the outstanding jobs on my brew-shed. There were four jobs left and I did two of those a couple of weeks ago.

My biggest challenge was to do a better job of record keeping. I’ve made a start on this but probably have more to do than I’ve achieved so far. I’ve developed a record sheet for logging my brew-days but it is still evolving. This is the latest incarnation for a beer I brewed a couple of days ago.

View attachment 41565

How are you all doing with your resolutions?

I like the looks of that record sheet, I might steal that idea. I save my beers into Beer Smith but I'd quite like to print them and keep them in a book
Is it an Excel spreadsheet? Did you use a template or did you create it yourself? Would you consider sharing it?

Re: my resolutions:
1. I got a new keg (2 more actually), a spunding valve and a floating diptube for Xmas so I'm going to try a pressure ferment and zero oxygen transfer in kegs.
Yeah I have my kegs, spunding valve and diptube, tried a pressure ferment but kind of failed because the kveik finished too quickly. I'm going to try again with something that ferments at a reasonable rate next.
2. Kettle souring
It's on the to brew list.
3. Harvesting a wild yeast
I think this will be on for summer.
4. Using liquid yeast, saving yeasts and building starters, and finally putting together the stir plate I bought the bits for last year (if I can even find them)
I used a kveik liquid yeast but that was just a pour and go, not found the bits for the stir plate yet...
5. Brewing some kombucha (maybe an alcoholic one and maybe using kombucha to sour a beer?)
Again I think this is for summer...

So some progress made but lots to look forward to in summer!

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

I like the looks of that record sheet, I might steal that idea. I save my beers into Beer Smith but I'd quite like to print them and keep them in a book
Is it an Excel spreadsheet? Did you use a template or did you create it yourself? Would you consider sharing it?

You’re welcome to copy. It’s actually a Word document and has evolved over several brews. It could be created in Excel just as easily. No template, the idea started with a simple list of ingredients and built out from there, it’s still evolving. I think I need to find space for a picture and maybe some tasting notes.

 

[fury_tea]

maybe some tasting notes

Yeah I was just thinking this as well...

 

[Clint]

So progress made! I’m going to award us both gold stars

Seeing as I have already got a medal and a trophy I think you should adjust your profile to reflect your brewing prowess...