2010, the year in review

I haven't posted in awhile, did ya notice?
So I figured I had better get back to it, and mainly for my future reference I want to wrap up 2010 the good, the bad and the ugly.

The thing that stands out most for me about 2010 is BREWING. I know this seems obvious a homebrewer, on homebrewtalk, excited about brewing!!! But what makes it significant here is I hit 95 gallons of brewed beer. This is the most by far I have brewed in my short career.

80 gallons of this was drank, drunk? well drinkable! Some is still in my basement cellar waiting to be drinked.

My favorite batches would be: (i will add all the recipes to my profile shortly)
1) Fabacher Porter - Gold Medal at Dayton Beerfest
2) Hi-Ho Cherry, OH! - Gold Medal in the neighborhood!
3) BierMuncher's SWMBO Slayer
4) Australian Bitter (Cooper's Extract Kit)
*5) Belgian Wheat

* This beer is starrred as it scored the minimum 13 at Dayton's Beerfest. Most would say, "WHOA DUDE! That's not good!!!" And it wasn't, that beer was spoiled, infected, whatever. However what this led to was a troubleshoot of my brewery that turned up a number of issues
1 - Butler County Ohio water is hard, EXTREMELY hard, with high carbonate content. Therefore is not suitable for lighter Ales or wheat beers.
2 - Paying attention to sanitation means, PAY ATTENTION TO SANITATION! I had a tube that was put away unwashed that collected mash in it, and was subsequently infecting EVERY batch I racked to a fermenter.
3 - underpitching yeast can stress it out and lead to unwanted flavours, slow fermentation and just all around unpleasantness.
So that's the ugly, which, once cleaned up, turned good! I hate to think how long it would have taken to identify these inefficiencies had I not submitted that beer for judging.

I brew because I like the end result. I have never brewed to please anyone else, it has been nice that people are receptive of and even look forward to getting beer from me! I hadn't ever tried to brew to a style, nor wanted to. I found out this past year, that competitions can be a lot of fun! Brewing to style has taught me a lot about what flavours malts, hops and even water contribute to the beer. Also, it has led to identify flaws and inefficiencies in my brewing process and has resulted in better beer! While it has always been enjoyable to drink good beer, taking first place in Beerfest affirmed for me that I was on the right track.

I've started 2011 with a bang!
Rebrewed the Fabacher Porter, and made a 'Small Beer' with the 2nd runnings
Brewed a Blonde, to secondary on blueberries for a nice Blonde + Blue.