Brew Year Resolution - 2012 Brewing Goals

2011 was my first year of really considering myself a home brewer, despite starting in 2010. But I want to start 2012 right and set some concrete goals!

Here are mine:

1. Move to all grain
2. Create my own recipe that people LOVE, with no outside input and only my knowledge of the ingredients
3. Enter at least one home brew competition

What are your "Brew Year Resolutions" for 2012?

1. Finish all my DIY projects.
2. See how long I can go without buying beer to take home.
3. Participate in as many HB club activities as possible.

1. > 60 gallons brewed. I want to be at more than 1 5-gallon batch per month, which is about where I am right now.
2. Brew at least 3 styles of beer that I have never brewed before.
3. Improve my recipes and execution.

1. Brew an extract kit for fun (a buddy started me on all grain and I have never tried one)
2. Make a Barley wine to be enjoyed on my 34th Birthday
3. Drink a beer My wife makes (I'd like her to enjoy the activity too)
4. Streamline my process
5. Make a mead
6.Drink Homebrew

Make more IPAs since they're my favorite. I'm always trying other stuff and when I want an IPA I never have any.

I'm going to start banking yeast. In the end I'll save a lot of money and I won't have to worry about whether the strain will be around next year...

1. Brew 8 batches. My wife is pregnant and due in late June. My real goal here is to make a butt-load of beer before that.
2. Brew an all-brett saison.
3. Improve my Robust Porter and enter it in Dixie Cup.
4. Buy/build a cooler mash tun.

1) Get my temperature control dialed in.

My first efforts have been good, but could have been better. Especially since I plan on brewing lots of Bavarian wheat beer and English bitter, this is my top priority for the near future.

1) Focus on temperature control/monitoring during fermentation
2) Enter competitions
3) Always pitch the proper amount of yeast
4) Always remember to take the original gravity reading
5) Brew batches bigger than 5 gallons
6) Get an immersion chiller

1) GO ELECTRIC!
2) Attend the FLABer HB club meetings

1) Brew less. This one is sad, but I'm going back to school and won't have that much money. I brewed 24 times this year. Next year I plan on bumping that down to 12-15 brew sessions.
2) Enjoy what I have done so far. This gets tied in with #1. I will have 10 gallons of various meads and fruit wines, 3 gallons of a Baltic Porter, 3 gallons of a barleywine and 3 gallons of a RIS to enjoy in 2012. Save for the occasional session ale, I'm pretty well covered when it comes to libations.
3) Enter more competitions. I'm really excited about some of the recent beers I've made, and look forward to showing them off.

I'd be willing to take some of that Porter off your hands, and trade for some of my brews.

I have some of Yooper's Oatmeal Stout now and probably will make some Gumball Head soon.

I live on the westside of Indy near Speedway.

New Year's resolution:

First Post!!!! After three all grain beers (From awesome recipes on here) , 2012 will be the year of the HomeBrew

Try Brett.
Compete, saving three from every batch
Not rush bottle conditioning batches

- Build a stir plate
- add a pump to my system
- build a counterflow chiller
- exercise more to work off all the homebrew

This year, I am going to win a gold medal in a qualifier to a national competition. Either AHA or MCAB.

1. Brew 125 gallons. Made 100 this year which is the best year yet.
2. Double 10-gallon brew day.
3. Actually make it to Homebrew Club meetings. They always seem to schedule them when I already have plans!

1. Build a fermentation chamber
2. Start fermenting under pressure
3. Build a keezer
4. Enter a homebrew competition
5. Experiment with Brett/Lacto

(Possibly) 6. Build a HERMS, but this will probably get pushed into next year's agenda.

1) Complete my all grain move.
2) Complete my kegging set up.
3) Brew at least 6 different styles
4) Enter homebrew competition
5) Make a mead
6) Enjoy every minute of it.

build my kegerator (happening over winter break)
switch to all grain (BIAB, due to my small apartment kitchen and limited money)
brew once a month. I've been brewing for a year, and I've only done 5 batches each a few months apart. i want to become more regular about it and build up a pipeline.

1) Give more beer to Friends/Family (I hoarded last year, but pipeline is good now)
2) Get those 1 year hop plants rockin' in 2012 (I want some good APA's, ESB's, and Lagers)
3) Try making a batch of wine
4) Get the wife more involved. So far only on one batch
5) Start lager brewing

I have a few goals for 2012 that I think are fairly attainable.

1. Brew 5 gallons per month.
2. Develop at least one recipe that I have written from scratch as a flagship ale.
3. Build my keezer.
4. Make the transition to all-grain.
5. Convert to kegging.

Bottle condition everything.
Use brettanomyces.

1) drink my first ever batch
2) start another batch
3) start kegging
4) finish my kegerator

1) enter a couple of competitions
2) get a lambic started
3) start reusing yeast

One goal:

Learn and create wild Ales starting with the more fruity/tart ones.

I have got to start saving and reusing yeast. Going to all-grain has saved me money on ingredients, but I'm still too lazy to wash my yeast. I just hate getting killed on $8 yeast packets.

1. I have no goals pertaining to volume. I am waaaaay past that. I brew when I get the itch, and when I have time.

2. I would like to make some wine. Never did it, and the GF likes it. So why not?

3. Make another mead. I made one 15 years ago when my son was a baby, and killed the last bottle a few weeks ago. it is EXPENSIVE, though!

1) Start kegging. I'm getting a kegging setup for Christmas. I just need to track down a cheap fridge or freezer.
2) Work out the bugs in fermentation temp control. This is going to involve refining my swamp cooler setup, utilizing the low 60s temps in the basement during the summer, and working in the new keg fridge. There is a system to develop here.
3) Hone my newly developing all-grain skills. This is a big one to knock out before my wife gives birth in July. I'd like to be able to get through the mashing process as easily as possible so things don't fall apart when there are little distractions.
4) Organize my brewing equipment storage space in the basement.
5) Figure out what the bloody stale hop off flavor is in all my dry hopped beers.
6) If I accomplish 2 through 5, I'd like to start developing my own recipes.

mbobhat said:

I'd be willing to take some of that Porter off your hands, and trade for some of my brews.

I have some of Yooper's Oatmeal Stout now and probably will make some Gumball Head soon.

I live on the westside of Indy near Speedway.

New Year's resolution:

First Post!!!! After three all grain beers (From awesome recipes on here) , 2012 will be the year of the HomeBrew

Click to expand...

A Gumballhead clone would be cool. That would save me having to make an APA or IPA. Is it Great Fermentations' clone recipe or one of your own?

Brew at least one batch per month.

Grow my own hops.

I'll go ahead and do these in the chronological order

1. Move, so that I can...
2. Obtain 10 gallon kettle and propane burner so I can finally full boil
3. Build MLT and stop with BIAB
4. Obtain additional fridge so I can replace the swamp coolers so I can...
5. Brew some lagers (probably bocks)
5. Obtain another fridge/freezer so I can...
6. Start kegging
7. Brew a lot more than I did this year (only did about 100 gallons, but hey, money was tight)

1. Move to all grain (even if small batches)
2. Design and brew my own recipe
3. Build a keezer
4. Brew more beer (out of 63 gallons since September 19th, only 15 has been beer, with the rest being wine/mead/cider)
5. Build a proper storage area for fermenting (basement stays cool enough, but would like some shelving and insulation to keep it even and organized)
6. And finally, start growing my own hops!

1. Get to a point where I don't buy beer. Being a session drinker, I think this will be tough...
2. Finish the kegerator.
3. Finish the 'brewroom'.

1. Mount my corona mill and start using it.
2. Turn the bottom half of my pantry into an insulated temp controlled fermentation chamber.
3. Buy some 55gal stainless and hdpe barrels with my brew buddies to make a nanobrewery in one of their garages.
4. Perfect several recipes for use in said nanobrewery.
5. Start kegging!
6. Figure out where the hell I can even fit a kegerator in an apartment with kids.

Schemy said:

6) Enjoy every minute of it.

Click to expand...

I think I need to make this #1

Sometimes I get wrapped up in cranking out some beer to get on line and I feel like am missing out on the whole experience.

I also think I need to avoid buying anymore gear for this year... except for maybe completing my keezer (just need some taps/shanks)... oh and maybe build my milling station (already have the mill and motor)... damn it there I go again more more more

Cheers to all brewers this next year! I'll admit I have never read Papazian but don't forget to RDWHAHB!!!

1. Make the move to partial mash and eventually all grain by the end of the year.

2. Make room in my garage for a designated brew space.

3. Brew at least two batches per month.

4. Experiment with growing my own hops.

1) Brew once a month
2) Convert mini fridge to kegerator/fermentation chamber
3) Design good gluten free beers for the wifey
4) Get the wifey involved in brew days
5) Enter a competition
6) Partigyle

1. Develop from scratch and perfect at least two house ale recipes.
2. Become yeast self-sufficient (i.e. sustainable yeast ranch - two or three strains is enough).