What are your Homebrewing Goals?

I posted this on my blog more targeted towards general beer drinkers but wanted to expand on the homebrewing portion with you all:

15 Achievements that Make You an Ultimate Beer Geek

For homebrewing, I wrote of a few possible achievements:

1. Earn a medal at a competition and eventually medal at the National Homebrew Competition
2. Brew every style in the BJCP Guidelines, using the book Brewing Classic Styles for recipes if you need them
3. Graduate from the Siebel Institute’s Advanced Homebrewing Program
4. How many batches can you make in a year? Can you reach the federal limitation of 100 gallons?
5. Quit homebrewing and become a professional ; )

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Personally I would like to start entering competitions and winning medals. Not only for the thrill of victory (which would be nice), but because having a beer judge critique your beer is a great way to improve it.

I'm also going to make a serious attempt to brew more styles. Going back through my brewing journal I've noticed my IBUs skewed towards the high end. oops!

Do you have any goals with homebrewing? Are you happy just brewing great beer and doing it as long as you enjoy it, or do you have more specific goals?

I just want to continue to make killer beer.

petep1980 said:

I just want to continue to make killer beer.

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I want to make beer that I (and my friends) enjoy, and keep enjoying the hobby also. If I get to where I don't love making beer, then I guess I'll stop.

Sorry I don't have any bigger goals than that- but I'm not a very deep person anyway!

I'm not particularly achievement oriented when it comes to brewing. My goal, I suppose, is to make beer that pleases me, my friends and family. That's probably too obvious.

Make consistantly great beer. 80% of my batches are pretty darn good, 15% are great, and something just aint right with that last 5%.

My goal is really to brew enough so that I only drink homebrew. There is something really rewarding about that.

Keep improving my system. Goals are repeatability and ease of use.

Keep studying, the ultimate goal is to open a small brewpub.

:rockin:

Recoup some of our equipment costs by brewing enough beer with our current equipment...



...hmm, but it would be nice to replace the 48qt cooler MLT...


I'm still green enough that I just aim for brewing beer that's good enough for me to want to drink it, and to brew enough that I'm pretty much only drinking homebrew at home. Now that we have 5gal batch costs down to $10-25, it speaks to my financial sensibilities as well as enjoyment.

I've won a few awards, even though I don't brew very often. Thanks to HBT for that! Frankly, if you keep a couple of the basics in mind while brewing, it should not be hard to win a medal after a few tries. The first few might give you some info on how to improve.

My personal goals are to:

Brew beer that I enjoy drinking (done)
Brew beers that my friends enjoy
Understand more about brewing
Build more brew stuff to make brewing a bit easier

I couldn't care less about becoming a pro brewer. It's a fun hobby, like playing guitar and restoring my Mustang.

I want to dial in my system. I have only done a handful of all grains and I still don't really know how effcient my system is, or have a set process for the brew day. So take better notes while brewing and getting my system down are my immediate goals. Other than that brewing beers that myself and other people like is my other goal.

My goals are pretty simple:

Enjoy the craft of brewing...and never let become work. Even it eventually becomes my job.

Enjoy the beers I brew and make stuff I like....not brew a style of beer because someone tells me I should.

Have a ready supply of solid brews for friends and family to enjoy. I'm pretty confident in my brewing, but compliments are nice.

Saving some money. It's always nice to have $25 into a brew that would cost $6 a pint somewhere.

That's a pretty thought provoking question. My goal initially was to make decent beer at a low cost and in enough quantity to supply all my and a few neighbors needs. It's been 7 months now and I have a sufficient pipeline built. My quality had improved dramatically with the last two 10 gal batches because I moved from a 5 gal to 48 qt MLT (has some astringency because the mash volume was not large enough) and much better fermentation temp control. In fact, the Cascade and Amarillo PA (first two served in my new kegerator) are so good, neither the two cases of bottled homebrew nor the assortment of craft brews have been touched in a couple of weeks (minus a great tasting Loose Cannon IPA). It seems my initial goals are well in hand. I've brewed mostly PA and IPA's, so my goal over the next few years is to migrate to a few other styles. My neighbor and friend is really not big into ales, so a lager is in the future as well as a wheat, stout and barley wine or IIPA. I should have a windfall of honey from a second year bee hive, possibly 100 lbs, so I want to try a mead with my own honey and blueberries. Another long-term goal is to enter some brew in a competition.

Right now, my goal is to place in a competition.

I have done all that repeatability goals, only drink homebrew goals, keep costs down goals, have house stuff always on hand.

I learned I do not have the patience, technical savvy, or talent to meet any of these goals.

My friends have told me my beer is getting great though and finally look forward to drinking it. I wonder what that says about my first handful of batches......

My only goal is to relax, not worry, and have a home-brew. My homebrew will improve with every batch, and I'll constantly be working to make beer that I enjoy, but for me it's strictly for enjoyment and adding goals only gets in the way.

Jawbox0 said:

My only goal is to relax, not worry, and have a home-brew. My homebrew will improve with every batch, and I'll constantly be working to make beer that I enjoy, but for me it's strictly for enjoyment and adding goals only gets in the way.

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About a year back I was super anal about EVERYTHING. I would get uptight about mL:gram ratios in every starter, I would check SGs daily, I would tweak every recipe to death. Now that I have made ~20 batches and the 2 bad ones were AGES ago, I have truly learned to RDWHAHB.

1) Make beer. (Check)
2) Make good beer. (Check)
3) Make sure I have beer/wine/mead/whatever in a post-apocalyptic world. (I'll just have to wait and see)
4) Maybe start a pico- or nanobrewery someday. (This is more of a bucket list type of thing though.)

Continuous improvement.

heres my goals... brew beer, drink beer, repeat

petep1980 said:

My friends have told me my beer is getting great though and finally look forward to drinking it. I wonder what that says about my first handful of batches......

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Ha! I know what you mean. My wife has always said that she thought my stuff was really good but last night she tried my Pale Ale and said, "Wow. This taste's liek something that would actually be served in a bar."

Its like finding out that your Mom was the only gal that thought you were the cutest boy in school.

BuonAnno said:

Ha! I know what you mean. My wife has always said that she thought my stuff was really good but last night she tried my Pale Ale and said, "Wow. This taste's liek something that would actually be served in a bar."

Its like finding out that your Mom was the only gal that thought you were the cutest boy in school.

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Similar, except this time you have beer to drown your sorrow in.

20 some odd years ago I had the objective of getting into Weihenstephen and graduating. I had all the paperwork and was ready to submit and had finished 3 years of German. I never ended up sending because I got activated and sent to Germany. Totally derailed, but it was a fun derailment.

My goals are only 2:

1. Make fresh beer that I enjoy.
2. Strive to perfect the few types of beers I brew (Kölsch, Alt, Weizen and Bohemian Lager)

None at all beyond continuing to brew good beer.

I'd like to get a decent hop crop some year, but the odds on the weather cooperating are nil. So, it's not a goal.

i want to have a pipeline built up so that I never need to buy beer.

kegging system - which is, at the moment is not happening as a function of money. I'll make the space when the money makes itself available.

continue to learn and improve.

it'd be nice to win some awards, maybe go pro, and some other things, but not goals of mine at this point - perhaps in the future?

1) understand brewing well enough to formulate my own recipes from the ground up based off of desired traits
2) to maintain my own yeast stock for use whenever I please - to be yeast self-sufficient after initial purposes
3) to be able to make something I can't get into the store! Or to make something I get in the store for cheaper!
4) Have something interesting to talk about and share with others!

I'd like to be good enough at brewing to have the option of only drinking beer I make myself year-round if I feel like it. Oh and to grow some badass hops!

WhiskeyT said:

I'd like to be good enough at brewing to have the option of only drinking beer I make myself year-round if I feel like it. Oh and to grow some badass hops!

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Thats a good goal. I cringe a bit when people say they want to never buy commercial beer, as I think those guys make great beer and a variety you could never duplicate at home and a lot of the people working in that industry used to be homebrewers. I like the way you worded it.

1) Overall, just to be respected as a brewer
2) brew well enough to lay claim to medals in competition
3) gain and share knowledge on brewing, beer, and what makes each beer great
4) Create a sizable and respectable yeast bank consisting of no less than 24 yeast strains including rarer yeasts (pacman comes to mind).
5)When I move into my "real house" (live in a townhouse right now), have a giant converted keezer with 15 taps running through my walls (with gylcol neighbor tubing) from my basement to wall upstairs.
6) have a beer that was so successful and so wonderful a major brewer would want to purchase my recipe.

my goal is to just continue to advance my brewing skills. I already met my original goal to enjoy making beer i love for way cheaper. Now its time to improve upon that.
I would like to experiment with my brewing every few brews in the future as well.

I coordinate competitions but won't enter or judge them.
I brew for myself, friends, family, and other cigar fans.
Goals would include replacing my stolen or destroyed homebrew equipment.
Advance into a HERMS system.

I'm a cheapass. I want to drink the best beer possible for the least amount of money. Homebrewing is the way to accomplish that task.

-Brew beer that I love (done)
-Brew beer that friends call "awesome" (done)
-Brew a beer my wife likes ("honey, I just don't like beer")
-Enter a couple of comps (haven't yet, don't care so much about winning)

It's really interesting to see the range of responses here. One thing we all have in common is that we want to continue to enjoy our hobby and make great beer to share with family and friends.

Cpt_Kirks said:

Keep improving my system. Goals are repeatability and ease of use.

:rockin:

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That's one I didn't think of but totally agree with. I'd like to get my system to the point where everything operates smoothly, but not so automated that I have very little interaction with it.

Another MAJOR one I forget to mention is teaching others to homebrew, both in person and online in places like my blog and HBT. I wouldn't be a good beer vampire if I wasn't converting people

l1ranger said:

i want to have a pipeline built up so that I never need to buy beer.

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+1 Can't stand having to buy beer. I don't mind the occasional 6 or 12 of specialties, but running out it a pain.

Also to get a few recipes that I make regularly and consistently. You know the 'House' special as it were.

- Dial in my 'house' recipes and brew them consistently.
- Enter more comps for feedback and ego stroking.
- Get more involved with the local home brew club.
- Continue having fun.

I just want to brew good beer that I can share. When someone tries my beer and their eyes light up - thats what I like to see. Plus, drinking my own instead of buying beer is always a plus (I do still buy beer on occasion though).
I am not into awards or anything, though I can see how that would be fulfilling for some.

My goals are:
1) Make beer i like to drink
2) Make beer that my friends say "wow this is good"
3) Have projects to work on
4) Win Awards at Homebrew competitions (haven't entered any yet)

1. Maybe try a few partial mashes.
2. Always have a pipeline so I can drink purely homebrew.
3. Supply homebrews the masses will like for the main long weekends a year. Memorial day, July 4th, and Labor Day
4. Join homebrew club.

I want to brew one killer beer. I mean "Killer" beer . And then the rest good. I think ill be happy

I'd like to consistantly brew beer which I'd RATHER drink over my favorite Micros.