Inspiration Thead: Post your 2013 Brew Schedule

After a great 2013 Homebrew Resolution thread I'm looking to prepare my 2013 Brew Schedule and get some inspiration on new styles and recipes. How much do you plan out ahead of time? What are your plans for 2013?

January 6th- Heady Topper Clone Attempt #2
January 27th- Imperial Amber Ale
February 17th- Surly Abrasive Clone
March 10th- Belma Saison
March 31st- Marzen/Oktoberfest
April 21st- Double Wit
May 12th- Green Flash Le Freak Clone
June 2nd- Hefeweizen
June 23rd- Sour Cherry Ale
July 14th-Russian Imperial Stout
August 4th- Saison
August 25th-Belgian Trippel
September 15th- Witbier
October 6th-Weizenbock
October 27th-Trappist Ale
November 17th-Winter Warmer
December 8th-Heady Topper Clone
December 29th- Bottling Something for LT aging

18 6-gallon batches planned for a total of 108 gallons

Post your plans in the spirit of inspiration for all:

I will be brewing 6 batches per week until July, then I will be brewing 15 BBL per day :-D

Wow! I didn't know people planned out a years worth of brewing in January. I'm inspired! I just bought a small chest freezer from my girlfriend's landlord and ordered a Johnson Controls temperature controller off amazon.com, so my next couple of batches will be lagers (my first lagers). I want to do a high high gravity (or two, or three) brew with an OG over 1.100, perhaps a scottish wee heavy or a double/triple IPA (my highest gravity so far has been 1.085), and I'm looking forward to harvesting hops for the first time after planting three cascade plants last spring, so there will definitely be some hoppy brews this year. I also want to do a SMaSH brew or two. I've been brewing all grain for a while and I don't think I can hold off improving my setup any longer. This may be the year for a single tier stand with a couple of pumps and a counterflow chiller; maybe even the year for 10 gallon batches!

No particular order for this year's goals:

my first sour(s)
another stab at an India Black Ale
my first bock
my annual wit
a hef with the weihenstephaner yeast
several batches of apfelwein (including one with the weihenstephaner strain)
belgians: tripel, dubel, dark strong, xmas
a saison with the finicky dupont strain
bourbon oaked stout
an "english style" IIPA
a few single hop IPAs
re-brew an award winning imperial red
my first pilsner
oktoberfest
rye IPA
...???

In no particular order: IPA (more experimentation with hops), stout (going heavy with lactose and honey), perhaps another shot at a dark lager, and definitely a second try at a saison (first is coming in 2 weeks time). Other beers in my wish list most welcome, even if I don't know yet which ones!

60sd said:

Wow! I didn't know people planned out a years worth of brewing in January. I'm inspired! I just bought a small chest freezer from my girlfriend's landlord and ordered a Johnson Controls temperature controller off amazon.com, so my next couple of batches will be lagers (my first lagers). I want to do a high high gravity (or two, or three) brew with an OG over 1.100, perhaps a scottish wee heavy or a double/triple IPA (my highest gravity so far has been 1.085), and I'm looking forward to harvesting hops for the first time after planting three cascade plants last spring, so there will definitely be some hoppy brews this year. I also want to do a SMaSH brew or two. I've been brewing all grain for a while and I don't think I can hold off improving my setup any longer. This may be the year for a single tier stand with a couple of pumps and a counterflow chiller; maybe even the year for 10 gallon batches!

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When you have hop hoarding disease you need a plan. Good luck with your brews, looks like you've got some big plans for this year.

Honestly, I don't have a plan but I know that I'll brew plenty of good beers this year.. my next batch is Dubbel, after that who knows.. I wished to drink dry stout..

Black IPA
Coffee Vanilla Porter
Mexican Lager
CAP
Choc Rye Mild (2-3x)
Sculpin clone
Tripel
Citrus Saison (2-3x)
Basil Single
Tasty APA
Oat Wine
Tart of Darkness clone
Winter Saison
Punkin Porter
IPA recipes from Mitch Steele's book
Centennial Blonde
Coronado Imperial Red
Patersbier II
RIS
BDS
Altbier
Baltic Porter

Plus a handful of others that catch my attention through the year...

This is a really cool idea.

I brewed a crap-ton of different batches last year, hitting about 45 different beers and styles (with mixed results).

This year I'm going to do the opposite and pick 6 recipes and brew the hell out of them until I've got them perfected and down pat.

I think i'm going to concentrate on capturing wild yeasts this year, brewing low gravity test batches with it to test out it's characteristics and then if I capture one I like, i'll unleash it on one of my recipes and see what happens. If I don't find one I like, no worries, i'll just keep perfecting my favorites from the repitoire.

In other words, my focus will be less on quantity and more on quality.

I don't have a schedule of when i plan on brewing what this year per say. My goal now that i have a crusher and 10 gal pot is to achieve a consistent brewing efficiency and work on perfecting my double IPA and American amber ale. Then once I'm comfortable I will move on to my American wheat, American pale ale and English mild or American brown ale. I figure that will take me about a year

Only planned for my next sack of pale malt

Coniston Bitter, BP 1942 XLK, Whitbread 1877 XPS, Fullers London Porter, Bells Two Hearted IPA, Brakspear Triple

I've got my next two brews planned for the next two weekends:

Jan. 5th - Stone Ruination Clone
Jan. 12th - EdWort's Robust Porter

After that I am aiming to brew 1 batch a week through the end of February (at which point I promised SWMBO I would install hardwood floors in the house...at least I'll have beer for it though) but I haven't planned any specifics. I know I want to do my first IIPA, and possible an Imperial Porter as well. I am trying to work on those two general styles for now (Porters and IPA's) but I may try my first hefe or lager this year as well.

Also, there will be regular batches of Apfelwein. My in-laws gave me an entire beginners brewing equipment kit for christmas, while I already had a starting kit from last year, my brothers 5-gal carboy, and a 2nd fermentation bucket I bought on my own last year...so now I have 3 primary's 2 secondary's and 2 bottling buckets (one of which may become a primary)...I am determined to put them all to good use, and Apfelwein is one of the easiest ways to do that.

Those are my plans as of now, I just hope reality doesn't interfere...like last summer when I had to spend a month re-plumbing the entire house due to leaky pipes under the slab...or last spring wen we tiled the kitchen...or this fall after Hurricane Sandy knocked down the fence...

Oh, I also want to plant hops this year.

I've still gotta bottle my pumpkin brown ale since I'm lazy, and I still have plenty of dunkelweizen left. I'm planning on going AG somewhere around February too, but here is the tentative schedule. It'll go faster if I start kegging...and turn my cousin's old fridge into a kegerator. Then I'll be going through my "house beers" at a reasonable clip.

January
Robust Porter
February
Amber Ale
Double IPA
March
IPA
Barleywine
April
Robust Porter
Belgian Strong Pale
May
Amber Ale
American Wheat
June
IPA
Cherry Stout
July
Robust Porter
Saison
August
Amber Ale
Spiced Pumpkin Weizenbock
September
IPA
Winter Warmer version of my Amber Ale
October
Robust Porter
Scottish 80/- or Wee Heavy
November
Amber Ale
Dubbel
December
IPA
Imperial Stout

Stuff I have planned to brew before Spring rolls around and ruins brewing season for me:

Black IIPA
Amber Ale Kit I got for Christmas
Apollo IPA (May make this one a SMaSH)
Punkin Ale

Stuff I'm pondering:

A Mad Elf clone in in early March, so it can age until winter
A Hefeweizen in early spring
My first mead

I tend to brew two ways: with the seasons and with my own whims. There's something great about waking up on a Saturday morning, thinking "I feel like brewing a porter today", and heading to the LHBS for the supplies.

That being said, here's what we've got planned so far:

January
Ordinary Bitter
Falconer's CDA

February
IPA -- probably Citra/Centennial/Nelson Sauvin
Brown Porter

Throughout the summer, I will start on a pretty heavy rotation of Saisons and other Belgians.

In July, I will brew our Holiday Barley Wine.

Other goals for the year: Finally get into lagering; Procure a barrel and begin a Solera project; build a kegerator.

Cheers!

Saison
IPA
Saison
IPA
Saison
IPA
Saison
IPA
Saison
IPA
Saison
IPA
Saison
IPA
Saison
IPA

I don't know the dates yet :rockin:

American IPA, American Brown Ale, American Stout, Saison, repeat.

Mix a few Singels, Dubbels, and Tripels in there and that's all I'm planning for my entire year.

Hey 'delphian...
spam, spam, spam, spam, robust porter, spam and spam....that doesn't have much spam in it. Just trying to be funny...I love how often porter pops up in your list.

Mine looks like this:
about 6x IPA (for me and friends)
about 2x brown ale (moose drool-ish, for how much everyone seems to love it, especially those that pucker at the smell of hops)
about 3x coffee porter (for my friend the roaster and my wife)
about 2 x my bizarre barley/wheat hybrid with caraway (for the roaster's wife)

and a couple attempts at something big like IIPA or wee heavy...if I can get to it soon enough to shelf it for 6-9 months before next Thanksgiving.

Phew...writing it down stresses me out (I generally do 10-12 gallon no-chill batches these days)...too bad it's like 15 degrees outside!

India red ale next week
February : lemon honey wheat
March : should have a lagering fridge, so maybe a bopils
Ipa
Belgians over the summer
stout

mjdonnelly68 said:

This is a really cool idea.

I brewed a crap-ton of different batches last year, hitting about 45 different beers and styles (with mixed results).

This year I'm going to do the opposite and pick 6 recipes and brew the hell out of them until I've got them perfected and down pat.

Click to expand...

This is a great idea, I usually figure out maybe a day or two before I brew and crush the grains the night before, but I may try and do something like this, brewing six or eight different batches (gotta have some choices!)

BAJones said:

This is a great idea, I usually figure out maybe a day or two before I brew and crush the grains the night before, but I may try and do something like this, brewing six or eight different batches (gotta have some choices!)

Click to expand...

When I remembered to brew my Oktoberfest in September last year I told myself I needed to get things together and plan it out. That and the 25 pounds of hops I've accumulated thinking I might need them. Hopefully the plan keeps my costs down and helps me explore some new beers.

Wow. Some great ideas here. I usually research an idea for a few weeks before I finally get around to brewing it.

Right now I have a Belgian IPA in the works, and a simcoe IPA. Want to try some SMaSH's this year, 5.5g batches split between two yeast varieties so I can learn more on hops and yeast flavor characteristics. Definitely will be doing the Deception Cream Ale again and my Rye IPA and Black IPA recipes I've been trying to perfect.

I need to really get my act together with buying the more rare hops before they're sold out.

Would like to try my second lager too, but I hate tying up a fermenter for so long.

Hmmmm planning ahead you say...... I hadn't really considered that. After my first year of brewing I definitely have some repeats I want to do.

Jan to March, still looking for some comfort dark beers
Honey Nut Brown Ale - used brazilian pepper honey, awesome


April to June
Saison was a great summer beer. Need to brew it as soon as the weather turns hot and I can ferment at 80F.
Bells 2 hearted clone, may try it all grain this year. The kit from ebrew.com was spot on.
Summer citrus wheat

July to September
More Saison
Pumpkin ale - still trying to find the perfect spice blend. The best pumpkin ale I tasted was from Pisgah Brewing and they just used cinnamon and nutmeg.


October to December
Chai Milk Stout - one of my best beers adding a chai tea blend
Chocolate Milk Stout - right up there with the chai, made with cacao nib vodka extract
Williams Holiday Ale - great extract kit from Williams Brewing

SWMBO wants a pumpkin ale on a porter base, sounds interesting, I need to work that one into the fall schedule. Those are ones I know. I definitely want to add some new stuff. Its harder to plan that out. At least now I have a start. Thanks for the post.

This year I just wanna really nail down my handful of recipes, while experimenting with Belgian inspired beers. It's hard not to stray from the recipe sometimes, even with cooking I have a hard time following a recipe exactly...
So here's to it! A new year of practice makes perfect, with some fun distractions in between. Cheers everyone!!

I can't think that far in advance.

My schedule goes something like this...

Wednesday or Thursday decide what I want to brew. On Friday go to LHBS and get supplies. Come home make starter. Brew on Saturday or Sunday morning.

Repeat.

This year I just plan to brew more. And brew some styles I haven't brewed before. Just put my first saison in the fermenter and I have oatmeal stout and scotch ale in secondaries and an sob that is keg conditioning. Also, as I have been struggling with mash temps I plan to rework my brew system, perhaps to all electric. Other than that I have no plans.

Brewsday said:

something big like IIPA or wee heavy...if I can get to it soon enough to shelf it for 6-9 months before next Thanksgiving.

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I recently re-listened to a podcast where Jamil Z asserts that hop character can drop as much as 50% after 6 months, so you may want to brew in August or early September? Just an idea!

I've got me a Bourbon Barrel Porter in the works for tomorrow, then a American Hefe Weisen planned for next week and to finish off the month a Belgian Dubbel. And as far as the rest of the year, I usually take it season to season.

I only have three planned so far. A brown ale for my buddy. Then Zombie Dust Clone, and Fathead's Headhunter that I got from Mitch Steele's IPA book. Aside from that a black IPA, and a big stout