Ok everybody, What's up for 2008???

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Bulls Beers

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In the spirt of nosnh0jr's thread last year, What's up for 2008? Ramping up or slowing down??? Is it an extract year or an all grain?
Since i started homebrewing in sept of 07. In 08 i will:

Have 2 beers on tap, and Drinking 3..
Brew all grain....Gulp!!
Get together with other Homebrewers.
Brew better beers...
Make a great guinness beer clone....

Not weigh much more than i do now..:D
and of couse drink some great beer!!!


oh ya, and have a great time in Munich Germany next year....
 
I am going to get a mill and start buying my grain in bulk. That is something I am looking forward to. Not only will the cost of my beers go down doing this, but also to have the ability to brew on a whim is going to be great. I plan on getting a big sack of american two-row, another of MO, and 5-10lb each of different crystal and other various grains. it will be an expensive buy, but considering it will probably be the only ingredients I buy for 6 months it should be worth it. Then my other goal, which I am hopefully going to get going here in a few weeks, is brewing up some lagers. I am pretty sure my basement should get cold enough to do lager fermentations and I have extra room in my chest freezer to lager for extended periods of time. I will probably need to get some more carboy's though.
 
In 2008...

I plan on brewing somewhere between 12 and 24 batches, 5 gallon all grain.

I want at least half those batches to be repeats of brews I've done before. I'm trying to nail down two or three house ales - an IPA, a bitter of somekind, and either a porter or dry stout.

I doubt I will get into kegging this year. I will buy a pond pump for faster cooling, an O2 system for aeration, and a food-saver. This will be the extent of my brewery upgrades for the year.

I want to brew my first belgian beer and my first all grain wheat beer.

I want to brew a good pumpkin ale for Thanksgiving and good holiday ale for Christmas/New Years.

My first brew of 2008 will be the [thread=41782]08-08-08 Russian Imperial Stout.[/thread]

I plan on hanging out with fellow homebrewers more, and continuing to read as much as I can about beer and brewing.

I'd like to get my AG brew time down to about 4 hours so I can do it on weeknights.
 
Build some storage bins for my bulk grains in the brew shop.
Put a bigger TV in my brewshop.
Get at least 8-10 of my cornies filled and hidden for proper aging.
Stock up on some bottles so I can preserve more of my beers longer and free up keg space.
Participate in at least three competitions.
Participate in all swaps on HBT.
Try not to loose a limb while cleaning my keggle.
 
In 2008 I would like to...

1. Start lagering and make schwarzbeir

2. Move from 4 to 6 kegs on tap at all time

3. Add shanks and faucets instead of picnic taps

4. Brew sour belgians

5. Get some oak casks for such belgians

6. Enter at least 1 competition

... hope I'm not setting the bar too high.
 
My goals...

1. Improve overall quality
2. Learn to use new hops
3. Meet more HBTers
4. Build a kegerator
5. Build a single tier stand
6. Get the wife to enjoy Edmund Fitzgerald
7. Brew a couple new styles that I'll like
8. Enter a beer into competition
9. Improve consistancy
10. Further my education on what makes beer great.
 
I'm going to start kegging, and am going to try to convince one of my friends to help me drill my fridge and install taps. I'm not sleeping with him, so I don't know if he'll help me as fast as I'd like.

I'm going to remember to brew in the summer, since September was a pretty dry month for me. I was actually almost out of homebrew until mid-October.
 
1) get a keg to convert to a keggle and start doing 10 gallon batches
2) get more acquainted with malt-oriented beers due to the hop prices/availability
3) make a habit of bottling from the keg, bottling at least a 12-pack or more from each batch in order to build up a good stockpile of different beers to keep a variety on hand at any one time
4) after making a habit of #3, start entering competitions when I have something worthy
5) also participate in HBT beer swaps
6) do some real high-gravity brews, bottle, take them home, stick them in the basement, and forget about them for several months
7) come up with at least one original recipe, rather than modifying someone else's, and brew/revise it until it's good enough to become a real "house" beer
8) stop procrastinating on my brewing-related electronics projects and finish building all the cool gadgets I have in mind, so I can stop kicking myself every time I brew about how much time I could be saving if I had them
9) continue improving my process for yeast culturing (slants) and keep expanding my stock of different liquid yeasts, to have enough variety on hand to brew nearly any style I want, and be able to reliably bring it back to pitchable quantities in a reasonable amount of time
10) improve my palate to the point where I can do a much better job of identifying different good/bad flavors in my beer so I can more easily figure out how to control them. This ought to help a lot with #7
11) do more mini-batches (either on their own or splitting a small amount from a larger batch) to get a better feel for how different grains/hops/yeast affect the beer... This ought to help a lot with #7 and #10

Looking back on my list, I'm pleased with myself that most of the things on the list don't involve spending lots of money on additional equipment. I've only been brewing for about 11 months, but I shudder to think about how much money I've spent so far - it's definitely over $1000 easily (building a kegerator was a big part of it), and maybe closer to $2000, so I very much like the idea that I've finally got most of the stuff that I need for a while and that in 2008 I can dramatically reduce my spending by buying mostly just ingredients and not too much equipment.

And by the way, great thread :D I think setting a list of goals is a great thing, and it really helps to see other people's goals as well.
 
As you guys probably know, I haven't been contributing much around here lately. This has been because my brewing (I feel) reached a point at which major brewery upgrades were required. I've been away from home, working a ton this year, so these upgrades have not been possible, and thus I haven't brewed since May. So, here goes;

1. Get back to my home-slices at HBT
2. Upgrade the SWT brewery.
3. Keggerator.
4. Brew the **** out of the new brewery
5. Put another story on my house.
6. Build a new garage
7. Get something with 'twin turbo' in it's description to put in new garage. :D
 
  1. Build a Kegerator (sanyo 4912, here I come)
  2. Break old habits, like procrastinating on yeast washing.
  3. Perfect a few more House Recipes
  4. Do more brewing with other HBT'ers
  5. Convince the wife that NHBC '08 is worth the 8 hour drive to Cincy. Even if she doesn't want to join me.
 
1. Get an aeration system
2. Go all-grain
3. Make a mead
4. Make a barleywine
5. Make a wine
6. Get more equipment
7. Visit more breweries and brewpubs
 
1. Actually Start Brewing
2. Switch to All-Grain by my 3rd batch.
3. Visit Florida breweries.
4. Find more goals.
 
1. Build a kegerator (hopefully a stand up freezer model with 5 taps on top and space to lager underneath).
2. Brew some lagers.
3. Buy more kegs. 17 just isn't enough
4. Enter some comps.
5. Get together with some of the locals for brew days and activities. In general get more involved with the local club.
6. Plant some hops.
7. Buy another conical
8. Motorize my mill and build a milling station. (tired of using a drill).
9. Do some decoctions
10. Par down my inventory of grains. I'm still sitting on over 500 pounds.
 
Goals for 2008:
1.Enter a national homebrew competition
2.Develop my own 'house' lambic blend
3.Refrain from drinking stored beer from 2007
4.Improve upon my RIS,Barleywine,Saison,Belgian Strong Dark(westy
12),Tripel, and Sour recipes/brewing
5.Attend the NHC
6.Brew at least 2-3 more batches of pLambic(in 08); to be able to
blend 1,2,&3 year-old pLambics to make a Gueze.
7.Brew over an open, wood/coal fire
8.Bury a few beers in the ground to age
 
Well I have only been brewing for 6 months so my goals are simple:
1. Become a better brewer.
2. Let my fermenters sit for at least a month before touching.
3. Let my bottled brew sit for at least three weeks before touching.
4. Brew twice a month.
5. Brew new styles, especially ones I have never cared for in the past.
6. Create a recipe of my own, and brew it again and again until I get it right.
7. Enter in one competition.
 
Get the Brew Hut built
Start using my Blichmann Conical
Brew a Barleywine
Lose some weight
Win some homebrew competitions.
 
  • Begin brewing outside and at club events.
  • Understand and possibly utilize step and decoction mashing (when necessary).
  • Spread the spectrum and develop an arsenal of both increasingly complex and increasinly simple beers.
  • Brew a few "year-agers" (Barleywine, Belgian Strong Dark).
  • Experiment with blending and aging (yeasts, batches & oak, etc.).
  • Become more involved in my homebrew club.
  • Convert a few extract brewers to AG without EAC-toned preaching.
 
1.) Brew a ton of kits

I used to think I knew what I liked. My first batch was an Irish Red Ale because I liked Killian's... It's a lager and MY Irish Red was a huge disappointment. In the process of downing that batch I tossed in commercial brews and now have new favourites bordering on "balanced" but a few other things that aren't "balanced". So, I need to brew a spectrum to find what I like and don't, since it's changed since I began brewing.

2.) Expand Qbrew.

I'm a Free Software zealot, I refuse to install anything on my computer, or recommend to others to do the same, that I can't share with other people legally. I also demand to know what it's doing which requires the source code. That said, despite the recommendations to install BeerSmith, it's isn't going to happen. So I'm going to expand my C++ programming skill and contribute back to the homebrewing community by adding needed features to Qbrew which can be shared Freely.

3.) Do "Week-o-brew".

I spend 10 hours messing with computer things every day. When involved with Free Software (like homebrewing) other programs (beer) begin pissing you off. You KNOW you can do the same thing, but better! Unfortunately, my job forces me to continue using tools I consider sub-par and it pisses me off. The frustrations build up until I'm ready to explode. Luckily, finding homebrewing helped me manage that stress. So, I am beginning to plan out a week-long homebrew vacation where I can just brew, brew, brew. It's looking as if it will be in late Jan. or early Feb but we'll see.

4.) Make a signature brew

Edwort has this Haus Pale Ale and apfelwein. Cheesefood has the CCA, orfy has the Hobgoblin. Through experimenting and doing my spectrum of beers, I'm going to develop a brew that is original enough to be called "mine" and good enough to want to drink and brew it. :)

The "Hop Shortage of 2007-2008" means brewers will have to get inventive, especially with the use of hops. Perhaps my brew will use some lesser known hop varieties... We'll see.
 
1. Run electricity in my rig and mount pumps.
2. Create splash-protective housing for pumps.
3. Bottle at least 6 beers from each batch for swaps/competition/gifts
4. Get a Barleycrusher
5. Start buying/storing grains in bulk.
6. Move out of SoCal and to North Chicago...hopefully meet some brew-friendly folks!
7. Try a lager for once.
 
We're now on track to go All Grain before Thanksgiving, so that milestone will hopefully be checked off before the new year begins.

In that case our group to do list includes:

1) Dial in the new AG system
2) Get some corny kegs
3) Get a fermentation cooler built before summer

Since we brew at my friend's house and I just bought a house with a nice but unfinished basement, my personal goal is to get the basement finished out to where I can start brewing at my house.
 
I like this. Kind of like pre-New Year's resolutions. Mine include . . .

  • Dial in my mash procedures to hit a consistent efficiency
  • Work out a system to control fermentation temperatures better
  • Do a split batch big beer/small beer in the old parti-gygle style
  • Try my hand at ciders, perrys and maybe a braggot/mead
  • Participate in beer swaps
  • Enter a couple of competitions to get more systematic feedback
  • Develop a "house beer" that I brew every couple of batches and really nail down
  • Brew a lager or two (preferably Mexican cerveza style amber)
  • Brew seasonally

That should keep me busy for a while.
Chad
 
for me...

1) start leaving it in primary, secondary and bottles longer.
2) try my hand at adding wood chips to some IPA's and/or pale ales.
3) buy a house by years end, 09 might be the big swtich to AG, i want to so bad
4) i'm a hop head, most of my family/friends aren't, so either convert them or learn to brew with different grains...
5) knock down a great "house, ummm apartment ale" that i'll try to brew every few months, maybe trying different finishing hops with each batch.
6) just keep expanding my horzion of beers from different microbrews.
7) if i dont buy a house, then take a trip to europe with the gf and maybe have a beer or two ;)
 
I'm going to build a sexy single tier sculpture.
I'm going to go AG.
I'm going to keg.
I'm going to swap beers.
I'm going to lager.
I'm going to try and grow some hops.
Teach a friend to brew.
Get some Edmund Fitzgerald:D



We'll see if I can do all of that in one year.
 
Beer-wise 2007 was big...Lagers,Kegging,keezer,12gal.batch,sculpture.For 08' we hope to;fine tune beer machine(single tier sculpture),barter growlers,pool table in garage bar,more stools too,also more and bigger TV(s)with surround type sound...Real taps,instead of pic-nics.

brewsculpture006.jpg
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Cheers:mug:
 
Build a keggerator
Brew a ton to get the kinks out
Understand enough about brewing to "create" a beer without someone elses instructions
Experiment with the other people's instructions until goal number 3 is done
 
1. Meet a bunch of HBT'ers at NHC '08 in Cincy.
2. Brew at least 1 sour beer
3. Purchase 10+ kegs and an extra CO2 tank
4. Establish reliable, repeatable haus recipes for my PA, Kolsch, Amber, Porter and Stout.
5. Get started (again) on my homebrewpub
6. Submit beers to competitions. A minimum of 4 to NHBC
7. Brew more in '08 than the 32 batches that I've done so far in '07.
8. Tweak and attempt to perfect my seasonals - IIPA, RIS, Spring Ale (Wit), Summer Ale (Wit)
9. Brew a barleywine to store until '09.
10. Teach more people how to brew (I've taught 5 people so far)
11. Convince SWMBO that we need to bring the Sanyo and 2 full kegs to NHBC '08 :rockin:
 
My goals:
Brew more than I did this year.
Converting all my recipes to PMs.
Brew at least 1 lager that doesn't suck.
Bring at least one person into the obsession.
Participate in a swap.


YooperBrew said:
I'm going to start kegging, and am going to try to convince one of my friends to help me drill my fridge and install taps. I'm not sleeping with him, so I don't know if he'll help me as fast as I'd like.

Sounds to me like that could be easily remedied.


Cheesefood said:
My goals...

6. Get the wife to enjoy Edmund Fitzgerald

I think we should all work on this one!
 
I just hope to make some better beers, and I'm going to have another swing at making some Lagers or Pilsners come 2008 when its nice and cool and easy for me to keep the temps under control.

Resolution wise, the only major plan I have is to get some cabinets installed in my garage where I can do the brewing outside or in the garage and get it out of the kitchen.
 
Since I have zero homebrew buit up from moving a few states away, I'll refill my stock plus make sure to brew about 15-20 extra gallons for my wedding on 6-7-8.

In other words I may have to go over my goverment imposed quota for 08.
 
I kinda feel like I'm starting to enter Phase III of my homebrewing. I've got the gear all accumulated (except for faucets on the kegerator, which should be done by the weekend). I've got the lagerator set. I've got the grain mill, my chiller's in good order. Most of the projects I've been working on, beer-wise, are done except for making some more storage.

I do need to score a submersible pump so I can better chill my wort, especially for lagers.

So, now it's a matter of perfecting some things. I want my efficiency to average north of 75%. I want to learn about water chemistry and how to adjust it. There's a chance that there will be some BJCP classes starting up locally, which I will absolute do if they're offered. I'll enter my first competitions.

Basically, now's the time to keep practicing. First, though, I have some kegs to empty - anyone wanna come over and drink?
 
1) Average at least one brew per month
2) Convert my 10 gallon cooler to a mash tun
3) Go partial mash for good (at least until I can go all-grain)
4) Re-brew a previous recipe (other than 311 Day)
5) Make Apfelwein
6) Come up with a label
7) Experiment with new hops and grains to expand my HB knowledge
8) Meet some fellow GRABASS homebrewers
9) Enter a competition
10) Attend a homebrew club meeting
 
I could have sworn I posted my brew goals for 2008 in a thread somewhere, but I can't seem to locate it...

We're quickly approaching the halfway point for 2008, and I thought I'd give this a bump to see how everyone's plans have panned out.

Me? I planned on brewing at least one batch a month. I've done 5 in 6 months, so I'm not too far off, but I have gone AG. I've also only made one batch of Apfelwein, and 2 grape wines, so I'm at around 42 gallons of fermented goods for the year. I actually started my mead on 12/28/07, so it doesn't count in this.

I'm pretty satisfied with my year, but more beer would be better!
 
I had planned on AG this year and kegging by year's end, but due to a big tax refund and a Craigslist deal, I've managed to do this all before April. Now I just need to ramp up my production to fill the empty kegs.
 
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