Brew calendar....

Anyone know of a good link for one? I want something to refer to when it is time to brew certain beers....for example, start your pumpkin ale in late August to have it ready by October, or start your Dry Stout by mid January to have it ready by St. Paddy's Day...that kind of thing. I know some beers, like an authentic Oktoberfest, are brewed in March and lagered until the big fest.....

Let's have 'em, or let's create one and post a sticky. I wouldn't mind a monthly reminder either--we could put that up as a sticky as well....."Remember, brew your hefeweizen NOW to have it ready for summer drinking!"

I think that would be kind of cool......

I love the idea. I personaly do not know how to go about doing it.

I agree. It's a great idea and is something I would use.

Wild

I definitely like this idea. I have been thinking about this for awhile now. A post from Walker on this subject, a while ago, got me started.

I planned to stick to German seasonal brews, however. One tool I'm using is MS project to figure out when to brew what beer (given the time spent in the primary, secondary and aging) to brew when. I posted a thread some time ago asking for a program that can be used to figure out a brew calender.

Here is my current Schedule

2 weeks before Easter (during the time of Lent): Starkbier (any brew >16 Plato should do)
month of may: Maibock (I have seen quite a number of recipes floating around)
End of September: Oktoberfest
Month of December: Festbier (I'd go with a strong, >16 Plato, dark Lager)

And then there are of course different kinds of beers you like to enjoy in the spring, summer, fall and winter. Since I will not give them so much time to age/lager, I will plan and brew on an as needed basis.

Only for the Oktoberfest there is a traditional brew time (March) which may pose quite some problems to us home brewers. There is the need to allocate a carboy or keg for 6+ months and I'm not sure if we can actually keep it clean enough to make the beer keep that long. However, I'm going to brew one batch of Oktoberfest in March and another batch at the end of July so I will have 2 batches ready for an Oktoberfest party.

I soon have to get on the Ball for the Starkbier that I want to have ready for Easter. I think something light (like a Maibock) will probably do.

Kai

How much shipped?

XTrmXJ said:

How much shipped?

Click to expand...

Okay...let's get something down so we can compile a calendar.....

Let's start month-by-month? Make suggestions/corrections as necessary, brainstorm, then we'll get a good idea down on paper and create it....

Jan?--St. Paddy's stout (late January...)? Irish Red?
Feb?--Irish Red?
March--Oktoberfest lager?
April--Hefe? (late April to be ready by summer?) IPA?
May--Maibock, Hefe?
June--
July--
August--Pumpkin Beer
September--Spice beer for holidays? Winter Stout?
October--Winter Stout?
November--Stout?
December--

I would throw in a barleywine or Imperial stout somewhere in the Jan-Mar range for Christmas with the family.

You guys have no idea how many times I've started doing a chart like this.

I saw one in a book...title unknown...but I didn't need anything else from the pages...so it remained on the shelf.

As for spiced brews for the holidays I would HIGHLY recommend 6 months ahead of scheduled tap date so the spices can mellow...

The book you are looking for is A year of Beer. My wife just purchased it for me. In the front of the book it has a chart on what to brew and when to brew it. Starts with Altbier brew first part of Oct. ready to drink mid Dec. Barleywine takes almost 11 months. Others such as Fruit beers brew first of April ready to drinf by mid to lateJune for summer beer.

Start typing away.... to inform the rest of us!

Let me get a beer and I'll get started.

cap46 said:

Let me get a beer and I'll get started.

Click to expand...

whadda guy!

By the Book
Style When to Brew When to Drink
Altbier 1st Oct. mid Dec.
Barley Wine 1st Feb. mid Dec.
Belgian Strong ale, Trappist 1st Aug. end Jan.
Belgian White 1st June end July
Biere de Garde/Saison 1st Feb. end May
Bitter 1st Oct. mid Nov.
Bock 1st Jan. end March
Brown Ale U.S. 1st Nov. end Dec.
Brown Ale U.K. 1st Sept. end Oct.
California Common 1st Sept. end Oct.
Doppelbock 1st Nov. end Feb.
Dortmunder 1st Nov. end Dec.
Dunkelweizen 1st April mid May
Extra Special Bitter 1st Oct. mid Dec.
Eisbock 1st Sept. end Feb.
Festbier 1st April mid June
Fruit Beer 1st April mid to late June
Imperial Stout 1st Jan. mid Dec.
India Pale Ale 1st March end June
Kolsch 1st March end March
Lambic 1st March end May
1st June end Feb.
Lager U.S. 1st April end June
Maibock 1st Feb. end May
Marzen/Oktoberfest 1st Feb. late Aug.
Mead mid Dec. mid Dec.
Mild Ale 1st Sept. end Sept.
Munich Helles/Dunkles 1st Jan. end March
Old Ale 1st May end Sept.
Pale Ale 1st March end March
end April mid June
Pilsener 1st Feb. end April
Porter 1st Feb. end Feb.
Red Ale 1st Feb. end Feb.
Scotch Ale 1st April end Dec.
Scottish Ale 1st Sept. mid Oct.
Schwarzbier 1st Dec. mid Jan.
Smoked Beer 1st Sept. mid Nov.
Spiced Ale mid Oct. end Dec.
Stout, Dry end Jan. end Feb.
Stout, Specialty 1st Oct. end Nov.
Weisse, Berliner 1st June end July
Weizen 1st June mid July
Weizenbock mid July mid Dec.

I'm not much of acomputer dude. Hope you can figure it out if not let me know.

Fantastic! Saved...

Does the book mention the procedures followed? For example, a few of the styles look to be ready in a month which is pushing it using my procedure of primary/secondary/bottling (although kegging would work). No problem adjusting those, however.

What about the lambic....I'm assuming that's 14 months and not 2?

Thanks cap46....that is what we needed.

Now...how do we make it into a calendar type thing? i think one of the 4 mods can remember each month to make the current months beers a sticky.....

I'll get one started....

Great! Now I'll paste it into a chart for my use.

I appreciate your input! (And your wife for getting the book for you).

Thanks.

cap46,

Thanks for the list.

Is there also information on the resources necessary to follow this brew calender? Number of carboys and bottled needed for example.

Kai

I modified your list to be more to my liking. Unfortunately, the XL Spreadsheet format doesn't keep.

I also changed Marzen to March-September instead of Feb-Aug.

Can I email it to someone and have them post it?

Seems to me that this VBulletin that TxBrew has running here probably has a calendar built in, if not I'm sure there's a plug in for it . ..

yep, on the website its listed as one of the features:
http://www.vbulletin.com/features.php

oh and there's a calendar on the menu bar up there. I bet this stuff can be entered into that . . .
Yeah, looks like anybody can enter stuff in there. If not anybody, then surely a mod can do it.

edit - yep anyone can enter stuff. I just entered a "test" event for today.
It even looks like you can add different calendars - like say a brewing calender for instance . . .

BeeGee said:

Fantastic! Saved...

Does the book mention the procedures followed? For example, a few of the styles look to be ready in a month which is pushing it using my procedure of primary/secondary/bottling (although kegging would work). No problem adjusting those, however.

What about the lambic....I'm assuming that's 14 months and not 2?

Click to expand...

By reading the page on Lambic in the book it takes longer than ayear to age properly. So they must of had typo on calender. I agree with you on the styles that show to be ready in a month. Looking at the recipes in the book all of the ones that show to be ready in a month stayed infermenters for at least 6 weeks.

The book says that the calendar represents a reasonable amount of time for you to brew and when you could enjoy. These are the traditional brewing times with suggestions for a consistent brewing schedule. Use as a guideline. The times for each style my vary due to pitching rate, proper temperature, and wort aeration. So change to what you want. Glad I could help.

How about a "Men of Homebrewing 2006" calender, with all of us poseing with our favorite home brew?

Beermaker said:

How about a "Men of Homebrewing 2006" calender, with all of us poseing with our favorite home brew?

Click to expand...

Can we go topless or is that the requirements for the Halloween calendar?

cap46 said:

The book says that the calendar represents a reasonable amount of time for you to brew and when you could enjoy. These are the traditional brewing times with suggestions for a consistent brewing schedule. Use as a guideline. The times for each style my vary due to pitching rate, proper temperature, and wort aeration. So change to what you want. Glad I could help.

Click to expand...

I know what you mean. According to the chart you can only brew on the 1st!

On my tweaked list I removed all traces of the "1st", "mi", and "end" and just kept the month. We all know a week here and there really doesn't matter with style...as long as the Christmas beer is ready at Christmas and not in mid-Feb.

He all just found this link on the brew club St. Louis Brews: 2006 St. Louis Brews Schedule – Official

cap--thanks for making this list happen. Everyone that read it should send you a beer. Is the book valuable beyond this timetable?

It has a lot of reciipes. Most of which have won gold, silver in competitions. Most are from mid 1990's. Gives me ideas, then I play.

homebrewer_99 said:

I modified your list to be more to my liking. Unfortunately, the XL Spreadsheet format doesn't keep.

Can I email it to someone and have them post it?

Click to expand...

You can e-mail it to me if you want--I don't know how to embed XLS files into a post though. If someone knows how to do that lemme know.

Do you like the way it is on the sticky right now? Should I change it to something else? I was kind of waiting for suggestions on that and no one jumped in.....

See how ya'all like this. http://home.sw.rr.com/sconner/

merc said:

See how ya'all like this. http://home.sw.rr.com/sconner/

Click to expand...

NICE.....is that your'n???

If so , mind if we steal it?

Yep. Copy away. I took the list cap posted, and cleaned it up a bit. The months that have 2 months in one block is esentially end of first month/begining of second month.
Then I did a couple of data sorts, one by "When to Brew Date", and one by "Ready to Drink By." Hope this is somewhat like what ya'all were looking for. And if anyone needs/wants the actual *.xls file, just email me. The addy is in my profile.

merc said:

Yep. Copy away. I took the list cap posted, and cleaned it up a bit. The months that have 2 months in one block is esentially end of first month/begining of second month.
Then I did a couple of data sorts, one by "When to Brew Date", and one by "Ready to Drink By." Hope this is somewhat like what ya'all were looking for. And if anyone needs/wants the actual *.xls file, just email me. The addy is in my profile.

Click to expand...

You seem computer savvy to have built that and then put it into html....can you tell me how to add that to a post here?

I'll just go ahead and add it to the sticky immediately....That is VERY nice work!

BTW...please send me the XLS!

my e-mail

E-mail sent. As for putting it into html, I just copied it from the xls, then pasted into my websites index page while in Microsoft Frontpage. how to do it for a post, I'm not sure.

OK, it's morning, and I could put more than a few minutes into this. How about some jpegs. They are a little large to preserve the legibility with the font. And please forgive any mis-spelling on the pages. These are 2 seperate images, just right click, save as.

merc said:

See how ya'all like this. http://home.sw.rr.com/sconner/

Click to expand...

merc said:

Yep. Copy away. I took the list cap posted, and cleaned it up a bit. The months that have 2 months in one block is esentially end of first month/begining of second month.
Then I did a couple of data sorts, one by "When to Brew Date", and one by "Ready to Drink By." Hope this is somewhat like what ya'all were looking for. And if anyone needs/wants the actual *.xls file, just email me. The addy is in my profile.

Click to expand...

Is there one that will be so nice to re-upload the file that is linked to?

I don't have the exact link. But here's a "when to brew" calendar that I ran across a while back.

Thanx..

Northern Brewer has a really detailed one on their blog.

http://www.northernbrewer.com/brewing-calendar/