Brew Schedule

I've made 21 batches o' beer since September 2011, but feel like I could have done a lot more with some better planning and organization. I wanted to share the result: my brew schedule for the rest of 2012. One beer every Sunday until December 31st, then the 2013 calendar will be made if this works out like I think it will. 2 months have 5 weekends which means extra brew day (recipes tbd on those). You'll also notice that English Bitters appears a lot, it's my wife's favorite and many homebrew messes/expenses are forgiven as a result of its continued production.

August: English Bitters ( my recipe), Rye Kentucky Common Ale (revvy's recipe, there's a thread on it), English Bitters, Left Handed Milk Stout Clone.
September: Hefe (my recipe), Dogfish Head Pumpkin Ale Clone, English Bitters, American IPA, Extra Brew Day
October: Cranberry Weiss, English Bitters, Winter Warmer, Sierra Nevada Celebration Clone
November: English Bitters, Spaten Optimator Clone, Magic Hat #9 Clone,Caramel Apple Hard Cider
December: Winter Porter, Kolsch, English Bitters, IPA (my recipe), Extra Brew Day

Special Note: I'm in north central Texas where winter arrives in January, if at all, so if my seasonality seems a bit off thats why. It goes from 30 to 70 and back again at the drop of a hat through January and February, so I'll have spring and winter seasonals on hand to be prepared for any weather.

If your drinking can keep pace with that brew schedule, I'd say go for it!! Personally, that would be entirely too much beer for someone like me, but hey, whatever floats your boat!

I like to brew a couple beers in one day, and then on other days or weekends that I am not brewing - that is when I bottle or keg. Of course, if you are just brewing one in a day, you could maybe mix in some kegging or bottling.

Holy smokes that's a lot of brewing. Your wife is ok with you brewing every Sunday?

I brew everything entirely based on what I'm craving the week prior, what my friends/family are asking for, and what homebrew is already down in the basement, so me trying to make a schedule of any sort would probably be a waste of time. I wish I had the capacity to brew every weekend, but that would probably result in way too many beers past their prime by the time I got around to drinking them.

phenry said:

I brew everything entirely based on what I'm craving the week prior, what my friends/family are asking for, and what homebrew is already down in the basement, so me trying to make a schedule of any sort would probably be a waste of time. I wish I had the capacity to brew every weekend, but that would probably result in way too many beers past their prime by the time I got around to drinking them.

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Same here. What's a schedule?
Chopsbrewery, I'm jealous. I would love to brew every Sunday, but I think that would drive my wife crazy.

My wife is ok with it as long as beers that she likes are in the fridge. The schedule is always open to change based on what I feel like, and I tried to balance it out so my long term bottle conditioners can get plenty of rest while I still have beer to drink. I also blended my single stage fermenter brews in so that this can all be done with 3 fermenters. I'll get a fourth so that I have room to let things sit longer if they need to. I'm gonna test this schedule thing for 5 months and make changes moving forward based on the experience.

It's 3 years later, and I just logged in for the first time in a long time. Didn't even remember posting this. That schedule crap didn't work. I wound up with a ton of beer, creating the very dangerous precedent of giving tons away to friends and family. Plus there is so much great beer out there now that I only brew about once a month these days, and it's primarily experiments based on clones of some of the good beers I've found in bars or by friend's recommendations. I have some go-to beers that are purely my recipe that I still to as well, but at a waaaay more relaxed pace.

I brewed a lot more often when the hobby was new and exciting.

I still brew often enough to (almost always) have a couple of beers to choose from. But, right now I have 4 beers in kegs that are all conditioning. I got lazy in my packaging and ran out. Some of these sat in primary for over a month and one was originally brewed in April last year. A 10% ABV beer that I aged quite a while then kegged. It was sickly sweet so I transferred it back to a Better Bottle and added champagne yeast. I then let it sit for a few more months. I tried a sample when re-kegging it and it is now quite good.

All my fermenters are now empty! I need to brew so I don't run out again.

So, no real schedule. Just brew when it seems right or the need for more beer.

I've discovered that without actually setting a schedule, I seem to fall into an average of about 3 weeks between brews except for a bit of a break around the holidays. My wife's family and mine get together fairly frequently and I have become the go to beer supplier for these gatherings. I usually have a half dozen different brews available at any given time. I also set aside a 6 pack of most brews (those that will age well) to save for our annual Oktoberfest party. This schedule works well for our general consumption/sharing rate.