2014 Brewyears Resolutions

Let's hear'em.....

Win more medals.

Finally make lagers.

Get a better understanding of water chemistry (hey, Santa! pH Meter for JonM! He's been good!)

Maybe start submitting to comps.

Brew a lager. I keep saying I'm going to do it, but I never get around to it.

I have two:

Finally attempt an all-grain (or at least a partial mash) brew.

Let the keg carbonate fully before "sampling."

Don't know if the second one has a chance...

Neil

Clean beer lines in kegerator more often (or at least at all)

Pay attention to yeast health for re fermentation..

Clonefan94 said:

Brew a lager. I keep saying I'm going to do it, but I never get around to it.

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I'm with you. Hopeful 12/28 brew day.

Design my own beer recipe from scratch and make it.

Get someone new involved in brewing

Start brewing all grain BIAB or brew using a large partial mash.
Send at least one HB to a competition.

Submit a beer to competition. Achieve proper oxygenation when pitching, get my water tested by Ward Labs and start learning a bit about water chemistry.

I resolve to:
1. Convert BMC loving friends to craft/home brew.
2. Upgrade/simplify brew setup.
3. Brew seasonal beers in time for the season

Me...

1. Brew a lager. Beers 3 and 4 in 2014 WILL be lagers.
2. Enter a beer in competition.

1. will be easy.... 2... I'm askeered.

Stop chasing every new recipe that sounds interesting and brew/rebrew my 'solid-six' until they are perfect.

mjdonnelly68 said:

Stop chasing every new recipe that sounds interesting and brew/rebrew my 'solid-six' until they are perfect.

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That's a good one, I do this way too often.

Enter a comp and share beer with more people. Have been brewing for just over a year and I don't share my beer with too many people.

Upgrade my brewing setup from the beginner stage. I think it's time.

Find a beer my wife likes..

Hit the 200 gallon legal limit before 2015
enter some competitions

Build my EBIAB system.

Read the Yeast book by Jamil

Brew at least 50 gallons (one five gallon batch per month)

Have my home brew as one of my family's White Elephant gift. A six pack of holiday/winter ales. Gingerbread Winter Warmer, Mulling Spice Winter Warmer, Spruce IIPA, Belgian Christmas, Rum Oaked Barleywine, and Bourbon RIS.

Get my mash temperatures more consistent.

Get a better understanding of water.

Make cleaner tasting beers.

Water chemistry!
Finally brew the same beer at least a second time.
Take better brew day notes.
Share more homebrew.

Brew more frequently which means handing out more beer which means building a beer gun and buying more cornies. Looks like 2014 should be a good year.

Barleywine

Get into yeast harvesting/culturing/washing, etc. Been using liquid more and more yet have virtually none of the necessary equipment or experience to start making it worth it...literally

That's another one for me as well... Start harvesting yeast.

Every time I pour yeast down the drain, I think "I should really start harvesting this stuff". At 7 bucks a pop, it really would save you money over the course of a year.

I brewed 32 5 gallon batches this year. 224 bucks in yeast alone....

Start brewing sours! I think it's time to make something funky.

Get at least 3 new people into home brewing (a total of 5 this year, was a good year
Sours would be nice but probs not.
Hitting 75% efficiency with batch sparging is def a goal, which water chemistry will come into play a bit.

To brew some belgians and saisons. Two styles I have never done.

I'd like to quit obsessing over equipment and focus more on recipe/process. I'm constantly obsessing over whether I should use carboys/kegs/whatever to ferment in.

I'd also like to brew more recipes from Brewing Classic Styles. I mostly create my own recipes, and while they turn out fine, I'd like to brew other recipes for a change. At least brewing from BCS, I'd have a baseline and if I didn't like it, I'd know it's me and not the recipe.

I'd like to just brew more consistently tasty beer. Seems like I have a lot of hit and miss beers going on. So I'd like to get my recipe choices down the point where each beer is great, instead of having this one be good, the next one be so-so, the next one be great. But I suppose that's the nature of the beast. Just need to appreciate the homebrew for what it is, learn, and move on.

I've brewed hybrid lagers,pale ales,American pale ales,EB's,stout,IPA's,porter. I think it's about time to spend more money & effort rebrewing my good recipes. To much experimenting with new beers instead of just re-brewing the previous ones. At any rate,I'll continue on with partial mash,partial boil brew in a bag beers. I've got everything I need for the entire process,baring breakages.

everything that everyone already said...
i keep looking for new equipment to buy and new procedures to try... but in reality, i am going to try and nail it down to sticking with my current setup (except getting a larger mashtun... didn't like the whole 2 vessel thing, and my 5 gallon MT is too small for me).
SO that is my resolution... stick with recipe formulation and brewing. Also, going into styles i haven't touched ever in the years i've been brewing... Scotch ales, different sours, etc.

I'd like to shift beer-making from obsession back down to hobby status for the year.

first lager
have plenty of pale beers ready for the summer months
join a club
go a whole year with no dumped batches
lengthen the shelf life of my kegged beers.

I need to get all my equipment consolidated to one area and as clean and neat as possible. Got another kid on the way and we need to free up another bedroom that's currently being used as a messy storage room.

Upgrade my pilot system to make it hands off for weeknight brewing.

Start kegging.

Build a brew stand for my gear

Enter competitions; brew a lager; exercise

1. Brew at least 50 batches
2. Convert 3 Sanke kegs I have laying around into a HLT, Mash Tun and Boil Kettle.
3. Nail down my IPA, DIPA, Pale Ale, and Scottish Ale recipes.
4. Stop being antisocial and join a local homebrew club.