Brew Year Resolution - 2012 Brewing Goals

1) never have my denijohns or fermintation bins empty.
simple

To finish my keggle conversions, move to all grain and build my brew rig. Anything that happens after that is a bonus.

1. Nail down around 4-5 regular recipes.
2. Do my first sour blend.

1. Finish my HERMS setup
2. Get freezer for fermentation

I had a very fortunate rookie year in 2011, and I'm sure I can improve on it in 2012. I never used extracts, even at the start, and when grains were hard to come by or I didn't have the right equipment I concentrated on meads and ciders. Consequently, some of the things I see people wanting to do in 2012 are things I did when logic dictated I shouldn't have been ready. Having brewed AG right from the start, developed my own recipes for everything I have brewed, and made a mead, I feel I'm doing ok for a start. Here's the plan for 2012.

1. Build a better mash tun and get a bigger brew kettle.
2. Get my pipeline in shape in terms of quantity and diversity. Right now supply has trouble keeping up with demand.
3. Start kegging beers.
4. Remember to get to the apples before the geese get them this cider season.
5. Make a much much bigger batch of molasses porter next time around. It disappeared way too fast.

1) Set up the outdoor rig (I've been a stovetop brewer all along and got a Blichman burner as a birthday gift)

2) Learn about water chemistry. My municipal tap water is great but I'll soon be moving to a different suburb and that's a good opportunity to start adjusting water.

3) Experiment with yeasts. I have lots of 3-gal fermenters so I'll do lots of 5 gallon batches, which I'll split into 2 fermenters and use different yeasts on each one.

4) Make mead.

I either need to tear up my back porch area and get some proper drainage back there, or move my brew days to the garage, which involves wiring electric & running water to the right places.

1. Place first in a category in a competition. Have a few 2nds and a few 3rds.
2. Brew something weird outside my comfort zone...something sour, oaked, or both.

get a full boil set up and possibly do some BIAB batches since currently doing partial kits now
2 brew lots and lots of beer

Start brewing original recipes by year's end

Here's mine.

1. Get a brewstand or Brutus.
2. Enter a competition.
3. Prefect my "Chocolate Thunder" beverage.
4. Start a yeast farm to keep and grow different yeasts.
5. Drink more homebrew.

To make consistently good tasting beer. In 2011 I wanted to develop partial mash recipes; a house pilsner, Belgian and an IPA. I managed to make a great IPA and a good witbier, but failed on the pilsner. In 2012 I plan to stick to my good recipes and brew much less. Yes, I said brew less :-(

petep1980 said:

To make consistently good tasting beer.

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Mine is about the same, but I want to make GREAT beer. I've had a few great ones, but most are just good.

Along those same lines:

• Get total control of fermentation temperature.
• Brew several beers for the NHC.
• Brew new (to me) beer styles while I'm at it.

insulate and get water and electric to the brew shed..
get my three tier stand built
learn about my water
teach someone else to brew

My 2012 Brew year resolutions are....

Brewing
My brewing buddies and I brewed 3 times in 2010.. HORRIBLE! We'll brew at least 12 batches, so every other month ideally.

Logging
I will log every batch with notes and so forth on the brewday, fermentation, aging and tasting (including kick date on the kegs! ) Started on this at TBD Brewing

Competition
We will enter our Stout and Steam in competition this year, and hopefully medal (also, brew another batch of stout! the last one was brewed a year and a half ago already!)

My only goal this year is to brew more often than I did last year.

Brew the Twelve Hopostles, and start work on my English beer lineup. I also want to paint and organize my brewing storage and fermentation area.

Boerderij_Kabouter said:

Brew the Twelve Hopostles.

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Did that last year. Those are solid brews and you can just sub any hop you want.

Great thread!

Build an eight keg kegerator.
Turn a sanke keg into a fermentor.
Finalize my eight on tap beers.
Build a rims tube.
Continue to tweak my single vessel biab keggle.

Whats the 12 Hopostles? sounds like it would be right up my alley.

EDIT: Forgot to add my resolutions:
1. Brew at least 2 batches a month (10 gal a month)
2. Move up to all grain
3. Find some beers that I like other than IPAs

jhorgan1 said:

Whats the 12 Hopostles? sounds like it would be right up my alley?

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https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/twelve-hopostles-154488/

hedge_87 said:

get a full boil set up and possibly do some BIAB batches since currently doing partial kits now
2 brew lots and lots of beer

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Just did one! Upgraded to a 60 quart pot and burner today for the ag. I guess I will add brew better beer this year too

1 - I'd really like to brew a beer that I feel is up to par with my fav craft brews. I think I will achieve that.
2 - Possibly brew a lager for the first time.
3 - I'd like to try a decoction mash for the first time too

1) Become BJCP certified
2) Brew more than last year (30 Gallons)
3) Do a Decotion (sp) mash

1. Enter a competition
2. Go to a homebrew club meeting

I am an antisocial brewer and most feedback comes from friends who don't really have trained palates. I figure this is the year to break out and see if my brew is really as good as I think it is.

supe_kitchen said:

1. Enter a competition
2. Go to a homebrew club meeting

I am an antisocial brewer and most feedback comes from friends who don't really have trained palates. I figure this is the year to break out and see if my brew is really as good as I think it is.

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Does that mean you are an anti-social who happens to be a brewer, or you just don't mix socializing and brewing?

Edit: A couple brewskis tends to fix most anti-socials I know, even if just temporarily.

My goals for 2012:

1.) Keep my sour beer pipeline going by brewing a sour every four months and expanding my stable of bottle-harvested yeasts and bacteria

2.) Get an oak barrel for sour beer conditioning

3.) If I get a job that actually pays decent money, upgrade to 10-g batches using a nice brew stand and Blichmann pots

4.) Brew more batches with my wife and teach her to "fly solo"

5.) Get four more kegs.

6.) Make at least one batch of cider, mead and wine

7.) Help building the customer base of the LHBS

Goals for 2012:
1.) Develop a great IPA house recipe from scratch
2.) Understand the water chemistry a little better (want the flavor's of the beer to pop/become a little more "bright")
3.) Build a keezer
4.) (although i'm not any good with wiring) aquire a fermentation chamber (probably will do a wine fridge)
5.) Brew at least 2 IIPA's
6.) Enter into a competition/get more people to try and give feedback/join a club
7.) Enjoy it a bit more!

joety said:

Does that mean you are an anti-social who happens to be a brewer, or you just don't mix socializing and brewing?

Edit: A couple brewskis tends to fix most anti-socials I know, even if just temporarily.

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I just don't mix socializing and brewing. My job requires me to be social with random strangers and when I get home I am usually worn out and just want alone time with my brew sculpture. My friends are into some good beer but I want some feedback from other brewers. I even get emails from a brew club near me, guys I met at a beerfest, I just never go.

1) Brew once per month
2) Enjoy every drop of my beer.
3) Repeat above as necessary.

1) Not purchase commercial brews for the home
1A) Keep my pipeline running smooth for goal 1 to happen
2) Set up pump system so I don't hurt my back anymore
3) Maintain cost sheet for all equipment and ingredients purchased
3A) Keep cost of beer below $1 per 12oz. over entire course of the year

1. Improve my hot break by buying a propane burner and moving outside
2. Improve my cold break by making an immersion chiller
3. Getting my yeast to attenuate better
4. Repeat as needed....

Brewing 195 gallons of something or another. I'm off to a good start with 25 this year. Sunday will make it 35. Also, try more out of the box styles; smoked, sour, fruit, spiced, etc. Sunday I am doing a cream ale with hatch green chilies in the boil, that were smoked! So I guess that can almost take care of two categories.

Simple goals for me this year with it being my second year of homebrewing

1) Try at least 1 Brew in a Bag so i can have at least tried all grain
2) Brew my APA as often as possible until I have a highly repeatable recipe which i enjoy
3) Move to full volume boils

Sell my project car and convert my garage to a nice brew pub.
Build a ferm chamber
Get my wife to try one of my beers.

I wanted to brew every style but there are some I just have no interest in making. Like anything Belgian. So my goal is to brew all the non-Belgian beer styles.

Cellarbrau said:

I wanted to brew every style but there are some I just have no interest in making. Like anything Belgian. So my goal is to brew all the non-Belgian beer styles.

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This is a good one, I may adopt this, however I don't believe I'll try my hand at a lambic...atleast not yet.

My goal for this year is to brew a lot of sour beers, 8 in total this year actually, all different from one another. Past that I'm also not going to brew any new recipes (except for the sours) but rebrew all of my favorites from years past to see if I can replicate easily.

Strawberry ginger kolsch
Born to be Mild
Belgian IPA (apparently someone on here won an award with my recipe)
Nelson Sauvin saison
Belgian Single
Black saison

Will all be rebrewed.

1 Brew 60gal in one day of a Barley wine to be aged in a Bourbon Barrel cause what is the point if you don't fill it.
2 Build 50gal conical fermenters
3 build a Glycol jacketed mash tune that tilts
And a 55 gal kettle
4 get my tape through the wall and refrigerated lines ran so I don't have to walk so far
5 get better with each batch, fine tune the ones we like

Keg
Bourbon Barrel aged Black Imperial IPA + 13gal in carboy
Applewood Smoked IPA
Robust Porter
4-5 empty

Primary
11gal Flanders Red
Choc. Hazelnut Porter

Secondary
Unfiltered Wheat
Irish Red
Coffee Stout
Blackberry Ale
5gal mixed berry wine