2010 Brewing goals

[BBKing]

1. Try a non-kit recipe by Feb. (almost there)
2. Have an understanding of what different yeasts will cause what
3. let my mead sit for at least 6 months without touching a single bottle
4. work on patience to allow more time in primary/secondary/bottle

 

[jamesnsw]

• Get my AG setup actually working
• Get a mill so I can buy in bulk
• Keep my pipeline full and varied
• Speed up my bottling
• Make a bigger beer (Above 1.080 or so)
• Make another mead to keep that pipeline full
• Maybe a lager?

 

[BrianTheBrewer]

1) Brew a true Kolsch
2) Brew a lager

 

[Stagnasty]

Right now, i am making 6 gals for $6,,, But I use 6 gal buckets that I have to process every week, I am hopeing to move to a 30 gal barrel, so that i can cut it down to to once a month instead of once a week.

I am also looking into a cheaper sugar souce,, hopeing to cut it to $5 bucks or less. (of course i like lite beer, ya know)

 

[thirdedition]

My major goal is to clean out my basement and set up my brewery down there.
To do this I need to put together a natural gas brew stand.
Clean out all the crap that is down there at the moment.
Make the transition to all grain so I'll know what I want in my brew stand.

 

[hopdawg]

-12g conical fermentor
-Convert my keg fridge (2 tap) into a fermentation chamber
-4 tap keggorator
-Add 5 Centennial and 5 Fuggles to my hop yard (total 65 plants)
-Better understand the chemistry
-get 4 more cornies (total 10)

 

[azscoob]

-get rid of my crappy taps and get some perlicks
-collect more cornys for a bigger pipeline
-nail down the adjuncts/specialty grains and their nuances
-start harvesting yeast and building a yeast bank
-learn learn learn!
-brew a proper oktoberfest at the proper time

 

[HPDrifter]

Hmm, for 2010.. let me see.

I already have 12 kegs, 6 perlicks, 2 fridges with temp controllers, 7 fermenters, a grain mill.. motorised, and heaps of Grain. I also brew a stout, 3 legged hound Pale ale, City of fountians Pale ale, Gumballhead, Cascades Orange Palae Ale, Apfelwein, and a cerveza. I brewed 203 gallons in 2009.

For 2010, I reckon my goal should be to brew more Belgian styles, more German Styles, and spend less time talking anf more time brewing. Having said that, of the 203 Gallons I brewed laast year, I gave away around 20 gallons, and I have 50 gallons in kegs and about 25 gallons in fermenters right now.

I might also upgrade the Kit, although it does everything I need it to do.. just a bit of heavy lifting and moving has to be done at the moment.

 

[dontman]

I will be building a 12' by 12' climate controlled brew and coffee roasting shed.
Build a brew sculpture. Picking up my first keggle tomorrow.
Plus, I plan to keep my pipeline full.

 

[BA_from_GA]

1) go AG (MLT Built, Grain Mill in process)
2) start Kegging (hopefully by my birthday in May)
3) convert beer fridge to Kegerator
4) Clone 1554
5) maybe try making a wine....

I like the goal of not buying any store brews, i reached that point about 3 months ago (currently have 13 batches bottled), but i found myself instead buying more good beer (the expensive stuff). I think we've bought maybe 4 four-packs and a 6-er since september.

 

[RegionalChaos]

I want to get a ball valve on my 7.5g kettle and convert my Guinness keg into a kettle with a ball valve as well. I plan to get a few cubes, and do a few no cool 10g batches in the keggle. I plan to get a good gas / regulator setup for my kegging. I've been using those party chargers..

 

[chrisgray]

1. Go all grain
2. Make another mead
3. Get a fridge for lagering in the warmer months
4. Kegs! Kegs! Kegs!

 

[SpanishCastleAle]

There are many but the biggest one for me by far is...keep better records.

 

[riverfrontbrewer]

Spanish-

I have been using this sheet and it has helped me alot:

http://www.brewersfriend.com/images/brewersfriend_allgrainsheet.pdf

 

[SpanishCastleAle]

Thanks Durango! Main addition I'd have to make would be to remove the 'NOTES' box from the page...and then add an entire page for 'NOTES'.

I already log most of the info of what I intend to do and the numbers I get on brewday but sometimes things happen along the way from grain-to-glass and I don't log them. Like how long the lag time was, how vigorous the fermentation was, the actual fermentation temp profile, did it blow-off?, etc. Also, which fermenter did I use? Which sanitizer did I use in the keg? All kinds of stuff that seems useless...until you have a real stinker (or a real jewel) of a brew and you want to retrace the entire process.

 

[Jenks829]

1. Get to all grain
2. Move to kegging
3. Convert dorm fridge into kegerator
4. Make wine
5. Tell great jokes on back patio while brewing

 

[Ryan]

1. Build 4 tap kegerator
2. Get a 15+ gallon pot
3. Brew more meads
4. Brew more wines
5. Brew more beers

and that's pretty much it.

 

[lowlife]

Get my wife to make friends with a hot chick who has big boobs (and likes to show them off), that likes brewing. She can come over to hang out with the wife and help me brew.

 

[Sacdan]

1. Finish planning and build a brew rig, single tier gas
2. Get a few Conicals
3. Work on brewing better Belgians
4. Continue to learn. When you're Green, you grow. When you're ripe, you rot!

 

[scrambledegg81]

1) AG!
2) First recipe formulation
3) DIY stuff (maybe a Brutus or gravity feed system)

 

[Kaner]

1) Start doing AG.
2) Brew my first lager.
3) Enter into at least one competition.

 

[Prime]

In no particular order:
-Refine my process
-Find space for and build a fermentation chamber
-Make a mead
-Develop a pipeline

 

[griffondg]

1. Continually improve my beer
2. Grow my own hops
3. Enter my beer into competitions
4. Keg (please!)

 

[Wade E]

1) Go 1/2 Electric (HLT)
2) Stay AG (right now without being ser up its just not good for my back)
3) Get software!

 

[Jenks829]

1. Get to all grain
2. Move to kegging
3. Convert dorm fridge into kegerator
4. Make wine
5. Tell great jokes on back patio while brewing

It looks like I didn't do very well. I still have the dorm fridge at my parents house, I haven't kegged anything yet and I am still doing partial mashes.

I have made wine and we've told many a joke on the back patio. On the plus side, I have been designing more recipes and making my own adjustments to other recipes so that can be viewed as a step towards more understanding/control of my brew.

 

[riverfrontbrewer]

Not much for making "resolutions", but I do have a few goals for 2010....

Beer/brewing goals, in no particular order:

1 - Not to purchase any beer from stores
2 - Brew an average of 25 gallons per month (shhhhh)
3 - Kegging - need to get into this
4 - enter at least a few competitions
5 - buy/build some sort of fermentor for 10-12 gallon batches

Anybody else have brewing goals for 2010?

1 - not 100%, but I have greatly reduced store purchases
2 - no comment
3 - I now have 3 kegs in the kegerator and a total of 8 kegs
4 - Entered quite a few comps
5 - Had a borrowed 15 gal demi john for a while, but still need to do something about this

 

[motobrewer]

start up a '11 thread

 

[jamesnsw]

• Get my AG setup actually working
• Get a mill so I can buy in bulk
• Keep my pipeline full and varied
• Speed up my bottling
• Make a bigger beer (Above 1.080 or so)
• Make another mead to keep that pipeline full
• Maybe a lager?

• My AG setup (BIAB) is working great!
• I've decided against milling for now.
• My pipeline was meager over the summer, filling up again.
• My bottling is faster, but still annoying to me.
• Biggest beer so far has been in the 1.060's, I think. Should try bigger sometime.
• Didn't make more mead.
• I've started doing a lot of lagers with clean fermenting ale yeast, fermented cool. It works good enough for me.

 

[skeeordye11]

Build a single tier rig
Start fly sparging
Do more 10 gallon batches
Increase the pipeline from 4 to 6 kegs
Place in a competition
Develope one house recipe and be able to reproduce it

I fly sparged once
I've done a couple 10s and will definitely continue to do more
Keg #8 will be here Thursday
Didn't really enter much this year
House IPA is good. Need to brew it again. Have a good pale as well.

Thanks for dredging this thread back up. I'm pretty pleaseed with how I've done. I also bought a mill and started buying in bulk both grain and hops and it's great to be able to brew on a whim. :rockin:

 

[azscoob]

-get rid of my crappy taps and get some perlicks
-collect more cornys for a bigger pipeline
-nail down the adjuncts/specialty grains and their nuances
-start harvesting yeast and building a yeast bank
-learn learn learn!
-brew a proper oktoberfest at the proper time

I got those Perlicks early in the year, I am up to 14 corneys, and the pipeline is growing nicely! I am getting a much better understanding of the adjuncts used in brewing, I guess this also falls under learning. my Oktoberfest was brewed in March, lagered through to Oktoberfest, and won a medal along the way!
I have yet to build a yeast bank, I have done some yeast washing, but only to pitch into a brew that day.

Overall I think I did pretty well on my goals, now to come up with next years list....

 

[Baja_Brewer]

Wish I had made some goals... I wouldn't have met them though...

 

[ReverseApacheMaster]

I didn't have goals at the start of the year but I way overshot what I expected to do for 2010.

I went AG, made my own recipes, toasted grain, smoked grain, made cider, made mead, made graff, captured and brewed with wild yeast, bottle harvested, yeast washed, made a frozen yeast bank, made several fruit beers and learned A LOT. I guess none of those are huge by themselves, but it's a long way from where I started the year with premade extract kits.

 

[Jenks829]

I went AG, made my own recipes, toasted grain, smoked grain, made cider, made mead, made graff, captured and brewed with wild yeast, bottle harvested, yeast washed, made a frozen yeast bank, made several fruit beers and learned A LOT. I guess none of those are huge by themselves, but it's a long way from where I started the year with premade extract kits.

....WOW.....You sir, win the HBT Hard Hat award for kicking a$$

Will you be growing barley in 11'?

 

[MBasile]

Mine are only....

1- Be happy enough with a beer to consider entering it for competition
2- Try to go at least to PM brewing (really only a financial hurdle)
3- Complete kegging setup
4- Build larger fermentation chamber so I can do at least 3 brews at a time.

1. Check (happy enough with the recipe, need to nail down the process though)
2. Went stovetop PM, thats the process I need to nail down
3. Up and running, just can't seem to keep it full!
4. Negative ghost rider.

75% ain't bad!

 

[brettwasbtd]

I didn't have goals at the start of the year but I way overshot what I expected to do for 2010.

I went AG, made my own recipes, toasted grain, smoked grain, made cider, made mead, made graff, captured and brewed with wild yeast, bottle harvested, yeast washed, made a frozen yeast bank, made several fruit beers and learned A LOT. I guess none of those are huge by themselves, but it's a long way from where I started the year with premade extract kits.

Same here! I got my starter kit and first extract batch on January 26th for my birthday. Since then I have went All grain, built a ferm chamber, built a MLT, built an immersion chiller, grain mill, bought a 15 gallon pot and propane burner, washed yeast, made beer from recipes i created! Learned SOOOO much here on HBT that I am confident I can answer a lot beginner questions.

 

[motobrewer]

I didn't have any goals either, but I made some accomplishments:

1. Brewed almost completely AG (one was a PM)
2. Brewed a wide variety; porters, esbs, lagers, even a few wheats
3. Got a relatively solid brew process
4. Entered a comp
5. Went to a few brew club meetings
6. Finishing strong - just bought a 58 quart cooler for a new tun (upgrading from 5 gal) and another 6 gal carboy. Have 3 beers planned for the next 5 weeks.

 

[Mischief_Brewing]

My join date made me miss this one, so I'll add my goals for next year. Of course, I'll probably have to cut and paste to the 2011 goals thread when that pops up...

2011 Goals
1. acquire at least 2 more fermenters, if not more
2. keep on top of house projects so I can brew twice a month to keep all of my fermenters full
3. build my 6-tap keezer (might happen before Jan 1!)
4. continue to not spend ANY money on commercial brews
5. upgrade HLT and MLT to handle higher gravity batches

 

[SpanishCastleAle]

My goal was to take better notes. I just started doing that last batch...after 30+ batches this year. So I guess I met my goal to some very, very small degree.

 

[wildwest450]

Amen, complete the brewshed and brew like a mad ape.

Brewshed done.

Not quite brewing like a mad ape, but i've got 2 to brew in the next week.

 

[ArcaneXor]

1.) Brew more sour beers
2.) Perfect my Wit, Koelsch and Mild recipes
3.) Cut my turnaround time from brewing to drinking from 6-7 weeks (on average) to 4-5 weeks for average-gravity ales.
4.) Just keep having fun doing it

Looks like I am 2/4. I did cut down my turnaround time thanks to kegging and have been having a blast this year, but didn't get into sours as much as I had hoped. I haven't brewed any Witbiers and Milds in a while, and my Koelsch recipe and process is still a work-in-progress.