brew planning, how do you do it?

[Korben]

Well one of my goals this year is to have seasonal beers ready during the appropriate season. I want to make several of them

Oktoberfest - for oktoberfest of course
Pumpkin Ale - Late October, Thanksgiving
Christmas/Holiday Ale - at Christmas time
And the most pressing or approaching season would be a nice lawnmower brew.

I would like to know when you think I should brew these and get the peak aging for each one.... I know it varies on type and all but I am going for the basic style in all these. Just looking for a nice ballpark figure.

 

[Donthoseme]

Octoberfest being a lager i would brew in mid to late July.
Pumpkin Ale should be done in the mid september
Chrismas will be stronger and spiced probably so i would brew in september so it has time to mellow
The lawnmower brew if it's a lager i would brew in Late March, although being in Alaska i wouldn't brew a summer beer until.......well until i moved somewhere with a summer! If your talking about an ale i'd brew it in May.

I hope this helps. Just my 2 cents

 

[SkewedBrewing]

Bigger beers like an Oktoberfest and a Christmas ale, like Donthoseme said, need more time to mellow out. So, the earlier you brew it the better.

The lighter beers don't really need to age that long so you can brew them at a more normal schedule, ie I'd brew the lawnmower beer sometime in april for it to be ready in late may/early june when it starts to get really hot out.

That being said, I plan to brew very similar beers and I plan on brewing the Oktoberfest sometime this springso it has a couple of months in the bottle before I open it in late September/Early October. The Christmas Ale I'll brew in September, for similar reasons...

Just my .02...