Pipeline Calendar?

[MDB]

I'm 6 batches into this madness and, given that I just started drinking my first batch, have come to fully appreciate the lag time between brewing and imbibing. I kind of envision a calendar of what I want to be drinking when based on my preferences, i.e. summer = IPAs, rasberry wheats, belgian blondes etc, fall gets darker and winter gets black. Something like

Sept/Oct -- Octoberfest, Pumpkin Ale, Belgian Dark/Storng Ale

Nov/Dec -- Scotch Ale, Robust Porter, Irish Stout, CDA

Dec/Jan -- Some XMas beer (I dunno), Imperial Stout, Imperial Porter

I will be looking at recipes with ABV 6 plus, for the imperials 8 plus (holiday season need relief from family LOL)

So I want to schedule my brew days and ferment/aging times to produce the beers in their prime around the above schedule. Any general guidelines? Does anyone have a roguh calendar they use? I know some beers will take longer to age than others and calculating it all out is a little daunting so just wondering what people do.

thanks

 

[rjwhite41]

Start with when you want to drink it and then work back to when it needs to be brewed. It's really pretty easy. Following it is the hard part.

 

[pwortiz]

I use my Yahoo email calendar for all my scheduling.....it's worked out pretty well. My experience has been with the Imperial that I brewed, bottled, and left it. I brewed it in...January? this year or so and have had a bottle once in a while but anticipate leaving it in the basement as long as possible - at least through January next year. I heard that brewing Oktoberfest in March (Marzen for March) and then cellaring until September would be the ideal situation. So I did that this year. I'm having 1 bottle per month to see how it ages.

Otherwise, it depends on what you're going for. I just want to keep all my bottles full so I kinda estimate how many bottles I drink then schedule my beers accordingly....unless I'm going for a specific style - like the Russian Imperial or Oktoberfest. Then I just take those bottles out of my calculations.

Not sure if that helps but I find the email calendar works really well for me. Even use it for when I need to start a starter/rack to secondary, taste test, etc.

Good luck!

 

[Calichusetts]

I like to think 3 months is a good guideline for when you need to brew or at least figure it out. If you want a winter brew for the holidays...you should really start considering it in September. That way you can get your grains, find a good brew day, and still have it easily ready for December.

It will vary with styles and ABVs. Mine are pretty consistent, mostly ales from 6-8%, a few lagers. Brew to belly, for my ligther beers is about 60 days, usually 70 days for my bigger beers: 3 weeks ferment, 1 week dryhop, 4 weeks carb, 2 weeks in fridge.

Good luck

 

[Indianhead_Brewer]

+1 to using some sort of calendaring (yahoo, gmail, outlook) to schedule your brew days just like you would do for work.

Sit down one night with a brew or two and write down each of the beers you want to drink and the dates you would optimally want to drink them (i.e. a nice Chocolate Stout on X-mas??). From there just like Calichusetts said figure out how long these beers are going to need to sit around (fermentation/conditioning). Some will take more, some will take less, but putting all this into a calendar will give you some rough approximations of dates you will likely have to shoot for. If you are like me and absolutely hate trying to calculate the number of days between dates here is a good online date calculator that has saved my brain a number of times (http://www.timeanddate.com/date/dateadd.html). This way you take the date you want to consume and just subtract the estimated days or weeks it is going to take to get you there and voila! there is a date you should shoot for brewing around.

 

[IncredibleMulk]

This was discussed awhile back and I liked the brew calendar referenced here.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/home-brewing-calendar-298174/

 

[william_shakes_beer]

I brew wvery 4 weeks like clockwork. Just add 2 months to today's date to see when It's going to be ready to drink. Oh, by the way, there's absolutely no reason why you need to wait until the "proper season to brew. If you feel the need for a pumpkin ale, no reason to wait to brew it until august 30.

 

[IncredibleMulk]

Oh, by the way, there's absolutely no reason why you need to wait until the "proper season to brew. If you feel the need for a pumpkin ale, no reason to wait to brew it until august 30.

Agreed...but if you're like me, I keep 4 beers on tap and some in bottles...I think it's pretty awesome to always have a tap or two dedicated to what's in season.

 

[MDB]

This is just what I was looking for thanks!!

 

[SailorTodd]

I wish my taste buds had a season. Instead of a pipeline for having a beer ready for a specific season, I rack my head trying to figure out what I want to drink next, then build a recipe around that. Only exception has been a delicious Irish Red I did for St Patrick's day (it was awesome).

Part of my beer planning also depends on the weather. My insulation in the house sucks, so I like to plan my beers that require cooler fermentations for the winter and I want to try out a farmhouse ale this summer. But anyway, kudos for thinking far enough ahead to plan out a pipeline.

 

[beergolf]

I like to plan a couple of months out, but some styles require even longer. BDSA, Imperial stouts etc benefit from more aging, so those need to be planned a little farther in advance.

The best thing is to get a big pipeline so it becomes easier to age the ones that need aging, but keep a good supply of drinkable brew.

 

[turketron]

Northern Brewer has a pretty good calendar put together for some guidelines, I think it's set up through Google Calendar:

http://www.northernbrewer.com/brewing-calendar/

 

[Draken]

Ibrewmaster integrates with your iPad calendar

 

[seatbelt123]

Ibrewmaster integrates with your iPad calendar

Really? I didn't know that. Cool!

 

[Draken]

Really? I didn't know that. Cool!

Well it did.. The last update broke it. I emailed the guy and the next one should fix it.