What are your Homebrewing Goals?

[BillyBroas]

Brew with only things we GROW.

oooo I like that one. Definitely couldn't do it for every batch, but maybe a few. Nice

 

[jdp]

I just want to continue to make killer beer.

+1,

I'm another that doesn't really care about brewing every style, winning awards, or anything other than making beer that satisfies me. I can be pretty dang picky, so I would think I would do fairly well in a comptetitioin if I tried, but that might just be my arrogance or ignorance. I will probably never find out as there are not too many competitions around here, and I really, REALLY hate heading down to the valley or the bay area. I will stay up here and make what I like.

 

[Vekta]

I'd like to understand enough about making beer to guide someone else in how to make beer so that they are successful.

I'd also like to make beer that becomes a staple of the dinner table at home.

 

[chrislehr]

oooo I like that one. Definitely couldn't do it for every batch, but maybe a few. Nice

Yea, but tasting a batch from your barley and your hops would be awesome.

I don't spend enough time in the brewing science to imagine I will make my own yeast anytime soon though.

 

[BillyBroas]

I don't spend enough time in the brewing science to imagine I will make my own yeast anytime soon though.

Actually for the yeast I was thinking about capturing my own wild yeast.

 

[ghpeel]

Malting barley is probably best left to the professionals, sadly. It's not something terribly easy to do at home from what I understand. But hey, don't let me stop you from trying!

 

[chrislehr]

Malting barley is probably best left to the professionals, sadly. It's not something terribly easy to do at home from what I understand. But hey, don't let me stop you from trying!

Worst case scenario, its cheap chicken feed.

 

[artyboy]

Brew with only things we GROW.

That's something that I've thought about as well. I almost bought a smoker today because it looked like it would do a good job of malting small batches of grain. I just didn't think that it was capable of reaching the temps on the thermometer for any amount of time. I've got a patch in my backyard that would be perfect for barley. Unfortunately, it's a really small patch and I'm not even sure if I could grow enough for one full batch. At least I'll be able to use my own hops in a few months.

 

[King of Cascade]

Yea, but tasting a batch from your barley and your hops would be awesome.

I don't spend enough time in the brewing science to imagine I will make my own yeast anytime soon though.

Growing water is more difficult then growing your own yeast

 

[SankePankey]

Hello-

I am a first time brewer, but have worked in commercial alcohol production and sales for years. For a while, I've been in wine distribution. My goal in getting into beer was to get back into the creative part of the alcohol business that I left some time ago. It was the funnest. I enjoy my customers, sure, but I'd rather be around yeast having sex than managers, I guess. Since I don't have several million to buy a winery in one of the hot appellations of the world, my focus turns to beer, which I love on the same level as any top quality alcohol product.

I thought I'd post on the goals of my new brewery (first 15 gal in the chamber brewed on Monday) which isn't even totally completed yet, rather than iterate my desires to understand if I can go professional on my own once I know what I'm doing. However, that was the impetus for my purchase decisions, so, either I will end up brewing for a living and have a kickin hot pilot system, or I will have a super sweet rig to brew great beer with for myself and others for the rest of my life. Win, win. (i.e. Not interested in the "see if I like it" phase of this hobby)

Here are the tenets of my brewery:

-Totally Single Person Operation for all tasks
-Extremely Small Footprint for the volume
-Comparatively Large Volume. 1/2 bbl batches. Current capacity is ~250 gal/yr. (not that I will actually be able to get rid of all that beer, but.... cornys are cheap..hehe )
-Indoors brewing. (Its New York, folks)
-Extremely small footprint (it's important to me)
-As many items that are dual use as possible. (Kind of an OCD thing for me)
-As few parts as possible in fermentation setup (causes you to clean/sanitize the same parts more often- win for sanitation). I use the same tube and fittings to fill the fermenter from the BK as I do to top crop and to bottom harvest as well as fill kegs too.
-Completely Tool-less operation (other than when kegging). Just me, grains, hops, yeast..etc. (you could count me as a tool...)
-All Stainless, Copper, Plastic, and tubing – no brass
-Exacting temperature control and repeatability throughout process, especially fermentation
-Ease of use and shortened brew day from using automation
-Completely threadless fermentation- only one weld below beer line
-Easy and quick enough to clean/sanitize but thorough. 3 step process- PBW, Steam, and Starsan for the entire fermentation channel.
-Very high level of experimentation afforded:
Current capabilities include- pressurized ferment, top cropping and bottom cropping yeast harvest, as many mash options as possible (single,step.. only decoctions are a no), primary with bottom dump and secondary/second primary/lagering/clearing vessel, ease of line length changing in the keezer for experimenting with carb levels to style, etc.
EDIT: Forgot the most important ones!
-Closed system from kettle to glass. (I can't be expected to keep my living space as clean as I would a brewery all the time)
-As a hobby, it fits into my life and schedule rather than the other way around. (accomplished by automation and small footprint, since it's in my living area).
-As much American made construction as I can.

Some of these ideals I started with, some developed throughout my education from being a part of this forum. Some I have yet to test. My idea for keg filling (3 cornies from a Sanke) has not seen the light on this forum yet (I asked several times) .. so, I hope it works. The theory is sound, but we shall see. I don't want to post about it until I know for sure, but I've definitely got a few untested Cockamamie ideas for doing things. One crazy newb, fo sho.

 

[chrislehr]

Growing water is more difficult then growing your own yeast

we collect rainwater that could be sanitized/boiled to be used if I *really* went nuts with this idea.

 

[SteveM]

I'm pretty unambitious about my brewing. I want to just keep making good beer. I am pretty narrowly focused, on just variations of a few of styles, I don't attempt to brew in styles that I don't care for very much (stout, for example) or in ones where I know that I can't improve upon what I can buy, or don't like enough to want to have five gallon batches laying around (hefeweizen, for example).

I'm having fun and success growing hops. I would like to get better at preserving them, but this may just be a matter of having the right equipment.

Finally, I'm curious about this:

"All Stainless, Copper, Plastic, and tubing – no brass."

Why no brass? This almost spounds phobic, if copper and plastic are OK.

 

[SankePankey]

Sorry. Something to do with China and lead. So, yes a phobia.

Copper wont hurt me and it's actually a good thing, plastic, well OK I can see a connection.

If you, say, order parts from McMaster that are brass and you want them to be FDA certified, it has to be a specially formulated Zinc plated brass. Otherwise, no FDA as far as I know.

Just a consideration for me and a luxury that I can afford (about $150 extra) to replace small amount of brass bits that came on my commercially made stainless brewery.

I got no science behind it, just want parts that will last forever and not corrode.

 

[jonbomb]

I just started brewing my own beer and I still have my starter kit. I plan by then end of the year to have:

2 carboy
2 more ale pales
1 wort chiller
1 New brew kettle

Hopefully I can fir a burner in there somewhere so I can start doing full boils.
Lets hope it all works out and by next year I will start doing All grain...

 

[TexLaw]

My goal is to make beer that will not kill anyone...:cross:

I have something of an opposite goal. I want to brew beer worth dying for.

Other than that, I just want to keep enjoying my brewing, keep brewing beer that pleases me and those around me, and keep looking for something new and exciting to try from time to time.

I've won an award in a fairly heavily-entered category of a large competition. That was fun, and I would not mind doing so again, sometime. However, that will never drive my brewing. I have no interest in making a living out of brewing -- I don't want to brew to pay bills or have to worry about playing to an audience larger than me.

Siebel is great, but I don't know about that for homebrewing. I have a friend who is about to graduate from Siebel. He's loved it, but it really is geared toward commercial brewing. Going to Siebel to be a homebrewer is something like getting an Agriculture degree to start up a backyard vegetable garden.

I will, sometime (maybe), have a brewing "system." The truth is, though, I enjoy banging around the pots and pans too much to justify much expense. Heck, I was only working with one burner until my last batch.

No matter what, you cannot think of yourself as a homebrewing geek until you can sit down with nothing more than a pencil and paper and design a recipe that is pretty dadgum close to something you would end up brewing.

Finally, and I've said it a number of times, you know you're a real homebrewer when you can tell what hops are in a fart.


TL

 

[Jkane101]

I'd like to get a few good wine barrels, then continually make awesome Lambics, Gueze's, Flanders Red's...etc
A non-stop pipeline of 'sours'

 

[BackshoreJake]

I love beer- and I love how much better and cheaper my beer is compaired to some of the beers you can buy in the store. I want to continue making my own beer that my friends and I enjoy- continue getting better- and make everything EXACTLY how I want it. Cheers

 

[RegionalChaos]

To slowly upgrade my home brewery and general pipeline until I'm running regular 1 bbl batches.

To dial in the recipes for what I'd like to have on hand as house beers.

To keep it fun for myself and those around me.

 

[bsdx]

I have multiple goals: (mind dump)

- break the habit of only brewing fresh kits (dwindling) from LHBS by ordering online or something else (done)
- get friends into homebrewing or homebrewing better.
- try to fill my pipeline enough that I can overcome my impatience and do some more beers that require longer term care or aging (lagers and strong brews). I love variety more than quantity, but I need the equipment to store the variety. I've only done 2 lagers out of 25-30 ales, neither were so great so I wasn't dying to do it again.
- Make some session beers; most of my recipes have been mid range ABV, and a good portion of my commercial purchases are stronger ABV; I think I would like to make something that is on the low side so I can enjoy a homebrew with less concern about the following consequences.
- I really need to curb my commercial beer buying habits; even though I am homebrewing pretty often and have a good amount of drinkable homebrew, I still go to the store and spend 60-100$ on commercial beers because I either want to try them or they sound good. I need to brew beer good enough to distract most of my attention from that; I need to compete in my own head. When I think about it, $8 for a 22oz can pay for half the hops in a gigantic 5 gallon hop bomb, so I could be getting a lot more for my money.
- make some of my own recipes (getting started there finally)
- do or buy things that grease my efficiency or enjoyment of brewing even if the benefit is somewhat small. Sometimes we can't afford to do something big or don't even need a big improvement, but the little things help keep things interesting or detract attention from the negatives. Sometimes work on erasing some of the drags like slow heating time etc.
- brew using suggestions from HBT that should or might make my beer better at any chance I can as long as I can reasonably become prepared for it (yeast starters(in progress), temperature control (done), etc)
- invest in equipment that will help me make better or cheaper beer in almost any way (AG, kegging, sinks, etc). I refuse to dream small in terms of capability and flexibility. Go big or go home (not necessarily 1BBL yet.)
- AG / cheapness of materials for AG will help me reduce per-brew costs considerably and lower my inhibitions towards trying new things

- ultimately: raise my standards and be able to brew some beer (not necessarily all) that is able to considerably impress myself as well as others. The novelty of brewing extract kits has practically worn off. Reduce off flavors to produce beers I can truly be proud of. Goal probably similar to making beers good enough in my mind to submit to competitions.

- pipe dream: Actually start brewing before sometime 1pm so I finish before midnight or 2am since I tend to make a day out of it. Ha ha.

 

[wulfsburg]

My goal is really to brew enough so that I only drink homebrew. There is something really rewarding about that.

Wow... you must be drinking A LOT of your homebrew if you still are buying commercial stuff. Or you have a lot of friends that drink your stuff.....
I started brewing in January and I have now just polished off 135 beers from 3 or so batches.