Your 2011 Brewing Goals

[Accemn]

1) Kegerator
2) All Grain 10g Batches
3) Fermentation Chamber via Freezer.
4) Grain Mill

All Should be completed within the next 2 months.

 

[TheGeek]

Here it is already 4 months into the year, about time some of us start by updating our original posts I suppose. Here are my originally posted goals for 2011:

1. Lock down a routine for my AG process
2. See how close to 80% efficiency I can get on a regular basis
3. Start harvesting/storing yeast to further reduce batch costs
4. Get my hops to grow this year
5. Finish adjusting my RedLight Irish Ale recipe

So far I can claim 1 has been accomplished.

Number 2 I am hitting off and on, however recently getting involved with decoctions had thrown off my average efficiency.

Number 3 I have the equipment for, and will be attempting for the first time on Wednesday when I secondary my Nut Brown Ale.

4 and 5 sadly I have not started on. However I do have cuttings of both cascade and mt. hood coming this week.


SO! That's my update thus far. How are all of you doing on your goals?

 

[MBasile]

My only goal is to nail down my APA recipe.

Well, the last batch is pretty tasty. It'll be going to comp next month so we'll see how much more nailing (hehe) is required.

 

[Golddiggie]

For 2011:
1. Get grain mill/crusher.
1a. Set aside space to store ~3 sacks of grain.
2. Build keezer (and enough kegs to fill, as well as have a few in reserve).
3. Build fermentation chamber for summer time brewing (taking over kitchen closet for this).
4. Secure aging space in basement (harder than it should be with my current landlord).
5. Get enough primaries to always have enough brews in process so that I won't run out.
6. Perfect my AG processes (BIAB rocks) to get stable efficiencies. Should be much easier once I have my own grain mill.
7. Continue to dabble with mead.
8. Create a house ale (not sure if it will be a pale ale, but it will be full bodied).

For 2012:
Whatever I missed from above plus:
1. Grow my own hops.
2. If living where it's possible, set up to brew 10 gallon batches.

Got numbers 1, 1a, and 5 complete... For not running out, that's going to be determined by my brew schedule. Hope to get back into brewing every 2 weeks (or so)... Looking good there.

#4 won't happen where I'm living now, but I hope it does where I move to next. As with growing my own hops.

Should change #6 since I'm not using the BIAB method anymore, since converting my large Coleman Xtreme cooler into a mash tun.

#7 will continue year after year, at least that's how it looks...

Might have #8 done, since I've brewed a pale ale for the second time, and it's in bottles now. Will know in another ~2 weeks (roughly) if it's a winner in that category.

I can brew 10 gallon batches, so I already have one of 2012's goals done.

 

[mattd2]

1. Brew more - get my pipeline up and running = more fermenters
2. Finish (actually start) my E-Keggle
3. Finish (actually start) building my keezer
4. Get a grain mill (build or buy)
5. Cashflow ingredients by building a BMBF and "gifting" beers to my FIL (I try to tell him a cheap price but he seems to be wanting to pay nearly what he would at the bottle shop - just means I have a drive to make the best beer I can!)

1 still trying
2 got some things sorted
3 its painted (well the top isn't yet )
4 got the plans draw up
5 filled a few from the keg with just a tube on the picnic tap and it went great, also the FIL was round on the weekend (I was at my brothers stag weekend) and basically finished my keg so this looks promising!

So to sumerise - I have done sweet FA really

 

[dfc]

I'm going to start kegging this year.

 

[Accemn]

1) Kegerator
2) All Grain 10g Batches
3) Fermentation Chamber via Freezer.
4) Grain Mill

All Should be completed within the next 2 months.

Everything completed. 20 gallons brewed in the last month. Starting off with 5g batches.

 

[trevor_b]

Newbie Goals

1) Continue reading and watching videos.
2) Buy a starter kit (or get one for my birthday )
3) Brew and gain experience.

 

[o4_srt]

1. Brew each and every time I have 6 free hours.

2. Repeat step 1

 

[Begin2Brew]

Control process variation. I want to make great beer consistantly. First step is to find out which variables I can control, and which ones I can't. I have yet to make the same recipe yet so once I work through my schedule I can start to repeat.

So really my goals are to make each of the 6 "house" brews at least twice this year.

 

[Mustangfreak]

I'm going to try to make a good APA and IPA that have mango's, going to start doing 2.5 gal batches to experiment more, and finally finish my keezer.

 

[gclay]

1. Brew a decent beer
2. start kegging
3. Build my electric brewery.

 

[lonepalm]

1. brew more beer
2. go to all grain
3. Build bar in basement
4. keezer/fermentation chamber

 

[l1ranger]

haha, lonepalm and me are close to the same.
I'm not shooting for all grain yet, but i want to brew more, build a bar in the new house with a keezer/kegerator and have a room in the house to be a ferm chamber

 

[Crinkle]

1. Brew first sour beer (check)
2. Get a keg fridge
3. Dial in APA recipe (just kegged the latest, we shall see)
4. Repeat Imperial IPA from last year
5. Brew coffee stout
6. brew alot when I feel like brewing, because I went 4 months without brewing and almost ran out of beer! (ok, so I had like half a keg and 3 cases of bottles left, but really, I like to have way more than that on hand.)

 

[mtngoat]

Get a pump
fix one of my keggles (hole drilled for new bulkhead is a tad to big)
solve the keezer problem (don't have one)
grain mill

got the pump
fixed the keggle problem

still no keezer
by my birthday I should have a mill. :rockin:

 

[cyraxx]

Since I missed this earlier in the year...

1) Overhaul my brewing, which includes: going AG, starters, temp controlled chest freezer for ales, temp controlled fridge for lagers, kegging
2) Get my process dialed in after all the changes from (1)
3) Enter my first competition

My friends and I have set the date of our first AG brew to July 16, so we want all of our new equipment by then.

Depending how my IIPA that's fermenting right now turns out, that will be going into a comp in May.

 

[two_hearted]

1. Brew an RIS
2. Find a way to regulate ferm temps that is portable
3. Find a place to live for more than a 6 mo lease
4. Brew outside
5. KEEZER
6. Brew with SWMBO (I keep striking out)
7. Bring keg of HB to 4th of July party.

 

[usfmikeb]

1) Return to the brewing hobby (check)
2) Turn my kegs into keggles (in process)
3) Build fermentation chamber
4) Increase number of available taps
5) Shift to AG brewing (in process)
6) Brew a lager

 

[dan09554]

1. Start making yeast starters
2. Learn to wash yeast
3. All grain
4. Keezer build
5. Kegging

 

[mattd2]

1. Brew more - get my pipeline up and running = more fermenters
2. Finish (actually start) my E-Keggle
3. Finish (actually start) building my keezer
4. Get a grain mill (build or buy)
5. Cashflow ingredients by building a BMBF and "gifting" beers to my FIL (I try to tell him a cheap price but he seems to be wanting to pay nearly what he would at the bottle shop - just means I have a drive to make the best beer I can!)

1 still trying
2 got some things sorted
3 its painted (well the top isn't yet )
4 got the plans draw up
5 filled a few from the keg with just a tube on the picnic tap and it went great, also the FIL was round on the weekend (I was at my brothers stag weekend) and basically finished my keg so this looks promising!

So to sumerise - I have done sweet FA really

My mill should be fabricated next week (hopefully), and also going to get some fittings welded into the keggle. Then it is wiring it up and it should be ready to go!

 

[acetg01]

1. Perfect the Nut Brown Ale recipe.
2. Enter a AHA competition.
3. Build a fermentation chest.

 

[Jknapp]

Figure out how hops & IBU's work best in my No-Chill brewery. Most of my ales come out very "hop forward" & not particularly balanced. Most craft-beer drinkers (friends) like my beers, but I'm struggling to brew THE beer that I find most drinkable. Most feel my beers are hoppy.

Hop bomb IPA's are no problem for me to brew. Lightly hopped stouts & porters have turned out great.. But the APA/Hybrid hop/malt balance evades me.

That's my goal.

 

[Sdragon980]

my goals for this year:

...
4. i've been guilty for brewing mostly with the ingredient kits and not as much by recipes (maybe just because of the convenience of the kits); so i'd really like to start brewing via recipes more often.

I've never done the kits except one extract kit when I started out. I'm doing all grain batches but I follow (or modify) other peoples recipes. I'd like to create and brew a batch that I can call all mine.

I bought a couple of books to help me do so. I'm just waiting to receive them so I can start cramming again. (I feel like I'm in college again!)

 

[phenry]

1) Brew a great tasting batch from extract (hoping the IPA I have in primary will fulfill that one)
2) Start brewing all grain
3) Build a fermentation chiller
4) (Hopefully) come up with a good house session blonde or cream ale

I'll be a busy boy this summer

 

[Nightbiker]

1- sweet-talk SWMBO into letting me add 4 more kegs
2- re-plumb my porta-kegger to allow 4 (or 5) taps instead of the 2 that it has
3- brew some Belgian ales
4- drink more homebrew.

 

[elproducto]

1. Branch out from Hoppy American IPA's. Brew more Belgians/English styles/Sours.
2. Enter some competitions

 

[Whippy]

1) I will perfect a few of my recipes and create some more. I am going to eventually have a different beer for each Sun sign.

2) I will buy a grain mill so I may purchase bulk grains.

3) I will aquire a means to better control fermentation temperature (especially during the HOT southern summer)

4) I will enter at least one competition

 

[jtakacs]

already hit most of my goals for the year but i want to brew a barleywine (next), an oud bruin and a barrel aged flanders red with my house yeast.

beyond that, nail down my perfect ipa - not digging the smash with simcoe i did as much as i thought i would...

 

[usfmikeb]

1) Return to the brewing hobby (check)
2) Turn my kegs into keggles (in process)
3) Build fermentation chamber
4) Increase number of available taps
5) Shift to AG brewing (in process)
6) Brew a lager

1) Return to the brewing hobby (check)
2) Turn my kegs into keggles (in process)
3) Build fermentation chamber
4) Increase number of available taps (in process)
5) Shift to AG brewing (check)
6) Brew a lager