Brew Dudes

The first couple weeks of 2011 I have spent some significant time thinking about my 2011 brewing goals/resolutions.  I have come up with a couple revelations that I think I will use to drive my 2011 brewing aspirations:

1. I love brewing.  So much so, that I actually love it more than drinking it (GASP! I know).  I usually actually have beer sitting around in kegs so long that I never even drink all of it (Double Gasp).
2. I love thinking about recipes.  I spend a lot of time pondering what different ingredients really taste like in a finished beer.  When I am tasting new beers I wonder things like: Is that chocolate malt?  Is this a yeast derived flavor?  Is water to blame for this flavor?
3. I love to experiment.  More importantly, I like to break apart a system and fully understand it.  Get to know the parts and how they all work together.

I was preparing to brew an Oatmeal Stout this month, but I think I am going to change my approach to brewing and put styles on the back burner.

I am going to start doing more brewing for experimental purposes and really focus in on point 2 and 3.

To that end, my first brew session is going to experiment with the core of beer, base malts.

My first series of brews with be small batch (1 gallon) base malt only beers with a single bittering charge of hops.  From there I have thoughts on doing a side by side mash temp comparisons, yeast strain comparisons, fermentation temp comparisons, hop flavor comparisons and on and on.

Last year I collected 15 gallon glass jugs out of my neighbors recycling bin of the course of several weeks (apparently someone over there really loves “Rhine Valley” jug wine.  Poor souls.)  Its time to press these jugs into service and start splitting worts and doing interesting stuff.

I am open to ideas of comparisons you’d like to see tried.  After I get rolling with my first couple sessions maybe I’ll attempt to take on some reader ideas as well.

Happy Brewing in 2011.  I hope someone else will brew beer for me to drink while I screw around with ingredients and process!

Cheers
BREW ON!

I did some thinking and came up with these 3 goals for 2011:

• Brew my APA again and see if I can replicate it.  It’s been a while since I brewed it so I may need to brew it twice this year to see if I have consistency.
• Make a mead and a cider – I think I can do those both this year.
• Figure out fermentation.  I am going to leave that open ended, but there are learnings about the fermentation process that I need to gain this year.

This short list should be easy to accomplish in 2011.

I looked back through the archives and found my brew year’s resolutions for 2010:

The start of a new year can give one time to pause and set some plans for the next 12 months.

For 2010, my goals are as follows:

Brew 3 styles that I have never brewed before. That goal should be pretty easy to meet.
Brew my APA again to test if I can brew with consistency.
Smooth out all the issues in my all grain system – looking for not stuck sparges in 2010.

I met my first goal and then some. I brewed a Maibock, Irish Red, and Saison to name a few. These were all styles that I hadn’t brewed before.

I didn’t get to the APA last year. I brewed the blonde ale with homegrown hops instead. I can add that one to the 2011 list.

I did smooth out all the stuck sparge issues. I can thank my false bottom for that.

I’ll put together my 2011 list soon.

Hi there,

Just a Merry Christmas post from us – the Brew Dudes.  We are winding down the year and taking stock in what we have accomplished this year.

I think we’ll recap the Brew Year’s resolutions that we set at the beginning of 2010 and compare and contrast with what actually happened.

I had a ex-coworker brew up our Christmas ale and was happy with the results, which is always good to hear.

Hope you have a great holiday and get a few homebrewing gifts under the tree.

Brew On…!