2010 Review

2010 has been a pretty good year to me. For brewing, it has been a really great year. I advanced from doing an occasional extract kit to brewing all grain with some serious frequency. Here are all my neat accomplishments (big and small) for the year:

*Brewed with liquid yeast

*Yeast washed

*Started a frozen yeast bank

*Captured wild yeast

*Built an MLT

*Bought a mill and started crushing grain

*Went all grain

*Made several recipes

*Roasted own grain

*Smoked own grain

*Brewed some Belgian stuff

*Made cider and graff

*Figured out an awesome recipe for gratzer

*Brewed with fruit

*Brewed with peppers

*Got an infection (in the beer =p)

*Had four batches fermenting at once for a total of 12 gallons

*Figured out how to make water adjustments

*Started blogging about homebrewing

*Started a lambic solera

I’m probably forgetting some stuff. I think that’s a pretty good list of accomplishments, especially as busy as I have been with work and school this year. My goals for next year are much more limited. I have a few batches waiting to be made but I actually intend on brewing less next year. Next year will be a very busy year so I don’t know that I will have the time to brew a lot. Additionally, I have A LOT of homebrew ready to drink.

2011 will be more focused, homebrewing-wise, on my longer term projects such as the lambic and the oud bruin as well as really focusing on my processes and locking those in. I feel like I play it a little fast and loose with temperatures (during mash, cooling and fermenting) that adds off flavors where they don’t need to be. I will likely brew a lot more gratzer and another round of chili beer. Both are delicious and among my favorite beers. Otherwise I guess I will figure out what other beers I want to make as I go. I will probably also retool several of my current recipes (I have several yet to be posted) to get them really solid as well. I may consider entering a competition or two. I may look into making another agave mead as well.  I will continue to update this blog with my progress on all the long term projects as well as sharing any good info I find.

Happy Holidays!