2015 Year End Reflection

I meant to report back about my pawpaw saison that never happened.

I had been watching the trees in the UK arboretum all summer (when I was running more, my regular route took me right past them). One Saturday in early Sept I decided this was the day, the tree was packed and there were a lot of perfectly ripe ones. Went home, showered, gathered my six year old for an "adventure" and went back to find that the trees had been basically stripped bare in the previous 2 hours. It was like someone one had been watching me all summer and said, "I've got that fucker now" I'll bet they were sitting in the bushes laughing their asses off while I just made angry faces at the naked trees

Going to ask around at the farmers market next summer and see if I can do a pawpaw saison.

 

Pawpaws have a very short window of opportunity. You can't pick them early and let them get ripe. You have to wait until they are prime to pick and they are beyond their prime shortly after picking. The pawpaw is more interesting to me than the so called exotic fruits grown 8000 miles away.

It's one of the few North American Fruits that qualify as an exotic. Its short shelf life and lack of distribution practically guarantee its rarity. As a consumer of craft beer, you must realize that rarity equals awesome and something you must have. If you see a bearded lady picking pawpaws in Kentucky next year, it's probably me.

 

2015 – 119 brews – 5 gallon AG batches mostly – whoa I gotta find something to do on the weekend…but I do love to brew...

I experiment quite a bit and went for open fermentation and was doing great until I left the lid off for 5+ days and a fruit fly must have found a happy end. I learned the hard way about sanitation and in the end lost about 5 “sour/yuck” beers…I didn’t notice enough difference in the good brews to continue on that path…Did a Tart of Darkness Clone to dip a toe in the sour pond…it turned out nice…but not really my thing…Do love Orval and Orval Dregs anywhere…any time…

I like Pale Ales and IPAs…my Pale Ales are usually high hopped and my IPAs are usually moderately hopped…love hops…within reason.

I usually have a mix of IPA, Pale Ale, Belgium, Scottish, and or English Dark in my keezer or fermenting.

Fermenting: De Kleine, Scotch Ale, Orval Clone, Floor Sweeper IPA
Kegged: India Red Ale, Pliny the Funky Toddler

Learned a lot from the folks on here…and still learning…

Nostrovia

 

Whoa...recount...119 brews since I started...30 brews in 2015...still pretty busy

 

I brewed 60 or so batches this year, up about 10 from last year...and I brewed around 25 different styles of beers.

I had my first bad batch in nearly 20 years this year, and followed it up with another bad batch immediately after...so I changed some protocols and procedures and hopefully have it fixed.

I started brewing sours, brett beers, wild yeast beers, meads and ciders this year and am setting up a second kegerator now for these brews.

I harvested a few strains of wild yeast from local sources (my property in the woods) and now have a great strain from both wild blackberries and watermelons I grew this summer.

I wanted to attempt to grow some hops, but the conditions at my house (fully mature secondary growth hardwood forest) doesn't provide enough sun, so I passed the rhizomes on to friends that grew them for me. Looking forward to the second year production!

I entered my first local competition and won 1st (Imperial Not-So-Brett (644) IPA) and 3rd (all Mosaic Brett Saison)...I got a cash prize for each, so I have officially been "paid to brew" now

Looking forward to finding new inspiration and brewing new styles (for me) and using more ingredients that I have never used before in 2016!

Cheers!

 

2015 was my second year brewing.
I went from about 10 batches last year, all extract/dry yeast/ambient temp, to 55 batches this year, all of them all-grain BIAB. Also started playing with liquid yeasts, re-pitching, and got a fermentation freezer.

I feel like I've figured out hoppy pale ales to the point where I prefer my own over the vast majority of commercial APAs and IPAs. Just about every other style still eludes me, though. Plenty to learn in 2016!

 

Same here, except for the OCD. I'm more of an ADD type, I guess. But otherwise, some gear is in the garage, some can be located in every corner of my basement, and some is in the kitchen, never returned to its "home" since the previous beer. Oh, and the guest bedroom. Who needs guests? So much of brew day is cleaning equipment, then I have to put it away? And some of it needs to dry off so it stays out longer and before I know it, it's everywhere.

 

Good year for brewing. No bad batches, all real solid. Brewed a triple IPA that started as a Younger clone and, imo, surpassed it in the end. Successfully brewed my second spontaneously fermented wild ale in the spring (building towards a gueuze in 2017). None More Black was a great success surpassing the 30% abv mark, while still melting peoples' faces off with all the flavors you could want and not tasting like an alcohol bomb. Lots of great sours brewed and bottled/kegged, including my first kettle sour that I did this month. Experimented with a handful of different fruits (mango, passion fruit, pomegranate, peaches) in various sours that are now aging, and plan on adding stone fruits to a 14 month old lambic next week (nectarines+apricots+peaches+apricot noyaux). I'm a fruit *****, not going to lie. I love fruits in beer.

Got a few brews slated for 2016 already, including a cocktail inspired kettle sour, a Madrugada obscura clone, and of course, the next batch of None More Black, which I plan on splitting into three batches and giving it cognac, rum, and wine barrel treatments.

 

Welp there goes your amateur status...congrats

 

of course Club Wort, that is what I get for posting from my phone!

 

[QUOTE="Made my first batch in winter as an outdoor brewer. Did a barleywine yesterday that will go into a barrel at the LHBS.[/QUOTE]

I have to brew my barleywine for that next week, cutting it close for sure but I am at capacity!

 

My first year brewing! I started in October. I was still able to brew five beers an Irish red, a double IPA a single IPA and a RIS. The red was under carbonated, the double was too dark, the single was too dry tasting (no doubt too much corn sugar) but the stout was just right. Got a few small batch experiments started schedules to be ready at the beginning of the New Year. I look forward to another year of this marvelous hobby.

 

I had a great year.

Silver medal for spice beer at nhc

Finalist in the Sam Adams Longshot competition and got a free trip to gabf

Was just announced as my local Homebrew Club's Homebrewer of the year (1st time they've done this award)

Upgraded to 30 gallon kettles

Then upgraded to electric brewing with those kettles

Now I'm working on opening a brewery next year!

Oh and I brewed lots and lots of beer...

 

@bevoduz I'm pretty disappointed you didn't accomplish more this year.

 

2015 Box Score
Brewed: 67G
Batches: 27
Life-time batches: 231

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18 IPAs
3 pale ales
2 IIPAs
1 old stock ale
1 wit
2 fruit (cranberry)

Notes:
0 drain pours
5th & Last attempt to clone Ballantine IPA
Pliny clone still delicious
Herb's 'Early Tap' rural wheat on sabbatical

---
New hops: Galaxy ... Horizon ... Citra
New grains: Swaen pale ... red wheat
New equipment: portable drill powered grain mill

---
Most improved:
Wit
Milling time & effort

Least improved:
LHBS

Best new things:
Chill trub to recover clear wort
SMaSH
Citra

Greatest achievement:
BJCP style: Dishwater - BYO SNPA clone ... including the re-brew

Greatest disappointments:
BYO SNPA clone ... including the re-brew
Rahr 2-row scarcity

 

It was an up and down year for me, mostly because I moved in the middle of the year.

8 batches in total (40 gallons).

Two Hearted Clone (Centennial heavy IPA) - Came out awesome and was gone in just under a month
Double IPA w/ double dry hopping - Very meh, heavy mouthfeel and wasn't too crazy about the final product's flavor
Imperial Stout - Came out good after six months of age was on it. More caramel heavy than I was expecting. I've been experimenting with blending it to see if I can take it from good to great
Saison dry hopped with Mosaic
Saison dry hopped with Mandarina Bavaria
Saison dry hopped with Nelson - All three batches came out great with a ton of flavor and variety batch to batch. All were gone in less than a month from tapping
Brown Ale (Dogfish Head Indian Brown clone) - Came out really good. Blends nicely with the stout actually
ESB (Currently fermenting) - We shall see

 

Nothing extraordinary for me, just a few small steps to try and improve the overall quality.
- bought an oxygenation kit
- replaced tubing
- dabbled in dry yeast (I have always been a liquid yeast-er)
- experimented with oak spirals, vanilla beans and long-term secondary fermentation (results TBD - I bottle the stout next month)
- tweaking my mill for a finer BIAB crush

Thankfully none of my batches were bad (a couple were underwhelming but drinkable).
I did make a stellar 9.5% Imperial saison that continues to knock my socks off, and I can get quality output like that most times I will be a happy BIAB brewer.

For 2016 I would like to jump into kegging...
That's the plan.

 

Summary:
10 5-gallon batches in 2015 (typical year for me in terms of quantity).

The Beers:
#134: Little Bo Pils (Bo Pils -- duh -- 75% Weyerman Pils, 25% Weyerman Light Munich. Magnum (bittering) and Cz. Saaz)
#135: Easy Does It (a Munich Helles -- see the Recipes Subforum here on BA. Probably my favorite beer of the year.)
#136: House American Brown (#11 in an ongoing series. Yeast 2112)
#137: Blinky Best Bitter (inspired by one of CP's beer's in Zymurgy)
#138: APA IPA #2 (Wyeast special release 1203 Burton IPA yeast; a great overall IPA, BTW)
#139: Zesty Wit (coriander and lemon peel; WLP 400. A bit more phenolic than other beers made with WLP 400.)
#140: Black Friday Ale (6.8% Black IPA w/ Chinook, Columbus, Citra, and Centennial)
#141: Nor'Easter IPA (London III yeast; Belma for bittering (1 oz), Amarillo, Cascade, Citra for finish (5 oz), Amarillo, Centennial, Simcoe dry hop (6 oz). After close to 3 months in keg, this beer is still remarkably cloudy.)
#142: ESB Me (with Pantagonia crystal malts -- these malts are really, really flavorful.)
#143: House American Brown (#12 in the series. Recipe pretty much like #136. Still waiting for a free keg.)

Overall, all of these beers were quite successful. A few minor tweaks might improve some of them, but I'm not complaining. Kegging and water treatment have really helped me get the most out of any recipe I make. I might sneak another brew in before the years ends. If so, it will be another go at Easy Does It (#135, the Munich Helles).

Cheers and Merry Christmas, y'all.