2021 Brewing Goals

I'd like to:

1. Brew smaller batches (iterate faster).
2. Figure out the NEIPA thing.
3. Wind down my long-term projects to just the barrels I have (but maybe get a new clean barrel).

 

My goals are to simply continue to hone a handful of styles that I've been focusing on that will eventually become my house beers. My NEIPA, Amber, Brown, Imperial Stout & Milk Stout are really coming along nicely.

At some point this year, I'd also like to brew a proper lager.

 

Oh, that's easy! Just use any yeast strain, at any temperature, and skip that silly lagering bit. </sarcasm>

Can you tell I've been spending some time on another forum?

 

Start it up again after two years. Especially after the outrageous amount of money I spent on beer this year. I plan on four beers:

1. French Saison - which I perfected for my tastes
2. Extra Hoppy Citra Pale Ale - formulated prior to the NE IPA craze, may be too malty for me anymore
3. Raison D’Etre Clone originally made for my wife’s 30th birthday.
4. Undecided.

I’m curious to see how my tastes have changed since I last brewed.

 

I really hope to brew a proper English bitter this year that I don’t drain pour. I’d love to have a beautiful keg of Fullers London pride.

i think getting my system hooked up with quick disconnects would be a beautiful thing.

 

I’m in the same boat. Will be 2 years next month since I last brewed. Life gets in the way sometimes. I feel rejuvenated though.

Just ordered 3 lbs of hops; a floating dip tube; spunding valve; and replacement draft lines for the kegerator. Nothing like new toys to get you playing again.

I’ve been paying attention to some of the latest techniques for dry hopping, fermenting, and transferring and plan to try them out on some old NEIPA recipes. Looking forward to 2021 to say the least.

 

First thought was you'd been spending some time with a bottomless glass.

 

In no particular order:
Ferment under pressure
Pressure transfer
Reclaim the SMaSH that I thought I already nailed
And probably my most ambitious 'wanna-do' is a parti- / multi-gyle brew by brewing a 5-gal RIS, then collect 2nd runnings and adding them to the wort from a 2nd mash of smoked malt for a smoky porter (or whatever it ends up as). Two mashes, two boils, two ferments.
Stop buying malt w/o being certain I'll use it before it gets past it's prime.

 

Teach myself how to count yeast.. well

Learn more about dark grain bills and the differences between German, English, Belgian, US roast malts and when to use which.

Brew lots of little beers under 5%

Use a different lager yeast. I used 1 basic strain for all of 2020 and loved it at first but started to second guess myself towards the end. Going to start brewing bigger batches of lager to split into smaller fermenters and test strains side by side.

Brew even more than in 2020.

 

I’d like to slowly work on building a keezer this year. My kegerator is on its last leg and the last thing I’d wanna do is have to build one after it craps out on me.

I’ve been brewing for 10 years and I still haven’t tried making a lager. Would love to brew one this year if I can manage a fermentation in the 50s. Then, I can finally impress my IPA-doubting dad.

There are a few super simple SMaSH recipes I’d love to try this year as well, experimenting with a few new hop varieties that I’ve never tried, but keeping with my standard house yeasts. Simplicity is a beautiful thing!

 

Nice. Maybe eventually I will want to do something like that, but I kind of also want to revert my taste buds

 

Join a homebrew club.

Build a keezer.

Only buy ingredients I'll actually use in a reasonable timeframe.

 

After my first year of brewing I've learned a fair deal and plan on learning a lot more.

In 2021 I would like to:
1. Improve knowledge and technique with watery chemistry and fining
2. Stop brewing NEIPAs until I can upgrade equipment. I will focus on West Coast IPAs that don't seem to oxidize on me
3. Find a way to better control sediment in the bottling process
4. Improve yeast knowledge and pitching technique

 

I'm going to stick to two maltsters this year. After years of chopping and changing, I'm going to stick to Simpsons only for British style beers and Weyermann for continental. Probably just Golden Promise and Barke as the base

Going to go back and brew more bitters and milds etc this year, I brewed a couple last year and while they were not perfect they reminded me why I started with them. I'm also going to try and use just one yeast for all of them and try and restrain myself on the hops, which I have struggled to do

 

Lower the ABV. I brewed 13 times in 2020, ranging from 4.2-9.6%; mean = 5.8%; median = 5.2%. While there is perhaps nothing alarming about these numbers, I want to challenge myself to make tasty session beers.

 

Make a table saison. With the right yeast and fermentation a 3% ABV beer can be very tasty.

 

1. Get my brewery back. This summer I bugged out of my ~15 year brewing space in our attached greenhouse so we could use it as an actual greenhouse (growing kale, spinach, radishes, lettuce, etc. as I write). It was mostly my idea, but one result is that I've not brewed since April. I'm taking over a storage space behind a Mother-in-Law apartment above the garage. This will eventually be my brewery, gym and man cave. TLDR, it was used for illicit purposes by a relative about 10-12 years ago. This left a bad taste in our mouths and we did not touch it for a long time, but I have now completed demolition and am ready to start building out. I will probably record my progress and solicit advice in the Off Topic thread soon.

2. Get up to speed with kveik yeasts. My new brewery can get quite warm in the summer so this may be serendipitous.

3. Make a good barley wine. I've only made 2 and was not happy with the results.

 

Yep. Grisette types are on my list. Due to ingredients on hand, my first beers of 2021 will be wiessbier, comparing two yeasts. Probably next weekend. Will say more in the brewing activities thread. But will target the lower gravity end of the style.