How has your brewing changed in the past year?

Brewed 2 lager after failing at it years ago. They can out good, not great.

Had to brew and have ready 25 different beers by the middle of this month. Never brewed that much in such a short time span.

IPAs are being hopped a little less after I made my fill of the neipa brews. I like them but like the old standards too.

New woods for this year are black birch and white birch. Yeah, it's still wood in beer but different.

 

I've started using GoodBelly SuperShots or whatever they're called as a source of lactobacillus - a very cheap and handy way to get some quick souring. (My advice is to find the freshest, best-maintained package you can.)

I've gotten more serious about doing a mashout so the enzymes don't keep thinning out my wort during the sparge.

 

Less IPAs, pale ales, etc. for me. I'm sticking more to brewing styles that are hard to find fresh commercially.

Lower ABVs for me as well. I've never brewed a lot of high gravity beers, usually just a yearly barleywine, but in the past most of my beers were medium gravity. Now my ESBs are bitters, pilsners are 4.5% instead of 5.5%, etc.

A more recent trend, but instead of 10 gallon batches I'm brewing two 5 gallon batches on the same brew day. I figured out it only adds about 30 minutes to my brew day anyway.

 

My brewing has become less frequent. Partly because life is busy, but also because I've cut back on my beer consumption to keep my inching waste-line in check before it gets out of control. Since I'm brewing so infrequently, I'm thinking that I'll start shifting gears more towards long-term beers which I can age and enjoy on occasion, rather than brewing beers which I turn around and crush quickly.

I bottled a Brett Tripel a couple weeks ago which I'll let age for a few months. Also making plans to do a half-batch of an English Barleywine that I made last year, but I'll be adding some bourbon-soaked oak cubes to sit on for a good long while. I've also been doing research to begin a sour Solera project in the near future.

 

I'm still brewing IPAs/APAs most frequently and I'm continuing to experiment with different hopping techniques, such as fermentation hopping. I'm finally happy with dry hopping in the keg using loose pellets, which now works well for me when I also use this floating diptube. I'm still going back and forth with loose vs. bagged pellets in the kettle. I'm hoping to add a whirlpool arm to my setup soon, and I just bought my first pump (the new Blichmann one).

 

I brewed my second batch of Kellerbier a few months ago. Maybe this will be part of my regular rotation?

Cheers!

 

Just went from a gravity system in home depot coolers to a 20 gallon spike herms system, so that's definitely the biggest change - really having to re-think my process to dial it in. Only brewed twice on it so far, so definitely still getting used to it. Used to have around 80% mash efficiency and so far I've had 70% & 74% (according to Kal at the electric brewery I should be milling coarser for a recirculating system (0.045 instead of 0.035 - I'll probably go with 0.040) and sparging longer (60-90 min as opposed to the 45 min I do now)). Started to get into water adjustments the past 2 brews as well (thank you for the info on your Milwaukee pH meter!).

I agree - I've been brewing a lot more lower ABV beers as well (they have just as much flavor if you brew them correctly). I typically want 3-4 beers on a Friday night and you can't really do that with an 8.5% beer without paying for it (or at least I can't).

 

Care to share your recipe? I'm most interested in yeast selection.

 

Nothing has really changed in the last few months after we grew to this point.

Now the trend has been to revist old brews, improve on the recipe and rebrew.

 

I finally got into all grain - about to brew my 3rd batch. I got a recirc pump. Started reading more about brewing and ingredients. Started messing with water chemistry. I feel like I've moved from a crawling baby brewer to a - can now walk on their two legs but barely - toddler brewer.

 

Biggest change in the past year is that I have begun adjusting my water. The well water at my house brews great light beers but not dark ones. I got it tested by Ward Labs and started using Bru'N'Water for adjustment and the beer is noticeably better. I still don't know a lot so I am concentrating on the correct ph more than minerals for a particular flavor profile.

 

This, years changes include,
Water adjustment.
Focus on sparge control, temp and flow, huge improvement.
Understanding fermentation in a better way, patience, and measurement
Temp control in all aspects.
Great question, its all about continuous improvement.
Cheers

 

My brewing has evolved to larger and smaller batches over the past 2 years. I now brew two large IPA batches with some friends - 2bbl each per year. We split up the kegs and keep this around for "house" beer.

And I also brew 3 gal batches of just about every other style in between those big batches. Just because I like to have the variety around. I ferment in 5 gal cornies, and keg in 3 gal cornies.

I'm gearing up for a run of 3 gal batches now.... AP ESB, Dark Mild, Pilsner, Vienna and some wort to top off my soleras.

 

Have you used the Blichmann pump yet? Any opinion about it? It looks intriguing, but as with all Blichmann stuff, pricy. Cheers!

 

A few caveats: (1) this is my first pump and (2) I've brewed once on it - on a one-vessel BIAB setup. That said, I'm very happy with it. Incredibly easy to take the pump head apart and put together, stable base that rotates to whatever position is needed, PRV-type valve to purge air, built in knob/valve to fine tune flow, on/off switch, and incredibly quiet. I first saw this at a BYO camp a few months ago - John Blichmann demo'd it - and I waited to buy this as my pump. Yes, it's $199 but that includes the outflow valve, so a bit more than a SS March or Chugger.

 

I have been trying to eliminate O2 in the process. Next step is spunding, then Krausening under pressure.

 

I've continued to work toward my version of the perfect IPA recipe. I have modified the grain bill, hop varieties, and process with each brew. I've had some great successes (4th BOS out of 299 entries)and terrible defeats(score of 25 and 26). It's been fun and educational along the way.

I also changed my process to cut my brew sessions down to under 5 hours which is a huge deal with kids running around.

My next goal will be a session IPA.

 

Started oxygenating with pure O2 & stone, stepped up my wild ale game with a good house culture, and got spiedel fermenters in place of the better bottles and buckets I used to use.

 

A worthy goal. IMO.