2016 Brewing in Review

[John Sand]

As we look forward to the new year, I'm reviewing the old one. I brewed about 11 batches (some splits were recorded as one, some as two). Two of those were dumped, one of which was experimental. Gear was upgraded: I built the kegerator, constructed a line cleaner, and added a spare CO2 tank. I also bought more kegs, a corona mill, a vacuum sealer. I upgraded my pot to 15 gallons with a valve, my mash to a 10 gallon cooler with a voile bag, and my temperature control from coolers to a fridge with controller and heat belt. I brewed my first lager. I actually returned to extract for several batches, taking advantage of kit sales to make for shorter brew days. I inventoried all of my supplies, but probably have lost track again. I learned not to count on suspect yeast.
It was a good year.

[Beer-lord]

It does sound like a good year and I'm sure 2017 will be even better for you.
I've got no major ideas to put into place, just to keep tweaking what I've done to make things better.

[bpgreen]

I've been traveling a lot this year, so I've been doing more kits. I've even been using some prehopped extracts, which I haven't done in years.

I now have a much better appreciation of just how fresh the extract is at my LHBS.

[FedoraDave]

I learned a lot about certain hop characteristics, which led to improving some of my standard recipes.

I also upgraded to a 10-gallon mash tun.

[Whamolagan]

The only thing I changed this year was a water recovery system and moved the Braumiester to the right 2 feet. Huge changes

[John Sand]

That two feet could throw the whole planet out of balance!

[Whamolagan]

OR....Maybe brought it back into balance, the jury is still out on that one

[John Sand]

Good point.