BeerBorg

95 Gals so far for the Terror!

It's been a crazy year trying to stay on schedule. I like to put 5.5 gals back every two weeks
but it looked as if there was always something coming up that prevented that.
Right now, I have three beers I can drink. Also a case of an excellent Pumpkin Ale that's a gift to my daughter and her fiance,
a Hersbrucker recipe that's ready to bottle and another 5.5 gal Pumpkin Ale in the bucket for myself and SWMBO!
I like to drink a couple a day and more than a couple a day on weekends, but I love the variety of my choices more than anything.
With the pipeline being so low right now, I'm really missing that.
When work slows down in Jan. I look to pick up the pace brewing and slow the pace consuming in order to shed more than a few of the 25 lbs
I'm overweight right now.
Since I quit the nicotine 6 years ago that's been a running battle too!
Mindset!
Hope to have a few hundred beers in the bottle and well seasoned by spring!

After brewing my next two batches, I will have brewed 41 gallons this year. Not too shabby I think. It has been a really fast year for me, having learned all-grain brewing, sour mashing, brewing lagers, decoctions, pseudo-decoctions, yeast washing, first wort hopping and making yeast starters. Probably a lot more than most folks would take on in the course of a year, but I love to learn, and learn fast!

We brewed our first batch in January and have done 43 to date. Like many others here I can say with certainty that we would not have achieved anything without all of the great folks on the Borg.
We have brewed almost every style but the lagers; we have brewed great beers and we have brewed horrid beers; we have had infections, and chlorophenols; we have had many brew days where every single thing was spot on and brew days where nothing seemed to go right but we found a hobby that we both enjoy thoroughly and love doing together.

But of all our progress and fond memories in 2013 I will look back and say that the most memorable moment of the year was seeing THAT picture of Inkleg brewing with his kilt out of kilter.

Now I know why there are so many houses for sale in his neighborhood.

The volume of my brewing is down in 2013 from year's past. IF I get one more planned brew done this year it will make a total of 12.

On the other hand, I have been very happy with most of the beer I did brew. I brewed 4 beers using all home malted grains. Besides malted (and homemade crystal) barley I also malted oats, and emmer wheat, as well as making homemade sour malt. I have some home malting planned for 2014. I brewed a watermelon wheat that turned out really well and I have a pumpkin beer that seems to be turning out nicely. I tried my hand at a whimsical parti-gyle that seems to be going well, OG was good and fermentation looks fine. The parti-gyle went well enough that I would like to try it again, maybe a Belgian Tripel/Dubbel.

I started out strong going a brew every three to four weeks. Then we put our house up for sale in March and I had to stop brewing so as not to "stink up the house." After we moved in June, it took a while to get liveable (it takes a year to get totally settled in my opinion) and I brewed in July. Then with the change in houses came a change in wine chiller and I had to modify the new one by taking out shelves that were not readily removable.

I'm still not on schedule yet but I managed to brew in August October and November so I'm getting back. The worst thing was the effect on my pipeline which was completely gone in July.....that's when I decided I had to brew again. Looking forward to a productive 2014.

Takes a year? LOL, been over 3 in this new house of ours, we still are out of kilter. Barely see'n the end of the tunnel now.

Malting your own barley Professor, that is cool!

John Sand wrote:Malting your own barley Professor, that is cool!

It's fun to get closer to "from scratch", but I'd be hard pressed to grow and harvest barley myself.

Starting in mid February I've brewed and fermented 37 batches.
3 of those were 1 gallon test batches.
The rest about 1/2 were 2.25 and the rest split between 3 and 5 gallon.
The last 20 or so all grain except 1
The first was barely drinkable. Most since have been very good.
Some Damn near great

I intend to brew at least 5 gallons a week next year

Actually 2 of those were wine.
1 gallon mead ... really good.
2 gallon chocolate/strawberry wine. I'll try that in October next year

I think I just want to forget 2013.......

I just checked my notes and I have brewed 15 batches or approximately 75 gallons in 2013. If it hadn't been for my hip I may have hit the 100 gallon mark this year.

I lost track, but I brewed about 50 gallons this year. I'm happy with that! 20 batches, 1 batch per 2.6 weeks, although the true timeline of my brewing had a gap of 3 months at one point, and then I brewed 3 batches in a week and a half. I'd like to make the schedule a little more regular next year.

GA law only allows 50 gal. ...so I only brewed 50 gal... yeah that's the ticket.

Well, as I just started in August, I am happy with what I've done so far. Batch #6 ready to be bottled in a few days. I've been happy with what I've made so far, with things getting better as I go along. Hoping to learn and try some new things in the new year!

jimjohson wrote:GA law only allows 50 gal. ...so I only brewed 50 gal... yeah that's the ticket.

I believe ya, yea, I'm stickin to dat.

ND allows 100 gal. per adult in household, so I can do 200 a year.... 200... I don't think I did 10 this year, I'm a failure.