How far ahead do you schedule?

[pocketjr]

I was chatting with a friend of mine (who just bottled his first ever batch) about what the next brew is going to be and then what comes after that...

it got me to thinking.... How far ahead should I be scheduling my brews?

Our conversation got mixed in with sports talk (baseball and hockey seasons) and I mentioned that I'd like to have at least a couple of Pilsner recipes ready to drink come late June/beginning of July for baseball season. Then I started looking at a calendar and counting backwards from July 1.

Do you guys do this? Do you plan your brews a season ahead (brew a spring drink in the winter, or a summer in the spring)?

[The_Professor]

In theory one should plan their brews in advance, to have those seasonal beers ready (and aged) at the right time.

I have to admit that I am really bad at this.

Anytime I plan more than a few brews in advance scheduling, circumstances, and the "fickeled finger of fate" play a hand at changing that schedule.

Sometimes I think brewing wine would be easier in this regard. You simply brew it 1-2 years before the event....

[BigPapaG]

I try to schedule out one to two months...

However, there always seems to be something I want to brew sort of spur of the moment...
(Something I want, or something(s) that I want to use up!)

That sometimes pushes another brew further out...

Unfortunately, this means I REALLY have to plan for anything that will need long primary/secondary time or take extended aging time.

[mashani]

What is this schedule you speak of?

[FedoraDave]

Sometimes I only plan a week or so ahead of time, so I can have my shopping list ready. Other times I plan a few weeks ahead of time, especially if I want to do a seasonal (which isn't often), or realize I'm running low on something I want to continue having on hand.

[philm00x]

I don't really schedule my brews. I just go with the flow!

[John Sand]

I don't schedule. I have ingredients on hand, a list of styles I want to brew, a couple of HMEs. I brew what I can when I have time: An hour and a fermenter free means an HME. A couple of hours allows an extract batch. A rainy day permits all grain.

[Beer-lord]

I know what I want to brew many weeks ahead and try to plan time of man weeks ahead. I have a pretty consistent work schedule so I pretty much know if and when that will be in the way so a few weeks ahead, I know with some surety that I can brew.

[mtsoxfan]

If I want a beer for Thanksgiving/Christmas 2014 I think about what I want now, and brew around Thanksgiving/Christmas 2013. It's usually a big bold brew that needs extended conditioning. other than that, I plan while I'm cutting the lawn, drinking a brew... mental notes of how the pipeline is doing and what addition will keep it balanced.

[BlackDuck]

I usually start planning my next brew right after I put one in the fermenter. This gives me time to research the type and write the recipe. It also gives me time to adjust it if I think it needs it. If I want a seasonal recipe, I'll usually plan that out a little further so it's ready when it needs to be.

[JimH]

I usually just plan 1-2 beers in the future, but occasionally I will be on the Borg and will either get caught up in the RCE (not a bad thing!) or in the chat room with philm00x and it will put a new beer at the top of the list. Not much seasonal planning for me, I like all beers all the time and never been into the seasonality.

[Gymrat]

The beauty of my decent inventory of grain and hops and yeast on hand is that often I decide the night before I brew what I would like to do. I have enough stuff on hand to brew quite a variety of styles at any given time. Other times I think and plan for a while what I would like to do. So for me I am all over the map on this one.

[Crazy Climber]

I guess I'm an outlier on this topic. Planning, scheduling, designing the recipe and gathering the necessary ingredients is all part of the fun for me.
I brew about once a month, and I usually have a minimum of 2 beers planned ahead. Sometimes, when I have specific goals for a seasonal beer, or a competition, I might know what my next 5 or 6 brews are going to be!
Yeah, I'm definitely "left brain" in most things I do.

[Yankeedag]

Don't really have a lot of room to store stuff here. So when I know I might brew (normally sat or sun) I just chuffel down to the supply point, pick up my fixings, and ta-dah, I have it.
Which brew do I do? Just one of 3. Nong Irish not so Red, the Nong Irish Red, Or... the nong IPA.
The ciders don't count. That takes less time than fixing bacon, eggs, and taters for brekkie.

[gwcr]

Seems like I can only schedule one week in advance. Mostly though it's a couple of days before the weekend, once the social director lets me know the plans. Now that I have a LHBS, that seems to work pretty well for me for planning the actual brew day. I already have a good stable of recipes that I like to make, so the style depends on what I'm feeling like and what I haven't had for a while. Not a lot of planning there unless I want to make some tweaks.