2015 Brew Review & 2016 Brewing Goals

[swenocha]

Review:
Looks like I'll wrap the year under 20 gallons (unless I sneak in another brew day next weekend, which is possible but not likely).

So, my ongoing stats since starting stand at:

2010: 77.5 gallons on 33 brews
2011: 54.0 gallons on 21 brews
2012: 38.5 gallons on 15 brews
2013: 22.5 gallons on 9 brews
2014: 24.5 gallons on 9 brews
2015: 18.5 gallons on 8 brews


Goals:
- I need to pledge to make 2016 an increase from prior year brewing production. I think with my schedule, I'd like to shoot for at least once a month, maybe hitting 35 or so gallons.
- I still haven't fulfilled my long term goal of brewing at a brewery. What I thought might be my best opportunity likely won't happen, as they have implemented a beer club, and the $1000/year level, along with all kinds of beer/merch/party perks, includes a brew day. So... since I'm not laying out $1k, I assume this won't happen, as they likely will only brew with the people who pony the cash. Other options in town, but maybe not as likely...
- Want to enter a competition again this year.
- Want to do a big brew with some other folks... Brewing is fun with friends.
- Not much in the way of equipment upgrades... Would love to switch to kegs, but I don't see that happening in the short term.
- I have my process down pretty well now, so I want to find something new to try... be it a new ingredient, a new process, or something like that.


Anyone else?

[dbrowning]

Ended up brewing 86 gallons this year ( about half what I originally intended)
Last brew day was 11/11
Hope to get at least one more in tomorrow
Had a lot of unexpected stuff come up
Goal for 2016 is to average 5 gallons a week.
And I need to get a couple more kegs

[Pudge]

Volume isn't a concern for me. I have a few favorite recipes I repeat and a couple of ideas or so I'd like to try. I've been giving away 2-3 growlers per batch to various folks this fall. It has brought one guy back to homebrewing after several years, 3-4 more show interest in taking up the hobby, and I've been asked to share a couple recipes by a couple of local homebrewers I run with.

I think my goal this year will be to share the hobby. It'd be great to personally bring in 3-4 new brewers.

[Whamolagan]

My brewing goal is to open a tap room by christmas 2016, brew gods willing

[Rebel_B]

Brewed some +/- 120 gallons in 2015. The family & friends really enjoyed the IPAs this year & by a silent vote of gallons consumed, the people want more IPAs!
Mrs Claus gave me a beer gun for Christmas & I am planning to use that tool to bottle up some beers & enter a couple of competitions in 2016.

[MrBandGuy]

Great topic! I ended up around 65 G, and about 1 brew a month. More in the summer with my teaching schedule, but a nice average.

I made my first Belgian this year to delicious results. I want to explore some more styles and yeasts, planning to do a KY Common for Derby and an alt, and experiment more with some bourbon additions (although not from barrels).

I haven't done a contest in a couple years, so that would be a good time too.

[D_Rabbit]

Finished the year around 45 gallons, which is a high for me for a long time. Some of them were co-brewed batches so that added to the volume. My goals for this year are as follows:
- Brew a batch for each competition date in my brew club, 6 total batches varying in different styles for every even month.
- continue to do a few collaboration brews this year, those beers turned out well and were fun to work on with another club member.
- enter a few competitions
- bring my new rig on site for a big brew day
- really dial in the rig to make sure everything is as consistent as possible.
- make great beer!

[brewnewb]

In 2015 I did over 100 gallons of beer and about 50 gallons of wine. I had a few bad ones.

For 2016, my wife bought me a nice notebook to keep track of all my brews. I have a few pipeline fillers that I'll keep in circulation and try to brew a few seasonal beers for variety. My goal is to have my 2 taps full at all times. With 6 total kegs, I should have 2 on tap, 2 on stand by and 2 ready to be filled at all times.

Our youngest girl is getting married this summer. I have 15 gallons of wine ready to bottle the first of the year. A red, a white and a blush that we'll have for the wedding. In the spring I'll do several beers to be ready for the after the wedding picnic. We're going with commercial beer for the wedding due to the volume.

Happy new year to all!

[RickBeer]

In 2015 I brewed just over 84 gallons of beer, the most ever (2014 was just over 61). I could have done more - for example I'm bottling this week and could brew again, but I'm taking my bride out of town to celebrate our anniversary, and then we have people coming over for the Citrus Bowl, so no time.

In 2016, I plan on trying some new things - perhaps brewing something like Bell's Two Hearted or similar. I'm going to let certain of my brews fade away - like the two White House beers - and add some new ones. I may add some new equipment, but still don't see going to AG, but who knows.

[Beer-lord]

I think I clocked in at 90 this year though I'm not feeling confident that I improved in many ways though I have semi-tackled the water side of things.
I learned more about yeast, experimented with mixing some and plan more of that in 2016. With our friends back in NOLA and our Wednesday night jams, I expect to drink a bit more so that naturally translates into brewing a bit more.

[Dawg LB Steve]

Have "Flagship/House Beers" in a rotation to the point of having 6 or so of these constantly on tap, and lessen brewing the experimental styles. Brew somewhere near where I was is 2014 and 2015, 110 and 107.5 gallons respectively.

North Port Pils
The Steamship Mather Cali-Common
Traveling Irish Red
Bottoms up Brown
???IPA???
???Pale Ale???
???Stout???

[John Sand]

At first glance I remembered mostly my errors: a couple of failed batches, other good batches partly ruined by bottle infections. Reading my log, I found 8 batches, 31 gallons. (not a lot) Boat work and sailing to Florida took some time, hand surgery too. There were very successful experiments, like splitting one wort into two beers: Belgian Dubbel and Pale. I expanded kegging, now have 3 5s, 2 2.5s. In retrospect, it was a good year. Next year I'd like fewer mistakes, more great beer, maybe some high competition scores.

[BlackDuck]

My big improvement in 2015 was kegging. And I'm glad I started. It is so easy to just transfer to the keg and put in on gas for a week. For 2016, I don't think I'm going to make any big adjustments or changes to what I've got. I'm content at where I'm at and the equipment I've got. I will start redecorating my basement brewing and work area so it is more of a hang out spot. I'll put up a dart board, get a pub table for the two bar stools I have, and make it look more like a pub.

[MadBrewer]

18 batches brewed this year. Im drinking less and less of my own beer. I enjoy the hobby and love to share it. I have also been brewing for friends with kegerators just to have something to brew. Goals for 2015 were to make improvements to my setup and I have done that with some new equipment.

Goals for 2016 are to do a better job at cleaning my equipment. I have improved that a lot compared to before. But as I take my brewing more and more serious I need to keep in mind the basics of good cleaning and sanitation. I believe I started showing some signs of slight contamination in a couple recent batches. I think I traced that down to a dirty oxygen stone that I wasnt cleaning and sanitizing correctly. But I also ditched plastic buckets for a glass carboy and replaced my transfer hose from kettle tonfermenter as a precaution.

[mashani]

~125 gallons this year. 25 gallons of that is still in bottles. The rest is gone-diddly-on.

I have no particular goal besides to get a couple of little big mouth bubblers and make some sours like a true no-boil Berliner and Goze, and some small batches of mead as well as my usual motley assortment of beery-beverages. If I get some money a high quality bench capper so I can properly bottle. If I get a lot of money then some stainless steel fermenters. If I get a hella-lot of money then an eBIAB rig. But none of those things are priorities over other household things, so they tend to get back burnered, although I like to look at the pictures of them.