Category Archives: brewing

Brew Year’s Resolutions 2025

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It has been three years since I last did one of these posts, but I figured I would give it a go in 2025. I usually only somewhat loosely adhere to these resolutions, but they can be fun ways to frame the year.

  • More Small Batches.
    • I enjoy brewing, and sometimes it’s more about the brew day than consuming the final product. One way to get around an occasional backlog in beer (and to have more variety) is to brew smaller batches. So, I’m going to aim to do a greater percentage of 3 gallon brews this year. Although I anticipate continuing with 5 gallon batches as the bulk of my brewing (especially for favorites like German pils), I hope to work more 3 gallon batches into the rotation, especially for new-to-me styles.
  • Conditioning Time.
    • Somewhat paradoxically relative to the item above, some of my beers would benefit from a longer conditioning or lagering time before serving. For instance, my märzen was on tap within 6 weeks after kegging, but a minimum of 8 weeks and preferably 10 would have been ideal to hit the point of brilliance for this particular recipe. A German pils (not yet posted) is at 6 weeks and is now brilliant and ready to serve; I often have these beers on around 2 weeks after kegging. Beyond simple discipline, I think the key to achieving this goal is brewing frequently enough that I can afford to let a keg sit for longer lagering.
  • New Styles.
    • I have explored a good chunk of the styles out there, but there are still more to do. In the most recent Zymurgy issue that highlights the winners of the 2024 NHC, there was a really intriguing gose recipe. Sour beers aren’t my usual favorite, quick sour methods are sometimes a bit one dimensional or not advised for many styles, and the possibility of contamination always gives me second thoughts. But, this particular “Salty One” by gold medal winner Jonathan Hernandez relies on a blending technique that avoids souring on the cold side, and allows some complexity on the hot side. Basically, you make a fraction of the batch as sauergut, and then adding this to the rest of the wort at the boil. I’m going to give it a try!

2024’s Homebrew Highlights

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2024 was a decent year for brewing; I focused in part on perfecting classic styles, in addition to returning to a few standby recipes. I feel that I know my brewing system pretty well and have been learning the mash and recipe formulation techniques to get to my destination. Interestingly, I think I was at 100 percent dry yeast during the past year–I might try one or two liquid yeast varieties for particular batches, but in the end the variety and convenience of dry yeast can’t be beat.

  • Favorite Batch(es)
    • Bear Butte Porter is on tap right now, and it hits every note that I love about classic American craft beer styles. It’s rich without being cloying, malty while still being drinkable, and low enough abv that I can enjoy a glass or two without getting knocked out. American porters are a style I keep enjoying, especially because they’re relatively scarce nowadays in a sea of IPAs.
    • I have been chasing the ideal hefeweizen for years, and finally hit that with Humboldt’s Hefeweizen 2024. I made some adjustments to technique, especially in the mash program, and the results paid off handsomely.
  • Least Favorite Batch
    • Snowdrop Kölsch 2024 Attempt 1 (not blogged) got infected; this was a disappointment, and led me to add Iodophor semi-regularly into my cleaning rotation. Thankfully my second attempt at this recipe went much more smoothly.
  • Experimental Recipe With Most Potential
    • Session Saison got soooo close to perfection, and I’m looking forward to dialing in this recipe.
  • Most Fun New Style/Recipe to Try
    • Levitation Ale Homage was a super tasty session ale, and I still remember the hop flavor on this one. It had so much going on for a lower alcohol beer, and I absolutely love that!
  • Upcoming Beer With Most Potential
    • I have a Belgian blond ale conditioning in the keg right now, for a recipe I’ve called “Unruly Gnome Belgian Blond Ale.” It’s intended to be an approximation of La Chouffe, which is one of my favorite beers.
    • My first rauchbier is lagering right now; it will go on tap once I have space in my keezer. Initial samplings have been very tasty!
  • Best Ingredient/Technique Added to Repertoire
    • Feijoa (Pineapple Guava): This unusual (to me) fruit has a unique taste and is perfectly suited for a sour. So, my Rated “PG” for Pineapple Guava recipe was born.
    • Mash schedules: I used my Anvil Foundry to its full potential this year, by adjusting mash schedules to achieve desired fermentation results. Exemplar number 1 is my hefeweizen–I added a ferrulic acid rest, which I am fairly sure tipped the beer’s character into perfection. Similarly, I used a long and low saccharification rest on my session saison, which finally got me the dryness I want and need on that style.
  • Favorite Books
    • No new books jumped out at me this year, which may be just as much a factor of me reading other things versus a dearth of interesting content. A new-to-me book that I greatly enjoyed was Experimental Homebrewing: Mad Science in the Pursuit of Great Beer Mad Science in the Pursuit of Great Beer by Denny Conn and Drew Beechum, published a full 10 years ago. It’s a time capsule in many ways, from a simpler era when the overlap between homebrewers and commercial brewers was blurrier, and it felt like the homebrewing scene was on an eternally upward trajectory. I like the approach they take to recipes, with an emphasis on thinking through the ingredient inputs needed for sensory outputs. This is not unique to them, but their way of relating it is quite approachable and fun to read.
  • Overall Stats

10 Years of All-Grain Brewing

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Looking back through old blog posts, I realized that my first all-grain beer was just over 10 years ago! It was a little intimidating to get started–those days were before the now ubiquitous all-in-one systems, back when the most visible mode of brewing was a shiny (and expensive, and space-hogging) three-tier system. Thankfully, I discovered batch sparging, and this tipped the scales enough for me to try at all-grain.

I have learned a ton since then, so wanted to jot down some of the lessons for posterity. Here we go!

  • Crush is probably the most important factor for me. It can be make-or-break, especially when first learning process, and it has been so worth it to get a mill of my own so that I can dial in this variable. This has made my extraction efficiency quite predictable!
  • For those going into all-grain brewing nowadays, I would suggest either brew-in-a-bag (especially for smaller batches or smaller budgets), or an all-in-one. The Anvil Foundry has been a great investment, and makes my brew sessions all the more enjoyable. A three-tier system just isn’t worth it for me, and I would say even batch sparging is not a good route if you have the cash for all-in-one or brew-in-a-bag.
  • Mash temperature matters, but not as much as I thought. I used to obsess over being within a fraction of a degree, and that was not mental energy well spent. If you are 5 or 10 degrees off — sure, that’s going to affect your intended results. But if you are within 1 or 2 degrees, it’s almost certainly not going to be noticeable.
  • It’s worth having a stash of bulk base malts. At one point, I had three or four bags on-hand, and now I’m down to 2-row and pilsner as my usuals. Perhaps I should pick up a bag of Maris Otter and/or Vienna, but I just don’t brew enough for styles that require them. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten Munich in bulk, but it’s so strong as a flavor that I don’t use it much.
  • Decoctions can be fun. It’s worth giving a try sometime. Same for cereal mashes. But, you can make great beer without them.
  • The biggest benefit of all-grain brewing for me? I get endless recipe control, and it opens up a ton of (grain) ingredients and styles that would be hard to do otherwise.
  • All-grain brewing is no substitute for good temperature control.
  • Sometime soon, I need to do an extract batch. Just for fun, and to see if what I have learned will generate something awesome.

Above: A series of images over the years showing my evolution of all-grain brewing. From left to right, top row: my first mash tun; an early decoction effort; second row: grains ready for a brew; a full sack of malt; a very full mash tun for a high gravity beer; third row: checking temperature; the Anvil Foundry in an early brew.

2023’s Homebrew Highlights

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2023 was another year with tons of non-brewing things happening in life, so my brew days were pretty important opportunities for relaxation.

  • Favorite Batch
    • American Pale Ale 2023 was a killer batch! It was just a straight-down-the-middle pale ale, which hit every note for a traditional take on the style. I would drink it every day (if that was a good idea).
    • Live Oak Canyon Ale was a close second…it was incredibly drinkable, and an interesting beer in a hard-to-find style.
  • Least Favorite Batch
    • Thanksgiving Transatlantic Barleywine wasn’t a bad batch, but I should have let it age another year. So, even though it was still reasonably drinkable, I will mark it down as “least favorite.”
  • Experimental Recipe With Most Potential
    • Live Oak Canyon Ale (again!). I had such a fun time with this beer, and the introduction of wood into the mix was a nice experimental twist. I would brew this again in a second.
  • Most Fun New Style/Recipe to Try
    • I enjoyed brewing a Czech dark lager; it was fun to try out some new ingredients and go fairly traditional in this beer.
  • Upcoming Beer With Most Potential
    • I just kegged a Sierra Nevada Porter clone recipe, and I think it’s going to be pretty great! Porters are such a hard style to find nowadays, so I always enjoy making them. It’s funny how they have basically disappeared from the landscape, which emphasizes why homebrewing is so important.
  • Best Ingredient Added to Repertoire
    • Wood! I enjoyed my revisit to wood aging with Live Oak Canyon Ale (yet again). I don’t want every beer to be wood aged, but I had forgotten how a straight-up wood (rather than spirit-barrel-aged) character can be nice.
  • Favorite Books
    • The Hops List book was a surprisingly great addition to my beer and brewing library. Because it’s just a…list…of hops, it rewards dipping in and out of the pages, and doesn’t need a sequential exploration. It’s probably one of the more useful books I’ve got, and certainly one of my most-used ones during the past year.
  • Overall Stats
    • I made 22 batches during the year, totaling approximately 100 gallons of beer.
    • Around a third (8) of my batches were some form of lager, which is an increase from 2022. Nearly a third (7) were some form of pale ale (IPA, Belgian pale ale, or American pale ale).
    • My most frequently brewed styles were American Pale Ale (four batches) and German pils (three batches).

2022’s Homebrew Highlights

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The year of 2022 was a bit slower in terms of brewing than some years (22 batches versus 31 last year), because things were just plain hectic. The start of 2023 was even more hectic, hence the fact that it is February before I posted the review for 2022. Even so, I got in some nice brews last year. Here is a recap!

  • Favorite Batch
  • Least Favorite Batch
    • 2022 Orange Summer Wheat Ale. So much went wrong with this batch, and by the time I sampled it from the keg, it was pretty dismal. This was a failure of equipment and technique, not recipe.
  • Experimental Recipe with Most Potential
  • Amber Rye Ale. I had a ton of fun creating this recipe, and it turned out amazing, too! I’m definitely brewing it again.
  • Most Fun New Style/Recipe to Try
  • Big Surprise Belgian Pale Ale. I didn’t expect this one to turn out as well as it did.
  • Upcoming Beer With Most Potential
  • I brewed a schwarzbier at the end of December, and I’m hopeful for it.
  • Best Technique Added to Repertoire
  • Last year was a bit boring; I didn’t really add any new techniques. I suppose that’s OK; stick with what works!
  • Best Ingredient Added to Repertoire
  • Although I started with it in 2021, Diamond Lager yeast became my go-to for lagers in 2022. It’s such a great dry yeast — head and shoulders above dry versions of 34/70, which leave a bit of a tartness I don’t care for. It’s a staple of my brewing supplies now.
  • Favorite Book(s)
  • I didn’t have any new acquisitions that blew me away this year. The Dark Lagers book I received for Christmas 2021 has continued to be enjoyable, and The Fermentation Kitchen is excellent for brewing-adjacent projects. I did get the new Book of Hops — it’s very pretty and full of interesting tidbits, but is probably better suited for those earlier in their brewing journey, or general beer enthusiasts versus more advanced homebrewers.
  • Other Milestones
    • I made beer vinegar for the first time this year, and it was a fun (and tasty) effort. There will be more of this (and other fermentables) in 2023!
  • Overall Stats
    • I brewed 22 batches of beer in 2022, around 120 gallons.
    • IPAs were the major beer of 2022, with 5 batches out of 22. As a category, lagers were 6 out of the 22 batches. This isn’t too different from 2021.