Cliche End Of Year/New Years Resolutions Post
2017 Recap
As per usual, this is the cliche end of year recap for all the stuff – both good and bad – that happened this year.
Good Stuff
I made my first two kettle sours. Yeah, one is a gusher and some bottles don’t taste as good (lactic acid is not as good as sour blend). One took a gold medal in a local competition.
I built a larger boil kettle. This was both safety and functional issue, and it also resulted in being able to shorten my brew day.
I bought a mill to hopefully improve efficiency.
I brewed 9 times.
Bad Stuff
I blew up two pumps and three transformers/power supplies. It has made whirlpool and chilling difficult.
Three brews did not turn out at all as planned. One was a kettle sour Berliner Weisse that had a yeast contamination a little too early and I was not patient enough with. One was an Iron Brewer competition entry that seemed to also get a contamination (likely brettanomyces). One was an IPA that had a bunch of fusel alcohols. Needless to say, I learned from all.
New Year’s Plans
And to do this, I have to BUILD THE WALL.
Seriously.
The pic above shows the current environment. The furnace on the right gets very loud, I have no ventilation, the lighting sucks, and I don’t feel like I have enough space to be organized. So the plan is to build a wall blocking the noise from the furnace, and in the process I’m going to improve airflow in the house and add a UV filter (to deal with my wife’s allergies that seem to be related to a certain cat litter that we no longer use).
In not-as-major stuff, I’m going to improve my pump, whirlpool, and chilling situation. And I’m going to move towards having temperature control for fermenting.
To fund all this, I’m going to buy less commercial beer. It’s a sacrifice. I’m even tempted to unfollow a few local beer stores because they cause temptation (that’s kinda their job).
In terms of goals that have less to do with equipment, I’m going to try to medal in another category. THAT is a lofty goal (and it’ll be fun… and delicious … to work towards!)
Cheers!