2014 Brew Plans

Hey all.  While I'm working on the post for my return to homebrewing with  my first 2-gal batch, I thought I'd give a quick report on my brewing plans for 2014.  I have ingredients for a batch I plan to brew this weekend, my wife is going to be out of town next weekend and so has convinced me to brew that Saturday, and I'm moving to Berkeley, CA in May so anything I brew before then has to be bottled before we leave.  But once we're settled there I'll be brewing like crazy, of course.

So what will I be brewing this year?

First up is a pumpkin brown ale, inspired by Dogfish Head's Punkin.  This beer deserves the flattery my mimicry will give it as it's one of the best pumpkin beers out there, next to this bad boy.  I hope DFH is available in CA, because I'll be on the lookout for this when fall comes to the Bay Area.  My recipe started with the Brown Jewels Ale I brewed last autumn, with minor modifications to the grain bill and a new hop schedule.  I bought two baking pumpkins last September and October in preparation for this even though I wasn't brewing until I finished my PhD, but I wanted fresh pumpkin for my pumpkin beer.  Those little guys yielded a total of 3 lbs of pureed pumpkin which has been sitting in my freezer since then in 1-lb bags.  The plan is to use 1 lb in the mash, 1 lb in the boil, and 1 pound in the secondary after primary fermentation.  Brown sugar will go in with the boil addition to complete the Punkin clone attempt.  This should be bottled and ready to drink by mid-March.

Because my wife is basically forcing me to brew another batch so soon after this (thanks babe, you're the best!), I'm scrambling to pull a recipe together by Saturday so I can head out to The Brew Mentor first thing and spend the rest of the day brewing.  Of course I plan to brew the Spicy Jalapeño Saison again, as that's become a personal favorite, but I might wait until I've bottled the pumpkin brown ale to brew that batch.  I'm planning to brew a rye pale ale this year, but that might wait until late summer as that's more of a fall beer.  Last night I flipped through my copy of Brooklyn BrewShop's Beer Making Book to find inspiration.  There are still a lot of beers in there I'd like to attempt, and I have a lifetime of brewing ahead of me to do so, but the one that caught my attention is called "Spring Lager."  It's not exactly a lager as it's not cold fermented and lagered, but is fermented at ale temperatures and bottled without a long cold storage.  This is known as California Common and is best exemplified by Anchor Steam's line of beers.  Perfect timing since I'm moving to California this year, and to the region that spawned this style!  Hopefully my apartment won't be too warm for the lager yeast and the final product is delightful.  It'll be a neat experiment and something I'm looking forward to.

After the brown pumpkin ale and California Common I'll brew the jalapeño saison again, that should be in mid-March to be ready by late April, so I'd like to brew at least one or two more beers and have everything bottled before the move.  But what should those one or two other beers be?  I'll look through the Beer Making Book and see if something else inspires me.  I definitely will brew another of my two IPAs from last year, Black-Eyed Pea-A and Indubitably Patriotic Ale, and an April brew will ensure a nice summer beer ready to be drunk after loading the truck in Cleveland and unloading it in Berkeley.

But what about late summer, and fall, and winter!?!??!  Those are far enough away that I don't have specific plans yet, but I do have some ideas.  As I mentioned above, I think I'll do a rye pale ale late summer, and going into the fall I'll find some baking pumpkins and brew my Pumpkin Porter again.  As for winter, maybe another milk stout, the PB&Porter was good but I'll look for some peanut butter powder to avoid the oil issue, and I'll comb the Beer Making Book for ideas.  If my imperial milk stout with coffee turns out or is close but needs some fine tuning I'll take another crack at it.  I want that one to be good and my wife has already put it on the menu for the cafe we'll open in our retirement (we're 32, so that's at least 30 years off and I have plenty of time to hone my recipes and become best friends with a excellently business minded individual to be the financial side of this proposed venture).  But whatever I brew, you'll be in the know as I'll post about it when the batches are in the bottle!

Homebrewing buddies, what are your plans for this year of brewing?

Until next time, happy brewing friends!