How'd your year go? Any new techniques, equipment, styles? Highlight & lowlight of the year?
I done my last batch of the year yesterday, a rebrew of a strawberry blonde I made earlier in the year which I'll be tweaking and hopefully entering into the nationals. Made loads of new styles this year, including a couple of saisons in the summer since I've no temp control! Also done a NEIPA towards the start of the year which was my first time whirlpooling, first time using oats and first time dry hopping at high krausen (not to mention first time using a silly amount of hops). Best new bit of equipment I got was a second element for my kettle - has taken at least an hour off my brewday.
Lowlight of the year is definitely my fuck up while fitting said second element, which left me out of commision trying to fix a pinhole leak for several weeks, before I bit the bullet and converted a bucket into a new one. Well, that or my second attempt at a kettle sour getting inoculated with yeast, again :D
Highlight is the feedback for my most recent bottled batch, a nut brown ale - first one I've been happy giving out to the people in work who've been asking for one of my beers. Everyone very surprised at how good it is ("it tastes like a real beer!" - that's the point alright). Hopefully a sign of things to come!
Great idea for a topic! Jan 2017 saw me attending the Homebrew Academy in The Walled City brewery and getting seriously bitten by the homebrew bug. I then went about buying too many buckets, cheap kettles, pieces of copper and cooler boxes. Read everything I could find on brewing, watched way too many YouTube videos and set about assembling a brewery.
I went straight to all grain bought a fridge and an STC and brewed more or less constantly into the summer. Had a few that became drain food, but I was surprised that the beers were quite drinkable. I brought a few to work and some people even suspected I'd re-bottled commercial beers, which is a compliment...I guess?
Regarding equipment, I had a rush of blood to the head one day and convinced myself that I really needed a Grainfather, so the credit card took a beating and I had a new toy in the shed.
As a new brewer, everything I've brewed this year has been a first, but having just done my first stout, I think it's my favourite brew of the year. The smells during the mash were incredible. It got good feedback from my Guinness drinking buddies, so pretty chuffed with it.
Looking forward to a great brewing year in 2018 and may all your beers be great ones!