Last weekend, while I was waiting for my wort to boil during my last brewday of the year, I got to thinking about how eventful this year has been for me... and how little I've blogged about it. In fact, I haven't blogged about it at all, considering my last post was in January and dealt with my brew-year's resolutions. I figured there was still time to correct that and avoid the social stigma befalling on those who say they have a beer blog but only post once all year. So here I am, at the buzzer, hoping there's still time to prevent the High Sparrow from subjecting me to a walk of atonement.
In that spirit, I feel there's no better way to tie up this year than by summing up my year in beer.
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| Nothing brings out the Christmas cheer like a 2016 Samichlaus |
Let me start by going over how I did with my brew year's resolutions, coz I think of this at least I can be proud, somewhat.
1.- Get back to mashing in my cooler, rather than the bucket of my Bulldog Brewer all-in-one system.
I totally did go back to mashing in my cooler, at least for a while, until I got tired and reverted to brew in a bag, to avoid recircuating and sparging, cutting down on time and simplifying the cleaning.
Going back to brew in a bag hasn't really affected my efficiency because I just mill my grains more finely and I have followed through with the next resolution.
2. Work on mash pH control
I've been carefully monitoring my mash pH and I am proud to say that with some fiddling around with water salts and an attentive design of my recipes, I now consistently hit a pH of between 5.3 and 5.5.
3. Learn a thing or two about water treatment
Well I've kinda given that away with the last one, haven't I? Yes, I have actually learned literally a thing or two about water treatment. Now the next step is to learn four or five things. But that's a project for 2020.
4. Get into brewing different styles and hone the ones I already do
This is the hardest to fully achieve. I've come up with my go to Tripel and my go to IPA recipes, so that's a check. I have steered away from brewing mostly Belgian stuff this year, so that's another check. I've brewed plenty of amber ales (more on that in another post), bitters and IPAs, but there are still things I want to brew that I just haven't gotten around to, like a Czech Pilsner, so that's not a Czech (sorry). I guess that's the beauty of brewing, you're only limited by your imagination.
5. Finally make it to the Spanish homebrewer's convention
And to top it off, I totally did make it to the convention as well. Spent three-four days geeking out like crazy in Bilbao with a bunch of connoisseurs who share the same hobby as me and met a bunch of cool people, like Randy Mosher (yes, to answer your question, I did have a teenage girl meeting a rockstar kind of groupie moment).
All in all, I think I followed through pretty well on my resolutions, surprising seeing how flaky I am when it comes to writing on the blog. Maybe I should make that my resolution for this year: write. I guess we'll just have to wait and see until my first post of the year.
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