"After the Beers of summer have gone"...

[paul84043]

I only started brewing early this year, I spent over 1200$ in equipment and kits, and brewed like hell for 6 months until summer hit. Then a not-so-funny thing happened. I got busy.....really busy!
I had heard from many people that brewing is a winter hobby, but in my startup fervor, I couldn't understand it.
I do now!

Luckily, I still have well over 15 cases of beer in the basement waiting for me to remember it's there.
We wiped out all the "favorites" and the only beer I brewed during the couple months of summer was a Black and Tan, it's just too good to run out of.

I learned a few things about myself from going over my inventory...even though higher gravity and more "interesting" beers are fun to brew and think about, we tend to favor the more common, normal gravity beers for day to day consumption. The one and only "regualr" dry stout I made needed to age for a few months, but after that it vanished and is one beer that I keep kicking myself for mot brewing more of. Damn, it was good.

Other great successes were, the standard Amber ale, 3 batches, all gone, Cerveca Clone with Ale yeast, 3 batches...history.... Black and Tan, batch 5 is half gone..mmmmmm.... Sam Adams clone, gone, Steam beer, gone. 5 different types of Hefeweizen, definitely a household favorite! All I have left now is half a batch of an American Hefe...mmmmm...There are several others that escape me right now...
What's left? Arrogant Bastard CLone, 7.5% super tasty, aging nicely, it's a real ass kicker....definitely a weekend beer, and I have had no free weekends lately!
My Arrogant 020202 Vertical Epic is the same story...good, but too strong to dring casually.
The Belgian Dubbels finally died...those scared the hell out of me...waaaayyy too sneaky!!
Imperial Cherry stout...still waiting for the edge to age off of it, but ought to be good by mid winter.
One Batch of IPA is hanging in there...I angered the beer gods with that one a while back and still twitch whenever I get near a bottle....but it's SOO GOOD!!

My failures....one batch of Annapolis Homebrew's Ultimate Amber got tossed due to infection....may it rest in peace...
Annapolis Homebrew Ultimate Porter....too ultimate for me...I just can't deal with the flavor profile...it's too strange...
ANd one batch of a Kolsch that never carbonated....why, I do not know...

I'm looking forward to starting up the brewery again with some free weekends....I just need to decide what to do first!!! Oh crap, not that again!

[b3s]

i know exactly what you mean...for the three months of summer i only brewed twice, and both turned out horrid...not just missing gravity targets by a huge margin, but also the flavor profile was not good.

now that it's fall, i've already brewed two batches! gonna bottle the wheat this weekend and rack the red irish ale. now i just need to figure out what's next...heh.

otoh, i don't brew as much as you do, that's for sure...because i most certainly do not have 15 cases left over! drank the last two beers (22 oz bottles) on labor day weekend. i think i'm gonna start brewing like that, though...i hate not having good beer around!

[YamahaXS]

That is a LOT of beer. How many people tap into your hobby?

I brew about 1 a month and that is adequate. Over the years I have learned that I like a beer about 5%, fairly bitter and hoppy. Almost all of my beers are in that general style. I am probably the most boring homebrewer ever!

[paul84043]

How many??...ummm....errrrr......me, my wife.....ocasionally a friend.....me.......me......

That's about it....

I was brewing a batch a week for quite a while there. Not so much because I thought I needed it, but because the hobby was so much fun to get into!!

Actually, I just kept adding beer until I hit a point that my bottles stayed in rotation without sitting around for too long.

We will probaby go through 1 1/2 cases a month, depending on the weather and my workload.
A couple beers a night on weekdays and probably 3 to 4 on weekends for me (sometimes more...) adds up to a bit over a case a month, my wife doesn't drink quite as much beer as I do.

But considering that some of them take 2 to 3 months to reach peak flavor, I wanted to have some in process at all times.

I also really lost touch with this forum, just kind of poking my head in on occasion to see what was up....it's great to see that we added quite a few new members!!
I'm looking forward to having more time to browse here as well...

[Fast_Eddy]

Originally posted by paul84043
....
I also really lost touch with this forum, just kind of poking my head in on occasion to see what was up....it's great to see that we added quite a few new members!!
I'm looking forward to having more time to browse here as well...

Glad you're back Paul - I thought maybe your in-laws had finally convinced you that beer was evil :)

[toneyc]

Yeah, good to see you back, Paul! You and Tweek and B3s all sorta disappeared over the summer.

I gotta disagree with you, though, I brewed two or three weekends a month over the summer, just like usual. I *hate* running out of beer and I didn't have the foresight to brew like mad to stock up for the summer. Even when it was 110 degrees outside, I was out there watching the kettle boil. I'm looking forward to moving someplace with a basement that's perfect for storing beer!

:)
Toney.

[wortchillergoal]

I brew during the summer. Some styles need to be put up during summer months to have them ready as the weather changes. I just make sure that I have a cool spot to ferment, no trobule with my cellar.

[MagTheGrate]

Just had to point out that as Fast_Eddy was talking about beer being evil, paul84043 was hitting his post #666

here's a pic (http://www.theneatos.com/gallery/album01/BeerEvil) in case his post count changes.

prost!

-Mag

[sallad]

good call mag! i noticed that too, and thought it was a shame that his number was bound to change. now you've immortalized it!

[BluesHarp]

Whew!!...now I don't feel so guilty. I didn't brew at all this summer; what with music fests, family fests, beer fests, motorcycle rides....
I did, however drink a lot of good beer, that should count for something!

My local guy surprises me almost every week with something I haven't had before; the only drawback is deciding which to buy...try to choose one case-worth out of about ten or twelve excellent beers...tough decisions!!!

I will need to get a good Christmas beer going pretty soon, it's comng up fast...already too late for a barley wine; I like to let mine age for at least six months. Maybe a nice sweet porter would be good....hmmmmmmm...

[paul84043]

Mag,
You're awesome!!! I didn't even think about taking a screencap of it!
Thanks! I have actually been holding off posting to bask in the glory of my awesome post count number!!

The ironic part is that I was responding to a thread talking about post counts, not even realizing until after I had posted that it was 666!!! COOL!!!
I owe you!!

Toney,
I did brew a couple of batches over the summer in the 100+ degree garage... but it just seems like sometimes you get so busy, you can't even see straight!!

I'm glad I had a good stockpile to draw from, and I definitely plan on building it up again for next summer!! Nest time, I will build up several batches of the "house favorites"....

It's funny how certain things make you see the world in different ways....when you ride a motorcycle, it seems like it never stops raining...
I just never noticed how many different things I get going in the summer!

It's good to be back and hear from some familiar...uh.....fonts? Voices??

Whatever....

Thanks guys for replying to my post!!