Some people do New Year's Resolutions. Apparently, I do summer resolutions!
Here it is July again, and I find myself gravitating back to homebrewing. Again. I only brewed 5 beers in 2019, and 4 of them were brewed in the summer. I would like to say that this will change for the remainder of 2020 (which has obviously been a doozie!) and into 2021, but I say that every year...
I like planning - developing recipes. I like brewing. I certainly like drinking the results. But like so many other brewers, I hate cleaning! The setup and time for an all-grain brew day is a bit of a drag as well. I suppose that there are ways to make setup more efficient, which might shave some time off of that step. An extract or extract with steeping grains batch can reduce the brew day a great deal. There are no real shortcuts for cleaning, however.
This summer, I find myself analyzing brewing a bit differently. Along with the simplified analysis of what I like and don't like about brewing in general, I decided to think about what I like about drinking beer. Above all else, I love the refreshing variety of flavor and style options. My wife is always asking me why I need so much beer; the answer is choice. I like to have choices!
Some days I want something light and refreshing - a craft lager or pilsner hits the spot (and because of hockey, I also always have some locker room beer like Rainier or PBR). Other days, I crave something hoppy - an IPA, pale, or session pale are there for me on those days. When I long for something dark and roasty - a porter or stout fits the bill. Besides simply matching the hankering in the moment, I also like to match the beer to the food I make.
Brewing that much variety in 5-gallon (or larger) batches is an undertaking. I do have a 4-tap keezer, but brewing and keeping 20 gallons of beer is kind of a big deal. When I used to brew with friends, it was easier; one year, a friend and I brewed over 300 gallons! Nowadays, however, it seems like I barely brew 20 gallons a year! Clearly, a different approach is in order...
In years past, I have mashed and brewed a bigger batch - to the tune of 10-12 gallons - and split it into two smaller batches. That worked well enough: more beer for not much more time on a brew day (running two burners for the boils). I have tried parti gyle batches, were I got a bigger beer and a smaller beer; I have made different beers from the same wort by varying hop charges and yeasts; and I have brewed very different styles from the same base wort by utilizing steeping grains. Each of these double batches got me two kegs. I'm not sure that any of these methods will get me brewing more often though.
Even if I were to go the double batch route, and fill all four of my taps, that might be 2 or 3 brew days, which is reasonable. Although four choices is technically quite a bit of variety - I could easily cover my bases with a lager, something hoppy, something darker, etc. - that's 5 gallons each; roughly 36 pints each keg. The novelty of those specific varieties often wears off before the keg is blown.
When I first begain brewing, doing extract batches on the stovetop, I often brewed smaller batches. Not only was it easier to manage, I also got to try my hand a lot of different styles! Back then, bottling 2-3 gallons of beer into some combination of about 24 bottles, 12 ounce and 22 ounce, was a lot less daunting task than bottling a full 5-gallon batch as well. After watching James Spencer brew up a one gallon batch on Basic Brewing Video, I even did a bunch of those batches, which yielded about a six pack of finished beer (that was a lot of work for six beers - I would recommend doing a 2-3 gallon batch over this method, unless you were conducting experiments).
These days, I have four 2.5-gallon kegs, which I have used for the occasional 1/2 batch (or when I brew something like a mild for a yeast starter). When I eyed those smaller kegs the other day, it got the gears turning... The smaller volume might get me over the "I'm kind of tired of this" hurdle. The smaller size also means that I can potentially fit more into my keezer - if I stack them; if I add some new taps, I could potentially double my choices (withiout having to drink 5 gallons of the same beer!)!
The prices have come down quite a bit on the smaller kegs (at least since I first bought mine about 5 years ago). I'm thinking it is probably worth investing in few more 2.5-gallon kegs. I already have quite a few 3-gallon carboys - more than enough to get a handful of beers going. Scaling recipes is a snap.
All of this has me a little bit excited - more excited than I have been about brewing for a while! My plan for reinvigorating my brewing is to go small! It is undoubtedly too early, given that I have not even begun brewing aything yet, but I am dubbing this the "brew-a-week" plan...
