Brew Year's Resolutions for 2018

I am a sucker for things that were cool four years ago.

As I reviewed my Brew Years Resolutions from last year, my line "I have a feeling 2017 is going to be a big year for me personally and professionally" was more true than I could have imagined. After a good start with my resolutions,  a new job and moving to a new house really threw a wrench into my brewing. 

Let's see how I did with last years resolutions:

• Brew more big beers and sour beers: Qualified success. Thomas Brady's Ale is waiting to be bottled. I love how The Sour Chris is coming along and am giving it even more time to develop. I wanted to brew a Belgian Quad over the summer, and there were two other sours I wanted to brew. The sad thing is I bought ingredients for all of these. 
• Perfect a house IPA recipe: Fail. The last IPA I brewed I had to dump, and I brewed that beer last may. At this point I think I want to keep experimenting with different riffs on IPA. There are so many different ingredients that can go into IPA that I don't want to limit myself.
• Make other fermentable beverages and food: Qualified success. I did make my first ever kit wine and spontaneous ferment cider. I have wanted to try my hand at mead for a long time but didn't get to it. 
• Enter more competitions: Success. I won my first ever first place with Pa's Lager. I also won two medals with our smoked wheat Lyin' Lochte, and a third place with Sour Chris. Of the four beers I entered into the National Homebrew Competition, one made it to the mini-best of show round which indicates it nearly placed and advanced. The only negative here is that my brewing hiatus prevented me from entering competitions in the second half of the year.
• Collaborate more: Fail. 

A mixed bag to be sure. Going forward the key for me will be to fall into a routine with my career and brewing. Here are my resolutions for 2018:

• Brew more big beers and sour beers: I'm carrying this one over from 2017. I have a cellar now and it is not going to fill itself. I also need to get some type of storage solution for my bottles that will protect them from light.
• Make other fermentable beverages and food: I love having a cider on tap so much I want to make more in 2018. The wine kit was so easy I would also like to dabble in making a wine from juice. For years I have wanted to try my hand at mead. Cyser, a fermented blend of honey and apple juice is amazing when done well. I bought Jennie a cheesemaking kit several years ago. Time to make it happen!
• Perfect a house beer: I already have a head start on this one. Check this space!
• Plant a hop garden: I have a yard that gets plenty of sun. Can't wait to brew another wet hop beer.
• Keep writing: When I started the blog on the Gatehouse Media platform I agreed to write two posts a week. Since I was and still am giving Gatehouse free content they aren't exactly going to fire me. Still, I want to do a better job writing regularly. For 2018 I want to average 6-8 posts per month. The easiest way to do that is to do a better job writing about my finished beers. Often by the time my beers are ready to drink my focus is already on the next beer.

I think that is a solid list for 2018. Happy Brew Year everyone and brew on!

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