2010 Homebrewing Year in Review - Jeff

Following suit with Tom's post, I decided to roll up and summarize my homebrewing experience for 2010 for a post.  This year was the first year that I brewed all my beers all-grain (made the conversion to AG mid-2009) and I graduated from bottling with the purchase of a keg setup (mid-2010).  While my numbers were down from last year (25 batches in 2009), Lug Wrench Brewing turns One year old after the the New Year - another great milestone.

• Number of Batches Made: 19
• Number of Beer Batches: 18
• Number of Cider Batches: 1
• Number of Gallons Made: 107 gallons
• Most popular beer style: American Pale Ale (3 batches)
• First Brew Day of the Year: January 10, 2010 (Irish Red)
• Last Brew Day of the Year: December 11, 2010 (Ranger IPA Clone)
• Homebrew Competition Medals Earned: 4 Medals - Gold, South Shore Brewoff (Irish Red); Silver, Dominion Cup (Dunkelweizen); Bronze, Boston Homebrew Comp (Dragon's Milk); Bronze, South Shore Brewoff (American Pale Ale).
• Average ABV Across Batches: 5.7%
• Highest ABV: 8.8% (Flemish Fisherman Spiced Quad)
• Lowest ABV: 4.0% (Munich Helles)
• Number of 'Cloned' Beers Brewed: 3 (Rouge's Shakespeare Stout, De Struise's Pannepot, New Belgium's Ranger IPA)
• Favorite Brew: Foreign Export Stout - mainly because we got the chance to collaborate with Mike T. over at The Mad Fermentation for this beer.
• Least Favorite Brew: Brown Porter - the brew day was fine, but the results were very bland.
• Approximate amout of grain used: 196.5 lbs
• Most popular base malt: Pilsner malt (51 lbs)
• Most popular specialty malt: Munich malt (7.6 lbs)
• Approximate amount of hops used in 2010: 2.25 lbs
• Most popular hop: Williamette (12.1 oz)
• Biggest Equipment Upgrade: Dual gauge CO2 regulator and kegging setup

From both Tom and I, we hope everyone has a wonderful and rewarding New Year.  Look forward to some exciting changes to Lug Wrench in the coming year!

Slainte!

-JW


"The church is near, but the road is icy.  The bar is far away, but I will walk carefully."
-Russian Proverb