2020 - A Year in Brewing (Review)

2020 - A Year in Brewing (Review)


It has been a funny old year and one that many will probably try to forget in a hurry. Nonetheless, it has given me an opportunity to hone and develop my brewing skills and methods alongside some family members. 

Looking back to my first brew of 2020 (Lockdown IPA), I feel that I have learnt a lot and along the way and now is as good a time as any to reflect and look forward to 2021 with a little 'awards' ceremony: 

Best Light Beer: I think over the lighter coloured brews made this year and there were some great results. Lockdown IPA gave me a real taste for brewing again and offered up a really sessionable beer. I really enjoyed making No More Lands with my Father in Law and the beer turned out exactly as we intended (but perhaps lacked a little hop zing for my liking). Bramble IPA in its 3 versions allowed me to experiment with a highly underrated hop whilst mixing up different methods to see how this effected flavour. Off the Cuff IPA was a victory for my own recipe building skills, offering up a really good Pale Ale but lacked the haze that I intended to replicate. The winner though, for me is a huge stand out. Gardner's Gloves was brewed with my Dad as a father's day present and really cemented the ability to produce top quality beer with basic kit. The addition of Orange and Grapefruit peel was a real winner and we intend to revisit this brew in the new year, perhaps in time for the summer. 

Best Dark Beer: I brewed fewer dark beers this year with 4 in total (Choc HopNob, Wake Up Call, Evil Pea IPA and Alice Porter). Choc HopNob was a disaster and really taught me to be patient with my fermentation - a mistake I have not made again. Wake Up Call was a superb coffee stout and I really enjoyed making and drinking it. The main downside to this brew was the number of gushing bottles I had when the brew had aged a bit - likely overcarbed. Evil Pea was a reboot of Choc HopNob and overcame the issues I had first time around. Dark yet hoppy and really tasty to boot. However, Alice Porter has proven to be my favourite Dark Beer this year for a number of reasons. Mash efficiency has improved vastly since the summer, as a result, the batch size was great and offered up a decent number of bottles. The beer tastes great and shows good consistency with the original brewed in 2019. I think this is one beer that I intend to make again soon.

Memory of the Year: Sharing out 13 bottles of different homebrew with my work colleagues and gradually getting them drunk on my own, crafted beer was a real highlight this year. This was the best part of brewing - sharing out my results. 

Aims for 2021: I want to keep brewing as a starting point, things are starting to get interesting. I've subscribed to Brewer's Friend and have built a library of recipes. I aim to improve my mash efficiency further whilst working towards better quality batches. 

I've got 2 beer recipe books to help guide my next steps and intend to brew the following over the next year: 
  • Wee Heavy (already on order)
  • NEIPA 
  • Another Coffee Stout
  • Another Porter
  • Another Orange and Grapefruit IPA 
  • Possibly a Lager/Helles/Pils
New kit for 2021: 
  • 40L Cool Box/Mash Tun
  • 7kg brew bag
  • Immersion heater for fermentation
  • Airlock
  • Burtonisation crystals



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