Beer is awesome. Making beer is awesome. New Year’s Eve is awesome. Let’s combine all three.
While talking with my wife tonight, I came up with a crazy idea. Actually, it was her idea, but I’m going to try to figure out how to make it happen.
I want to make a beer that can be used to toast in 2014. Given the fact it is December 4, this seems almost unachievable to me. This gives me just over two weeks to brew and ferment the beer, and just over a week to bottle-condition.
It should be completely achievable to turn a good ale around in less than 4 weeks. It’s coming up on the Holidays, which tends to be the craziest time of the year. Turning a batch around in less than a month will be a challenge for me. I procrastinate bottling, so I know that’s going to be the challenge.
For my own mental health, which may already be in question, I am going to do a smaller batch than normal. I am still debating between a five gallon or a one-gallon batch. I’ll keep you posted.
Join me in this challenge! Some rough guidelines:
- You must brew the beer after December 4, 2013.
- You MUST consume at least some of the beer on December 31, 2013 or January 1, 2014.
You could delay as late as December 14 and still have time to bottle condition in time for New Year’s Eve, but it would be a close thing. At that point, you better hope you have a strong ferment to finish up in a week.
If you haven’t signed up already, please sign up for my newsletter to get email updates about how it’s going. I won’t promise daily updates, but the process is going to go fast!
If you’re willing to go all-in and brew a batch of beer for New Year’s, sign up to join Super Brewers and send me a message!
