This month’s Fermentation Friday topic (hosted by lootcorp 3.0) is:

Give us your ‘brew year’s resolutions’ for 2009. Was 2008 a good brewing year for you? What can you improve on or change that will make 2009 even better? Any promises to yourself, like brewing a certain style for the first time, going all-grain, or upgrading your system? Put it all out there, and we can all convene over a brew in 2010 and see how we did.

Well, like I said in my last post, we’ve made a ton of upgrades in the last year, and I’m really happy with the improvements we’ve been able to make as a direct result. We’re starting to get some serious control over all our brewing processes. But (un)fortunately, I am a control freak… I need more.

Therefore, my ‘brew year’s resolution’ is to have complete and precise control over every little minute detail in our brewing process.

Like seriously, none of this, “Oh crap, we’re sparging way too fast. I didn’t touch the spigot, did you?” And no, “What the hell, this strain is called ‘Dry English Ale,’ why is our FG 1.027?? Oh no, the fermenter is only 62°!” I want to have so much control that every detail of a brew will be completely and utterly repeatable.

So, how can we accomplish this? Well, we’ll have to examine every step of our process and eliminate any chance of variability.

The big one for me is temperature. We’ve taken a couple of small steps in this area, but it’s not quite enough. We bought a temperature controller, which, used in conjunction with the heat stick Tim built, has helped us to hold our sparge water at a steady 170° F. But the ability to adjust the mash temperature would be key. Tim has been working on designing a brew sculpture, in which we’re hoping to incorporate full, automated controls. So this really would be the ultimate goal for 2009.

We’ve also been using our temperature controller with a space heater pointing at our fermenters to keep them warmer this winter. It’s helped quite a bit, but it would be nice to create a more steady fermentation environment with evenly distributed heat. Something to ponder.

I could really let my OCD take over and list a bunch of other things, but I’ll leave it here for now. If we can manage to get a sculpture set up with automated controls, I’ll be a very happy camper at the end of 2009!