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Miscellaneous Musings: Thoughts for 2014

2013 was a good and busy year. I did a lot of new things that really expanded my brewing knowledge and techniques. Hopefully some of them helped people who've stumbled upon this site.

I brewed my first SMaSH Beer, Sour and Wheatwine. New stove-top Mashing techniques were introduced. 2012 beers were revisited after time in the Cellar. Non-Alcoholic beer was also tackled. I even threw in a Clone for good measure. Oh, and I went auto racing, which has little to do with beer (or does it?), but it is my blog, so I can write about what I want to.

That's a lot of ground covered in just one year. So where do I go from here? How do I keep things fresh?

Thankfully, there are still lots of new things I want to try.

More Sours are definitely in order, with a proper Lambic at the top of the list. With that in mind, Turbid Mashing will join my list of stove-top Mashing techniques. More wood aged beers are also in the pipeline. Since my desire to brew Big Beer has waned, there will also be a heavy emphasis on delicate Session styles in 2014. I also hope to tackle making my own specialty grains.

After two years, there are still quite a few beer styles that I have yet to tackle. This includes some fairly obscure beers that don't get a lot of press. Look for a Kentucky Common, Czech Dark Pseudo-Lager and Dampfbier in the coming months. Of course, it wouldn't be me if several more Belgian beers didn't show up as well. Finally, look for some "blast from the past" beers from my original brewing days back in the 90s, because it's always fun to revisit pass successes (I promise not to post past disasters). I'm sure I'll also come across additional ideas as I go along.

That's it for 2013. I hope everyone has a happy and homebrew filled 2014!
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