HOP TO IT: Having ingredients on hand and ready to use can be key to making sure you stick to your brew day schedule.

I haven’t brewed since August. Going on eight months. Every time I try to schedule a brew day, something comes up. Whether it’s work-related duties, a priority from the honey-do list, time with my wife and 3-year-old son, or just laziness, it seems there’s always a reason or excuse to put it off another day.

Yesterday, for example, I was hoping to brew in the morning but opted to do the “responsible” thing and try to fix a Weed Eater that hadn’t been used in years. Four hours and three trips to Home Depot later, the Weed Eater still wouldn’t start. So, no tangible progress, and I hadn’t brewed. Talk about frustrating.

The problem is that I struggle with the idea of pursuing my hobby if there are other tasks to be done. It’s a mental hurdle that makes it hard to “just do it.” Following the cliché that the first step is admitting that you have a problem (which I think I just did), I’m now focused on solutions. I’ve compiled some strategies that I—and others in a similar situation—can use to make more hypothetical brew days become a reality.

Maintain a supply of ingredients—especially dry yeast: Preparation is key if you want your brew days to go off without a hitch. Ingredients for brewing keep well in the refrigerator (crushed grains, liquid malt extract, liquid yeast) or freezer (hops, dry yeast), so keep enough of the above to brew a favorite recipe. That way you can brew on the spur of the moment if time opens up, or you’ll be ready to go when your scheduled brew day arrives. It’s particularly wise to keep a few packs of a trusty dry yeast (like Danstar Nottingham or Fermentis Safale US-05) in the freezer since, unlike liquid yeast, you don’t have to prep the dry yeast with a starter a day or two in advance. Just remember to take that dry yeast and your hops out of the freezer the night before your brew day to let them come up to room temperature.

Keep a beer calendar: I have a calendar on my master Google calendar called “Beer,” which allows me to (theoretically) block out brewing time. I make it visible to my wife, who also uses Google calendar so she has a heads up about my plans. Once I’ve brewed a batch, I also use my “Beer” calendar to keep track of how many days a batch has been fermenting or carbonating, and when it needs to be moved from primary to secondary fermentation, etc.

Cut back on purchasing commercial beer: This is the most drastic step on the list. Nothing will motivate you to brew more than not having any beer around. So stop using commercial beer as a stopgap if you really want to improve your homebrewing. Sure, you might need to tap into your cellar or pick up the occasional six-pack to tide you over until you get your homebrew supply built up, but once the pipeline is rolling it’s a great feeling to be self-sufficient with a variety of your own beers.

Brew with others: Skipping out on your own solo brew day may be disappointing, but imagine pissing off a group of your brew friends who are counting on you to bring your hydrometer (since you’re the only one of your brewing peers that hasn’t broken his yet). A group brew day comes with built-in accountability. Similarly, you can just invite a non-brewing friend over. If you make an appointment with someone other than yourself, you’re way more likely to follow through.

Brew using the extract method: If you are brewing using partial-mash or all-grain techniques, consider keeping a decent amount of dry malt extract on hand for some extract brew days. A three-hour extract brew session is much easier to squeeze into a busy schedule than a seven-hour (for me, anyway) all-grain batch. There’s certainly no shame in extract brewing, and sometimes with a spouse and kids or multiple jobs it’s all you can manage.

Brew smaller batches: This strategy is great if you have frequent, smaller windows of time available. As touted by James Spencer and friends on the Basic Brewing Radio podcast, smaller batches have a dual benefit of cutting time off your brew day and letting you experiment more. With smaller volumes, your water will boil faster and cool faster. Take good notes and you can always scale up a recipe to a larger batch size later. The bad news with small batches is you’ll run out of beer faster, but you’ll also grow intimately familiar with the process and ingredients by brewing the multiple batches you’ll need to keep the suds flowing.

Brew bigger batches: This, the opposite approach to the last suggestion, is perfect if you can only carve out four to six brewing sessions a year. It doesn’t take twice as long to make twice as much beer, so make the most of your brew days by producing large volumes. If your ability to brew 10 gallons is limited by your equipment, keep this factor in mind when you upgrade.

Multi-task: Have an album or podcasts you’ve downloaded but haven’t had a chance to listen to yet? Crank it up while you brew a batch and knock two things off of your to-do list. Once you become a more experienced brewer you’ll get a feel for the routine and learn when you can squeeze in a household task or two during your brew day. Master this latter strategy and you could earn many brew day passes from your significant other.

Related posts:

1. Brew Log, Aug. 23, 2010: Transferred Witbier & IPA
2. Brew Log, Aug. 7, 2010: Brewed C’z IPA
3. Brew Log, Aug. 29, 2010: Dry Hopping the C’z IPA