The good...
Lots of good things happened this year. My wild yeast collection activities and yeast identification methods are up and running smoothly. I had a number of rather successful brews this year - most of which I posted here. Both my blog and youtube channel are getting a lot more hits - 75,000 and 10,000 hits respectively last year.
The bad..
2014 was not as busy a year for me as 2013. A rather pathetic 15 batches were brewed this year - 18 if you count the wine kits I did along the way, 16 (or 13 if you discount the wine) if you subtract the two infected brews I had this year. My blogging was also down - 11 fewer than 2013. Hopefully we can pick up both those numbers this year.
The ugly...
As mentioned in "the bad", I had my first (non-deliberately) infected beers this year in over a decade. That sucked...and it hurt even more as the infection was something I brought home from work with me. In addition, for the first year since 2008, I failed to hit the 400 liters of brewed goodness mark (roughly equivalent to 100 US gallons).
Some quick stats:
- Most popular posts of 2014:
- #1: This months post on how Brettanomyces trois (WLP644) is likely a Saccharomyces, not a Brettanomyces. 5900 hits in three weeks.
- #2: 2013's post on identifying yeast by ribosomal sequencing.
- #3 & 4: 2013's posts on making Belgian candi sugar (Posts 1, 2).
- #5: 2013's post on making a sour-mashed Beliner weiss.
- Top Traffic Sources: Google (7%), Reddit (4%), Home Brew Talk (2%), Jeffrey Cranes Blog (1%), Bootleg Biology (1%) and Canadian Homebrewers (0.5%).
- Top Viewing Countries: #1: USA, #2: Canada, #3: Ukraine, #4: Germany, #5: UK
- Top Youtube Videos:
My Favourite Beer Blogs of 2014:
In no particular order...
- Shut Up About Barklay Perkins
- |Brülosophy|
- St. Johns Wort
- Life Fermented
- The Mad Fermentationist
- DC Yeast Lab
- The Mark of the Yeast
- Eureka Brewing
Most Ordered Yeast From My Yeast Bank:
- #1&2 (tied): Russian River Sanctification (#69 & 70, Commercial Bank)
- #3: Conan/Headdy Topper (#80, Commercial Bank)
- #4, 5, 6 (tied): DCYeast 01/02/03 (#6, 7 & 8, Wild Yeast Bank)
- #7: Brettanomyces claussenii (#109, Commercial Bank)
- #8: Bells Brewery Yeast (#19, Commercial Bank)
- #9: Berliner Weiss Blend (#132, Commercial Bank)
- #10: Thames Valley (#20, Commercial Bank)
Here's hoping that 2015 exceeds 2014 in every way - in my brewing & in yours.
Bryan
Thanks for adding me to the blog list! I have to talk myself out of a new yeast wrangling hobby every time I watch one of your videos and have enjoyed your blog as well.
ReplyDelete- Dennis, Life Fermented Blog