With the new year and the height of brew season ahead of us, now’s a good time to do a few things you might have ignored the rest of the year. Here’s my list of things you should probably do, if you haven’t done them recently. I’m sure I have missed stuff, despite asking twitter for recommendations.

Inventory and restock – See what you do and don’t have on hand. I over analyze this, and track inventory in beersmith. It really helps with recipe substitutions and formulation. This is as much to prevent running out of gypsum on brew day, but also see what you should use up that’s about to expire. This goes for any and all consumables, cleaners, bottle caps, and clean bottles. Inventory what beers you have on hand too. Use the info to determine what you might want to brew in the coming year. In taking inventory and restocking, keep in mind the poor 2014 growing season for malt which could drive prices higher for 2015 and beyond. While your at it, label your stuff with purchase type, quantity, and purchase date.

Plan your brewing schedule – After you have figured out what ingredients you have on hand to brew, plan your brewing schedule. A proper schedule will allow you to use lower gravity batches as starters for future beers. This will help you optimize your yeast purchases. Plan the brews in increasing gravity, ibu, SRM, to optimize yeast pitching health. Look at the calendar and figure out when you need to brew your Maibock, Berliner Eeisse, and pale ale so it’s ready for that competition, may, or summer sipping. What’s worse than your imperial stout being ready for your summer party, but no session beer. If you plan it right, you’ll have your beers brewed in time for the right season. Take in consideration what beers you brewed last year, and went over well, and what ones didn’t get finished in a timely fashion.

Clean your keggerator – Now that you have planned your future brews, make room in your keggerator for them and get it in top shape. Dump those old stale beers. Clean your lines if they are newish, replace them if they are more than a year or so old. Disassemble your taps, and give them a good scrub. Prevent leaks by tightening any loose fittings, make sure to replace the teflon tape when reassembling them. Give your kegs a good once over and see if any o rings need to be replaced. Prevent rust by cleaning up any moisture or spilled beer, maybe refresh or replace your desiccant.

Replace all your old plastics, buckets, and hoses. Anything old, cloudy, scratched, soiled or stained, kinked or nicked should be pitched. How long has it been since you replaced your siphon hose or auto siphon? Boil your high temp hoses to rid them of any built up. Check the hoses going to and from your immersion chiller and water filter. Those connections are prone to failure. You’ll thank yourself the next time your buddy tells you about their chiller failure amid brew day.

Clean the rest of your brewing gear. This is my hat tip Brulosophy (and his clean your ball valve post). Disassemble and clean your ball valves. Sit down and scrub that gear that doesn’t always see the best cleaning. Scrub your mash tun, use some bar keepers friend and make your stainless kettle or keggle shine inside and out. Clean up and organize your home brewery.

Calibrate your thermometers, hydrometers, refractometers and scales. You received some new gear for the holiday, now’s a good time to make sure it’s measuring the temps and the volume markings are correct, or make some markings on it.

Check the expiration date on your propane tanks and c0/ 02 tanks. Worse than not having propane, co, or o2 when you need it, is not being able to fill that tank because it’s expired. Propane tanks need to be qualified ever 5-12 years depending of type / style, and CO2 and other pressurized gas has similar re-qualifying requirements. Usually you can recycle your tank at your local hardware store, or gas supplier. After checking the expiration dates, make sure your tanks are full. Running out of propane or oxygen mid brew is a bad thing.

Basically, this is to remind you to think about all aspects of your brewing process, and gear you don’t maintain on a regular basis. Start a maintenance log for your home brewery and keep it up to date. One final reminder, replace the batteries in you CO monitor, ph meter, powered thermometer, and start your brew year off on the right foot.