I'm getting near capacity in my brewery. The oatmeal stout is in a keg, the altbier could go into a keg at anytime (though I think I'll let it condition a bit longer), and I have an IPA to rack in a couple of days for about two weeks conditioning and dry hopping. Once I keg the altbier I will have over eight gallons in kegs, with an IPA waiting in the wings.

When my brewery gets close to capacity, I start to think in kinds of styles rather than styles of beer. Certain things can be fit into the brewery schedule while other things cannot, and some things are convenient in the schedule at that time, because you don't feel like you need to brew just to keep the kegs full. So that has me thinking in terms of kinds of styles. I want to make some strong ales that I bottle and hold a few months before drinking. I want to get some summer ales going for when the weather warms up. I want some standards for when my kegs get low.

The strong ales that interest me are a barley wine, a dubbel and the beer I'm calling my 2007 Christmas Old Ale. The last I plan to open around Thanksgiving. The barley wine I will hold for about a year. The dubbel will probably be the last one I brew and the first one I drink. For all three of these beers, there will be no priming sugar in the bottle. I'm just going to bottle 'em up and let them rest a few months. If they never really carbonate, no big deal. Well, I might prime the dubbel just a little, because I do want that pretty bubbly.

The summer beers I should wait just a bit to make. They are, if you're wondering, a bavarian weizen, a wit and a blonde ale. Each should have pleasing interesting yeast character, gentle bitterness and a soft but tasty malt character.

And the standards I will get in the rotation as I see fit. They are, if you're wondering, a bitter, a brown and an amber. Right now, and this is not a prediction about what I will do, I want to make the amber next.