I don't make New Year's resolutions. As with most people, when I do, I end up dropping them before February. However, many times during the year I will make plans, or what I call "overplans." An overplan is a purposely overly-ambitious plan, meant to inspire me to get the core of my plan done. For example, back when I was in graduate school, I injured my knee. Once I was up and walking again, I set a goal to run in the next Boston Marathon. I never did run the marathon, but I did log a lot of time on the jogging trails that year. As a consequence, I lost some weight and generally got into pretty good shape, which was my "real" goal.

Here's my 2008 Overplan:

Develop the "Beer-GUT" — the Grand Unified Theory of Brewing. Or at least, read as much as I can about brewing science and get one solid homebrew experiment finished.

Form the metal band Böiled Wört and rock the known world. Or at least, pick up my guitar often enough to be able to play a few of my favorite rock anthems proficiently.

Solve the problem of making insanely malty beers at home. I think it has something to do with water chemistry (along with, of course, proper malt selection). At a minimum, do some important "research" (glug, glug) with some tasty German lagers and Scottish ales.

Write the Great American Novel, or at least a Pretty Good American Short Story. Maybe the homebrewing protagonist saves the world when he finds out that his Amarillo IPA kills the space virus causing the zombie plague. (Each your heart out Cormac McCarthy.)

Forget the hop crisis and brew some serious hop monsters.

Figure out how to grow big watermelons that don't develop blossom end rot.

Grow and malt my own barley. Brew beer with this homemade malt and some of my homegrown hops. (This is left over from last year's overplan. However, I now have some Robust barley seed — and also some spring wheat — and am looking at a big home food dehydrator to dry, and maybe even kiln, the grain.)

Run in the Boston . . . OK, just eat better, exercise regularly and lose a little weight.

Brew the biggest, lightest-colored all-grain beer in history. Oh wait, I did that last year. (See my article on reiterated mashing in the December '07 issue of BYO for more.)