That's a great picture.
12 Beers of Christmas 2017
- Thread starter Auger
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That's a great picture.
Easycreeper
Well-Known Member
drinking your quad right now! Taking notesListening to la la land soundtrack. haha, great night (your beer is going down easy).
How was the carb level? Haven't opened one in a couple of weeks here, so I'm not sure if it made it all the way yet or not.
Guess I'm going to have to step it up with a label next year!
my 2018 beer is producing CO2 right now. So maybe I'll have time to work on my bottling skills before then. :-D
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Auger
Well-Known Member
@passedpawn is lucky number one. Nice job man...this beer is dangerous.
@passedpawn up first!
Really enjoying this. I got the cherries right off the nose (I may have had an obscene amount of Mad Elf this year), and the almond extract adds a neat sort of savory aspect to the aroma.
Really enjoying this. I got the cherries right off the nose (I may have had an obscene amount of Mad Elf this year), and the almond extract adds a neat sort of savory aspect to the aroma.
Sorry, just got back into town (kid #2 college graduation).
Head died right away, but the body of the beer had perfect carbonation. More comments later, and pic.
MapleGroveAleworks
Well-Known Member
Excited to see/read more pictures and reviews of this year's beers! Gets me excited for the 2018 exchange.
Easycreeper
Well-Known Member
@passedpawn Thanks, man. Should have thrown a handful of flaked oats in the mash for good measure. Seems the wheat isn't doing the trick.
From Friday night... @Easycreeper Oaked Caramel Quad. I poured roughly and still didn't get much head, but the carbonation was there anyway. This beer was extremely drinkable! Loved it.
Easycreeper
Well-Known Member
Thanks for the kind review! Sorry about the head retention. Must be a combination of a lack of proteins and high ABV. I'm working on correcting that in my process now. Still got a lot of learning to do...
Haha, me too. Head on my beer probably wasn't any better
The first batch of my beer was lower ABV and was (to me) a better beer. But I added too much cherry to the 12BOC part of it. Second time around I stepped up the ABV to better carry the cherry, but some things like body and head retention weren't the same. But I'm not losing sleep over it (in fact, at almost 11% sleep isn't an issue at all)
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Auger
Well-Known Member
Haha, me too. Head on my beer probably wasn't any better
That was one of my notes...it poured with a decent head, but didn't maintain like a belgian would be expected to. It may be as simple as bumping up the carb level a bit, as the style will support it.
More than likely, the problem was caused by bottling from keg. I should have added some margin, knowing there would be some loss.
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Auger
Well-Known Member
Easycreeper's quad getting me cozy to start off a brew night. In retrospect this probably wasn't the best choice to start with but by the time I finish it, I won't care.
MapleGroveAleworks
Well-Known Member
Damn that looks really nice.
Just a note to anyone interested in doing this again, we filled group #1 but group #2 still has openings.
Easycreeper
Well-Known Member
Looking forward to seeing how you, @passedpawn, and others score it. Please spare no feelings as I'll use this as an opportunity to improve my methods and process.
Downloaded the BJCP score sheet myself this morning. No experience judging, but I'll be filling it out and sending an electronic copy to everyone as I start knocking these bad boys down. Can't wait to start!
Honey Ginger IPA Arrived today in good order. @dryboroughbrewing your bottle arrived without leaks on Friday. I think with the Honey Ginger that not only completes my set I think it completes the trades over all. Yes? Great job everyone. I cracked open the Gruit first on Saturday and I'll continue today. I will provide feedback as best I can.
Not yet, I am expecting dryboroughbrewing's package tonight and still waiting for boasist's package.
@dryboroughbrewing your Tripel Ruten has arrived thank you very much. One of the regular ones leaked a minute amount so off to the fridge it went and will be my second taste of the 12 BoC here shortly.
I have had both versions of Chalk Line Santa now... I think anyone will find the X version is way over the top spice wise. Couldn't really say I liked it much at all. Pete explained that the X bottles were spice test runs, so I guess some might have a different experience. The regular bottles are pretty good, like walking by a bakery, not choking down the spice rack.
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@HopHeavy your Mad Russian Christmas just filled my favorite snifter. I Love it man!! This is one Killer brew.
This is my first taste of the 12 BoC, so excited to dig in. Not being a heavy drinker I figured I better get the ball rolling if I am going to taste them all by Christmas.
Great, glad you liked it! I was a bit disappointed in the spicing on this, too. Too much licorice from the anise, but that seems to be fading a bit. I felt like I derailed a pretty novel RIS, but Randy made us do it, right? The base stout was an attempt at SN Narwhal, of which I have only had the barrel aged "Trip in the Woods" version. I have no idea how close it came to the regular Narwhal, but it had character and was real tasty. I also have no idea where 2 1/2 gallons of the stuff went in only a couple weeks since Thanksgiving!
To be clear, I really enjoyed the banana bread aspect, it tasted very holiday season appropriate.
MapleGroveAleworks
Well-Known Member
I appreciate the spice comments on these beers. I have the spiced dunkel weizenbock for the 2018 exchange and I am going to be very cautious to not overspice it.
This explains a lot for me, I am a big fan of licorice and also of SH Narwhal. I actually have three Narwals in the fridge right now. I will do a side by side taste one of these days soon (after Christmas) Yours is definitely one of the ones I will cellar for a year, I can see this being pretty phenomenal next year.
Yeah this is a Holiday beer trade, I quite expect all the spice flavors. Tonight I try the Mistress 4 X-mas Gingerbread Ale.
I think I would like that, but I am probably mistaken!
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Bring on the reviews, I so rarely do 'clean' Belgian beers that I'd appreciate the feedback.
Quoth the wife "they really nailed the fruitcake".
How do you get into group #2? I definitely want in 
BigCrazyAl
Well-Known Member
Post in here!How do you get into group #2? I definitely want in
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/12-beers-of-christmas-2018-edition.642063/
Alright, had a little trip out of town this weekend, but I managed to start tasting as soon as I got back.
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@TBC , I opened your Mistress Sunday night but Pete hadn't had it yet. I figured I would wait for his experience. Both bottles were pretty light on carb but big on taste. I couldn't place a familiar flavor from my childhood when Pete came up with Ginger snap cookies and I felt foolish. We both enjoyed it! Nice job
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@TBC , I opened your Mistress Sunday night but Pete hadn't had it yet. I figured I would wait for his experience. Both bottles were pretty light on carb but big on taste. I couldn't place a familiar flavor from my childhood when Pete came up with Ginger snap cookies and I felt foolish. We both enjoyed it! Nice job
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Easycreeper
Well-Known Member
@b-boy I like it! Got a score sheet with notes for you if you're interested. Of course, it comes with the warning that I don't judge beers at all. I can only give you feedback based on what I like and what I just happen to pick out in the flavors.
Sure - I'd like some feedback.
I know there are some carbonation issues. It was my first time using my bottling gun. I didn't have any foaming issues, but I noticed that the carb levels were low in many of the bottles. Some seemed OK, however. I keg carb'd to 15 psi, but I must have lost some along the way. I had no problems pouring from the keg, so I'm blaming the bottling gun (or more likely, my inability to use it properly
)There are three ingredients besides yeast, grain, and water in the beer - coriander seeds, orange zest, and chamomile. The chamomile seemed to overpower the others IMHO.
As you can see, I can also use some help with my label-making skills. My printer just wouldn't cooperate.
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Easycreeper
Well-Known Member
Sure - I'd like some feedback.
I know there are some carbonation issues. It was my first time using my bottling gun. I didn't have any foaming issues, but I noticed that the carb levels were low in many of the bottles. Some seemed OK, however. I keg carb'd to 15 psi, but I must have lost some along the way. I had no problems pouring from the keg, so I'm blaming the bottling gun (or more likely, my inability to use it properly
There are three ingredients besides yeast, grain, and water in the beer - coriander seeds, orange zest, and chamomile. The chamomile seemed to overpower the others IMHO.
As you can see, I can also use some help with my label-making skills. My printer just wouldn't cooperate.
Carbonation was one of my notes. Nothing bad, just noted the medium carb level. I'll send the score sheet via PM. It's not terribly detailed mind you...
