Local 12 beers of Christmas

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If you want another option, I got an extra Keg, and would be willing to force carb and bottle for you. It takes a couple of weeks to do it right so we would have to get together soon. Just an idea. I'm not trying to hijack your beer.

I always keg and force carb. I am not sure what is best for this weizenbock because I have never done a wheat beer before. It should have some yeast and plenty of carbonation in the bottle and I want to get it right so I am assuming I will have to bottle from a bucket with priming sugar correct? I would love to just keg and carb as usual but all the bottles I have filled from the keg have had very little carbonation in the past.

Any insight would be appreciated, thanks!
 
Any way we can meet earlier? Just realized Wynkoop's Parade Of Darks is that day and it starts at 1pm.
 
I can call strange and see. I know that will work better for Option. Does this work for the rest of you? Let me know what times you guys have in mind and I'll give Strange a call and see what we can do.
 
Ok, Trying to get this finalized. Been struggling with this. Do we want earlier around noon or 1? Does thie weekend of the 1st work for everyone or would the 8th be better? I have three that can't do the 1st and I figured this would be the hard part. So, if everyone participating could chime in and let me know, I would greatly appreciate it and it would make it a ton easier for me. I have two people in the Guard that have drill on the 1st and one has to work on the 1st.

Cheers!
 
I'm still ok with the first, but would just prefer an earlier time. If i have to skip out on the Parade of Darks, then so be it.

I'm also ok with the following weekend
 
I'm good both weekends, and I will work with whatever time you decide. The only hangup I may have is if SWMBO has something going, I lose my designated driver, and will have to drink careful. I can do that, however reluctantly. I cant get a read on her though, at this time, so find what works best for the most and I will work it out.
 
Just found out I have to work all day on the 1st and 8th but I should be able to take a hour break and head over there to do the swap around 3. I work around 50hrs a week so I do not expect you to cater to my schedule. Will do my best to make it as easy as possible...just sucks because I really wanted to meet some local guys and talk homebrew. Ow well I will make sure I get off next swap!
 
Okay, I did change to the December 8th at 1 PM. This will allow for a few more people who also helped me kickstart this and unfortunately aren't on this forum make it. It sounds like most are okay with this. The one thing they would liek to know is how many people. I am not sure if you all are bringing friends/family or what not I reserved for 15 to 20 just in case. This also works better for Strange Brewing as they have a big party reserved later, on the 1st which would have limited our time.

I apologize for the change but I appreciate the flexibilty.

Chessking, If you need a DD rde home I can take care of that.
 
I should be in for 1pm on the 8th. My wife has a work party, but I think that is later that evening. Sounds like this could work out well!
 
Sounds great.

And since the 1st is free, just purchased my tickets to the Parade of Darks.

Hoping to get all of my beers bottled up this weekend.
 
This is my first batch ever bottling and naturally carbonating so we will see how it goes, came out with 33 bottles. At least I will have a few to see what happens as you guys will. Cant wait for the swap!
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All bottled up and ready here. Ended up with 36 bottles and just a little left in my keg:ban:
 
I have not done anything to label my bottles yet. I have red caps, and usually just write something on the cap. Would "GBA" for "Gingerbread Ale" be sufficient? What are others doing?
 
I went all out and labeled just in case. That said, this is the first time I have ever done so. Just thought it would be fun and a bit more festive.

I managed to eke 44 bottles out of the batch, minus a few "tastes" before.
 
I haven't done any sort of labeling. Didnt even think anyone else would be haha.

My caps will be marked, but thats about it. Sorry guys.
 
It was cool to meet all of you. I hope you all enjoy the beers and perhaps we will all meet up again soon. Cheers and merry Christmas.

PS , the quad can definitely use as much patience and time as you can wait.

The cherry dubbel is a bit over carbed; do have your glass ready the moment you pop it.
 
Agreed. Was nice getting together and chatting over a couple beers. Would be interested in continuining this for different types of seasonal beers.
 
Agreed. On the beer front, I have only been able to sample a few so far, but I have been really pleased thus far. I can't wait to keep working through the list.
 
I just finished the first round of our Christmas beer swap. I have two bottles left of each recipe in cold storage. one round for mid summer when an old beer friend will be visiting, and the last for next year comparison. That is except for Jeremy's Abby Weizen where only the bomber remains and probably wont make it to December. Any way, I just wanted to say that I found all of these beers to be amazingly good and well made. Each being different, I consumed them as the first beer of the evening, and only one a day to analyze them properly. I was a bit wary, thinking that as a group of brewers unknown to me previously, anything could happen. What I found happily, was that each had a fine character of its own. Each was worth enjoying as a premium treat that encompassed the brewing skills and efforts of this group, and I want to thank all of you. In my opinion, this was a success and worth doing. I also enjoyed meeting you all on swap day, and with only home brewing as a common thread, I felt that we had a nice connection. SWMBO got a kick out of us not being able to get the count right. You would think swapping three beers apiece would be easy. Go figure.

So, Anybody want to do it again? I've been thinking about it and here is what I came up with. All of which is subject to change. This is only to get the conversation started.

1) Schedule the swap for mid to late July. This would give us two and a half months to brew and condition.

2) We could go with a theme of summer beers (wit, weizen, kolesh, blonde, amber, Pale) or..

3) We could just each make what we consider our best beer recipe. What ever style, whatever tweeks, as long as it is your best beer. I would only exclude the Randy Mosher Christmas recipes as they have been done, and may be on again for this Christmas season.

4) I think we should be exclusive to the original group at first to at least give them the option to join, before opening it up to newcomers. Nothing wrong with new blood, just want to give the first group first dibbs. Also we should probably limit it to 12 entries, as any more than this can hinder the ability to cover the spread if your batch comes in short.

5) I am an Idea guy, but not much of an organizer, so if anybody wants to take the lead with this PLEASE be my guest. If this is left for me to do it probably will fail. Jeremy had talked at the meeting about this but I'm not sure he is on HBT.

6) We probably should start a new thread. This thread is the only way I have to contact all of the original group.

7) One last thought. When we swap, lets let the wives organize the procedures. That way we can drink, and things will go more smoothly.

What do you think?

Can we get the band back together?

Mark
 
Count me in. If we get more people interested, I can organize something; unless someone else would like to. I wasn't happy with how my beers came out so I would like to give it another go without a crazy recipe. I know Harry is interested so we have three so far. He is going to touch base with Jeremy and as soon as I get word back I'll let you know.

We can give this another week or so and see if anyone is interested int he exchange and then we will post a new thread. This will give sometime for them to respond and then we'll open it up.
 
Alright, So I got a hold of Jeremy and Bryan and they are both in!
That is 5 of the 12.
Jeremy is doing a honey basil ale
Bryan is doing a lemon... something
Harry TBD
Brian TBD
Mark TBD
 
Put me down for a Rye Lager

sort of a Marzen with about 20% of the base malt replaced with rye malt.
 
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