Do you want to brew one of the 12 beers of Christmas?

rhoadsrage said:

Nice. Don't you hate when work gets in the way of brewing.

I will be brewing the spiced stout in early sept. and the spices are marinating in bourbon soon.

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Indeed, but it is a pretty good job. I landed a job as the Network Administrator for a public library. So keep paying those taxes

Spiced Cherry Dubbel has been on the cherries for three weeks, needs at least one more week. I might even leave it on the cherries even longer, perhaps six weeks in total.

rhoadsrage said:

I will be brewing the spiced stout in early sept. and the spices are marinating in bourbon soon.

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Cool. That means each one of us will send you 6 beers each.

Yeah, we will only need to ship out 10 packages. and I have to clear some space in my fridge. : dancing santa banana:

Well, the Gruit is bottled! I can't believe what a beast this yeast (Wyeast 3711) is...it went down to 1.007 (surprisingly, there still seems to be a pretty decent mouthfeel), and as a result, even though my OG/efficiency was lower than expected (I think it had to do with the high percentage of wheat malt) the ABV is 8.9%! I suppose it's a good thing I didn't hit the predicted OG of 1.090! (woud've been 11%! :cross

I can't wait to see how this one comes across when carbonated...the samples at bottling were really neat...I was surprised that the smoked malt didn't come across much...perhaps would bump it up to a pound brewing this one again...

Does anyone have this recipie?

Sure they day I take the book out of my work bag is the day I need it. I can look it up tonight and get it to you sometime this weekend.

rhoadsrage said:

Sure they day I take the book out of my work bag is the day I need it. I can look it up tonight and get it to you sometime this weekend.

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Thanks

SO I FINALLY bottled my gingersnap beer. This is one tasty brew. It tastes EXACTLY like Trader Joe's triple gingersnaps. It's so good I almost feel like not sharing it LOL! Anyhow, I hope it carbs and ages well.

This is an awesome idea! I want in next year.

With HUGE regrets I am out.

I'll spare you guys all of the details and sum it up this way;

We went out of town several weeks ago. The girl watching our house brought several friends over as she took care of stuff. One of the guys saw the beer and decided to help himself. Using an empty carboy he siphoned off, I'm guessing, two plus gallons and replaced the beer with water. He stashed the beer in the yard and came back for it later that night.

He has admitted to taking the beer and that the girl knew nothing about it. One guy kept her distracted while the other one did the dirty work. Who knows the truth, it doesn't really matter.

Time, Money, Beer and a Carboy ... History

...speechless...I don't know how I would have reacted if it were me.

We might want to look for an alternative beer because according to the recipe the Crabapple Lambicky Ale takes at least 3 months. I did a raspberry lambicky brown ale that everyone raves about.

With a prerequisite MAYBE, I would like to offer up a beer to take the previous poster's place. I have a Belgian quad that I will be bottling in a week or so. 1/2 was regular, 1/2 was bourbon Oaked. How much would I need (assuming it is share worthy when I taste it). From the thread it looks like 3 bottles each to 11 other folks. Is that the jist? Is that something you all would be interested in?

And buddy, I can't believe others would pull of a stunt like that. I don't know how you didn't get violent when confronting the guy.

Yes, it's 3 beers each. I'm also willing to offer my raspberry lambicky ale. That way I'll get 6 beers each

Wow that is crazy. Truth is stranger than fiction.
I bottled the Juniper bock this weekend, it has a subtle juniper hint but we will see what carbonation brings. And I hope you all like spiced soy sauce toothpaste?! I racked the spiced bourbon stout into glass to let it drop a few more points and mix with the spices. It smelled like Chinese toothpaste, some roasted black malt with anise is an odd combo. I blended the hydrometer sample with some of the spiced tincture and it was pleasant after chilled so keep your fingers crossed.

sfrisby, we have one quad being brewed, but I would never turn down another, there is no lambicky so we might take Xcorpia up on his offer. What do others think?

rhoadsrage said:

Wow that is crazy. Truth is stranger than fiction.
I bottled the Juniper bock this weekend, it has a subtle juniper hint but we will see what carbonation brings. And I hope you all like spiced soy sauce toothpaste?! I racked the spiced bourbon stout into glass to let it drop a few more points and mix with the spices. It smelled like Chinese toothpaste, some roasted black malt with anise is an odd combo. I blended the hydrometer sample with some of the spiced tincture and it was pleasant after chilled so keep your fingers crossed.

sfrisby, we have one quad being brewed, but I would never turn down another, there is no lambicky so we might take Xcorpia up on his offer. What do others think?

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I think all of these brews are going to be much better with some time and aging. I'm sure the Juniper Bock will be fine...

I'm willing for others to volunteer substitutes for missing brews in the 12, as long as they fit (generally) in with the idea of a holiday brew. Either the lambicky or quad would be OK (or both if we need 2 substitues...where are we on the brew list anyway?), and the raspberry would certainly be a more direct substitute for the crabapple brew, although I have to say I *really* like the sound of a bourbon oaked quad!

As an aside, I've found that the local WalMart has pretty inexpensive packing supplies. I got a huge roll of bubble wrap for about 15 bucks (should be way more than I need for this job of packing 33 bottles), and 12 x 12 boxes are less than a buck...I think that size will be enough to pack 3 bottles (will have to see after packing in the bubble wrap but they have a couple other sizes as well...going to also package each bottle/bubble wrap unit individually in its own large ziplock).

I'm already done with the gingersnap ale- labels and all . Just give me the word and I'll start the raspberry lambicky ale -or not if you choose the quad. Doesn't matter to me. Beer is beer

The old ale is finished, bottled and ready to ship when everyone is ready. I tasted one of them last night since it has been in the bottle about 5 weeks. Tastes pretty good I think, the fruit is there but not as strong as I thought it would be. Has a good amount of alcohol, I was feeling it about 3/4 of the way through, but not a hot alcohol flavor. I am looking forward to others tasting it.

As for the replacement, I am with Xcorpia, beer is beer.

The news:
Native 302 is out, he is still deployed so no Saffron Tripel but that means sfrizbe with the quad and Xcorpa with her raspberry lambicky are both in to fill positions.

So we still have 12 beers in the mix. I try to keep the 1st post up to date as a rooster if you ever need to check.


Cheers.
andy

Sounds good, so we're sending Xcorpa 6 beers?

That is correct. Xcorpa and myself will send everyone 6 beers and you will send us 6. then it is 3 to everyone else. I will include that in the address to avoid confusion.

Btw, I found this on my homebrew clubs website, I figure it would be relevant to what we do here.

http://www.quaff.org/SpeakerNotes/Holiday_Spice_Beers-Chuck_West.pdf

Btw, I am finishing my all grain set up tomorrow, and will be brewing 3 IPA's over the next week or so. I love the cost of all grain brewing.

Just an update. I'm happy to participate. I bottled the bourbon barrel quad but discovered I underestimated my bottle inventory for the regular quad. I have been busy creating empty bottles and hope to have it done in about a week.

Brewing the Berry Lambicky Ale right now. I have a few bottles left of the batch I brewed in March. Thinking about the possibility of sending 1 bottle of the aged one with 2 bottles of the one I'm brewing now. Depends how it tastes before mailing them to you all.

Seems to fit well with the one bottle of bourbon aged quad and 2 bottles of regular quad everyone will get from me. 

I love to try the same beer that has one variable changes to really get a good comparison on how much that effects the finished product. I'm going to try like crazy to get the stout bottled this weekend, then I will get everyone the address list.

I got the ingredients

9lb marris otter
3lb vienna
.25 carapils

A bunch of EKG

and 4lbs of local raw honey. 2lbs from avocado blossoms, 2lbs from mountain sage. Going to brew this recipe ~3 times and I am going to send the best out.

After 10 weeks on the cherries, I racked the Spiced Cherry Dubbel over to a tertiary to clear a week before I bottle. Definitely tasted typical belgian yeast notes, more tartness from the cherries than flavor, and none of the cinnamon or almond. Obviously a green beer, and I always notice the fruit flavors after it has a chance to carb and mature, but it tasted pretty decent. Has a beautiful color, like a dark copper.

Bottling next week with intention to ship in mid-November.

Oh yeah, forgot to mention that my concerns about how much I would yield after the cherries was unfounded. Still got a solid 5 gallons out of it!

This all sounds great. I got the spiced bourbon stout bottled last night. I just got over a head cold but I still can't smell. However I could smell the anise in the beer. It should be interesting. I made my wife taste it (she doesn't like beer unless it taste like soda pop) she couldn't taste an bourbon so I added 2 more oz that was soaking on med american oak. We will see. She said it tasted awful so that is a good sign there is hope for it yet.

Forgot to add. I swapped out the juniper berries for black cardamom in the stout recipe. I wanted to give it a bit of frankincense character and plus I used all the juniper berries in the bock. I hope no one is allergic to black cardamom?

The only person I know who is allergic is woody from Cheers but I thought I better ask.

Definitely not allergic, I keep both green and black cardamom pods in stock at home. Haven't used it in a beer before, but have added to an orange mead recipe.

Rebrewing next week 2-3 times, best batch will be sent out. Kind of screwed up this batch. cutting it close

Just racked the Berry Lambicky Ale onto the raspberries today. Yum!

I am brewing the crab apple lambicky ale to day.....can't wait to see how it turns out...

Question, is there a problem sending bottles while they're conditioning?

I wouldn't think so? If the temp gets really low it may slow down the yeast but they can pick back up when it warms. I would think packing material should slow down the temp. swings a bit. just my 2 cents, I have never tried it.

I agree with Rhoadsrage...

Sweet, I'm going to try and get these mailed by thanksgiving. I really hope my beer is good, I don't want to let anyone down

I'm pretty sure it will be Scruffy