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

Given that it's going to be fairly well spiced, you can go with a basic stout recipe. if you play with it too much, flavors will get lost.

doctorRobert said:

I would vote for only two bottles or 1 bomber because of the cost involved.

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I agree, but for a different reason. Given the amount of fruit involved, I don't expect to get more than 4 usable gallons. That works out to 42 bottles of beer, so I'd have 20 bottles left after shipping 22 of them. Friends and neighbors pay attention to my brew schedule, so I'll lose at 6-8 that way, leaving a twelve pack. I'll want to age a six pack for next year, leaving a six pack for me to drink on Xmas day.

I would prefer 3 bottles, but if its not possible, then 2 x 12 oz would be better tan a bomber. That way we could all age a beer each if we wish.

Xcorpia said:

I would prefer 3 bottles, but if its not possible, then 2 x 12 oz would be better tan a bomber. That way we could all age a beer each if we wish.

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+1...I definitely want to age one (or two) of these given our compressed brewing schedule.

I still vote for 3 bottles...I think the shipping cost will be pretty similar for 2 vs 3 bottles. But I do understand that some of these brews will lose volume to fruit...

I got all my spices for the Gruit this past week, and I plan to brew on Friday...

usfmikeb said:

Given that it's going to be fairly well spiced, you can go with a basic stout recipe. if you play with it too much, flavors will get lost.

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The mere fact it is so heavily spiced is why I think it should be a bigger beer. I'm worried the spices would over power a smaller beer.I'm scarred from harpoons winter warmer, I need to make sure there is a beer under all those spices.

I'm leaning towards just doing jamil's american stout as the base.


Also everyone should check out the books errata before brewing. There are a few recipes in the book with typos.

doctorRobert said:

Also everyone should check out the books errata before brewing. There are a few recipes in the book with typos.

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Doesn't look like any of them involve the 12 beers of Xmas...

http://www.radicalbrewing.com/rberrat.html

alright, doctorRobert I will add you to the original list.

All set to brew Gruit in the AM! Roasting some of the wheat malt now (smells great!), and my starter of 3711 has been going since last night. Should be mashing in by around 7 tomorrow morning...

Yay!

I can't wait, this'll be fun, how many we got covered?

Scruffy1207 said:

I can't wait, this'll be fun, how many we got covered?

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Mine's chugging away, so that's 1.

Mine is also under way. Should be adding fruit next weekend.

I plan to brew my spiced bourbon porter labor day weekend.

I'm going to start the IPA in sept, so it's closer to the ship date, does that sound good? I know IPAs are best young. Should I start later? I'll be doing a PM version.

I brewed the dubbel on Sunday, going to give it at least two weeks before racking onto cherries, perhaps three.

I was all set to brew this weekend and my Wyeast danish lager never inflated, I tried building it with a starter and it was D.O.A. So over my lunch hour I'm running up to the LHBS to get a new yeast. The juniper berries smell great so, I'm very eager to get brewing.

It seems a bit odd to be brewing a Christmas Bock in 103 degree weather.

I was singing "Jingle Bells" while brewing, that seemed to help a little bit.

The Gruit I brewed on Friday is happily fermenting...it really kicked up again overnight after adding the honey yesterday! My brew is also heavy on juniper berries, and also smells awesome!

I did have some issues with efficiency...only 60%, but I did some searching, and I think this probably had to do with the high amount of wheat. I had noticed that the wheat seemed "less cracked" than the barley, so I think I probably should have run the wheat through the mill a couple times (I can't change the gap on the mill at the LHBS). Either way, the brew still has a potential for over 8% (would've been close to 10% if I'd gotten the expected efficiency), and I'm positive will be awesome!

All those homebrews...yummy! This is so cool. The shipping costs will be worth it.

I hope I'll have the money for shipping costs, it shouldn't be a problem unless my Financial Aid comes through

Scruffy1207 said:

I hope I'll have the money for shipping costs, it shouldn't be a problem unless my Financial Aid comes through

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I remember doing the same thing: using financial aid for brewing supplies. However, that changed when a group of us created a homebrew club through Student Activities. Had it recognized as an official club, and then got funding from student paid activity fees. Check it out, you might be able to do the same. We claimed it was a bioscience club, understanding how yeast works.

Rhoadsrage - do we still have all 12 covered, and are we going to go with 2 bottles or 3?

The rest of my ingredients come in on Monday. So I will be brewing the Spiced Dunkel Weizenbock next Saturday. So I hope the rest of you fools are going to ***** out

usfmikeb said:

Rhoadsrage - do we still have all 12 covered, and are we going to go with 2 bottles or 3?

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Good question, I vote for three. I would like for the wife and I to each have one and have one to save for next year.

In the secondary on fruit as of this evening. The two month wait begins.

I had trouble with shipped liquid yeast this past week, two starters failed. Ended up buying locally and all is well.

willum said:

good question, i vote for three. I would like for the wife and i to each have one and have one to save for next year.

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+1

Willum said:

Good question, I vote for three. I would like for the wife and I to each have one and have one to save for next year.

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+2

Racked on to the fruit this weekend. Tasted the gravity sample and without the fruit this is a very tasty beer. Bottling in 2 weeks as per the recipe then I will be ready to ship.

Willum said:

Good question, I vote for three. I would like for the wife and I to each have one and have one to save for next year.

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+3 The gruit is at the end of fermentation...going to let it sit for a couple more weeks then bottle...

Spiced Cherry Dubbel is on the fruit now, man that was a lot of cherries.

willum said:

good question, i vote for three. I would like for the wife and i to each have one and have one to save for next year.

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+4

It looks like most people are up for shipping 3 bottles.
-someone said one of the spiced beers may be a little short so he can't get 36 beers out of it?
-shipping should be the same cost for 2 or 3 beers so we that is a plus
-currently we have all twelve brews spoken for and there usernames should be beside the beer in the original post.
- FWIW, my juniper rye bock is bubbling along at a cool 49 degrees for the last 5 days.

rhoadsrage said:

It looks like most people are up for shipping 3 bottles.
-someone said one of the spiced beers may be a little short so he can't get 36 beers out of it?
-shipping should be the same cost for 2 or 3 beers so we that is a plus
-currently we have all twelve brews spoken for and there usernames should be beside the beer in the original post.
- FWIW, my juniper rye bock is bubbling along at a cool 49 degrees for the last 5 days.

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Great news! We should do this for every season imo lol. I'm doing my first AG Tonight, if that goes well I'll probably do the IPA AG.

Scruffy1207 said:

Great news! We should do this for every season imo lol. I'm doing my first AG Tonight, if that goes well I'll probably do the IPA AG.

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Hope your AG goes well. My Ginger Snap Ale is my 2nd AG.

My AG keeps getting pushed back. Doing it sunday for sure, stove top AG 2g batch. Grats on the AG switch.

Well the fruitcake old ale is bottled and ready to go when ever we ship. Ended up with 43 bottles damn fruit drinking all my beer. But I would still like to ship 3 if possible.

That sounds good. Just started the deep sleep for my bock today.

I hate to do this. But I'm not going to be able to participate. I'm in a bit of a financial pickle, and brewing is going to be one of the first things to go. I was really looking forward to this, but I have to put my family's well being first. I know a batch a beer to many isnt very expensive, but to me it can be when you include the opportunity cost of taking some time of work.

I know this makes me a ******. I hope you guys have enough notice to find somebody else to brew the spiced stout.

No worries, doc. I always but family first. Perhaps next time.

Cheers.

I finally was able to brew the Spiced Dunkel Weizenbock yesterday. I recently started a new job, so I am not able to brew as often as I would like to. It is fermenting like crazy and it should be ready to mail out as soon early November, but naturally the longer it gets to age the better it will be. So, whenever we figure out an exact time period I will keg it up and carb it.

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.

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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Cool, so you're taking over the spiced stout yourself...I had wondered if we were going to be able to get someone to brew that.

The Gruit is pretty much done...I may actually even bottle it today, but if not, it will be another week or two. Either way, will be good and conditioned and ready to ship by mid to late September.