12 Beers of Christmas 2012!

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

biochemedic

Supporting Member
HBT Supporter
Joined
Jun 6, 2010
Messages
2,525
Reaction score
419
Location
Carnegie, PA
Hello all! I'm going to bite and will volunteer as organizer this year...

For the unfamiliar, here's the concept...(you can also check out last year's thread):

- 12 different brewers each brew one of the "12 Beers of Christmas" -- recipes from Randy Mosher's book Radical Brewing.
- We each send the other 11 brewers a few (last year it was three 12 oz longnecks to each).

If you do the math, you will need to bottle most of your batch in 12 oz bottles, as you will be sending 33 beers out, and will be receiving 33 beers in return. I'd like to get an early a start this year (I'm already brewing the Caramel Quad...) as many of these beers do need a bit of aging, being stronger beers. I've actually saved some from last year to drink this year! You could brew at any point now, the earlier the better for some recipes. Assuming you bottle carb/condition, and your not bottling from a keg, you should be thinking about bottling by late Oct/early Nov at the latest. We'll be talking about shipping sometime right after Thanksgiving/first week of December.

It does cost a bit to mail out all the boxes, but it was definitely worth it for me last year -- a great experience to share and experience others' homebrew, and some great experimental recipes!

If any interested brewers don't have access to the book, PM me and I can forward the recipes. Note that a couple of these are lagers, so please, any lager-capable brewers concentrate on those...



Here are the beers:

1) Caramel Quadrupel (biochemedic) Silver cap w/ black 'Q'
2) Spiced Cherry Dubbel (Pint_destroyer)
3) Spiced Dunkel Weizenbock (MasterJeem) N/A - MIA brewer
4) Juniper Rye Bock (dgez) Silver cap w/ black 'J'
5) Fruitcake Old Ale (SavoryChef) Fancy Label: 'Fruitcake Old Ale'
6) Saffron Tripel (Piratwolf) White Label: 'Saffron Tripel / Saffron Strong Saison' w/ OG/FG/yeast strain notation
7) Christmas Gruit (Shuznuts) Fancy Label: 'Christmas Gruit'
8) Honey Ginger IPA (RedBeard1) Fancy Label: 'Thistlehair'
9) Crabapple Lambicky Ale (Clanchief) Fancy Label: 'Crabapple Lambicky Ale'
10) Gingerbread Ale (sfrisby) Fancy Label: 'Gingerbread Porter,' waxed cap
11) Spiced Bourbon Stout (Draygon)
12) Abbey Weizen (jtakacs) Silver cap w/ black '33'

EDIT: I will start posting the names of volunteer brewers next to the respective recipes once they commit to being part of the project. In interest of fairness, I'm going to make this first come first served when it comes to recipe choice. If there's enough interest; ie, a lot of the brewers from last year also want to do this again, we could consider making a second 12 brewer group and just have 2 separate lists...
 
this is something i could definitely get into... a friend and i are already planning a christmas braggot that we've come up with, but i wouldn't mine trying my hand at that spiced dunkel weizenbock.

my only question, what are the laws about mailing out bottles of beer?
 
USPS is a no no, fedex and UPS are okay.

i'd love to do this, but the cost of it is out of my hands :(
 
I am in for the Saffron Tripel. Wanted to do last Year's brew, but had just started AG and didn't feel confident. Now I'm excited!

I expect I'll brew a couple small-batch triples this summer to get that down, then use my favorite as the base. Ho Ho Ho!
 
my only question, what are the laws about mailing out bottles of beer?

USPS is a no no, fedex and UPS are okay.

This is generally true...my understanding is that USPS is "illegal," and while the other shippers may not encourage shipping beer, at least you're not going to run afoul of federal law. Generally speaking if you show up with a well wrapped, sealed package, they aren't even going to ask questions. I'd say this assumes you wrap and pad things properly, and don't have a package that sloshes or clinks/clanks.

There was one participant last year who mailed some USPS, and I thought it was pretty ballsy...worked fine though, and I have to say I noted that their shipping rates were a fair bit lower than what it cost me to mail to them.
 
I read somewhere that the USPS rules are being revised.

I did this last year, and it was great trying all the different beers. I actually saved one of each, and have them cellared for this year.
 
Adds a little if it's out of the their normal delivery routes.

I also was remembering that if you can ship to a business instead of a residence, it's significantly cheaper...so for those who end up being part of the project, if you have a business address that you can receive packages at, it will help out your fellow brewers cost-wise...
 
Ready to commit again and this year go with the Gingerbread Ale. Need to go back and see who the deadbeat was from last year and make sure he's blackballed. Yes, im still chapped about that.
 
usfmikeb said:
Yep, me too. That's part of the reason I'm not in for this year.

I remember getting bitter and rhoadsrage making a comment about letting go and have fun with rest of the group and he's right. I had a great time with 10 other brewers and, for me, wouldn't want to miss out. I still have 1 of each brewer remaining and looking forward to cracking that open this year along this years equivalent. I can't let one bad apple spoil it.
 
Sign me up! I'm a novice brewer but my batches have been turning out well. I followed the thread last year and really wanted to taste everyone's contributions. I'll do the honey ginger IPA as long as you don't mind extract+steeped grain. Could you post the recipe?
 
I just read last years thread and i am in fir this year. Fruitcake old ale if not taken.
 
The Fruitcake Old Ale is delicious. I highly recommend you brew it ASAP, it just keeps tasting better and better the older it gets. I have some that is about 11 months old and it is awesome! Also be prepared, this was by far the most expensive recipe I have ever made, but it was well worth.

I will need to sit out this year. Had a blast last year but I need to save my pennies. Have fun everyone!
 
The Fruitcake Old Ale is delicious. I highly recommend you brew it ASAP, it just keeps tasting better and better the older it gets. I have some that is about 11 months old and it is awesome! Also be prepared, this was by far the most expensive recipe I have ever made, but it was well worth.

I will need to sit out this year. Had a blast last year but I need to save my pennies. Have fun everyone!

Thanks for the tip.
 
I have a gingerbread recipe which I am brewing regardless, I can use for the group if interested, but was searching for Mosher's actual recipe and came across this list that I thought everyone might find interesting to read.

http://allaboutbeer.com/learn-beer/...structions/2002/01/twelve-beers-of-christmas/

How particular does everyone feel about the actual recipe? I have a Gingerbread porter that I have done for a few years that has positive reviews if I can't find the real deal.
 
sfrisby said:
I have a gingerbread recipe which I am brewing regardless, I can use for the group if interested, but was searching for Mosher's actual recipe and came across this list.

http://allaboutbeer.com/learn-beer/home-brewing/brewing-instructions/2002/01/twelve-beers-of-christmas/

How particular does everyone feel about the actual recipe? I have a Gingerbread porter that I have done for a few years that has positive reviews if I can't find the real deal.

Im not in charge here, but seems tasty.
 
I have a gingerbread recipe which I am brewing regardless, I can use for the group if interested, but was searching for Mosher's actual recipe and came across this list.

http://allaboutbeer.com/learn-beer/...structions/2002/01/twelve-beers-of-christmas/

How particular does everyone feel about the actual recipe? I have a Gingerbread porter that I have done for a few years that has positive reviews if I can't find the real deal.

That link is pretty interesting! It looks like it is an earlier version of the 12 beers list...There are a few variations/deviations in this article compared to the list in the book (which is what I have posted at the beginning of the thread)... I have to say, the pumpkin barleywine is something I could consider brewing in the future!

For those who weren't following last year's project closely, we did have a couple of "substitutes" or variations added in for various logistic reasons, so we can certainly do that again if necessary...

Spencer, I will PM you the actual recipe from the book in the next day or so, and you can decide what you want to do...

Im not in charge here, but seems tasty.

It's a democracy, and I'm just organizing things...if we need to make some changes or substitutions, as I noted above, we can certainly do that...
 
Would love to participate, but with a kid on the way in a couple months I'm guessing money is going to be extra tight by December. Very cool project, though.

And I'm inspired to make my own Spiced Bourbon Stout to distribute to friends and family for the holidays.
 
I would love to get involved and try to be a part of this. I'll try the Crabapple Lambicky Ale. I don't have the book or recipe, so if could send that to me, it would be great. I was planning on brewing some sort of lambic this summer anyways, so this works out perfectly for that. :)
 
bio, thanks for pm'ing the "recipe"! sounds like i have a lot of room to create, which I am excited about. IPA is my favorite style, which is why i signed up to brew one. Just sent an APA to secondary last night. Gonna run at a traditional british IPA next and refine my flavor. As i know that hoppy beers tend to be best young, I should have time to work out a great recipe and brew a final run in late august/sept to ginger-ize and ship (and sip!) I am super excited to taste everyone's beer and get feedback on my own!
 
Ive already got a very good idea of what stout I am going to use as the base for my Spiced bourbon Stout...better watch out Fellas, Ima put you on your butts :) You'll all be very merry!
 
Just a bit of an introduction...

I'm a mead maker that's recently started brewing and I'm hooked (mead takes so long!). I read through last year's thread and let me tell you, you guys make some delicious looking brews! I have a lot to live up to, but I'm sure that I can get my spiced dunkelweizen up to par. I'm happy to be included in this and if the person who made the dunkelweizen last year is here again, any advice you have for me would be appreciated. That was one of the prettiest beers I've ever seen. I could almost taste it.

This is going to make Christmas as exciting as it was when I was 10, haha
 
Is it tooo late to take the abbey weizen? Shoulda looked at the recipe, but oh well....i'll find that damn book.
 
Is it tooo late to take the abbey weizen? Shoulda looked at the recipe, but oh well....i'll find that damn book.

All yours...just sent you a PM as well...

We're doing pretty well here, and I'm stoked so many people have stepped up so quickly!

Still looking for some brewers for the Juniper Rye Bock and Christmas Gruit...these are the only unclaimed beers left!
 
... if the person who made the dunkelweizen last year is here again, any advice you have for me would be appreciated. That was one of the prettiest beers I've ever seen. I could almost taste it.

The brewer who did this brew last year has the screen name Willum...you could probably PM him if you have any specific questions about the brew...
 
I wanted to do this last year as well. Put me down for the gruit. Recipe (found on last years thread) looks amazing. I'll make it next month to give it plenty of time to condition, but I'll have to ship the beer out earlier than turkey day.
 
I wanted to do this last year as well. Put me down for the gruit. Recipe (found on last years thread) looks amazing. I'll make it next month to give it plenty of time to condition, but I'll have to ship the beer out earlier than turkey day.

Sweet! We just need a lager-capable brewer for the Juniper Rye Bock...

I got all my spices from Penzey's.
 
Ok so I said I had an idea of a base stout to use for the spiced Bourbon stout so here it is.

I am at a hotel currently and on my kindle so no copy and paste from beersmith...anyways.

12 lbs Dark malt extract (going to do liquid for pricing)
6oz dingmans cara 8
5oz dingmans black malt
5oz chocolate malt
5oz cara III
12oz honey malt
12oz cara 45
3/4 lbs brown sugar
1oz magnum hops
1.5oz sterling hops
White Labs WL001

SG: 1.104
FG: 1.024 estimated
Target ABV: 10.7%


As I said..this one will make everyone very merry! I figure after the spice mixture it will come in around 11% ABV, give or take with my efficiency.

Merry Christmas! A few months early!
 
I just brewed the Fruitcake Old Ale last night and it's going to be delicious. The recipe looked good even without the dried fruit and spices so I brewed 10 gallons so I can drink the regular Old Ale while the Fruitcake is aging.
 
So I had been thinking, and Draygon kind of beat me to it...I thought it would be a good idea, especially as there is a fair bit of flexibility in many of the recipes, for us to post what we actually did on our individual brews. I will provide a nice record our our group brew, and if any of us feel like trying to reproduce one of the others' brews, we will have a good starting point!

What I'm going to do is post my recipe, then I'll use the edit function to add brewing and tasting notes to the same post, so everything on the one brew is in one spot.
 
The more I read this thread, the more I wish I was involved. This was fun last year! ;)
 

Latest posts

Back
Top