12-12-12 Wee Heavy Swap and Critique Thread

[Cromwell]

Thanks, xeerohour I'm glad you got yours, but no I wasn't referring to you. Glad you liked the T.B.A. but no, I don't know how old it was.

 

[bottlebomber]

smokinghole, I'm drinking this Flanders right now and it's fantastic, as good as any commercial one I've had. Nice and sour, beer still has a little body despite being quite dry. What did you sour it with?

As far as the Wee Heavies, none of the heavy beers in my fridge have been calling out to me. I was on a serious malty beer kick before this and kind of burned out and have been craving lighter beers and IPAs. So I've been focusing on the non 12.12.12 beers

 

[smokinghole]

The beer was fermented with ECY02. The recipe was almost 30% crystal by the way so that might explain the residual body. Now this could be just being super critical but I also suspect it is a possibility that a slight viscosity built back up in the beer. There may be a slight bitterness/astringency due to me using purple corn in the beer. I had to "fix" it with ascorbic acid, only like a tablespoon for 10 gal. The ascorbic acid broke the reaction of anthocyanins and acrolein that formed from the very high level of anthocyanin in the purple corn.

 

[bottlebomber]

Viscosity like in a lacto ropiness? It certainly didn't seem ropy on the palate. As far as the corn thing, dang you lost me bro. Evidently I have a lot left to learn.

 

[smokinghole]

Yeah viscosity like lacto/pedio ropiness. Like I said could just be me being overly critical of my own brew. If you want to read about the corn thing read this for the reason whyPurple Corn = bad in sour beer. When I inverviewed at Victory I brought this beer for everyone in the interview to taste. I figured with them talking about more barrel aged experimental stuff it'd be appropriate. Then I explained the corn thing and I think I almost made their eyes roll back in their heads because I went full blown geek.

 

[MDVDuber]

I had to pull out the old Plant Physiology texts....

All - I've been fighting a cold and figured that since Founders Imperial Stout tasted bland to me that I should wait to try all of the samples I've been sent.

I will be cracking some beers this week and will do my best to properly represent them here.

 

[Stephonovich]

I got my package from CA-LT1 literally as I was packing my car up with the final stuff to leave for SC. My comment to UPS, "No, I'm trying to leave! Oh wait, it's beer..."

I haven't tried the 12-12-12 yet. The other two, though...

The first, um, I have no idea what it was. I don't remember the cap code, unfortunately, and it was lost/thrown away during the move. It was sour and strong, is all I know. Not going to lie, I wasn't much a fan. I'm sure the beer was fine, but I didn't like it. Sorry, dude.

EDIT: I'm dumb; just read back a few pages. So, it was a Barleywine, eh? Did you use Brett or Lacto? Mine was fairly sour. I've had Barleywines before and liked them alright, but I never had one soured. Also, thank you a million times over for the Pliny. That is definitely a treat that I've never enjoyed before. I saved the bottle. It's right up there with Heady Topper.

Next up was "P", which I guessed to be Pumpkin. Ding-ding! Whoa, this stuff is awesome. Tastes like eating pumpkin pie. It's probably the closest to DFH Punkin Ale, which is my personal favorite example of the style. Recipe, please?

 

[Stephonovich]

Alright, cracked open CT-LT1s 12-12-12...

Appearance: Poured with a medium carb level that belied the faint hiss upon cracking the bottle - about a half finger head atop a nice deep mahogany beer. Bubbles are still fizzing up as I write this, although the head is long gone.

Smell: Very ripe plums, molasses, raisins, brandy.

Taste: Less oxidizing present than the others (including my own). Initial taste is a little less cloying that some; the higher carb level is probably helping. (Repeated note to self: carb this higher when you make it) I'm picking up plums and raisins again, with maybe some faint cantaloupe - that bright, sugary, fruity flavor. The carb has a pleasant bite that lingers and helps to counter the huge maltiness. Alcohol makes itself known very faintly; you're aware that it's there, but not overly so. Sneaky, this.

Overall: A very well balanced brew! I'm really digging these ones that have the higher carb level to balance them out. Flat, or near flat beers (again, so many apologies for my End of the World Stout I sent out) have an annoying way of becoming overly thick to drink.

 

[CA-LT1]

Hey Steph, thanks for the reviews, and for being honest! Yeah, barley wine, but maybe the bottle I sent you somehow got infected. I've been drinking one every few months, and while there's only some bitterness still remaining, I haven't had one I'd call sour. Was it clear? I'm having one right now, and it's crystal. Still hot though, it is 12% after all.

The pumpkin ale was basically Renoenvy's recipe with some hop subs, except I added the spice post-fermentation via tea method.

Phew, glad the 12-12-12 was ok. I almost didn't participate in the swap this year cuz I didn't think my wee heavy was good enough, although I've never had another wee heavy to speak of...

Well now that's a lie. once I saw my packages were delivered, I tried one of the swap bottles. I'll get the review up soon.

 

[Stephonovich]

Hey Steph, thanks for the reviews, and for being honest! Yeah, barley wine, but maybe the bottle I sent you somehow got infected. I've been drinking one every few months, and while there's only some bitterness still remaining, I haven't had one I'd call sour. Was it clear? I'm having one right now, and it's crystal. Still hot though, it is 12% after all.

The pumpkin ale was basically Renoenvy's recipe with some hop subs, except I added the spice post-fermentation via tea method.

No, the Barleywine was a little murky. Maybe it was infected.

Found the recipe and put it into Beersmith. That's way better than the other recipe I've made (names omitted to protect good people). Also, Reno straight up says in his post that it tastes a lot like DFH - no wonder I loved it.

 

[smokinghole]

I'm going to get to drinking some more of these beers tonight. I might have to reach out and ask about who used what caps. Everyone has "12" on the cap I think and I forget who's is who's. Of course I neglected to mark them and I stupidly trusted that I could remember by location in the fridge.

 

[Cromwell]

Well, I figured out what happened, and it's my fault.
I was supposed to send beers to CA-LT1, MDVDuber and xeerohour, and instead I sent beers to bottlebomber, CA-LT1 and xeerohour. Dumb of me to start, and especially since sending beer to Ukiah is more expensive than sending it to Maryland. Anyway, I apologize. Unfortunately, bottlebomber has already drunk at least one of mine, or I'd just send you money to forward the package to MDVDuber. You must have received packages from 4 of us?
Any chance I can get you to send what's left to MDVDuber so he doesn't get stiffed? I can't claim insurance since it's my fault it went to the wrong place.
I'll pay you what you need to mail it.

 

[bottlebomber]

Well, I figured out what happened, and it's my fault.
I was supposed to send beers to CA-LT1, MDVDuber and xeerohour, and instead I sent beers to bottlebomber, CA-LT1 and xeerohour. Dumb of me to start, and especially since sending beer to Ukiah is more expensive than sending it to Maryland. Anyway, I apologize. Unfortunately, bottlebomber has already drunk at least one of mine, or I'd just send you money to forward the package to MDVDuber. You must have received packages from 4 of us?
Any chance I can get you to send what's left to MDVDuber so he doesn't get stiffed? I can't claim insurance since it's my fault it went to the wrong place.
I'll pay you what you need to mail it.

Just looked out on the fridge, and sure enough there are 4 different types of Wee Heavy out there. I had at least 20 packages arrive to my house in the month of December, and did several swaps with members outside of this one. Two of the WH's have almost identical rampant lion labels. You'll have to give me a pic of what your beers look like, and let me know what else you sent. I will replace the beers that I drank with other beers, but you'll have to handle the shipping. Also I'll need the address of where this needs to go. Further, I am balls to the wall at work and can't give a promised ETA for when I can get this out. It is fracking cold right and I'm not sure it's the best time to ship around beer. Bummer man

 

[Cromwell]

Just looked out on the fridge, and sure enough there are 4 different types of Wee Heavy out there. I had at least 20 packages arrive to my house in the month of December, and did several swaps with members outside of this one. Two of the WH's have almost identical rampant lion labels. You'll have to give me a pic of what your beers look like, and let me know what else you sent. I will replace the beers that I drank with other beers, but you'll have to handle the shipping. Also I'll need the address of where this needs to go. Further, I am balls to the wall at work and can't give a promised ETA for when I can get this out. It is fracking cold right and I'm not sure it's the best time to ship around beer. Bummer man

Thanks, and again, sorry. My wee heavies weren't labled, I think, but they had blue caps. If it did have a label, it's purple with a Scottish thistle on it. The Curiosity IPA was mine, and I think you drank it. So whatever you can send is good. I'd just send him all new beers from here, but I sent out the last of my wee heavies. I'll ask him to message you his address. Let me know how I can pay you - if you have PayPal that's easiest.

 

[Stephonovich]

So, I just popped open one of my 12-12-12s tonight. Man, I'm disappointed. Under attenuated, flat-ish... meh Seriously, I just burped cardboard.

Also related, I was watching some of Stone's videos on Vimeo, and they mentioned how they recently had a full tasting of their Vertical Epic series. Even the 02 and 03 years tasted great; they attributed this to storing them cool all these years. Which got me thinking, did anyone else store theirs in a temperature controlled environment? I know I sure as hell didn't.

 

[bottlebomber]

Cromwell, I was thinking about the beer situation today and decided that even though I didn't sign up for swapping with 4 people, I did in fact get beer from 4. And so it's probably the good thing to do to just handle the swap with the 4th person myself, if everyone agrees. I'll just keep whatever I've got from you, ship out other beer, deal with the expense myself. It's simpler that way and you don't have to pay double shipping. If it's cool with everyone. However as stated before I am busy as hell and won't be able to do this for probably 2 weeks. This has to be in the terms and conditions also.

 

[Cromwell]

Thanks bottlebomber. That'd be great by me. I think it's probably ok with MDVDuber, but I'll message him and ask.
I owe you one, buddy. If you're ever in this neck of California.

 

[MDVDuber]

Cromwell, Wow - you are way more worried about this than I am - Thank you for making all the effort to track this down. I'm perfectly happy with the plan you and bottlebomber have worked out. I mean really - I get another package full of beer and you think I'm going to complain??

To everyone else. I've been running crazy for the past few weeks. A business trip to Fresno (with a few days to visit Russian River and Lagunitas of course) followed by a red eye home and a 9 hour drive to NH for a family vacation. Anyhow, I've tried a couple of the beers and as soon as I get a minute I'll post up my highly amateur reviews.

I will say - anyone who got xeerohour's House IPA was a lucky beer drinker - it was absolutely amazing!

 

[bottlebomber]

Hey Duber, since I already shipped to you how about some other stuff? I've got a pretty rockin IPA I just bottled up

 

[MDVDuber]

Bomber - that sounds great to me. I'll admit I haven't gotten to your non 12-12-12's yet - but the Wee Heavy was very nice - my wife kept trying to steal it from me...

 

[xeerohour]

Hey CrystallineEntity - having your Rye Saison tonight. That's a good beer, man. Enjoying it quite a bit. Appreciate it.

 

[CrystallineEntity]

Hey CrystallineEntity - having your Rye Saison tonight. That's a good beer, man. Enjoying it quite a bit. Appreciate it.

Thanks for the compliment!

 

[Cromwell]

Well, I did a terrrrrrrrible job of keeping track of who sent me what. (Read: I have no idea anymore.)

But I had a pale ale last night that just had a silver cap with "pale" written in green on the top.
It was great. REALLY nice hop aroma, perfect carbonation, great flavor. It had a little bit of bitter aftertaste (like a light IPA), but
I had it with BBQ ribs and the food wiped the bitterness and I really enjoyed the beer. I'd buy this if I could. Whoever made it, really nice job.

 

[MDVDuber]

That was mine. Thanks! I have been feeling quilty as some of the test bottles of the others I sent folks seemed a bit over carbed. It was my first use of the beer gun so..

The Pale that you drank is actually a variation on the Northern Brewer 1911 Export ale recipe that they had for a special yeast a few years ago. It was an English Pale with a large long dry hop. I subbed in my home grown cascades for the dry hop and was pretty happy with the results.

I owe everyone reviews of their beers. Many slips of paper in my backpack waiting to be transcribed to the computer...

 

[Stephonovich]

I figured it's close enough...

Broke open another one of the brews; one of the ones that was swapped to me. Unfortunately I didn't keep anything resembling records, so I've no idea. "12-12-12" was written in Sharpie on the silver cap, if that rings a bell.

First off, surprisingly carbed still. I figured after two years a lot would have died off, but no.

The taste is also quite smooth, and basically what I remember last year. Deep, earthy, raisiny, and a little oxidized. UPDATE: After letting it warm up, there's HUGE chocolate. It's awesome stuff.

All in all great, and nice to remember it again!

 

[Johnnyhitch1]

I figured it's close enough...

Broke open another one of the brews; one of the ones that was swapped to me. Unfortunately I didn't keep anything resembling records, so I've no idea. "12-12-12" was written in Sharpie on the silver cap, if that rings a bell.

First off, surprisingly carbed still. I figured after two years a lot would have died off, but no.

The taste is also quite smooth, and basically what I remember last year. Deep, earthy, raisiny, and a little oxidized. UPDATE: After letting it warm up, there's HUGE chocolate. It's awesome stuff.

All in all great, and nice to remember it again!

12-12-12 would be 1 year from today.

 

[Stephonovich]

I know... it was brewed in 2011 though. I thought maybe whoever had marked their bottle like that would remember.

 

[JuanKenobi]

I figured it's close enough...

Broke open another one of the brews; one of the ones that was swapped to me. Unfortunately I didn't keep anything resembling records, so I've no idea. "12-12-12" was written in Sharpie on the silver cap, if that rings a bell.

First off, surprisingly carbed still. I figured after two years a lot would have died off, but no.

The taste is also quite smooth, and basically what I remember last year. Deep, earthy, raisiny, and a little oxidized. UPDATE: After letting it warm up, there's HUGE chocolate. It's awesome stuff.

All in all great, and nice to remember it again!

Was it in a Sierra Nevada bottle? I think that's mine. I think I last tried one a few months ago. It's amazing how well it stands up over time.

The club my fiend attends is doing Wee Heavy for their fall comp this year and I'm going to submit it. Can't wait to see what they think after almost 4 years.

 

[Stephonovich]

So... anyone else still got bottles? I gave one of mine to a friend, after discussing Wee Heavy, and popped one open. I was expecting it to be awful, as it's been in a garage through the blistering SC summer. I was wrong! The wet cardboard oxidation I had last year is gone, so either that was a bad bottle, or it's no longer present somehow.

Extremely light hiss, with no noticeable carb while drinking.
Poured into a goblet, no head.
Heavy raisin and molasses aroma.
Beautiful fig and roasted malt flavors, with no alcohol or hop flavors at all.
Thick cereal aftertaste.
Mild legs in the glass, maybe like a pinot noir.

 

[bottlebomber]

So... anyone else still got bottles? I gave one of mine to a friend, after discussing Wee Heavy, and popped one open. I was expecting it to be awful, as it's been in a garage through the blistering SC summer. I was wrong! The wet cardboard oxidation I had last year is gone, so either that was a bad bottle, or it's no longer present somehow.

Extremely light hiss, with no noticeable carb while drinking.
Poured into a goblet, no head.
Heavy raisin and molasses aroma.
Beautiful fig and roasted malt flavors, with no alcohol or hop flavors at all.
Thick cereal aftertaste.
Mild legs in the glass, maybe like a pinot noir.

I had one a few weeks ago. It was more or less exactly as you just described. I've still got quite a bit. It's good, but man it just needed a little more carbonation to lighten it and make it more fun to drink. Great flavor otherwise.