12 Beers of Christmas 2018 Edition

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MapleGroveAleworks said:
@BigCrazyAl I live in Amelia!
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We should meet up then! I'm not sure where your brew shop is but I use Listermann's in Cinci. We can grab ingredients and a pint! And trade a brew or 2 :)

mirthfuldragon said:
I'll reimburse you shipping :) Seriously though, I will.
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It still needs some aging but I'll do it if I have enough boxes saved up. All I ask for is an honest beer review. PM me at some point with details.
 
Old ale is racked on 3+ lbs of cranberries, raisins, cherries, apricots, prunes and figs. Cranked the temp up last night to get the yeast going again and it's bubbling away this morning. Prior to racking, SG was sitting at 1.030 so it still has a little way to go...hopefully the heat will help it finish up. It was surprisingly not sweet for sitting at such a high gravity, but it's definitely going to take some time to mellow out. I may need to make up a tincture for the spices, as I screwed up and didn't add them until literally the last minute of the boil. I whirlpooled them for a while, but it didn't do much I don't think. I'll test it out again when I rack it off the fruit and see if it needs a boost. Otherwise, so far so good.
 
I need to get my old ale into a secondary and check it's gravity now that it's been on fruit two weeks. Activity seems to have stopped finally, it went for a long time slowly when the fruit went in. I suspect it will take a little time to let everything settle out of this one.

I made the same mistake with the spices, added them as the heat was turned off. We'll see what it's like before bottling.
 
Like I mentioned, I’ll be offering my group a 1 of 3 option, if anyone is interested in my first Caramel Quad brew. It came in at 8.5%. Coming along nicely.
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Old ale is in secondary just to let it clear up a bit more. Not sure how I feel about it yet. Letting the gravity sample chill before I try it again. Good chance I'll be revising it and doing a version 2 just to make sure there's a version I'm happy sharing come the end of the year.
 
Old ale is in secondary here as well, racked off the fruit. My concerns about the spices were unwarranted...currently there is a great balance between the spice blend, fruitiness, and malty/bready body. Looking forward to trying it again in another month or so...I think this one is going to clear up beautifully in the keg without any fining necessary.
 
Brewed my saffron tripel yesterday. The 1.5 lbs of piloncillo really darkened the wort. Definitely won't have the coloring of a typical tripel. OG of 1.084.
 
I brewed the second rendition of the Juniper Rye Bock this weekend. I'm fermenting with 3470 at ale temps for an experiment. I hope to get more juniper that the last attempt. Next time I want to use some of the branches in the MT for lautering purposes. I'll let ya'll know how it is going when it goes into the keg. :D
 
Tasting the quad again today and it has cleared significantly in the refrigerator over the past few weeks. I'll brew round 2 soon but this gives me hope that I'm not as far off as I thought in terms of flavor balance. I'd like a darker color but it's rather tasty now.
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So . . . been a bit. My lambics are both still doing their thing. The pellicle is getting a bit thicker on each of them. I did a split batch, with half getting Gigayeast Sour Cherry Funk blend, and the other half getting Wyeast's lambic blend. The color difference is pretty stark. I have not tasted either yet (currently 4-5 months old). I was in Wisconsin this weekend and picked up New Glarus's Cran-Lambic (also Serendipity [apple, cherry, cranberry sour], Strawberry Rhubarb sour). Going to do some tastings and probably add some dregs to the fermentors.
 
Yeroc said:
Brewed my saffron tripel yesterday. The 1.5 lbs of piloncillo really darkened the wort. Definitely won't have the coloring of a typical tripel. OG of 1.084.
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Transferred to secondary yesterday and added 2 grams of saffron threads. I'm not sure how long to leave this in secondary on the saffron before bottling. I'll probably bottle a couple of weeks from now as time allows.
 
Bottled my Saffron Tripel for group #2 about two weeks ago and carbonated to a target of 3 volumes. Wow, that saffron is prominent. Anyone have experience using saffron in brewing? I'm wondering if it will mellow out with some time in the bottle. I didn't re-yeast at bottling so I figure I need to wait a few more weeks before sampling. Hoping that carbonation will help balance the saffron (maybe?).

Some status...
5/18/18 Brew Day.
6/12/18 Racked to secondary onto 2 grams saffron threads.
7/15/18 Bottled. That's 58-days since the brew day and 27-days since racking onto saffron.

OG: 1.083
FG: 1.010
ABV: 9.58%
 
Checking in again. Old Ale has been in bottles for a little while after some time bulk aging. Going to decide in the next week or two if I want to attempt a version 2.
 
I brewed the spiced dunkel wiezenbock for group 2 today. I had intended on doing it in April so it would have plenty of time to age, but life got in the way. I had my first brew day from hell doing it. I’ve been brewing for over a year and have had nothing but smooth brew days up until now.

First, while grinding my grains, the mill locked up and tossed itself over spilling a lot of grain. I got that cleaned up, reweighed grains, and soldiered on. Next, I ended up with about a gallon more water than I had anticipated, so I calculated how much longer the boil needed to be to compensate.

I brew outside under my carport, and during the boil a rain storm blew in and made it really difficult to hold boil temps steady. As a result I ended up with 6 gallons instead of the planned 5.5. The good news is my efficiency was greater than expected and my OG is 1.082 on the six gallons instead of 1.083 on 5.5 gallons.

She’s in the fermentation chamber now waiting for the yeast to do their job. I plan on kegging, force carbing, then bottling and aging until it’s one to ship out. This is one of the best tasting worts I’ve made to date. I’m really excited to see how this one comes out.
 
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I've been planning on trying a round 2 brew for the group 2 quad but, as others have said, life happened. I don't feel that I have the time at this point to plan/brew/age a new brew to have it be ready and good by Christmas.

I did save the first batch from February. My brew buddies all tell me it's quite good so I hope you'll all be okay with that. It's pictured in my previous posts.

It's tough to predict what will happen in a year when you commit to something like this which is why I'm glad I tried the first batch so early. I've got tons of boxes saved up and am looking forward to seeing the other brews get finished up.
 
BigCrazyAl said:
I've been planning on trying a round 2 brew for the group 2 quad but, as others have said, life happened. I don't feel that I have the time at this point to plan/brew/age a new brew to have it be ready and good by Christmas.

I did save the first batch from February. My brew buddies all tell me it's quite good so I hope you'll all be okay with that. It's pictured in my previous posts.

It's tough to predict what will happen in a year when you commit to something like this which is why I'm glad I tried the first batch so early. I've got tons of boxes saved up and am looking forward to seeing the other brews get finished up.
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I am sure it will be fine.
 
BigCrazyAl said:
I've been planning on trying a round 2 brew for the group 2 quad but, as others have said, life happened. I don't feel that I have the time at this point to plan/brew/age a new brew to have it be ready and good by Christmas.

I did save the first batch from February. My brew buddies all tell me it's quite good so I hope you'll all be okay with that. It's pictured in my previous posts.

It's tough to predict what will happen in a year when you commit to something like this which is why I'm glad I tried the first batch so early. I've got tons of boxes saved up and am looking forward to seeing the other brews get finished up.
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I’m looking forward to trying it. I decided to be a part of this to get me out of my box. I tend to stick to only German styled beers, because after all, I’m 3/4 German. And I also tend to stay with the things that are familiar to me. I’m really looking forward to all the new flavors in beer that I’ve never had.
 
I think i'm happy with the first batch. Tried two of the last bottles I filled (I always keep those to the side since there's usually some air bubbles going down the filler), and I like it. There's some interesting layers.

If I have time I might try a modified Version 2 based on another beer I've brewed in the past and see how it compares, but for now V1 passes for me.
 
Sorry I haven't posted sooner. I'm going to be -that- one and ask if anyone wants to sub in? This year has been busier than I expected. If no one wants to jump in I could probably get mine brewed in time but it would be extract.
 
Ok group 2, the stout is kegged and carbed after 4 months in my 5gal barrel and nearly 6 months since brew day. It's tasting great, lots of sweet chocolate and vanilla tones with a balanced bitterness and a thick mouthfeel.

At 11%abv it's a definite winter warmer. I'm a bit nervous to add the spices since it's tasting so good right now, but I'll experiment bit and see what works. I just need to get some all important bottle labels and we should be in good shape!
 
My second version of the Juniper Rye Bock kicked off some awful apple flavor. Now I have to change all of the keg lines and seals in the keg. I need to get brewing to be ready for Oct/Nov mailing it out. I think I have the base beer down pretty good, but it is getting the juniper into it that is the tricky part. I plan on going somewhere I know there is a lot of juniper and getting some bows for my mash tun. I also have a full pound of the LHBS berries. I know that should be enough LOL :mug:
 
Really enjoying reading about these brews! I think I will brew maybe 1-2 of these as extract for myself this Christmas (and friends and family too of course). Hoping I feel good enough about a few of these recipes to participate next year! :)
 
Found a source for crab apples: my LHBS. Or, rather, the tree growing behind my LHBS. I was picking up supplies for my Labor Day brew, and quasi-randomly asked if they knew of anywhere to get crabapples. I came back with some pruning shears and a bucket, and now I have 5 pounds of crabapples.

Support your LHBS!
 
Funny you mention that, @mirthfuldragon. I probably wouldn't have noticed the crab apple tree outside the post office yesterday if I hadn't read your post. That tree is loaded, too!

Anyway, I decided to woman up and follow through with this since no one has jumped at taking over for me. I've ordered the supplies, will get two batches brewed asap (fail-safe), and can keg carb if I need a "shortcut".

Has a ship date been established yet? I tried to read through the thread to catch up on things but might have overlooked that.
 
Zimm9 said:
Funny you mention that, @mirthfuldragon. I probably wouldn't have noticed the crab apple tree outside the post office yesterday if I hadn't read your post. That tree is loaded, too!

Anyway, I decided to woman up and follow through with this since no one has jumped at taking over for me. I've ordered the supplies, will get two batches brewed asap (fail-safe), and can keg carb if I need a "shortcut".

Has a ship date been established yet? I tried to read through the thread to catch up on things but might have overlooked that.
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In the past we've usually targeted the week after Thanksgiving to get all shipments out so everyone has all their shipments by Christmas at the latest.
 
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Group 1 Spiced Dunkel Weizenbock is all kegged up and ready to rest for 2 and a half months. Tastes great. OG was a little low @ 1.072, finished at 1.019 for right about 7% ABV. Tastes really nice, very interesting with all the flavors. Should be a fun beer to drink over the holidays and winter season. I think using the high quality spices really comes through in the finish. Excited for you all to try it.
 
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Cranapple lambic update: running out of time. So right now I have two fermentors: (a) has Sour Cherry Funk (100% brett blend) at terminal gravity. The other one is Wyeast lambic blend at 1.016 (down from 1.020 a month ago).

Next step is to rack ~4g of the Sour Cherry Funk and~1g of the lambic blend on to the crab apples. Not exactly what I wanted to do, but is what it is. That way I should have a terminal-gravity sour ready for shipping around December 1st.


I'm then going to mix the remainder of the sour cherry funk into the lambic fermentor, which will then turn into a foeder basically. Moral of the story: Christmas 2019s crabapple lambic is already underway.
 
I think my Christmas beer is going to be a Juniper Rye Kolsch. I lost track of time and don't have the time to do a proper Bock. Maybe a Juniper Rye Pale Ale. I know it is not to the list, but it will taste good I promise. :mug: :D
 
Okay group 2! Your Spiced Bourbon Stout is done!

I'm calling it Krampus: He Knows When You Are Sleeping, He Knows You've Not Been Nice

It sat in a 5gal Bourbon Barrel for 4 months so it is definitely a "bourbon stout". I'm not a huge spice fan but I added the spices anyway (that's the whole point right); the spices melded surprisingly well to my taste and having sampled some throughout the year, it's now tasting like one the best stouts I've ever had (but I think it's a love it or hate it kind of brew).

It's a rich, full bodied, slow holiday sipper that is perfect for those cold nights in front of the fireplace. In fact I may put this on rotation as a yearly brew, or maybe biyearly so I can share and age some of my own through the years. It's good stuff and it's gonna age great if you do want to put a bottle away for a while.

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Heck yeah I'm sure it's gonna be awesome! I won't be shipping mine till late Nov so another 2 months to age (almost). When and how are are supposed to share the address info? My first time doing this...
 

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