12 Beers of Christmas 2020 Edition

[TwistedGray]

I'm going to go with the Abbey this year because I know I'll do it justice. East or West doesn't matter; I ship via pony express.

 

[ThirstyPawsHB]

Test run of the Spiced Dunkel Weizen. Middle boy can make damn good quickie margaritas.

 

[TBC]

Quick Update: Group 1 (East Coast) is full.

There are still a few openings left in group 2.

 

[gunhaus]

I'll take the stout in group 2

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

I'm now a member, hopefully this takes care of things.

Welcome aboard! Nice to have another woman around.

 

[imasickboy]

I'll take an east coast alternate slot should anyone drop out, because I'm too floccing slow to join, yet again.

 

[jerbrew]

Alright here we go!

Here's the general concept:
12 different brewers will brew one of the 12 beers of Christmas found in Randy's Mosher's Radical Brewing.
Each brewer sends out three 12oz bottles of their beer to the 11 other brewers (33 bottles sent out in total) and receives 3 bottles of each recipe in return. Maybe you drink one, share one, and age the third!?
Some of these are fairly big beers, and need some time and aging to be optimal, so planning and brewing early can be critical. If you're bottle conditioning, be ready to bottle in time, etc. Also, one of the beers (Juniper Rye Bock) is a lager, so a brewer with a lagering fridge will be needed for that one.

Shipping:
It will cost you some money to send out 11 packages! Getting involved in this project means you'll eventually need to wrap up 11 packages with 3 beers each, and mail them potentially all the way across the country from where you live. You may be looking at about $120 in shipping give or take (but you're getting 33 fancy Christmas beers!).
With this in mind, it has been historically a necessity to require that all brewers will need to be located inside the continental U.S.
If you can accept packages at a business address, that will save your fellow brewers some money. (For some reason, the big shippers charge less to deliver to a business address...)
Speaking of the big shippers, generally if you show up at UPS or FedEx with a well packed, sealed box, they don't ask questions. Legally you aren't allowed to ship alcohol via USPS, but in prior years some participants have shipped using Flat Rate boxes from the post office, and haven't had any issues, but this is by no means an endorsement of such an action.
Shipping will need to occur approximately the week after Thanksgiving.
For reference: In 2012, @biochemedic posted some (admittedly perhaps overkill) instructions for packaging a 12 oz longneck for shipping, and also a post with some common box sizes that work well for shipping 3 wrapped/bagged longnecks.

Please have your beers ready to ship by Thanksgiving 2020! So plan accordingly depending on the beer you end up brewing. Some take much longer than others.

Choosing What You Want to Brew:
We'll use the same system as previous years: first come first served (with the noted restrictions below...)
Reply to this thread if you're interested and let us know which beer you want to brew and which group (East coast or West coast) As beers are claimed, I will update the thread with the brewer's name next to their selection.

How to not be a d*u$hb@g:
As much as it pains me to post this part, the simple fact is that, every single year this project has been run, there has been at least one brewer who has simply up and vanished, and at times has been shipped homebrew in good faith before their disappearance has become apparent.

Based on this, I wish to request that all participants be either relatively established HBT members (more than a year since joining) *or* be a paid (Supporting or Lifetime) member, *or*, have successfully participated in the previous year.

Communicate! If for some reason you have to back out, own up to it ASAP, and hopefully allow a replacement brewer to step in. Please do not disappear for a few months and then come back saying 2020 was busy and you can't participate and now it's too late for anyone to take your place. Think AHEAD of time whether you can put in the work to execute this amazing exchange.

We will attempt to fill 2 groups this year based on the increased participation in this thread. Please note your shipping preference - east or west coast.

2011
2012
2013
2014 (didn't happen)
2015 (didn't happen)
2016
2017
2018
2019


Here is the list of Beers:

GROUP 1 (East Coast)

1) Caramel Quadrupel @passedpawn
2) Spiced Cherry Dubbel @CaddyWampus
3) Spiced Dunkel Weizenbock @PianoMan
4) Juniper Rye Bock @jack13
5) Fruitcake Old Ale. @Hoppy2bmerry
6) Saffron Tripel @HopHeavy
7) Christmas Gruit @j1laskey
8) Honey Ginger IPA @CarLock Brewing
9) Crabapple Lambicky Ale @TBC
10) Gingerbread Ale @satph
11) Spiced Bourbon Stout @wstbrewing
12) Abbey Weizen @fourfarthing


GROUP 2 (West Coast)

1) Caramel Quadrupel
2) Spiced Cherry Dubbel
3) Spiced Dunkel Weizenbock @grampamark
4) Juniper Rye Bock
5) Fruitcake Old Ale @Yeroc
6) Saffron Tripel
7) Christmas Gruit
8) Honey Ginger IPA
9) Crabapple Lambicky Ale
10) Gingerbread Ale
11) Spiced Bourbon Stout @gunhaus
12) Abbey Weizen @TwistedGray

May I please take the caramel quad if not already accounted for? West coast, of course.

If it is my preference is as follows:
Caramel quad
Spiced cherry dubbel
Saffron tripple


Thanks

 

[TBC]

May I please take the caramel quad if not already accounted for? West coast, of course.

If it is my preference is as follows:
Caramel quad
Spiced cherry dubbel
Saffron tripple


Thanks

Done, It’s yours!

 

[ThirstyPawsHB]

I can go West Coast..@TBC and I'll brew anything left in the WC group. But if the previous post is correct, I'll take the Saffron Tripple.

I'll take an east coast alternate slot should anyone drop out, because I'm too floccing slow to join, yet again.

 

[TBC]

I can go West Coast..@TBC and I'll brew anything left in the WC group. But if the previous post is correct, I'll take the Saffron Tripple.

Taken care of of this.

 

[TBC]

I'll take an east coast alternate slot should anyone drop out, because I'm too floccing slow to join, yet again.

Your in buddy. @PianoMan moved to the west coast group. You have the Spiced Dunkel Weizenbock.

 

[imasickboy]

Your in buddy. @PianoMan moved to the west coast group. You have the Spiced Dunkel Weizenbock.

I'm super happy to have that beer, too!

 

[yoop89]

Any chance I could get the Christmas Gruit for the West Coast? Haven't done any trading on here but have shipped beer to friends.

 

[passedpawn]

I'm going to pick up my ingredients this wkend and brew next.

Last time I did this event, my cherry dubbel had too many cherries and ended up tart. I had to rebrew. Glad I brewed early that time, so doing it again. Worst case, it ages in bottle for a year.

Also, brewing this time of year means I can have it on tap while the weather is still cold (though it's in the 80's today, gah). I'm going to brew up a 10g batch.

 

[user 263363]

I'm going to pick up my ingredients this wkend and brew next.

Last time I did this event, my cherry dubbel had too many cherries and ended up tart. I had to rebrew. Glad I brewed early that time, so doing it again. Worst case, it ages in bottle for a year.

Also, brewing this time of year means I can have it on tap while the weather is still cold (though it's in the 80's today, gah). I'm going to brew up a 10g batch.

I will be doing the same this weekend. Brewing a dubbel to test for the cherry beer. I might split the batch to do half with cherries and half without to both get a baseline and test the cherries.

 

[passedpawn]

I will be doing the same this weekend. Brewing a dubbel to test for the cherry beer. I might split the batch to do half with cherries and half without to both get a baseline and test the cherries.

The "without" version I made was super awesome! In truth, the cherries ruined it, for both early and delivered batches. I hate to tell you that, but if you can make a batch for yourself, don't add cherries!

 

[TwistedGray]

The "without" version I made was super awesome! In truth, the cherries ruined it, for both early and delivered batches. I hate to tell you that, but if you can make a batch for yourself, don't add cherries!

What about reducing contact time?

 

[HopHeavy]

Same feeling about anise in my stout back in 2017. The plain version was much more enjoyable... I leaned hard on the idea that Randy made us do it.

 

[passedpawn]

What about reducing contact time?

Less cherries is best. I went overboard and ended up feeding my back lawn with it.

 

[Auger]

Less cherries is best. I went overboard and ended up feeding my back lawn with it.

I just brewed a Belgian dubbel and set aside 3 gal to do on tart cherries. I saved your recipe from the swap a few years ago as my baseline. For the three gal, I used four cans of tart cherries in juice, which really didn't do too much. I ended up adding another 24oz of cheribundi tart cherry juice as well. I'm bottle conditioning now, the gravity sample was pretty good. Subtle cherry flavor without being cloyingly sweet or overpowering...I'm hoping the bottle conditioning will help add a bit more yeast character and aroma as well and I think it will come together well.

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

While we are talking recipes, if I were to brew the spiced weizenbock again I would use just a little more of the spices, subdued is nice but just a bit more would say holiday beer. Perhaps if your spices are ultra fresh or freshly ground it would be enough.

 

[Yeroc]

I just brewed a Belgian dubbel and set aside 3 gal to do on tart cherries. I saved your recipe from the swap a few years ago as my baseline. For the three gal, I used four cans of tart cherries in juice, which really didn't do too much. I ended up adding another 24oz of cheribundi tart cherry juice as well. I'm bottle conditioning now, the gravity sample was pretty good. Subtle cherry flavor without being cloyingly sweet or overpowering...I'm hoping the bottle conditioning will help add a bit more yeast character and aroma as well and I think it will come together well.

For my 2019 Dubbel, I used 6lbs 8oz sour cherries and 8 lbs Trader Joe's dark cherries for a 5 gallon batch. While I liked the perception of the cherry flavor, I was disappointed to lose some of maltiness I was hoping for. If I was to brew it again, I might try adjusting the grain bill for more malt flavor in the end rather than reducing the cherries.

 

[imasickboy]

While we are talking recipes, if I were to brew the spiced weizenbock again I would use just a little more of the spices, subdued is nice but just a bit more would say holiday beer. Perhaps if your spices are ultra fresh or freshly ground it would be enough.

Good to know! I'll keep that in mind for mine.

 

[passedpawn]

I just brewed a Belgian dubbel and set aside 3 gal to do on tart cherries. I saved your recipe from the swap a few years ago as my baseline. For the three gal, I used four cans of tart cherries in juice, which really didn't do too much. I ended up adding another 24oz of cheribundi tart cherry juice as well. I'm bottle conditioning now, the gravity sample was pretty good. Subtle cherry flavor without being cloyingly sweet or overpowering...I'm hoping the bottle conditioning will help add a bit more yeast character and aroma as well and I think it will come together well.

I just checked my notes for Batch #1. For a 5g batch, I used 14.5# of Oregon-brand tart (Montmercy) cherries. The gravity of the beer BEFORE adding the cherries was 1.058, and I estimated the cherries would add 10 additional points. Although this was my target gravity, I thought it was too low for the style. Final gravity was 1.008, and it was pretty tart.

Batch #2, again 5g, came in at 1.095 before adding cherries. Instead of cherries, I added 32 oz. pure black sweet cherry juice (not tart). Final gravity was 1.019 (abv = 10.5%). "Cherry juice is just right. I can taste it, but it is not powerful. Beer seems extremely spicy due to, presumably, the high alcohol". I have another note that says "not cloying", though I would prefer to shave several points off that final gravity - seems a little high. I'd suggest shooting for somewhere in between, perhaps around 8% final ABV.

A pic of Batch #1, still in fermentor, and the result of #2.

 

[passedpawn]

BTW, here's a pic of the 12BOC lineup from that year (2017). Pretty sweet group there!

 

[fourfarthing]

I just checked my notes for Batch #1. For a 5g batch, I used 14.5# of Oregon-brand tart (Montmercy) cherries. The gravity of the beer BEFORE adding the cherries was 1.058, and I estimated the cherries would add 10 additional points. Although this was my target gravity, I thought it was too low for the style. Final gravity was 1.008, and it was pretty tart.

Batch #2, again 5g, came in at 1.095 before adding cherries. Instead of cherries, I added 32 oz. pure black sweet cherry juice (not tart). Final gravity was 1.019 (abv = 10.5%). "Cherry juice is just right. I can taste it, but it is not powerful. Beer seems extremely spicy due to, presumably, the high alcohol". I have another note that says "not cloying", though I would prefer to shave several points off that final gravity - seems a little high. I'd suggest shooting for somewhere in between, perhaps around 8% final ABV.

A pic of Batch #1, still in fermentor, and the result of #2.
View attachment 661372View attachment 661373

I used 4# Rainier and 1# Sour cherries in 4 gallons of Dubbel this year. I would add some caramel malt to get residual sweetness if I did it again and more sweet cherries.

 

[user 263363]

Some great tips with the last few posts! Since we are talking recipes, has everyone that has done the dubbel previously used Mosher’s recipe?

It sounds good but I’ve got 5lbs of dark candi syrup that is itching to be used. Some is ear marked for my westvleteren clone but I feel like a dubbel might be a good use for it.

 

[ThirstyPawsHB]

I've made several Cherry Quads. I prefer Tart cherries over sweet. Seemed to give it a lambic sense. My $.02

 

[imasickboy]

When it comes to cherries, I prefer a 50/50 split between sour and sweet. My $.02

Enough of these opinions, and someone might be able to buy a gumball.

 

[fourfarthing]

Some great tips with the last few posts! Since we are talking recipes, has everyone that has done the dubbel previously used Mosher’s recipe?

It sounds good but I’ve got 5lbs of dark candi syrup that is itching to be used. Some is ear marked for my westvleteren clone but I feel like a dubbel might be a good use for it.

I think I based off of JZ’s