Caramel Belgian Quad 12 Beers of Xmas from @j1laskey. Smooth and delicious. Thankfully my kids are older cause this will probably kick my arse and I wouldn’t be able to build anything later!
This time of year makes a great reason to drink the beer left to age. Enjoyed a HB Barley Wine I bottled on 23 April 2020 with the Bacon Boulangère my wife made for Christmas Lunch/Dinner. The Barley Wine is 11kg Maris Otter and 2kg Carapils. Hopped with Apollo for 99 IBU. WLP-099 Yeast. OG 1.103 and FG 1.016. Ended-up at 11.6% ABV. Not sure if the remaining three bottles will make it past 2023.
Drinking my Chocolate Cherry Imperial Milk Stout. Despite having the longest name ever, and being a semi-successful first attempt, it's actually good. The brewday had its difficulties, which were lessons learned. Also, in hindsight, I should have used tart cherries instead of sweet as you can barely taste them. They seem to come out more with aging somehow.
7.0kg Simpsons Maris Otter
0.5kg Warminster Crystal
0.5kg Warminster Flaked Malted Oats
0.5kg Weyermann Melanoidin Malt
0.3kg Warminster Chocolate
0.2kg Warminster Roasted Barley
0.1kg Weyermann Carafa Special 3
0.5kg Lactose sugar
570g of Dr. Oetkers (=cheap) cocoa powder in the boil. This was waaaaay too much and ended-up as sludge in the FV and I lost some packaging efficiency. I thought the three containers said 100g and I had my glasses off. My mistake.
1.2kg Frozen dark sweet cherries thawed and mashed in the FV, in a nylon bag.
100g of Fuggles for bittering at 33 IBU. Safale S-04 yeast. OG: 1.090 (assuming 1.093 w/cherries) and FG: 1.025. ABV of 8.9%.
Ended-up with 36 500ml bottles. Bottled 3 February 2021 and have six more aging after this one.
The dregs of a Robust Vanilla Oatmeal Porter after kegging half and bottling the rest. OYL-405 running through a dark wort is interesting to say the least. Super pleased with how it turned out. Merry Christmas, you filthy animals. And a happy New Year