Secret Santa 2013

[Kinleycat]

Hello swappers!! :
I will be adding joining instructions over the next couple of days for the Secret Santa swapping event. Hopefully we will have a couple of nice festive twists to make it stand out a little from the summer swap.
The summer swap was great fun and all of us in the Secret Santa team hope you will join in.th fun again and encourage others into the shady world of swapping!! :whistle:
KC :thumb:

 

[bobsbeer]

Well done KC :thumb:

 

[RobWalker]

how much does it cost to send a bottle of wine? I've got some cool wine here, would be nice to do a swapsie!

 

[brianaiton]

How does this secret Santa work? ie how do u get the address, who can join, is there a minimum or maximum gift?

 

[nobyipa]

Yup Summer Swap was great fun thanks
I will be entering probably have two ready by December

 

[rpt]

How does this secret Santa work? ie how do u get the address, who can join, is there a minimum or maximum gift?

If it's like the summer swap then you send an email and get sent the address of someone to send a bottle of beer to.

 

[Crastney]

I sent a 750ml wine bottle to Belfast, postage cost was £10.
I re-used a blow up plastic bottle holder, in a cardboard box, which had been sent to me in last years Secret Santa, and I know that the Belfast person re-used the packaging and sent it on for his summer swap.

 

[alanywiseman.]

How does this secret Santa work? ie how do u get the address, who can join, is there a minimum or maximum gift?

When we are ready a thread will be started with an email address where you send your name, address and propossed brew you are going to swap. It is also helpful if you indicate allergies and possible allergic reaction producing ingredients in the brew. Once the entry time perieod is over you will recieve and email from the Bottle Swap Team with an address to post your brew to within the designated window. Someone will have sent you one which you will then crack open when ready and consume not forgetting to post a pic of the brew and a wee review of in in the results thread.

This will all get explained in more detail when we start the swap. It is a bit of fun and well worth joining in on. For the summer one we had Kit to AG brews in the beer swap, Country to Juice wines in the wine swap. So dont be shy, get involved :thumb:

With regards to postage, I would try and post a 500ml or 330ml plastic bottle for both the wine and beer swap as this will reduce postage. So it cost me about £2.50 for a 500ml plastic bottle in half a poster tube with a bt of bubble wrap for padding.

 

[alanywiseman.]

Hi Guys,

trying to see if there will be enough interest for a cider swap as well as a wine swap so please go HERE and let me know what you are interestested in swapping

 

[Kinleycat]

Joining instructions will be added in the next 24 hours!!
KC :thumb:

 

[stevie1556]

I'm in (if I can get my brewing equipment back from my old house in time).

The summer swap was great fun!

 

[Kinleycat]

Here we go:




Ho Ho Ho festive swappers!!!
Here you will find everythingl you need to know about the wine Secret Santa 2013.


JOINING INSTRUCTIONS.
All swappers registrations MUST be sent to the following e-mail address:
[email protected]
between the 1st and 10th October 2013. You will need to supply the following few bits of info:
Please title all emails with THBF Secret Santa, this will aid admin filter any spam.
1. Your forum name & any allergens we might need to be be aware of.
2. Real name (not compulsory, although you may get an odd look from the mail man or courier delivering your bottle) and address and post code - please when submitting this do so in the following manner:
Dave Brown
6 Brown Street
Brownford
Brownfordshire
BR1 1BR
This helps to simplify the copy and pasting aspect for admin.
And finally if pos' a mobile or landline number, again not compulsory, but it could help out if you incur a postal problem.DATA PROTECTION INFO, all personal details will be destroyed after each swap, no personal details will be used for any other purpose other than the swap
3. Group you are swapping (i.e white, red, rose etc)
4. Swap name/style (i.e KCs rough red :lol: :lol: )
5. Any weird or wonderful (or potentialy harmful) ingredients.
(If you can keep to this order it will aid the admin guys, as they can copy and paste your details and save them a bit of typing time)
The message here is keep it simple.
You will be then issued with a ticket number by return e-mail- so you know (when feedback is given after the swap) who's talking about your beer!! (don't worry we will keep records if you lose them :whistle: )

POSTAL INSTRUCTIONS.
You will be emailed another swappers name and postal details between the (23rd November & 7th December) Please try and post as soon as possible and no later than the 7th so to avoid the madness that is the christmas mail.
Postage - Personally i would send in a 500ml plastic to reduce risk of breakage and lower cost, but that is only a recommendation.
Labeling - Firstly please put your ticket number on your beer label then only list style, abv and a name for it (nothing that can identify the brew to the brewer though, remember this is tip top secret!!!) and any allergic properties (as a back up, if you have submitted any allergen advice in your joining details our admin will try to ensure that you do not receive harmful beer) but adding this on the labelling will add a second tier of safety.

This year to aid and test (& perhaps even surprise) our tasting skills, brewers are asked to include a sealed letter outlining further brewing information such as AG or Kit, any hops or special processes, make it as fun and informative as you can.

DRINKING.
Like you lot need any advice on this!!!! :lol: :lol: :lol: :drunk:
One thing that struck me in summer swap was tasters eagerness to sample their delivery.
For Secret Santa we are giving you a drinking period that should with the posting period allow for a longer settling period (too many period - my bad!!).
This time it's either Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Years Eve or New Years Day.
As ever photos would be greatl appreciated and encouraged (the more the merrier!!) and terrible christmas jumpers and paper hats are compulsory!!

FEEDBACK.
After the 1st January "encouraging tasting feedback" can be left on the thread, please supply a ticket number with your feedback.

REMEMBER this is supposed to be a bit of fun and a way of encouraging fellow brewers and people into brewing, ultra critical notes from an uber-AGbrewer to a novice kit brewer would be harmful and i will ask for Mods to remove them. I'm sure you all understand.

That's it for now, please leave any feedback you can; we want to continue to improve the swap events and we can only do that by making sure we get things right, and that comes from the feedback.

Occasional updates will be left ad hoc, so bookmark us!!

KC :thumb:

 

[bobsbeer]

Great. Count me in. :thumb:

 

[godfrey]

my biggest concern is giving feedback

I am not much good at that part,
perhaps SWMBO will be better than me :hmm:

 

[Boatbrewer]

Fantastic!

Cant wait.

 

[Kinleycat]

:electric: Bump.

 

[Brewtus]

So what about the beer secret santa??

 

[morethanworts]

So what about the beer secret santa??

Here! (Click)

 

[kate]

I would like to take part but I'm not sure if anything will be ready......

I moved my cider yesterday to clear before bottling, this is from a kit though, so does that count?

I have a DJ of pineapple and red grape wine that I started 2 weeks ago.

5 gallons of apple wine, started about 5 weeks ago but the fermenting is going slowly on this one.

Turbo cider started yesterday.

Do you think any of these would be ready or am I best to wait for the summer swap?!

 

[alanywiseman.]

I would like to take part but I'm not sure if anything will be ready......

I moved my cider yesterday to clear before bottling, this is from a kit though, so does that count?

I have a DJ of pineapple and red grape wine that I started 2 weeks ago.

5 gallons of apple wine, started about 5 weeks ago but the fermenting is going slowly on this one.

Turbo cider started yesterday.

Do you think any of these would be ready or am I best to wait for the summer swap?!

Kits are great ; ) It is for everyone to get involved. Your kit cider will be ready for sure but you may need to wait till the summer for your wine.