Secret Santa Reviews 2020!

[fury_tea]

@HalsteadMills @Pennine

These 2 were mine , I had a breakfast cereal theme for my xmas present beers this year, hence the labels. My idea was to brew a Shreddies wheat beer as well but life got in the way and having a heavily pregnant wife meant brewing time was not a priority in my household!

Secret Santa 2
Golden Grahams Stout 5.8%
View attachment 38487

Shame about the head retention issue you had on this one, I sent it to 6 people and nobody else had that problem, sorry about that! It didn't quite come out how I expected it to, the slight sourness you mention is a bit odd isn't it but it's not unenjoyable I don't think. It's not a session beer by any means but it's quite nice to sip one and it's a nice respite after the hop monsters I've been drinking recently. Thanks for the comments and happy new year!

I'm curious to hear what you think about the recipe? And if its posted somewhere?

View attachment 38706

Wow, glad you liked it, Pennine! Steve gave me a heads up about my SS being vegan. My wife's vegan so I often do vegan beers anyway. I very nearly sent you the Golden Grahams one above, but remembered last minute it has lactose in it, after letting the wife have a taste (oops). Shame that the first one I sent got broken though, hope it didn't ruin anyone else's Xmas presents! The recipe is quite simple:

19L batch
4.6kg Maris Otter Extra Pale
0.5kg Wheat malt
0.3kg Flaked oats
0.1kg Caramel 80

No bittering hops but at 80c I whirlpooled:
100g CTZ
100g El Dorado
100g Ekuanot

Then at day 3:
75g CTZ
75g El Dorado
150g Fuggles (this was supposed to be Ekuanot but I accidentally picked up the Fuggles bag. I only noticed when I was putting the bags back in the freezer. It works really well though I think, with a bit more interesting earthier and almost minty undertones from the Fuggles working with the dankness of the CTZ well in my opinion).

I really liked this beer, it's right up my street, it has gone down an absolute treat and I would 100% make it again even with the Fuggles mistake. It's up there with my favourite beers I didn't call it an NEIPA due to the Fuggles and the addition of caramel 80 which aren't in the style guidelines but I do agree it falls within the realms.
Glad you enjoyed it though and happy new year to you!

 

[Pennine]

@HalsteadMills @Pennine

These 2 were mine , I had a breakfast cereal theme for my xmas present beers this year, hence the labels. My idea was to brew a Shreddies wheat beer as well but life got in the way and having a heavily pregnant wife meant brewing time was not a priority in my household!



Shame about the head retention issue you had on this one, I sent it to 6 people and nobody else had that problem, sorry about that! It didn't quite come out how I expected it to, the slight sourness you mention is a bit odd isn't it but it's not unenjoyable I don't think. It's not a session beer by any means but it's quite nice to sip one and it's a nice respite after the hop monsters I've been drinking recently. Thanks for the comments and happy new year!



Wow, glad you liked it, Pennine! Steve gave me a heads up about my SS being vegan. My wife's vegan so I often do vegan beers anyway. I very nearly sent you the Golden Grahams one above, but remembered last minute it has lactose in it, after letting the wife have a taste (oops). Shame that the first one I sent got broken though, hope it didn't ruin anyone else's Xmas presents! The recipe is quite simple:

19L batch
4.6kg Maris Otter Extra Pale
0.5kg Wheat malt
0.3kg Flaked oats
0.1kg Caramel 80

No bittering hops but at 80c I whirlpooled:
100g CTZ
100g El Dorado
100g Ekuanot

Then at day 3:
75g CTZ
75g El Dorado
150g Fuggles (this was supposed to be Ekuanot but I accidentally picked up the Fuggles bag. I only noticed when I was putting the bags back in the freezer. It works really well though I think, with a bit more interesting earthier and almost minty undertones from the Fuggles working with the dankness of the CTZ well in my opinion).

I really liked this beer, it's right up my street, it has gone down an absolute treat and I would 100% make it again even with the Fuggles mistake. It's up there with my favourite beers I didn't call it an NEIPA due to the Fuggles and the addition of caramel 80 which aren't in the style guidelines but I do agree it falls within the realms.
Glad you enjoyed it though and happy new year to you!

Wow that's crazy it had that much fuggles in it, I did not expect that. I am not sure I have ever had a beer dry hopped with fuggles before? I only got a little bit of dank but was suspecting it was mosaic. In fact I was really thinking citra mosaic and galaxy. Eukanot is one of those amazing citrus hops that doesn't get as much credit as it should I think.
What yeast did you use?

and thanks for the vegan version!

 

[fury_tea]

Wow that's crazy it had that much fuggles in it, I did not expect that. I am not sure I have ever had a beer dry hopped with fuggles before? I only got a little bit of dank but was suspecting it was mosaic. In fact I was really thinking citra mosaic and galaxy. Eukanot is one of those amazing citrus hops that doesn't get as much credit as it should I think.
What yeast did you use?

and thanks for the vegan version!

You're welcome mate. Believe it or not it was just us-04, I fermented it at 19c.

Yeah I think Ekuanot is up there with my favourite hops.
Fuggles is not often used for dry hopping often due to low alpha acids and hop oils if I remember correctly. But I really think it brings something interesting to this beer.

 

[jceg316]

First secret Santa beer: forum brew.

Really nice roasty flavour with chocolate and coffee and some residual sweetness. It slipped down very easily and was very pleasant. Thank you secret Santa!

 

[jceg316]

View attachment 38248
Well thank you very much to whoever gifted me this one - very unusual...

A small bottle, anonymous except for a letter 'S' on the cap. I thought I'd use my special 'half pint' glass ;-)
Good hiss when I uncapped it, and a decent head on first pour.
Hazy, golden appearance with a slightly bready aroma.
At the first sip it immediately becomes clear that 'S' stands for 'sour': in-your-face grapefruit with a slightly salty mineral aftertaste.

Thanks for the opportunity to try a style I normally wouldn't drink

Sour beer 4.9%
Good psst on opening, good carbonation on pouring. On style sour beer. Thank you Santa

Thanks for the kind words. These were mine. @The-Engineer-That-Brews I did label a bottle but then packed up the wrong one .

Hope you both enjoyed!

 

[jceg316]

Onto my second. An imperial IPA. Really nice! West coast style, nice grapefruit and citrus flavours with malt flavours coming through. Complex and really enjoyable. Thanks for this.

 

[Cowman]

View attachment 38775
Onto my second. An imperial IPA. Really nice! West coast style, nice grapefruit and citrus flavours with malt flavours coming through. Complex and really enjoyable. Thanks for this.

I'm glad you enjoyed it. This one was mine

 

[SamBrewster]

View attachment 38750
First secret Santa beer: forum brew.

Really nice roasty flavour with chocolate and coffee and some residual sweetness. It slipped down very easily and was very pleasant. Thank you secret Santa!

This was mine, certainly easy drinking, you're welcome

 

[strange-steve]

Just a final reminder incase there are still some outstanding reviews, please do them ASAP. Tomorrow evening I'm going to post the full list of swaps so we can wrap this up for another year.

 

[strange-steve]

OK we've had more than 10 days drinking time now which should be more than enough so hopefully all the reviews are in. Below I've attached the full list of swaps for your perusal.

This has probably been the smoothest swap so far with only a couple of breakages and only 1 late beer so thanks for being on the ball. This was my fourth and final Secret Santa Swap so I'm pleased it went painlessly, but now I'm ready to pass the baton onto another willing volunteer for 2021 :hat:

Thanks to all who got involved over the last few years and special thanks to @DocAnna who designed the Secret Santa label, to @pilgrimhudd for agreeing to a last minute swap, to @Alastair70 and @fury_tea for sending replacements for the breakages, and to all those who volunteered as backups, I appreciate all your help.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

OK we've had more than 10 days drinking time now which should be more than enough so hopefully all the reviews are in. Below I've attached the full list of swaps for your perusal.

This has probably been the smoothest swap so far with only a couple of breakages and only 1 late beer so thanks for being on the ball. This was my fourth and final Secret Santa Swap so I'm pleased it went painlessly, but now I'm ready to pass the baton onto another willing volunteer for 2021 :hat:

Thanks to all who got involved over the last few years and special thanks to @DocAnna who designed the Secret Santa label, to @pilgrimhudd for agreeing to a last minute swap, to @Alastair70 and @fury_tea for sending replacements for the breakages, and to all those who volunteered as backups, I appreciate all your help.

Thanks to you Steve for putting in the time and organisation, and for keeping us all in line!

 

[Pennine]

Thanks to you Steve for putting in the time and organisation, and for keeping us all in line!

Seconded!

 

[Oneflewover]

Seconded!

Thirded!

 

[SamBrewster]

Thanks Steve, really enjoyed this again

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Top work Steve - done like a pro

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

done like a pro

That reminds me, many years ago I used to fly model aircraft and we had inter-club competitions. In my very first year (I was still only learning at that stage) they talked me into being the competition organiser and I let them! That was the worst organised competition ever held. They learned a lesson and so did I!

 

[Cwrw666]

Thanks to you Steve for putting in the time and organisation, and for keeping us all in line!

Ditto from me.

 

[Clint]

Yeah it's been a great thing to be involved with!
Thanks

 

[pilgrimhudd]

Cheers steve for organising it so well, it's been great!

 

[Alastair70]

Hugely entertaining and great fun to be part of. Thanks Steve