Secret Santa Reviews 2020!

[ChrisT685]

Second up was a Belgian Pale at 5.5% which again was beautifully carbed and the head clung to the glass all the way down to the last mouthful.

Not a style I've done (still learning really!) but really think I need to add this to my list. I enjoyed it very very much and wanted more after it was done. Thank you Santa for this great beer !!

 

[samale]

Second up was a Belgian Pale at 5.5% which again was beautifully carbed and the head clung to the glass all the way down to the last mouthful.

Not a style I've done (still learning really!) but really think I need to add this to my list. I enjoyed it very very much and wanted more after it was done. Thank you Santa for this great beer !!

This was my beer, really happy you enjoyed. Wasn't to sure what to send you over.
Merry Christmas

 

[strange-steve]

This can't be the same beer that i tasted on the Thursday, just before you sent out the Santa swap addresses ha hah.

This one belongs to me, I made it from grains and hops that I wanted used up.
I used Maris otter, wheat malt, porridge oats, special b and rice hulls, hops were Summit for bittering and Amarillo, Citra, Magnum, for aroma also lactose and mangos.

We all know how hard you work on getting all the Secret Santa swaps, you also know who your receiving from.
I thought sending this would be a total mystery for you.

I am my own worst critic when it comes to my beers, I only decided to send it to you when I sampled another bottle a few days later, which was too late for the secret Santa.
I am glad you enjoyed it, my son also said its one of my best beers that i have made.

Thanks again for sending it, I really enjoyed it. Presumably the unusual earthy, slight funk I tasted was from the mango, which is interesting

 

[xozzx]

Santa Breaks Quarantine - 4.8% Munich Dunkel.

Not a style I'm familiar with. Decent fizz when opened, nice colour and good clarity, tho the head disappeared very quickly after pouring.

Slight pleasant malty smell.
Tasted good, slightly over carbed but not so much to ruin it. Easy drinking pleasant beer - thanks santa. Might add this style to my to brew list.

 

[strange-steve]

I haven't been counting the reviews this year but I suspect there are still quite a few to come in. I still have one bottle to review but after Christmas day, honestly the thought of alcohol is still making me gag a little, but I promise I'll get it reviewed by the end of the month Who would have thought a pint of 16% stout was too much?

 

[big yogi]

Thanks again for sending it, I really enjoyed it. Presumably the unusual earthy, slight funk I tasted was from the mango, which is interesting

It was 6.8% ipa
I did put a label on the Pringles box, you must of not noticed ha hah

 

[Clint]

As the bottle says! Carbonation spot on for the style and leaves a thin,lacy head.
It's a little cold straight from the shed but it's got that classic English bitter aroma...and taste. I'd agree with however said,it's a style that's difficult to get just right!This is just right! It's got "that" certain flavour even "tang" I look for in a decent bitter...I'd more than happy to get this served to me in a pub!
Very enjoyable after a few hours down the allotment and then out walking the dogs...I've got yesterday's planned roast on the go...things went a bit wrong yesterday... I got hammered! So,dinners cooking,beers on the go...all is good!
A great beer, thanks for sharing...I might just follow this up with the other you kindly sent...

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

The first received of my two Secret Santa beers is this 6.8% Oatmeal Stout “El Capitan”.

The first thing to acknowledge is the presentation - very nice.

When I cracked the cap I was rewarded with a healthy psst and no foaming. Inside the cap and the neck of the bottle is a thin coating of yeast and oatmeal residue so perhaps conditioned inverted?

The dark brown, almost black, beer poured well forming a pale tan coloured head which settled a little over a couple of minutes and then stuck around. I can see by holding the beer up to the light than it’s perfectly clear.

From the aroma the beer is still a little young. Coffee is prominent with a raisin sweetness. There’s also some dark malt and maybe a hint of molasses.

The flavour is very nicely balanced despite the youthful aroma. Coffee and chocolate, dark caramel malt, a hint of raisins and warm smoke on the finish. No raw alcohol flavours at all, really smooth.

Far too soon, I’m sorry to say my glass is now empty but I really enjoyed this beer. It’s one to relax with in front of the fire and in the company of good friends. Great job!

 

[andyb13]

English pale ale, 5%.
Nice pssst when the bottle was opened. Not a big head but good life in the beer. Nice taste, easy drinking. It got moreish as I went down the pint and by the end I wanted another one of these, It was a good English ale. Luckily the brewer provided the recipe so I'll be looking to brew one of these next year. Thank you Santa for a good beer. Ps the card came with the beer

 

[Clint]

Next from the same sender as my previous beer..another bitter.
Again carbonation is spot on but this one is very different from the first. To me it's leaning more towards a pale ale..and it doesn't have "that" bitter taste... possibly from the yeast?
It is however a very tasty,easy drinking beer,a great contrast to the other,and to me really confirms the first as a more traditional bitter.
Thin lacy head retention and wonderfully clear another pint I'd happily pay for!
Thanks for sharing two lovely beers!!

 

[andyb13]

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

 

[Clint]

English pale ale, 5%.
Nice pssst when the bottle was opened. Not a big head but good life in the beer. Nice taste, easy drinking. It got moreish as I went down the pint and by the end I wanted another one of these, It was a good English ale. Luckily the brewer provided the recipe so I'll be looking to brew one of these next year. Thank you Santa for a good beer. Ps the card came with the beer

Phew! That's off me mate...glad you liked it! It's actually #3 of my Tribute clone...just a few more tweaks!! You're not the only one subjected to it so I've got plenty of feedback!
Thanks for the kind review!

 

[andyb13]

Rigging was mine, glad you liked it and thanks for the nice feedback. Merry Christmas.

 

[andyb13]

Rigging was mine, glad you liked it and thanks for the nice feedback. Merry Christmas.

 

[SamBrewster]

Secret Santa 1 sent me two
Table Beer 3% IPA
Lots of fizz on opening and pouring. Nice hoppy aroma which matched the taste - fruity hops - citra maybe? The high carbonation works to hide the low alcohol and I can imagine drinking this by the gallon on a sunny day

The second 5% West Coast IPA
Much lower levels of fizz and fruity hop flavour to this one. Very different to the first and equally as nice. As I write this note it is disappearing fast and my head knows it is stronger

Thanks Santa, the beers are great and I have enjoyed drinking them

 

[Ajhutch]

My second secret Santa beer is Stay At Home Irish Stout coming in at 4.7%

Light hiss on opening, gave it a fairly vigorous pour and got a low tan head, became a ring of bubbles fairly quickly.

Aroma is pretty complex, some chocolate upfront and burnt coffee following. I wonder if I got a tiny hint of smoked malt in there? But that could be roast character that I’m getting wrong.

It pretty highly carbonated which rounds out the mouthfeel nicely, underneath the carbonation I would probably like a little more body in a stout but it’s pretty true to the style so all good there.

The roast is less prominent in the flavour and takes a backseat to a really rich chocolate flavour and a little sweetness on the finish.

I probably poured this beer a little cold, straight from the fridge. After about 15 minutes it rounded into a more complex and interesting beer and the high carbonation had dropped off a little bit.

I think the recipe here is spot on. If the head stuck around a little longer and the carbonation was slightly lower I would score it very highly indeed. As it was, a really enjoyable afternoon beer after a walk in the park. Thanks Santa!

 

[Ajhutch]

View attachment 38395

Santa Breaks Quarantine - 4.8% Munich Dunkel.

Not a style I'm familiar with. Decent fizz when opened, nice colour and good clarity, tho the head disappeared very quickly after pouring.

Slight pleasant malty smell.
Tasted good, slightly over carbed but not so much to ruin it. Easy drinking pleasant beer - thanks santa. Might add this style to my to brew list.

This one is mine, also received by @DavidHatton. The head retention is a fairly major flaw. Looking at my notes, the beer is visually quite a bit darker than I calculated it so I think I took too much alkalinity out of the water and probably had a low mash pH. I don’t measure mash pH, I rely on precalculated numbers. Either the malt is a little darker than advertised or I made a mistake. I know where my money is! Otherwise I’m fairly happy with it, and it’s been a nice beer to have around at Christmas.

 

[DocAnna]

Time for my second secret Santa review which was the Chocolate Stout at a whopping 8.4% which I enjoyed last night after coming home from work. So first thing I should probably admit I'm not normally a stout drinker, having been scarred many years ago in Student life from thinking it was smart to drink Guiness and it causing heart burn. So in that context this rather lovely brew was a bit of a revelation.

I do like to try beers over different temperature ranges since the flavour can change a great deal from fridge 5 deg to room temperature, and given that I took a good hour and a half over this beer I had the chance to try it over the whole range.

Pouring this is a rich dark chocolate almost black dense beer with a relatively short lived coffee brown head.
Aroma was rich earthy becoming malty as it warmed
Tasted cold to cool there's a good bitterness from mid to late taste that balances the heft of the classic stout malt flavour. Similarly at the cool to about 13 deg there's a light creamy start before, wham, the huge malt and bitter chocolate taste lands, ending in bitterness balanced with sweetness left from the malt.
Once warmer nearing room temperature the dark malt flavours felt like they overwhelmed the bitterness and more subtle notes, becoming almost chewable as a gutsy heft of malt.

As for the 8.4%, well after not having eaten anything over the day due to how busy the hospital was, I made sure to have this over the course of a meal which it worked well with, I wouldn't have guessed it was that strong.

Overall, really enjoyed trying something I wouldn't have chosen myself and it's made me think again about stout and in particular how the flavours work well at that cool but not necessarily chilled level.

Thank you Santa #2 good stuff!

Anna

 

[DocAnna]

View attachment 38150

I just suddenly remembered that it was Christmas Eve and I was allowed to drink my beer.

I think I have the same beer as @strange-steve so I think this particular Santa will be more interested in his review. I'm not one of these people who can guess the entire grain bill and hop schedule, just from drinking the stuff. However, Santa included a detailed label:



So yeah, what he said. Thankfully not pigeon-holed into a particular style, so I won't be influenced by what I ought to be tasting.

Chilled to 9 degrees, the cap popped with a nice hiss. Poured really well and built up a nice pleasant head, with a wisp of yeast making it into the glass at the end and all the nasty grubby stuff remaining. Straight away, I could smell the chocolate although it has died down a little bit.

Taste wise, I'm really impressed and think this is a cleverly balanced beer. There's a good, strong, up-front bitterness at first which goes well with the initial full, rich flavour, but it then fades to what is a surprisingly light beer with a hint of sweetness behind it. Quite full in the mouth and I think the carbonation is spot on - a nice sparkle on the tongue just to lift the beer but not overly fizzy. A good lingering finish too. As for being 7.2%, the strength is well hidden but there's a definite warmth in the background.

Thank you Santa - a big fan of this one!

Next up for me is this Winter Wassail. Lovely rich, fruity, boozy aroma with figs, nuts, and spice. Absolutely delicious and exactly what I want in a winter ale. Flavour wise there's treacle, burnt sugar, raisins, lightly roasty, nutty, earthy, coffee. This is really damn good. Honestly, this is a perfect beer for a Christmas day. I'm brewing something similar next week and if it's half as good as this I'll be extremely happy!

Wow Thank you both of you and I really really appreciate your comments so much.

I'd been feeling a bit disheartened about brewing after being so busy, and messing up a beer sent earlier in the post which was oxidised. I had been really questioning whether I was any good at this brewing thing, so this has really given me a bit of confidence back. I had been so nervous about sending a beer out again for others to try, particularly one that I adapted and tweaked from a fairly complex grain bill recipe. It's also quite reassuring since I'd given away 10 of these to colleagues I work with along with some other beers, so it feels ok to know I didn't give them duff beers ❤.

Anna

 

[pilgrimhudd]

Time for my second secret Santa review which was the Chocolate Stout at a whopping 8.4% which I enjoyed last night after coming home from work. So first thing I should probably admit I'm not normally a stout drinker, having been scarred many years ago in Student life from thinking it was smart to drink Guiness and it causing heart burn. So in that context this rather lovely brew was a bit of a revelation.

I do like to try beers over different temperature ranges since the flavour can change a great deal from fridge 5 deg to room temperature, and given that I took a good hour and a half over this beer I had the chance to try it over the whole range.

Pouring this is a rich dark chocolate almost black dense beer with a relatively short lived coffee brown head.
Aroma was rich earthy becoming malty as it warmed
Tasted cold to cool there's a good bitterness from mid to late taste that balances the heft of the classic stout malt flavour. Similarly at the cool to about 13 deg there's a light creamy start before, wham, the huge malt and bitter chocolate taste lands, ending in bitterness balanced with sweetness left from the malt.
Once warmer nearing room temperature the dark malt flavours felt like they overwhelmed the bitterness and more subtle notes, becoming almost chewable as a gutsy heft of malt.

As for the 8.4%, well after not having eaten anything over the day due to how busy the hospital was, I made sure to have this over the course of a meal which it worked well with, I wouldn't have guessed it was that strong.

Overall, really enjoyed trying something I wouldn't have chosen myself and it's made me think again about stout and in particular how the flavours work well at that cool but not necessarily chilled level.

Thank you Santa #2 good stuff!

Anna

View attachment 38419View attachment 38420

This one was mine, glad you enjoyed it! I'd also love to steal your winter wassail recipe if I could, sounds delicious!