Secret Santa Reviews 2022

[Leon103]

Onto a festive beer. Not sure I have had one before so not sure what to expect. Again no festive spice which is a nice thing. Very high solvent alcohol flavour which dominates.

Thanks for sharing

 

[dave_77]

First of my secret Santa beers- festive ale
Dark straw colour , well carbonated with big fluffy head. Aroma gave off some alcohols and a smell that resembled marzipan to me. Very dry mouthfeel and fairly light feel.
Flavour didn't have any spice that I could detect and a feel clean malt character with a slight tcp flavour on the back end. Had the feeling of a Belgian beer due to the body and carbonation but without a yeast character from a Belgian. Thanks for sharing.

 

[dave_77]

2nd beer from same secret Santa brewer.
This one is a Barleywine.
Very dark brown this one,

had a decent head but faded quickly. Little lively out of the bottle
Aroma of Dark caramelized sugar. Mouthfeel was dry again with fairly high carbonation, seems a little dry and crisp for a barleywine, which to be fare is better for me(don't like sweet chewy beers).
For the style it seemed a little low of malt character , like a dark toffee flavour on the back end but not to much depth in flavours.
Its fairly dry and lighter body but like a Dubbel but without the Belgian yeast character so probably a bit light for a barleywine.
Thanks for sharing Santa.

 

[dave_77]

My other secret Santa sender and my last beer this year . Belgian Dubbel 7.5%
Very Dark brown, sounded well carbonated on opening but the head dropped back quickly to almost nothing.
Aroma was Toasty with light dark fruits.
The mouthfeel felt a little chewy/flabby for a Belgian and I think this was partly down to the lower carbonation, needs a bit more spritz and dryer feel
Flavours were dark sugar, dark bread crust and a little bit of raisin, the yeast character I felt was fairly low.
Nice enough beer, just felt it would be more drinkable with a slightly lighter body or higher carbonation to make it more drinkable.
Thanks for sending.

 

[andyb13]

Rudolph Rocket fuel

Good psst on opening. Small head, lasted about half the pint. Darker than anticipated (was expecting it to be golden, not that makes any difference to the beer) it was an amber beer, nice and clear. Carbonation levels medium.
Good floral hit as expected, and wasn't heavy even though it was a 8.8% beer.
Overall a satisfying beer.
Sorry no picture of the beer, for some reason I didn't save it, but do have the bottle :)
Nice beer and thanks for it Santa.

 

[andyb13]

Norfolk Belge
Good psst on opening
Nice head lasted all the way down
Chocolate under tones
Good carbonation, on style.
Very rich dubbel flavors with portish undertones, Very nice and warming.
Good Christmas beer.
Didn't taste heavy even at 7.7%
Very nice beer thanks Santa.

 

[Oneflewover]

My last secret Santa beer was a Belgian pale. Pale straw colour, slight haze. Bit under carbed, but I suspect that it was bottled from keg. Restrained Belgian yeast derived flavour and aroma, low hop flavour and aroma. A pretty beer, went down the hatch very easily. Thanks Santa, and huge thanks to @Alastair70 for organising, I really enjoy the secret Santa

 

[nickjdavis]

Dark Rock Cafe Espresso Stout

Visually it looks spot on....nice and dark...near opaque but dark red when backlit, with a lovely rich creamy head that lasted well down the glass.

On the aroma I got a good hit of coffee and some bonfire like smoke....nothing wrong there. However the flavour I found an unusual clash with a very low roast notes, combined with a brazil nut like...err...nuttiness (Tonka beans?), which then seemed to meld into an almost subtle grapefruit like note....this nut/grapefruit combination was most unusual and for me didnt sit well with the coffee flavours.

Appreciate the effort gone into brewing this and many thanks to the brewer for the opportunity to taste, but this one didnt quite hit the spot for me.

 

[nickjdavis]

So both my beers have been commented upon by their respective recipients.

@MickDundee received my Smoked Dopplebock called Tanngnjost @ Tanngrisnir (the names of the goats that pulled Thor's chariot in Norse mythology...to be fair, the name is not mine...more of that later)

The recipe isnt overly complex...46% Munich malt, 38% Smoked Malt, 7% CaraPils, 7% Wheat Malt, 2% Chocolate, mashed at 67 degrees for an hour. 0.6kg of cadi sugar (50/50 clear/dark) were also added to the boil to boost gravity.

Hops in this instance were Phoenix...just two additions 30g at 60 mins and 30g at 5 mins for 17.5 and 3.5 IBU respectively.

Yeast was WLP833 which is a superb Bock yeast.

The twist with this is that the recipe also calls for Juniper branches which are commonly used in a lot of Scandinavian brewing (think Sahti). In this case I think I used half a dozen juniper branches which I boiled for an hour before adding the liquor to the sparge liquor. This is the second time I've brewed this recipe...on this occasion I don't think the juniper notes are prominent like they were previously...but I did have the juniper branches quite a while before brewing....its not easy to obtain fresh juniper brances. When I brew it again I might choose to add something like Dark Crystal to add a bit of toffee malt complexity.

If any of you have the Brew Your Own Big Book of Clone Recipes...you will find the original recipe on page 197 (hence the name not being my idea!!)

Glad you enjoyed it though.

@Hazelwood Brewery received my Spiced Biere de Garde.

This beer is intended to be my Christmas Beer.....for 2023!!! Most will be put away in boxes in a dark corner of the garage ready for drinking next year....being only nine weeks in the bottle I think some of the flavours are yet to come together and on occasion the beer may come across as a bit "harsh"....given time it should smooth out considerably.

The base recipe was 55% Pilsner Malt, 34% Munich, 5% Special X, 3% Aromatic Malt, 3% Extra Dark Crystal, mashed at 65 degrees for 90 minutes.

Main boil hops were Brewers Gold to give 19 IBU from 60 minutes and late hops were Bullion to give 5 IBU from 10 minutes of boiling.

One of the things about brewing a Biere de Garde is to try to maintain an initial sweet malt character but with a dry finish, the beer should not be cloying...mashing low to increase fermentability is half of the solution, adding incremental sugar to the boil is the other half. In this case my sugar of choice was half a Kg of Gula Jawa, a version of Indonesian Red Palm Sugar....I've used this in a couple of beers and find that it contributes a nice toffee/caramel note.

In terms of spices then 3 Star Anise "stars" went in the boil for 30 minutes, 30g of bitter Orange peel for 10 mins, 1.3tsp of Nutmeg and a solitary Cinnamon stick were both added in the last 5 minutes.

The yeast used was WLP073 Artisanal Country Ale Yeast, starting at 21 degrees and gradually rising to 25 degrees over a period of a couple of weeks (this yeast was a very long slow and gradual fermenter that just kept munching away at the sugar).

Glad you liked it though....I think it will be much improved in 6-12months time.

 

[MickDundee]

So both my beers have been commented upon by their respective recipients.

@MickDundee received my Smoked Dopplebock called Tanngnjost @ Tanngrisnir (the names of the goats that pulled Thor's chariot in Norse mythology...to be fair, the name is not mine...more of that later)

The recipe isnt overly complex...46% Munich malt, 38% Smoked Malt, 7% CaraPils, 7% Wheat Malt, 2% Chocolate, mashed at 67 degrees for an hour. 0.6kg of cadi sugar (50/50 clear/dark) were also added to the boil to boost gravity.

Hops in this instance were Phoenix...just two additions 30g at 60 mins and 30g at 5 mins for 17.5 and 3.5 IBU respectively.

Yeast was WLP833 which is a superb Bock yeast.

The twist with this is that the recipe also calls for Juniper branches which are commonly used in a lot of Scandinavian brewing (think Sahti). In this case I think I used half a dozen juniper branches which I boiled for an hour before adding the liquor to the sparge liquor. This is the second time I've brewed this recipe...on this occasion I don't think the juniper notes are prominent like they were previously...but I did have the juniper branches quite a while before brewing....its not easy to obtain fresh juniper brances. When I brew it again I might choose to add something like Dark Crystal to add a bit of toffee malt complexity.

If any of you have the Brew Your Own Big Book of Clone Recipes...you will find the original recipe on page 197

Glad you enjoyed it though.

I actually have the kindle version of that book, it was down to 99p a couple of years ago.

 

[starseeker]

I was very luck to get two beers from my first secret santa ,and here is my review,

The first bottle was a modern sour ,i have only had one sour before this and to be honest i thought it was also my last (tasted fausty) but i was pleasantly surprised with this ,it opened with a nice psst, poured with a lovely cream head which was easily roused when drinking ,i got a slight aroma of possible pear with a lovely fizzy/sour pear taste, i really enjoyed this :)

My second beer from the same secret santa was a Vienna lager,
this poured with a lovely head and a malty aroma on the nose, this was a delicious darker style lager which really showed off the Vienna and munich malts to there best ,this had perfect carbonation and whoever brewed these two beers is a experienced brewer and it was a pleasure to sample them ,thank you

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

So both my beers have been commented upon by their respective recipients.

@MickDundee received my Smoked Dopplebock called Tanngnjost @ Tanngrisnir (the names of the goats that pulled Thor's chariot in Norse mythology...to be fair, the name is not mine...more of that later)

The recipe isnt overly complex...46% Munich malt, 38% Smoked Malt, 7% CaraPils, 7% Wheat Malt, 2% Chocolate, mashed at 67 degrees for an hour. 0.6kg of cadi sugar (50/50 clear/dark) were also added to the boil to boost gravity.

Hops in this instance were Phoenix...just two additions 30g at 60 mins and 30g at 5 mins for 17.5 and 3.5 IBU respectively.

Yeast was WLP833 which is a superb Bock yeast.

The twist with this is that the recipe also calls for Juniper branches which are commonly used in a lot of Scandinavian brewing (think Sahti). In this case I think I used half a dozen juniper branches which I boiled for an hour before adding the liquor to the sparge liquor. This is the second time I've brewed this recipe...on this occasion I don't think the juniper notes are prominent like they were previously...but I did have the juniper branches quite a while before brewing....its not easy to obtain fresh juniper brances. When I brew it again I might choose to add something like Dark Crystal to add a bit of toffee malt complexity.

If any of you have the Brew Your Own Big Book of Clone Recipes...you will find the original recipe on page 197 (hence the name not being my idea!!)

Glad you enjoyed it though.

@Hazelwood Brewery received my Spiced Biere de Garde.

This beer is intended to be my Christmas Beer.....for 2023!!! Most will be put away in boxes in a dark corner of the garage ready for drinking next year....being only nine weeks in the bottle I think some of the flavours are yet to come together and on occasion the beer may come across as a bit "harsh"....given time it should smooth out considerably.

The base recipe was 55% Pilsner Malt, 34% Munich, 5% Special X, 3% Aromatic Malt, 3% Extra Dark Crystal, mashed at 65 degrees for 90 minutes.

Main boil hops were Brewers Gold to give 19 IBU from 60 minutes and late hops were Bullion to give 5 IBU from 10 minutes of boiling.

One of the things about brewing a Biere de Garde is to try to maintain an initial sweet malt character but with a dry finish, the beer should not be cloying...mashing low to increase fermentability is half of the solution, adding incremental sugar to the boil is the other half. In this case my sugar of choice was half a Kg of Gula Jawa, a version of Indonesian Red Palm Sugar....I've used this in a couple of beers and find that it contributes a nice toffee/caramel note.

In terms of spices then 3 Star Anise "stars" went in the boil for 30 minutes, 30g of bitter Orange peel for 10 mins, 1.3tsp of Nutmeg and a solitary Cinnamon stick were both added in the last 5 minutes.

The yeast used was WLP073 Artisanal Country Ale Yeast, starting at 21 degrees and gradually rising to 25 degrees over a period of a couple of weeks (this yeast was a very long slow and gradual fermenter that just kept munching away at the sugar).

Glad you liked it though....I think it will be much improved in 6-12months time.

I’d guessed it was probably yours. Not many people brew a Biere de Garde and I recall you listing it on a brewing schedule at the start of the year.

I didn’t do too badly with the description by the sound of it but it took pretty much the whole pint to get there. The spicing was good, just enough to season the beer but not enough to be a significant flavour in their own right.

 

[Broken Toe]

First to arrive, second to drink.
Chocolate stout.
Poured like a well made gravy thick and luxurious.
This instantly took me back to a time as a younger lad that I thought I could put my Easter egg on some toast and pop it under the grill. Now, at the time I though it was a waste of good toast and an Easter egg. I know now that I was just waiting for my taste buds to come in and for it to be given a 6.2% kick in the right direction.

This was a lovely beer that drank so so easy, biting toasty notes stroked by smooth sweet chocolate and creamy coffee.

Thank you greatly.

 

[Clint]

Seeing as I've been abandoned this afternoon I thought it was time for my Secret Santa reviews..
First is the super dry bitter. Bottle cracked with a soft hiss,beer pours perfectly clear with a nice head which settled to a thin layer and left nice lacing on the glass. Aroma is earthy and malty goodness and taste is smooth bitterness and again the malt is there with a subtle sweet finish. Carbonation is spot on for me with a bitter.
In all this is a lovely beer and one of my favourite styles and also one that can be quite difficult to get right.
Well done and thank you!

 

[Clint]

Think I'm in the right place now...
Second Secret Santa is a plum sour! Now I do really like a sour and find them totally fascinating!
Let's go....bottle opened with a champagne POP and I had the glass poised for foam....but there wasn't any! The beer is beautifully carbonated and I got the lot into my glass with a thick,shaving foam head.
Aroma is subtle fruit and a bright zingy tartness mixed together,appearance is dark golden and opaque.
Now taste.... its a party..its sour....its fantastic!!! Hats off...that's one of the best beers I've tasted in a while...and I like to try a few!
A bit dangerous at its very unlike 6+% but I could imagine sipping this whilst basting myself in the garden on a hot summer day...
It's great...and I need to know more!
Thanks!

 

[Stu's Brews]

Think I'm in the right place now...
Second Secret Santa is a plum sour! Now I do really like a sour and find them totally fascinating!
Let's go....bottle opened with a champagne POP and I had the glass poised for foam....but there wasn't any! The beer is beautifully carbonated and I got the lot into my glass with a thick,shaving foam head.

That sounds like an incredible beer!

 

[Clint]

That sounds like an incredible beer!

Well..I know what I like. Some people really don't get sours and I'm certainly no expert but it's totally delicious!

 

[AJA]

Hope you all had a great and boozy Christmas!
So I can unmask now!
The Plum Sour is mine. I understand this is not a particularly Christmassy beer, and is not even my most recent brew, but was the one I'm most happy with.
First sour beer I've brewed, and used the brilliant Philly sour yeast, which proved foolproof in this case!
My experience is in line with the tasters, although I've had some carbonation issues in maybe 1/5 bottles, perhaps from wild yeast from the unboiled plums which were halved, stoned, and thrown in the fermenter. Some bottles go off like a shaken champagne bottle! But taste otherwise unaffected.
It's interesting that Clint's was opaque, must be the travel, as mine have all been perfectly clear to hazy.
Recipe is attached, plums are from my Dad's allotment!
Thank you so much for the feedback, I'm made up by it, particularly from Clint's rave review!
I'll post my feedback of my gifts in a bit.

 

[Clint]

Hope you all had a great and boozy Christmas!
So I can unmask now!
The Plum Sour is mine. I understand this is not a particularly Christmassy beer, and is not even my most recent brew, but was the one I'm most happy with.
First sour beer I've brewed, and used the brilliant Philly sour yeast, which proved foolproof in this case!
My experience is in line with the tasters, although I've had some carbonation issues in maybe 1/5 bottles, perhaps from wild yeast from the unboiled plums which were halved, stoned, and thrown in the fermenter. Some bottles go off like a shaken champagne bottle! But taste otherwise unaffected.
It's interesting that Clint's was opaque, must be the travel, as mine have all been perfectly clear to hazy.
Recipe is attached, plums are from my Dad's allotment!
Thank you so much for the feedback, I'm made up by it, particularly from Clint's rave review!
I'll post my feedback of my gifts in a bit.

You could sell that stuff...

 

[Clint]

6.4% Plum Sour

Nice big pffft on opening.

Lovely fluffy head. Tiny bubbles. Some haze and an orange hue.

An interesting aroma that I can't place. Musty, but not in a bad way, more a description way. Some friut.

Taste is sharp. The first mouthful is, not surprisingly, a little sour.... but also sweet.

I've had the odd sour before I'm not an expert on the style, but this is very nice, very balanced.

Very drinkable. For me personally, I think I'd enjoy this out in a beer garden in the middle of summer, but definitely a lovely brew.

I'd be a bit scared to brew this style, this is a great drink from a talented brewer. Thank you for sharing.

View attachment 79896

Exactly my thoughts! Ha...the summer reference...spot on!