THBF Secret Santa - The Results Thread!

[PD]

I sent mine begining of december, no indication its been received or tasted...... :hmm:

 

[cwiseman77]

I sent mine begining of december, no indication its been received or tasted...... :hmm:

That's a bit rubbish PD....thankfully mine has been reviewed and I've reviewed mine

 

[BarnsleyBrewer]

I've not had owt yet...

BB

 

[Baldbrewer]

Postal services do seem a bit lax this year generally?
Wonder if its the increased tinternet sales ?

Sorry if this qualifies as divulging! Lol! :hat:

 

[fairbrew]

Right then, think I'd better do a review before it all goes off :whistle:
I got my bottle yesterday morning and let it settle. I got the kids out of the way tonight and cracked it open.
It is a best bitter 4.8%. It poured well with a small but tight head. A nice dark brown colour, slight haze ,but this may be because I like my beer cool (8c) :nono: . A nice malty aroma . First taste was pleasant with a good mouth feel. A slight caramel almost biscuity taste. It had a long finish with a nice late hop tingle. It kept a good head all the way to the end.By the end I had that nice alcohol warming without thinking it was too strong. To summerise , a cracking drink that the owner should be very proud of. I do find it hard to describe taste, I tend to drink paler hoppier beers. This has made me think I should be drinking more best bitter instead . If I could get this in my local ,I would find it becoming a favorite , which is a massive compliment as my locals are Thornbridge and Abbeydale pubs who serve a large range of excellent real ales .Thank you to the brewer, who obviously knows his stuff and I cant wait to see the recipe. I took a pic but cant remember how to put it up(thought you just clicked img then pasted??) . Delete the end if this is off topic

 

[RobWalker]

use www.tinypic.com mate : love your review, glad you're happy! :

 

[Asalpaws]

Nice review, I've yet to manage a good malty beer, all I know how to do is throw more hops at it! Hope you get a picture up :)

 

[RobWalker]

Welp, mine arrived today! A rather suave looking IPA. Looking forward to it :) thank you secret Santa!

Incidentally, in the midst of sending so many flippin addresses out, i've actually forgotten who sent it. So for all intensive purposes, my secret santa is still secret. Festive :

 

[Pakman]

Apologies for the tardy response - took a while to find this thread through various links.

I received my SS bottle a while ago and put it aside to settle. When unpacked it gave the impression of being a very dark beer as little could be seen through the glass bottle. However, after a fraught working week that involved several visits to the North West of our lovely country I celebrated the start of my long Xmas holiday by sampling my SS Beer.

Yer tiz

On opening and pouring I had a nice looking dark amber brew with a 'northern' head that was not over carbonated (I need to know how to achieve this in my beers)
There was no yeast in the nose but a slight hint of melon and ginger, only slight mind you, with no overwhelming overall bouquet. I tried removing some of the head to see if the strength of the smell increased but it did not. Therefore I suspect this brew has been maturing in the bottle for a while.
As previously stated, the dark amber colour was clear with very little yeast in the base of the bottle and so I could pour the whole 500ml in more than one go.
Then came the best part, the taste. A very smooth brew with very well balanced flavours all combining into a very pleasant experience in the mouth with a lingering hoppy bitterness as an after taste. I suspect this is an old or strong ale at a strength of about 6-7% although I know it is very difficult to judge alcohol content by taste as I find out down my local.

Thanks to the brewer my holiday started off well. Shame I forgot to smile ;^)

Merry Christmas to all on this list.

Graham

 

[Pakman]

fbsf wrote "Boo.
Got mine today wrapped in a royal mail plastic bag that said something along the lines of "sorry, our baboons broke your brew". So no review I'm afraid as I don't fancy having to go down to A&E afterwards to get the bits of glass removed. Shame, as it smelled lovely! "

That's what happens when you send beer to someone who is listed as residing in 'sadley broke' :rofl:

Graham

 

[BarnsleyBrewer]

Great reviews lads, also nice to see a few pics...

BB :thumb:

 

[markpeace]

Mine was a 4.3% Stout. Not my usual tipple, so nice that Santa sent me a challenge! Mrs Markpeace also very interested so she has joined in with the review

First impressions: a lovely shiny black which makes it very inviting, hints of ruby red held to the light. A small head, which didn't hold (but this might be my beard moustache destroying it!).

Aroma: hints of liquorice, and possibly molasses. Bodes well for the malt bill of the beer.

Flavour: Smooth, with a nice long finish. The malt follows through from the aroma. It's more reserved than I was expecting - and enjoyed this as a quality. Some roasty/toasty qualities, and some malt-derived bitterness, supported by a nice hop level. The beer had a lovely mouth coating quality, which I really enjoyed and which encouraged the drinkers to take their time with it. The alcohol profile was nice here. Enough to carry the flavours, and to enjoy it guilt free. The overall taste was clean the yeast profile reserved enough to suggest good fermentation.

Overall: really enjoyed this, out of my normal drinking preferences and appreciated the challenge. As its out of my expertise, I won't offer a 'score', but suffice to say I'll be trying more stouts in the pub now, and id like to have a go at brewing one myself. Thanks very much to the brewer.

 

[EskiBrew]

I've removed the unpleasant posts in this thread regarding Muddydisco - uncalled for an inappropriate :nono:

 

[graysalchemy]

Well last night i had this

Didn't know what it was or what its ABV was or whether or not I would be allergic to it or not but from pouring it looked good so i thought it was worth a go.

On opening there was a a good pfizz.

Sniffed it and got clove, first impression was that this was going to be an over spiced Christmas ale :nono: .

However I had another sniff and got almond and a little spark in my head said WLP0028 Scottish Yeast YUM YUM.

Poured it good head lovely deep ruby brown colour.

First taste

Bloody hell that is good

Because of the yeast I assumed it was a scottish heavy but it had some hop aroma and it was quite fruity and estery. It also had a very pleasant clean bitter after taste. All things you wouldn't associate with a heavy so a little confused :wha:

It had malt sweetness and was a hefty bugger probably 7+% I would have thought.

Overall it was probably the best beer I had tasted since the last best beer I had tasted which i can't remember when, It out shone my current Heavy :lol: which I was quite proud of.

So I take my hat off to you secret Santa (nod nod wink wink) :hat: :hat:

Thanks very much I really enjoyed that one.

Role on the next secret santa :thumb:

 

[markpeace]

:thumb: I like this. Can we have a secret easter bunny...

 

[graysalchemy]

Can we have Secret presents for Graysalchemy's birthday its only about 7 weeks away :lol: :lol:



Then we can have the ester bunny

 

[markpeace]

I like the ester bunny :thumb:

 

[BigYin]

I received mine ages ago but didn't get around to trying it until now

Was going to try it last weekend, but knocked it over and decided I'd let it settle again.

So, here it is :

Mild - 5.6%, no extra ingredients, just malts / hops

disclaimer - my palate isn't too great, and I'm jealous of the folk who can pick out and give name to the different flavours and aromas _ I'm rubbish at it :lol:

So, here we go :

Nice initial head on pouring, clarity not too clear, although not sure if that isn't just the whole transport/knocking it over thing..

Very subtle malt aroma, initial taste is nice and malty, and I don't detect too much hops. Does have the lovely full taste of a mild ale, and have to say I'm thoroughly enjoying it :drink: :drink: :drink:

 

[RokDok]

I like the ester bunny :thumb:

Mmmm

I'd be up for that.

RD

 

[jonnymorris]

I received mine a few weeks ago but was saving it for Christmas. That was until I found this thread hiding in the members area so last night, I cracked it open...

Warning: this won't be a great review - I don't have the nose or palate of others and my descriptive skills may also leave something to be desired.

I had high hopes for this beer. It had a note with it saying it was made from malted barley, hops and yeast which wasn't a surprise but did imply it wasn't a kit beer. ABV was in the order of 5% (I forget exactly and threw the bit of paper away) so it wasn't going to be a head blower.

I poured the beer and it was... unremarkable. It didn't have a particularly strong aroma but at the same time didn't smell of yeast. It had a head, of sorts but then again, not too much to speak of. And the taste? It was nice. Sorry to use such a crap description but it seemed to me to be a simple, well ballanced session bitter with no unpleasant flavours but no great wow factor either. I really wanted to eulogise about this drink but, in my humble opinion, it was just a nice simple beer. Whilst that may sound negative, I don't mean it to be. A nice simple beer is sometimes just what the doctor ordered (well maybe not the doctor but you get my drift).