What's your Christmas brew?

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My good lady has got me a bottle of Ardbeg, my favourite single malt. Beer wise the star of the show will be a pale ale, bittered with Goldings and 150g Citra as a 3 step late hop.
 

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I made a barrel imperial stout about a year ago and put half of it into fancy 750ml fliptop bottles and 'aged' it. Can't remember how strong it is, something in the range of 9-11% so should get people merry around the xmas table.
 
I've got my experimental wild hops ale in my first keg setup. Currently coming out quite nice, but with another week of aging I think it'll be a really good simple ale.

Pale malt (combination of MO and some leftover vienna) along with about 10% crystal, a smidge of magnum for a bittering to around 35 ibu and then a 30, 5 and whirpool addition of some wild hops I foraged in september. No idea what variety they are but they taste alright from where I'm sat. Puts me in mind of a doombar type thing. Very drinkable.
 
My Xmas beer this time around is the "Barley Wine" first runnings from a Parti-gyle done back in April and aged for 7 months in a Carboy (around 11L). It is still carbing up a bit at the moment, slowly with the colder weather, but may be ready by next week. Cheeky taste at bottling suggested my run of slightly disappointing "big" beers continues. I have had better results aiming for ~ 7% max on beers like Old Peculiar and JWL Moonraker or Belgian Dubbels.

I only recently finished the last of the previous year's beer, which was the "Old Fruitcake" recipe from Randy Mosher's Radical Brewing. It never was to my taste!
 
I brewed a Winter Ale, Greg Hughes in March for Xmas, it is wonderful tasting if a little under carbed and a VAnilla Chocolate Stout, which I also brewed in March, very tasty although not much vanilla which I think may be a blessing.
 
I brewed a Winter Ale, Greg Hughes in March for Xmas, it is wonderful tasting if a little under carbed and a VAnilla Chocolate Stout, which I also brewed in March, very tasty although not much vanilla which I think may be a blessing.
I've heard that vanilla doesn't last very long in beer, my experience of 1 bourbon vanilla stouch backs this up, after a couple of months the vanilla wasn't noticable.

My dark strong ale went down the drain so my Christmas beers are my existing stocks plus the best bitter and saison which got bottled last Sunday so are more likely going to be better for Hogmanay and into the new year.
 
More than likely, although I didnt put a lot in anyway as I didnt want to overpower it. Had a bottle last night as this thread reminded me that i had it, the chocolate seems to be getting stronger!
 
I've heard that vanilla doesn't last very long in beer, my experience of 1 bourbon vanilla stouch backs this up, after a couple of months the vanilla wasn't noticable.
I've made 3 vanilla beers before, all vanilla stouts, and the first two I used really good quality beans, I think they were organic Madagascan vanilla beans from Waitrose or something. I sliced open the beans and put them in the FV for a week once fermentation had finished. There was a really good flavour of vanilla in each which lasted as long as the batch did, but the batch went quickly. In the last stout I made I bought some random beans from Tesco and these were a lot less pungent and the small amount of flavour disappeared quickly.
 
An American IPA it was a pre build grain box from GEB

Lazy I know I havent been able to brew for a few months but I jsut wanted a simple easy brew without having to think.. got a pilsner lined up and going to do some english

I have some saisons left which I know is odd this time of year but I like them all the same.

Need to start the batch cooking now
 
Muntons this err Muntons that errm everything extract is mostly from what I find is Munton's brew. Save the odd one or two. So I have Munton's Connossiers bitter at 7.2 % abv which to be honest, is not that great. Godzawa Baltic porter, can't remember the FG of it, but is delicious. MYO white wine which is ok. Currently have some MYO IPA in a vat. I would deffo recommend that porter for future use of any one here. Merry Christmas!
 
My AG#6 Apa and a wherry, Jack Daniels and Coke(mother in law always buys me a bottle) and shop bought beers, mainly IPA's.
 
Christmas pale ale made with low colour Maris otter and falconers Flight. Still a bit young but promising.
 
Made a nearly SMaSH with Red-X and Mandarina Bavaria (bittered with Magnum). Tried a bottle last night and it's very drinkable. Not earth shatteringly amazing, but very nice. Might try putting a bottle in the fridge, next time. My oatmeal was beginning to carbonate when I tried a bottle last weekend, but it wasn't ready and I ended up wasting most of the bottle. I'll leave it until tomorrow and have another sneaky one. I might learn to put a couple of 25 cl bottles aside as tasters.
 

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