Xmas Swap 2018 Review Thread

[strange-steve]

Greetings swappers!

Well the time for beer tasting has finally come, so don't fill up on the bucks fizz and mulled wine, get your favourite glass out of the cupboard, grab a notepad and pen, and crack that bottle open!

Post your reviews here and don't forget that we love pictures

Remember, a thorough, in depth scrutiny isn't necessary, but if you can give a brief description of the flavours and aroma then please do so. The tasting period is 24th December to 1st January so please post your review sometime between those dates if possible.

Cheers

 

[Mungri]

Cracked open the Smoking Barrel Porter sent to me an hour ago.
Chilled it down to around 4 degrees as suggested on the bottle.
Aroma was certainly smoky, in a nice way.
The smoke came through strongly in the taste as well. Lots of body and quite highly carbonated (which I liked in this beer). I guess this was force carbonated as it was only bottled on the 3rd of this month.
Nicely bitter @ 62 Ibu’s.
All in all I really enjoyed it. Totally different to the styles I normally brew, but I’m
going to have a go at a porter after tasting Hoddy’s, I mean Santa’s brew.
Cheers Santa.

 

[Ajhutch]

Straight in there, good man! Looking forward to tasting the smoked porter myself.

 

[Leon103]

Cracked open the Smoking Barrel Porter sent to me an hour ago.
Chilled it down to around 4 degrees as suggested on the bottle.
Aroma was certainly smoky, in a nice way.
The smoke came through strongly in the taste as well. Lots of body and quite highly carbonated (which I liked in this beer). I guess this was force carbonated as it was only bottled on the 3rd of this month.
Nicely bitter @ 62 Ibu’s.
All in all I really enjoyed it. Totally different to the styles I normally brew, but I’m
going to have a go at a porter after tasting Hoddy’s, I mean Santa’s brew.
Cheers Santa.

Sounds nice. I have a bottle of this (outside of the swap) looking forward to it

 

[divrack]

Drinking my Russian Imperial stout (i think, lost the bit of paper, that's what it tastes like)
Vely nice..
Super rich, almost salty soy sauce initial mouthfeel giving way to more complexity.. getting some nice spicy notes that meld with the alcohol. A finish of liquorice and toasty roast flavour.
I'm guessing a pretty complex grain bill went into this. It reminds me of my Kate the Great clone of a few years back which had an absurd grain bill. I'm maybe imagining a bit of Oak in there, but could well be just the complexity of malts on offer. Could also be a touch of something like port or bourbon but i think that's just my experience of making similar Beers.
Also reminds me of a bier de molen affair i can't remember the name of now.
Yup, really decent beer. No off notes at all. Personally im leaning towards lower bodied expressions these days but this is perfect as a warm up to crimbo excess. Now that half a glass is gone it's starting to open up some black berry and currant. Yer. Yeeer!

 

[-Bezza-]

Tucking into the imperial stout I was sent too (I'm assuming it's from the same person).

Chilled down to fridge temps and opened with some trepidation, in accordance with the accompanying note, but no issues in pouring at all. Beautiful, viscous pour that left a nice pale brown head. Definitely smells of porter and those dark malts shine through. Chocolatey.

Fantastic mouth feel, which I was expecting given how it poured. Not at all harsh for a 9% beer. Getting subtle chocolate and a hint of coffee, leaving a lingering bitter toastiness in the mouth (not in a bad way). Something distinctly savoury in there too - perhaps Brazil or hazelnuts.

Honestly, if any of my homebrew turned out like that I'd be well chuffed!!

Thank you Santa!

 

[strange-steve]

Jeez you lot aren't hanging about! I'll probably wait till lunch time tomorrow

 

[Ghillie]

7.2% Belgian Dubbel.

Bottle conditioned with a deep red colour, very clear for a bottle conditioned beer and has excellent carbonation to it.

Boozy beer with a nice malty flavour to it. Warm on the palette and almost raisin/apple-ish element to it. Low bitterness with a good balance between the boozines and the bitterness.

A very nice beer and very well made. Thanks Santa

 

[-Bezza-]

Jeez you lot aren't hanging about! I'll probably wait till lunch time tomorrow

Kinda have other plans tomorrow, likely to be several glasses of wine too the good before getting round to the homebrew tasting and opening a one-off homebrew in front of others didn't seem fair. That's how I've justified opening it early!!

Also very impatient and have been proper excited about this.

 

[MickDundee]

View attachment 170067.2% Belgian Dubbel.

Bottle conditioned with a deep red colour, very clear for a bottle conditioned beer and has excellent carbonation to it.

Boozy beer with a nice malty flavour to it. Warm on the palette and almost raisin/apple-ish element to it. Low bitterness with a good balance between the boozines and the bitterness.

A very nice beer and very well made. Thanks Santa

That was mine. Glad you liked it. I’ve been a little disappointed with it but it’s maybe just my high standards. Not dark enough and, ironically given your review, I think it’s too bitter and it overwhelms the yeast flavours a bit.

 

[Hoddy]

So I opened the bottle of reindeer Poo tonight while I was waiting for our cherubs to get to sleep before we commenced stocking wrapping.

Do you know what I didn’t think I would enjoy a brown but this was really nice. Just enough of the dark malts to give the beer that deep malty flavour, then with just enough hops to balance it out. Reminds me of a really nice American brown I once had, just with a more restrained hop profile. Not to much alcohol either and no obvious faults I could detect.

Has made me think of a few brown recipes to try and develop over the Xmas holidays to try. All in all a beer I liked and exactly what the Xmas swaps are all about.

Thanks for the swap of “Reindeer Poo”

 

[MickDundee]

Malted Vic, which I assume is a name rather than a style.

A very malty aroma, with more than a hint of pine.

Hazy with a very good head which doesn’t easily dissipate. A bit paler than the picture makes out.
Fruity with medium bitterness which linger in the mouth (med/low initially but got more as I drank it).

Overall I was very pleased with this beer, very nice and refreshing - probably the type of beer I would make and drink.

 

[Hoddy]

Cracked open the Smoking Barrel Porter sent to me an hour ago.
Chilled it down to around 4 degrees as suggested on the bottle.
Aroma was certainly smoky, in a nice way.
The smoke came through strongly in the taste as well. Lots of body and quite highly carbonated (which I liked in this beer). I guess this was force carbonated as it was only bottled on the 3rd of this month.
Nicely bitter @ 62 Ibu’s.
All in all I really enjoyed it. Totally different to the styles I normally brew, but I’m
going to have a go at a porter after tasting Hoddy’s, I mean Santa’s brew.
Cheers Santa.

Glad you liked it. It’s a beer I’ve been brewing and tweaking to improve over the last few years. Actually it’s bottle carbonated, but with this beer and the yeast I use it’s quite reliable to carb up well in 2+ weeks. The smokey ness can be a bit love/hate and I took inspiration for this beer recipe from the Einstock smoked porter, if you see it try it.

 

[-Bezza-]

View attachment 17007 Malted Vic, which I assume is a name rather than a style.

A very malty aroma, with more than a hint of pine.

Hazy with a very good head which doesn’t easily dissipate. A bit paler than the picture makes out.
Fruity with medium bitterness which linger in the mouth (med/low initially but got more as I drank it).

Overall I was very pleased with this beer, very nice and refreshing - probably the type of beer I would make and drink.

Free Grolsch swingtop with yours too!!

 

[pvt_ak]

Couldn’t resist any longer ...
Accidentally Clear Wheatbeer.

Opened with a quiet hiss.
Poured lovely, a little hiss , nice head but quickly dissipated.

Aroma - complex, I knew it was a wheat beer immediately !

Tasting this - wow, the banana and clove smacked me in the chops ! This is a banana butty in a glass !

Sweet mouth feel , and low bitterness , this is a sipper.

Not sure what the abv is .

Lovely beer !

Thanks Santa !!

 

[Ghillie]

That was mine. Glad you liked it. I’ve been a little disappointed with it but it’s maybe just my high standards. Not dark enough and, ironically given your review, I think it’s too bitter and it overwhelms the yeast flavours a bit.

Was going to PM you Mick as I found out from the packaging it was yours.

A very nice beer though buddy, was very surprised with how fizzy it was as I love fizzy beer and see its how this style is.

I enjoyed it very much!

 

[MickDundee]

Was going to PM you Mick as I found out from the packaging it was yours.

A very nice beer though buddy, was very surprised with how fizzy it was as I love fizzy beer and see its how this style is.

I enjoyed it very much!

My favourite Dubbels are very highly carbonated so I tried to follow that. Ironically the bottle that survived its way to the Welsh National comp was marked down for being too highly carbonated!

I’d guessed I got you from the Tain address but wasn’t 100% sure.

 

[big yogi]

Firstly plenty carbonation , first thing i tasted was the Nice malty flavours with just enough bitterness , both the malt and hop bitterness remaining noticeable into the aftertaste.
Well done Santa for a lovely christmas eve drink

 

[MickDundee]

Second bottle was Les Citrus Pale, hopped with Simcoe and Citra. Simcoe is my favourite aroma hop, but I could pick out more citra than Simcoe.

Apart from that this beer is right down my street. Very hop forward and the balance between malt and bitterness was spot on. Colour-wise it was pretty much the same as my “usual” APA so again, right down my street. Decent head retention and I think it would have had decent clarity, but I think I kicked up some yeast when I opened.

 

[Ghillie]

My favourite Dubbels are very highly carbonated so I tried to follow that. Ironically the bottle that survived its way to the Welsh National comp was marked down for being too highly carbonated!

I’d guessed I got you from the Tain address but wasn’t 100% sure.

Not too sure where they got that from as I read 2.5 - 3.2vols for that range. I'd say yours was bang on in that case!

No the Tain address wasn't me buddy.