12 Ales of Christmas – Part One

I’m semi-celebrating the season with ales and beers of different sorts. First of all, I finally, after a year of having the equipment, got a batch of English brown ale brewed and fermenting in the closet in the guest room. It won’t be ready to try until at least mid-January, but I’m looking forward to trying it.

I messed up a bit by mixing up two of the types of hops. I put in the flavoring hops at the beginning of the boil of the wort, then added the bittering hops after 40 minutes, once I realized my screw up. I’m told this may not mess things up too badly, so we’ll find out. I did, however, do something I think might be interesting… I added a touch of cinnamon and ancho chile with about 10 minutes left in the boil, right before the aromatic hops were added.

To further celebrate the season a bit with ales and beer, I’m doing the 12 (actually 13) Ales of Christmas. Don’t you love good beer stores that allow you to buy a variety of singles instead of packs of everything? You get to try so many more varieties that way!

So to start off the season, here are the first four of my 12 (13) Ales of Christmas!

The first of the batch was Pickled Santa, an English ale…

This was a nice version of English Ale; one I’d have again if offered, but there are others I like better.

The next up was from Flying Dog Brewery, their winter ale, K9 Cruiser. This one was sweet and really good. I’d definitely get this one again!

Number 3 was my first Lithuanian beer, a doppelbock. This was a a good try, but kind of lacking. Nothing bad, just not enough good.

The the fourth was a Magic Hat brew called Howl Winter Seasonal. This poured black and had a good, hearty taste. I want more of this now! (I just finished it). Nice job, Magic Hat!

I’ll add more as they get consumed! I have a variety left of English, American and Euro ales and beers left. Then, next month, you get to hear if my flub on the English ale worked out afterall or not!