Brewpaks Belgium Christmas ale.

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alanywiseman.

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Cheers for starting the thread dennisking :thumb:

After possible making my first chritmas brew taste of soap (check out the face palm thread) I decided to put on another christmas brew. These kits have always caught my eye. They get great reviews but there is only one or 2 for the Christmas ale. There are a 10L brew length and cost around £15 so are a bit more expensive than most. These kits seem to be designed for the BruBox but I have used a normal FV. As this is for Christmas 10L was not going to be enough so I used 2 kits and doubled the volumes.

The kit comes with a can of extract, generic yeast and 2 'teabags' which contained chocolate malt, juniper and another spice that i can not remeber now.

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The teabags were steeped in boiling water for 30mins then the liquid added to the FV and the teabags steeped again for a further 10 mins. The teabags were then disgarded and the liquid added to the FV with the extract and thourghly mixed.

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Had to leave the Fv to cool before pitching. The yeast was rehydrated and pitch at 17C. The OG was 1.058 (ended up brewin it a little short at 19L). 24hrs after pitching it was like this

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THis is by far the best tasting wort I have had from any of my brews so I have high hopes for this one.

As fermentation continues I will edit this post and keep you up to date with how it is progressing untill finally I crack a bottle open come Christmas time.

P.S. sorry for the crapy photos I had to use my phone

UPDATE 15/10/2012: So I left the brew in the primary for 7 days then transfered to a secondary. At the time of transfer the SG was 1.016. The beer was then left in the secondary for 10 before bottleing. Due to a real cold snap here the FV was put in a bath of water at 20C for 3 days.

The FG at bottling was 1.015 giving the beer 5.7% abv. Ended up with 32 pints (18L) after racking etc. Of course though I had to drink the sample from the trail jar and it was the best tasting brew so far. The juniper and maltiness from the chocolate malt really shined through. There was a great balance to the brew and I can not wait to see how it is doing in 1-2 months time. I will let you know how it progresses as it conditions and matures.
 
Just relished that I had not done a review of how the beer tastes so here it goes and forgive me for my poor palate.

The beer is dark in colour with a nice cream coloured head which sadly quickly dissipates.

Aroma: Rich roasted malt aroma with coffee and chocolate. There is also hint of coriander and juniper. Smells very inviting.

Taste: great mouth feel with malty goodness followed by the bitterness from the roasted malts. Once the bitterness starts to fade the herby/spiceyness of the coriander and juniper come through and give a lovely lingering aftertaste.

Overall: I fantastic rich dark malty beer that is perfect for winter. The balance between the coriander/juniper and the malt is great. This is one of the best kit I have and would highly recommend it to anyone.

N.B. this was bottled on the 13/10/12.
 

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