The third beer of Christmas

Daleside Old Winters Tale

This dark, subtly spiced 4.3% ale was designed by both myself and brother priest of the yeast M.A. double T Daleside brewer Matt Bloomer. We didn't decide on the name, or the abv, but technically it's ours. A trial brew of this one was done on my very own home brew kit to give an approximation of the finished product. It turned out alright, but we decided to make it a bit darker. Then when we came to brew it on the Daleside kit I lover every minute of seeing this baby being born.

Tweaking around with it on the day and getting everyone to smell my spice mixture made it all the more enjoyable, and we are glad of the results.

A mixture of spices on a bed of Willamette hops

Brewing scedule for the week

Transfer to the FV, where the magic of fermentation really begins

But enough of the brewing highlights. Now for the important bit...

This sample was taken from a plastic polypin set up in the brewery but I will be hunting out the properly conditioned stuff from a hand pull in the near future. I find the spice influence moves more towards the background as it ages and it's nicely balanced. Medium to full bodied dominated by dark currant like winter fruit, figs, subtle nutmeg spice and a touch of roast malt bitterness over a bready rounded malt texture. I'm quite happy with it and so was my homie co-worker Col (below), who gave it a thumbs up.

Col (On day release)