Christmas Wine bought, Check

Festive potted plants delivered to Grandparents, Check.

Brioche bread n butter pudding in oven, Check.

Christmas Eve drinks in town arranged  with folk, Check.

Spider removal,… um….I’ll get someone else on to that later…

#12beersofxmas, underway.

I’ve just cracked open a bottle of Xmas Maximus from stalwarts of the local scene, Weltons Brewery. I’m ready, I’m there, I’m all set for whatever magic/mess (delete as appropriate) awaits tomorrow and I’m actually beginning to feel quite festive…or maybe that’s just the cinnamon I unintentionally snorted whilst constructing the pudding that’s in the oven…

This is a nice beer. It’s not as full or as instant with the flavour characteristics as I was expecting, but it has a lovely boozy edge to it. It’s been maturing in the bottle for a year, and whilst I was tempted to keep it for another year I gave in to temptation. The description is for a deeply roasted stout with dark chocolate and an orange hit. It’s smooth, really, really smooth, and the dark chocolate & orange kind of creeps up on you. There’s a very well balanced bitterness at play, with a figgy-boozy warmth and then that dark chocolate is suddenly there, followed up by a smooth, orange juice hit. Lovely stuff indeed, just more stealthy on the flavours than expected, and really, dangerously quaffable, at 7.4% this isn’t a session brew, but it’s disappearing at an alarming rate. I stand by a sentiment written a few months back; Weltons are at their best when they brew stouts. I’m ready for another.

#12beersofxmas, Check.