Roll-a-Style 20: 17D. English Barley Wine (X-Mas Ale 2025)

Every year since I started homebrewing (way back in 2009), I've brewed an X-Mas Ale to have around the holidays.

The base beer was always a very similar "Winter Warmer", and I'd add various ingredients to make it more of a "Holiday" Beer.

Over the years, I added wood spirals, vanilla, cherry pomegranate, chocolate, peppermint, peanut butter, hazelnut, cherry, and many other flavorings.

But, if you follow this blog at all, you probably have read that I want to concentrate more on my BJCP Goal this year, and when I was thinking about brewing my 2025 X-Mas Ale, I wanted to pick a style on my Roll-a-Style list.

Looking through the list, I decided that the closest to my "traditional" X-Mas Ale recipe was 17D. English Barley Wine.

So, I pretended to roll a 20 on my 20-sided online die.

17D. English Barley Wine is

"A strong and richly malty ale with a pleasant fruity or hoppy depth. A wintertime sipper with a full, chewy body and warming alcohol."

I quickly came up with the recipe ... X-Mas Ale 2025.

It is on the lower side of the OG / ABV, but still in the specified range. I'm sure I'll be enjoying this beer over the holidays.

Now my Roll-a-Style list looks like this:

Number	Beer Style
1	9B. Eisbock
2	Re-Roll
3	Re-Roll
4	9C. Baltic Porter
5	10C. Weizenbock
6	12C. English IPA
7	13B. British Brown Ale
8	28B. Mixed-Fermentation Sour Beer
9	32A. Classic Style Smoked Beer
10	Re-Roll
11	10A. Weissbier
12	Re-Roll
13	33B. Specialty Wood-Aged Beer
14	6B. Rauchbier
15	Re-Roll
16	26C. Belgian Tripel
17	16D. Foreign Extra Stout
18	22D. Wheatwine
19	28A. Brett Beer
20	Re-Roll

My "Bench" now includes:

• Historical Beer: Roggenbier
• Historical Beer: London Brown Ale
• Historical Beer: Lichtenhainer
• Specialty IPA: Belgian IPA
• Specialty IPA: White IPA
• Specialty IPA: Brut IPA
• SheppyBrew Random Recipe