I had the good fortune of comparing this beer to a Westy 12 ( you know, a real one). In a blind taste test the Northy won, unanimously. While the W12 has a slight bit more cherry, the richness (caramel, malt) of the N12 is far superior. I am now aging the N12 in a bourbon barrel. We'll see if there can be any improvement to an already fantastic brew.

Update on First review: Only 6 weeks in bottle and this beer is already fantastic.
Used bottle conditioning yeast to help with carbonation and came out very well
carbonated. Taste is excellent. Will let condition several more months. Will buy
again.

Everything went great on brewing day. First fermentation went smooth. I’m
now one month into 2nd fermentation. In two months I will bottle and wait for Christmas. The ABV. came out to 10. Very happy with this beer kit.

Having lived a mile from the Belgian border I was missing a good quad. This one hits the spot. I finish it off with about 2lbs of additional honey at the end of boil and it clocks in at almost 10% ABV. Woohoo! Best thing is, because my wife does not like such strong beers it's all mine. Just don't drive afterwards :-)

I give it three weeks in primary and about two months in secondary. Typically I use harvested yeast and we also make a tasty bread from the trub. Baked with wood fire, of course.

I just bottled this after a 4 month wait. I sampled just a taste from the bottom of the carboy and I have to say it has an amazing flavor even at this stage. I was a little worried having read several other reviews of people not having their batch carbonate. I had a partial bottle and figured what would it hurt to open it at a week in to see if it was carbonating and was greeted with a nice hiss when I popped the top. should be ready to sample the first bottle on Christmas day