Xmas advent calendar 2016

I wonder what this is?

December is just around the corner and a new favourite pastime of mine is about to happen again.

Craft Beer Advent Calendars have become more popular since last year with more varieties available.

Once again Saint John Craft Beer had a new carton available and from the pictures on their site it looked a lot more creative and festive.

In my city, Launceston, we recently got a Dan Murphy’s an alcohol megastore, which is a big thing for this small island state. Dan Murphy’s were exclusively selling an Australian Brewer’s Craft Beer Calendar.

Chewie inspects the goods.

After much debate of which one to get I decided to get one of each and compare them.

That was a lot easier said than done.

Dan Murphy’s ran out of stock so I had to order online and had to hope it arrived in time.

Saint John Craft beer advertised they still had some available so I went in to find they were all gone. I left my name and number after being told more were being made.

November 30 comes and I’m getting a little worked up because I haven’t got either carton.

Finally, a carton sized box arrived at my door… Dan Murphy’s came through.

Craft beers from eight Australian brewers

Saint John made some more and sold them over the bar instead of honouring their pre-order list.

Slightly annoyed but better in pocket I’m glad that I still have a Craft Beer Advent Calendar and will gladly take you through it each day in the lead up to Christmas.

I’ve taken a few pictures to show you what we’ve got at $99 which is good value for craft beer, just $4 per day.

I really like this one as it has a highly-detailed box, on top of that each beer is from an Australian (including Tasmanian) brewery, some have featured in earlier posts.

Just like a chocolate advent calendar... but with beer

On closer inspection, the beers inside aren’t wrapped up – I can’t fit a whole carton into the fridge so I’ll have to see them to get them cold before drinking which sort of spoils the surprise.

Once you pop the cardboard top you know what you have.

First beer starts tomorrow.

Cheers,

Dave

Molson Canadian

You know I like trying beer from other countries, this time I tried something from the land of hockey and bears. For my first Canadian Beer I present to you Molson Canadian.

Canada is a place I know very little about to be honest, I know a few awesome Canadians and my girlfriend even lived there for a year so I have great respect for the country, plus I love hockey.

Directly from their website they give a nice description of their fine export: “Canada is known around the world for our vast wilderness, thousands of freshwater lakes, and golden Prairie barley fields as far as the eyes can see. Our land is packed full of nature at its best. And it’s from this land that we make our signature beer, Molson Canadian. Brewed without preservatives, Molson Canadian is proudly made locally in Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, Moncton and St. John’s.”

Made from Canada, literally.

International beers to me have signature flavours, I can taste a standard beer and tell you if its American, Chinese, Japanese, Mexican or European. Molson Canadian has a different signature flavour again. I will have to try other Canadian beers to make a comparison.

My first Canadian Beer.

On a first try this was a nice, pleasant beer, I recommend it if you want to try something different. Down here in Tasmania though it is a bit hard to source but the great thing about a competitive beer market is that international imports seem to keep popping up for us to drink.

Cheers,

Dave

Space Frontier

I’m a big sci-fi fan so when I find out there is a sci-fi beer made by Italian Craft Brewers Brew Fist I knew I was going to do a blog on this.

I haven’t had much experience at all with Italian beers but Brew Fist have given me some good brews in the past including the Spaghetti Western Imperial Stout.

Another fine product by Brew Fist

This brewer cares about their product, not only do they produce fantastic beer but they have such creative labels to market them.

On first note the Space Frontier Grape India Pale Ale beer had a very fruity smell, no aliens came flying out of it though.

At 6% it had a nice kick to it upon tasting, the flavours were rich and it made me think of movies such as Star Wars or the famous sci-fi novel series Universal Conflict.

What the beer makes me think of

Check this out for an interesting ingredients list, the beer is made with Pilsner, Oat and Grape must malts and two hop varieties, Citra and Mosaic.

In Tasmania, I only know of it being sold at Crown Cellars in Launceston, apart from that you are on your own.

Cheers,

Dave

Aliens ahead!