Xmas Advent Calendars 2016 Dec 6 – 10

Welcome back to Dave’s Beers of the World where we only talk about beer, maybe cider sometimes.

We’re back into the second part of this years Advent Calendar challenge.

In case you haven’t read the other two I’ve purchased two very different craft beer advent calendars, I will tell you as much as I can about them and fill you in on the goodies they contain. Will one of them stand out better than the other? We will have to get to December 24 to find out.

Warning, spoilers ahead.

December 6

December 6

Bridge Road Golden Ale

Bridge Road have their name all over the carton so it should come as no surprise that most of the beers are from their brewery. This is based on the original first recipe that Bridge Road used back in 2005 when they were brewing out of a ‘shed’. Made with locally grown hops it has a very nice character.

Modus Operandi IPA

For can #2 in the adventure this one was a big 500ml container of liquid joy. Modus are a well-known Australian craft beer brewer, based in NSW. The Sonic Prayer IPA is made with ‘mind-altering’ amounts of new world hops and has a very nice fruity feel, with hints of passionfruit, citrus and peach.

December 7

December 7

Big Shed Kol Schisel German Pale Ale

This beer really threw me, I wasn’t expecting anything like this, the German themed beer has bread and malt flavours that make it taste like a very classy Victorian tap beer. Only at 4.2% it isn’t as strong but was a pleasure to sample.

Brewdog Five AM Red Ale

A UK alternative craft beer, this one is made with five different malts and had a peculiar taste, not a bad one, just different, it gave me a bit of a jolt.

December 8

December 8

Bridge Road Enigma New World Pilsner

The Australian grown hop Enigma is where this beer gets its name, this is a new style beer with a traditional European pilsner feel has a nice flavour and bite to it, I hope to get more of these one day.

Pirate Life Pale Ale

A South Australian brew, this was a nice beer wrapped in a plain can, Pirate Life have produced many great beers over the time.

December 9

December 9

Feral Hop Hog

I’ve had this one a few times, a Western Australia beer packed with American hops. It is a good quality beer with a slight fruity taste.

Iron House London Honey Porter

I’m a big fan of Iron House brewery (Tasmania) as you well know, I had no idea they made this until I unwrapped it from the Saint John carton. Honey beers are odd in my opinion, I’ve tried quite a few and they are an acquired taste. A porter is a dark style beer originally from London from well-hopped beers made from brown malt. A honey addition to this makes it probably the most intriguing beer so far, I didn’t not like drinking it but I’m not sure if I would buy it in bulk in the future.

December 10

December 10

Bridge Road Bling India Pale Ale

Another fun brew by the flagship brewer for the advent calendar. This one is known for the large amount of hops added, rating nine out of ten on their hop scale. Very much an IPA, this is a very good one.

Trappistes Rochefort

This one caught me by surprise once I unwrapped it. A Belgian beer with a 10% alcohol rating has added a new depth to this adventure. Being a strong beer it was potent and a bit difficult to drink, needless to say, once I was finished after having this beer second I definitely felt buzzed. For that strength I would imagine that this once will cost a bit but it was a fun ride.

I have really enjoyed every beer between the two cartons so far, a lot of variety and different styles. Christmas is getting closer, have you decided what beer you will be drinking when the big man in the red suit comes?

Cheers,

Dave

Xmas Advent Calendars 2016 December 1 – 5

Warning: Spoilers ahead.

If you want to know what I’ve been drinking then continue reading.

Update:

Saint John Craft Beer managed to put together one more carton so I can go ahead and compare the contents of two very different craft beer advent calendars.

Saint John carton rundown:

Compared to last year’s carton more thought and detail has been put in. Included in the carton is a nice, inspiring note from Saint John.

Instead of brown paper bags around each beer this year they are special Saint John printed paper wrapped.

It is going to be a fun lead up to Xmas.

Let’s get started

December 1

Young Henry’s Newtowner

Our first beer is from Newtown, NSW, a place known as a hub for artists and musicians. To celebrate the 150^th anniversary of Newtown, Young Henry’s made this beer using a trio of Tassie Hops. Because of it’s popularity it has continued to be brewed and was a very nice beer to start off this adventure.

Epic Awakening Pils

First from Saint John is from over the water in New Zealand. Awakening is best described by its name, it truly is an awakening to drink it and has me excited about what is to come.

December 2

Bridge Road Celtic Red Ale

I was wondering how long it would be before the flagship brewer of the carton appeared. The Celtic Red Ale was first brewed as a ‘one off’ for the annual Beechworth Celtic Festival but due to popularity it became a permanent edition to Bridge Road’s lineup. A very different beer to what I normally drink but it was pretty good.

Little Rivers Stronach Hoppy Lager

Thank you Saint John for bringing a Tasmanian beer early into the carton. This was a great beer to drink, very hoppy as the name suggests and at 5.8% it ticked all the boxes for me. Made with only the four key ingredients, water, hops, malt and yeast this beer is styled after a cross between and American IPA and an American style lager.

December 3

Moon Dog Mack Daddy Dark Ale

The first Victorian beer to appear in this beer quest. As the name suggests it is a dark tasting beer, it was good to drink but dark ales aren’t my favourite, it won’t be my #1 this Christmas but still worth drinking.

Dugges The Tropic Sunrise Sour Fruit Ale

WTH??? This Swedish craft beer was definitely an experience. Made with fermented mango, pineapple and raspberry this was easy enough to drink but affected my mouth in a way a beer never has before. I had a couple of beers before drinking this so I didn’t get the full favour hit, but wow, if you want something unreal to try then look for one of these.

December 4

Bridge Road Robust Porter

Bridge Road continue to excite me, this time with their Robust Porter made with roasted barley and chocolate which made me crave chocolate afterwards. It is a dark beer but very different to the Moon Dog, this was really good.

Liberty Knife Party IPA

Before I drink it I was already wondering about the strange name and label. Brewed in Auckland, New Zealand, this beer was a one off brewed for the West Coast IPA challenge in 2013, it won and is still being made to this day. It’s flavour comes from the large amount of USA hops thrown in to create something unique and exciting.

December 5

Van Dieman White Hills White Ale

Another Tasmanian beer, Van Dieman is an amazing brewery. This beer however, made to be a Belgian Witbier with orange peel and coriander was a bit difficult to drink.

Vale Mid Coast

The first can in the Xmas Beer adventure, this was a very pleasant summer inspired ale. The blue dots on the can actually have a funny texture as you hold it. This beer is from South Australia and like many summer ales is a little weak, at 3.5%.

December has only just got started and there are many more beers to drink.

Cheers,

Dave

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!

Halloween 2016

It’s about time to howl at the moon and tighten those neck bolts. Halloween in Australia is getting stronger every year, still not at the point where trick or treating is a proper thing yet but it’s a fun and scary time.

I don’t know about you but I like a good scare every now and again… not the ‘Boag’s is out of beer’ kind of scare but I think you get what I mean.

Halloween is a fun time of the year

This Halloween I want to get into the mood and spice up my beer drinking.

I’m limited being in Tasmania as Halloween themed beer is mostly in the US, I’m on the hunt though if any does exist here.

What I can do though is be a bit creative with the beer we already have.

Big orange pumpkins are things you see in movies where I come from but suddenly they are appearing in supermarkets and make excellent beer coolers once gutted and filled with ice.

I want to do this one year

After much searching I stumbled upon a new beer by rising to fame Tasmanian craft beer company Last Rites Brewing Co. Their new product is called Love Country, a Tasmanian IPA. It is a unique feeling of a pina colada with fruit and roasted coconut flavours along with the rich IPA bite. I enjoyed drinking this and even though it isn’t exactly a Halloween beer I went with it.

There are many kinds of Halloween themed beers out there, they just don't make it to Tasmania, follow this link to check them out: http://www.newschoolbeer.com/2015/10/thirteen-best-horror-fantasy-sci-fi-beers-for-halloween.html

He had a few too many...

Have a great Halloween everyone.

Cheers,

Dave

Veras 1866

Take two with French beer

I reviewed the French Beer Saint Mihal back in March and I’ve finally found a new French beer that is for sale in Australia and luckily it redeems my opinion of French beer (sort of).

Veras 1866 is advertised as a Premium European Lager, it definitely smells like a European beer, it even tastes like one. I had a couple of cold ones after a long day at the office and I was pretty satisfied.

At 4% it isn't a proper heavy beer but is easy to drink so you still get a good buzz from it.

The green bottle and classy label reminds me of Beck’s and Stella Artois, very good European beers.

But reading the label in between sips I saw something that I wasn’t really happy with… The ingredients list.

Maise, hop extracts and caramel aren’t things I like to have in a beer, I’m wondering if this is a common thing for French beer?

Regardless, this is a moderately priced beer (around $50 a carton) and passed the taste test.

Make sure you bring a bottle opener, pop tops

If you are looking for something different to try have a hunt around for this.

Thank you,

Dave 

I wonder if she drinks Veras?