Carwyn Canvent (Part 5)
Carwyn Cellars is a name that every Australian Craft Beer lover should know. It’s the preeminent bottle shops in the country. For their advent calendar, they’ve partnered with 24 Australian Craft Breweries to make an exclusive canned release for their “Canvent Calendar”.
After the success of last year there was only ever going to be one Advent Calendar I’d buy this year! Once again this year I’ll be cataloging the contents of the Carwyn Canvent Advent Calendar. The Carwyn Canvent Calendar is going to get the full treatment – and with any luck you’ll have updates every 5 days. In the interim, let me know what Advent Calendar you’ve got this year and your initial thoughts on it so far.
Day 21 – Modus Operandi Margie – I was pretty surprised to see the Modus Operandi offering was a sour. I guess it’s good that they’re branching out and trying new things, however I would’ve expected they would produce something more hop forward. Anyway a Lime Gose sounds like the perfect beer to crack after a hot summer’s day.
My tasting notes for this weren’t particularly good… However I do strongly recall there being plenty of salt, plenty of lime & some nice acidity. I don’t particularly remember the day, although I guessing it was cooler as my tasting notes mostly reference how refreshing it would’ve been in the day befores heat…
Day 22 – New England Imperial Chai Brown Ale – At the complete opposite end of the spectrum for beers I’d like to drink on a hot December’s night was the offering from New England Brewing Co, from Uralla in Central NSW. I’m normally not one to complain about seeing a Brown Ale, but an almost 8% adjuncted version isn’t normally what I’m after in December…
Thankfully, the beer was really good! There was plenty of sweet malts, which blended quite nicely with the chai. Chai is one of those things I find can very easily be overpowering, although I think they got the level right in this beer. I know some people were disappointed to find out that this beer had previously been released in 2018, which isn’t really the point of the Canvent.
Day 23 – Otherside Tropical Imperial Sour – Otherside are making some really cool stuff at the moment, so I was really pleased to see one of their distinctive cans come out of the Canvent box on Day 23. Their offering is billed as a Tropical Imperial Sour. Honestly I’m not sure where I sit on Imperial Sours, often I don’t think the additional alcohol is doing anything for the flavour of the beer.
I really enjoyed the flavour of this beer. There was heaps of tropical fruit juice flavours, not dissimilar to a breakfast juice, which was then paired with some acidity. The carbonation was spritzy and at sub 4% ABV I would drink many of these. Unfortunately it clocks in at almost 7% & I don’t understand what the additional ABV is doing to improve the beer.
Day 24 – Boatrocker B.A. Humbug – This years Canvent had been relatively light on for Christmas related puns. Boatrocker have delivered a beauty with their Barrel Aged English Strong Ale; B.A. Humbug. Boatrocker are one of the best exponents of barrel aged beers in the country so I went in with high expectations!
I’m sad to say those expectations weren’t met; although that’s probably because I expect so much from Boatrocker. The beer was nice, just a little unbalanced. I thought it was overspiced. particularly with cinnamon & all spice, whilst it was also a little hot. In more positive thoughts, I liked the earthy malt based as well as the vanilla you get from whiskey barrel aging. I wonder if this would be better with some further age on it…
It’s only taken until early-February, but my Canvent wrap up that I aim to have up around Christmas is finally done & dusted. Overall I think this years Canvent was a little bit down on the very high standard they set last year. At this stage I think I would probably get another one next year, although the door is slightly ajar in case something truly truly exceptional comes along.
Remember it’s always Beer O’Clock somewhere in the world!
