
Carwyn Cellars is a name that every Australian Craft Beer lover should know. It's one of, if not 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".
I'm not 100% sure why I didn't document my BrewDog Advent Calendar this time last year - I wonder if it got lost with moving in and recovering from surgery... In any case; I'm not going to make the same mistake this year!
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.

The beer is crystal clear and has a very short lived white head. The first thing I noticed was the nose, which smells exactly like a piece Juicy Fruit gum.There is plenty of fruit up front, before a bone dry finish kicks in. I don't think I've ever had a beer that finishes as dry as this one does! Something I didn't notice is the 8% ABV! It's dangerously well hidden in such a smashable beer! This is the first Brut IPA to really grab me & I wondering if it's because of the additional fruit that this one packs; the dryness really suits it!

Up front I get a big whack of passionfruit, which has a bit of tartness about it. There's limited Guava, although this is probably to be expected - as I don't think it'd be particularly easy to brew with. The beer would go down beautifully on a stinking hot day! For 3.2% they have packed a lot of flavour into this little beer.
Sticky Bandits is no exception! This is a superb beer! The first big tick is that they've produced an Australian NEIPA that is actually hazy! The second big tick is the wonderful aroma & taste of tropical fruits! While finally, it doesn't pack that unnecessary bitterness that many Australian examples tend to. All-in-all a superb beer and one that I hope they release again!

The beer itself is pretty interesting. It pours with quite a white head for such a pinkish-red beer. There's some sourness, although it's certainly not overpowering. The fruit flavour isn't distinctly cherry, but it's definitely one of those red fruits, although not one I can name right now...

I may have waxed lyrical about the Mr Banks NEIPA above, but this is even better! There is so much to like about this beer. There is so much pineapple, mango and even citrus notes on top of really well rounded base beer. There's perceptible bitterness, although it certainly doesn't feel out of place in this beer. Please, please, please Exit; brew this beer again!
Five days in, I'm so glad that I've stumped up for the Carwyn Canvent Calendar! All five beers are beers that I would happily buy again if they were to be reproduced down the track. As expected Victorian breweries are well represented, with four of the offerings so far from Carwyn's home state. It will be interesting to see if that changes as the Canvent continues. I will say that I think this is a wonderful example of the state of Australian craft beer; long may it continue to improve!
Remember it's always Beer O'Clock somewhere in the world!
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