It's Advent so I'm building the Home Alone house out of Lego (set 21330) over 24 steps and 24 days and as well as drinking 24 Australian craft beers curated by Carwyn Cellars in an event called canvent. So each day we have a new beer and a new bit of Lego to build.
Here are the previous parts:
Day 1-3
Day 4 - 7
Day 8 - 10
Day 11-13
Day 14-17
We are absolutely on the home stretch now
Day 18
Boatrocker Feel Good Pale Ale.
Boatrocker are a Melbourne brewery and make some of the the most sophisticated and complex beers I know (and very well I might add), so when I saw, a simple pale ale I I was a little disappointed, where are my barrels, my soured wild foraged sea urchins? But then again it’s a very good pale ale, and there is little better in the beer world than a well made Pale ale 4.25/5
As for our Home Alone house (remember the pic is of the day before) we have moved onto the Attic, and this step was, well a little dull, it was a floor and a lot of white tiles to make the eaves. But it's all working towards something. The space we are working in on this house is getting smaller and smaller.
Day 19
Good Land The Pud Barely Wine
This is our second 'Pud' beers, the first was from Garage Project a few days ago, this one from Regional Victorian brewery Good Land. Now it's dawning on me that our international readers are likely confused by the concept of 'Pud' This is typically Australian in the sense that it's actually a english tradition of 'Plum Pudding' which is a steamed pudding (which has no plums in it) and the wonderful trait we have of shortening words (because words are hard) so their are many families, my own included which have Christmas Plum Pudding or as we would call it Chrissy Pud. With is a sweet cinnamon, nutmeg infused warming pudding which is not what you really need when it's 30 degrees C - much like a Barley wine.
But this is a really good beer, malt driven little bit of sweetness but gentle and good drinking, definitely the pick of the puds 4.25/5
And the Lego build, well you can see that we are essentially building roofs now, there is a look of angled tile work going on, it's a little fiddley, and we have the makings of some attic windows, but really it's a good thing the beer was good because this was just a lot of throwing down white bricks which looked the same.
Day 20
Sailor's Grave Glaze
We are continuing our traditional English Christmas Meal in beer form theme today with 'Glaze' which is meant to remind me of the glaze which is placed on a baked ham which you might have at Christmas. It's from Sailor's Grave which are very very unusual brewery down the coast in Victoria - they produce a lot of very unusual beers, often with salty, seafoody vibes, so if anyone can make this work it'll be them. And it does - it’s a strange mix of saltiness, sweetness but with a lingering tang like mandarin or marmalade, which is exactly what a glazed ham tastes like. - It probably shouldn't be what a beer tastes like but it's very complex and super interesting 4.25/5
And in our build you can see that this is getting tricky, this is a very small space we are working in and we've managed to fit another bed in - seemingly the bed Kevin is banished to at the start of the movie and from which he somehow doesn't hear all of his family leave him Home Alone. A nice touch is sitting next to the bed is the 'Battle Plan' that him draws for keep out the wet bandits - should mention that the instruction box also has that vibe as well.
Day 21
Black Arts - Berry Christmas
Black Arts are a tiny sour brewery located about 3km from my house, I only encounter them rarely, but everytime I do they are amazing. They produce very limited number of very sophisicated aged beers. This is a sour farmhouse ale which looks and smells very christmassy it has a bit of raspberry and cherry flavour coming through and good sourness, it's not their best beer, but it's still pretty good - 4/5
And we have an (almost) completed house, at least from the front (we actually have the basement and kitchen and treehouse to go but they are all out the back) The build today/yesterday was actually the end of the attic, the whole top section is hinged so you can open it up and see inside, the other highlight was the attic windows, they use a very unusual building technique to get the peaks correct, and they join a little wonky.
I have to say - I'm very happy with the house so far - not much to go now, and not much beer left either.