Craft Beer Advent Calendar Thread

No chance I'll be buying the new Craft Beer Advent Calendar. Total waste of money last two years

 

Is it equally old & shitty?

 

Do you sell an advent calendar at Costco? Yes, the facts are right.

 

This is the post that finally got me ticked off enough to put you on ignore, hoser. Not that you'll see anything wrong with your posting or behaviour, but introspection has never been the strongest of your qualities.

Christian, would advise you do the same.

 

Very confused...

 

With this comment hoser implied that the "BeerAdvent Calendar" available at Costco is the same product and beer as in the "Craft BeerAdvent Calendar", which it clearly isn't. I only stated that the Costco "BeerAdvent" Calendar is different from the "Craft BeerAdvent" Calendar - I never denied that this was not our product, but that was also clearly not in question. But to make hoser happy - yes, both calendars were produced by us. But the two products are fundamentally different, and the difference is not only in the price.

In the past hoser has been known to especially criticize our products whenever he can (not just here), but especially the Craft BeerAdvent Calendar, without clearly knowing (or just not posting all) the facts about them. This is then misleading forum users and consumers to wrong conclusions and hence discrediting our product(s).

 

For everyone's disclosure, here's the facts about both Calendars:

The Craft BeerAdvent Calendar

• Calendar Package: great sturdy corrugated Cardboard Package and great design, as we had it already in the past years.
• Beer Container: 24 Glass Bottles of various sizes - larger and heavier because of bottles, hence shipping is far more expensive
• Breweries: strting this year - 24 different producers every year, all Craft Beer Producers that will change every year. We try to use new breweries every year whenever possible
• Beer: 24 different beer styles, many of the beers (10 for 2014) were (and will be) specially created for the calendar. The beers will change every year.
• Theme: Every year a different theme (2012 was European, 2013 was North America, 2014 is International) - we are sourcing 24 different beers every year!
• Process: Package made in Canada, all 24 different beers brought into Canada, assembled here (hourly cost for the assembly is $56), palletized - hence higher freight cost.
• Price: Retail between $130 and $150 (some stores include Gst & Deposit in this price)

Costco BeerAdvent Calendar

• Calendar Package: Generic Christmas illustration, "Packaged for Costco" on the side panel
• Beer Container: 24 Cans, 500mL each, lighter and thus far cheaper in shipping
• Breweries: Multiple beers from some breweries, larger sized european breweries, no craft beer producer, will stay the same every year
• Beer: 24 different beers, mostly European Lagers, Dunkel and Hefeweizen - these beers will stay the same every year (depending on availability
• Theme: Will be the same theme and beer every year
• Process: 24 beers assembled in Europe (hourlu cost for the assembly is $12) , then shipped in Containers to Canada (floor loaded) - way cheaper freight cost
• Price: Retail for $86.99 (+Gst + Deposit)

There are a few comments about "old beer" and price that I want to clarify here as well:

The sourcing for the beer for the Craft Beer Advent Calendar starts 14-16 months ahead of the assembly. The assembly of the Calendars takes about a month and a half, and can only be done once all components (beer, cardboard, handle) have arrived. With the assembly starting in the mid of August, Beers need to be available at the warehouse early August, as customs clearance and liquor board buerocracy takes it's time. Hence the beers need to be ready in early July for shipping. Beers from the US normally take about 2-3 weeks to get here, depending on where in the US. California can take up to 2 weeks on trucking, East Coast up to 4 weeks at times. That always depends on truck & equipment availability, which is in the summertime due to produce shipments from the US to Canada not always that easy. Shipping from anywhere overseas takes even longer. Anyone enjoying beers from Europe - well, shipping time in the summer is on average 7 weeks, in the winter a minimum of 10-12 weeks as containers go via the panama canal - that's for ALL beers from Europe, regardless. On top comes minimum a week in the warehouse for clearance, labeling etc., then another week for distribution to the store. That much to a statement of "old" beer... Think about these facts when you're in store next time buying a beer that you think is "fresh". No beer is really fresh, unless it is local.

It is by far not easy to get 24 breweries to produce that much special beer in summertime (which is the peak beer selling season) that lasts and tastes good until Christmas, but this has been our first requirement since day one. During the selection process, we even ask breweries 2-3 times, if the beer will hold until then. Some breweries decline, and are weeded out. But all breweries from the past have ensured us that their beer will be good and OK up until January after christmas. There have been instances where the beer did not last, but this can happen with any beer, any producer and any time, not only the calendar - with any beer you buy off the shelf, everywhere, not just ours. If that happens in the Calendar, we are very sorry about that.

As to the cost of the calendar: Our price to the government liquor boards hasn't changed much in the past three years. We had to raise the price to the liquor boards only by about $10 per Calendar due to currency conversions and higher freight cost - the Canadian Dollar has lost a lot of value in the past 2 years.
Yes - it is a fact that the price has gone up more than that, but this is mostly to be blamed on the government liquor boards markup rules. Last year, all beers received a "small breweries markup", as all breweries were under 20,000hl annual production. This year, 23 breweries have that too, but one brewery in the Craft BeerAdvent Calendar exceeds the 200,000hl production limit, and the liquor boards do not reward that reduced markup to the individual beers, ony the complete package, hence the complete package has a higher price. It is not us that takes the cash - it is the provincial liquor boards taking that.

If anyone has any questions aout the Calendar, I am happy to answer all of them - post them here, message me, or send me an email at christian (at) craftbeerimports.ca

 

Thanks for clarifying and no I didn't know the two were different at the time of posting just that one was sold at Costco so nothing was intentional misrepresented. As to bashing the calendar, piling on yes once a thread has started, bashing no, but as always Christian thanks for not letting the truth get in the way of a good story. If you are going to continue this Christian please lets take this offline, you know how to get a hold of me.

 

I appreciate the work Christian does to bring awesome beer to us. That being said, it's great to have an explanation as to why the beer is mostly old on the advent calendar. I will be buying a snow case this year as it is half the cost and of, in my opinion beers of better quality

 

I'm not only talking about "old" beer in the Calendar... ALL beers in Canada that come from oversees are well aged.

 

I'm well aware of that and for that reason I never buy ipas or the like in Alberta. One thing I'd love to see would be a calendar of ageable beers ss such as imperial stouts saisons sours etc . It's cold out in December so it fits.

Kudos to you Christian. No matter how much people shit on the product you still sell a boat load of these.

 

One thing I'd suggest which might be helpful for people looking to maximise anything hoppy in the calendars - if you would be willing to state behind which doors hoppy beers reside, that'd be a great help to a couple folks on here. Last year I obtained a list of the beers from somebody who bought one and opened everything, and then passed along a list of days which had IPAs and similar behind them to a couple folks who asked about it so they could open those in advance. I think that'd be a nice option as I know there will be a fair few folks here buying one anyway.

 

Thing is, if the beers are at least from August, will three more weeks (at maximum) make a big enough difference to break the calendar flow?

 

Think stating what is behind each door ruins the spirit of the calendar a little like opening ones presents early. Here is a suggestion Christian in the future make the first week all IPAs and increase the IBUs and ABVs until they are done in the calendar after all both are natural preservatives and you done your best to make the beer geeks happy. That might stop this thread happening every year. In the end it doesn't matter most stores say most of these are bought non beer geeks girlfriends and wives as a neat idea, which they are and posters here are less that 1% of your total sales of this item. For me and off topic I am going to buy Kensington Wine Market's whisky advent calendar and not even the biggest whisky fan am little excited about it.

 

They go on sale before December - if you pick one up in early November you've got more like 6 weeks, which I think would make a difference (it won't magically make them fresh again, sure, but it'll improve them). And even if it didn't you can still restock the empty holes with beers that will hold up better.

 

I think maybe cutting out IPA's is a good idea, or anything that really depends on freshness...

 

Agreed. I'd love to see a barleywine, stout, porter, wee heavy, etc etc etc themed advent calendar... though I doubt folks like me make up the majority of the sales.

In any case, will be interesting to see what beers show up this year. Hope I get proven wrong!

 

I'm going to go to Bellingham, spend $60-70 on 24 singles I've never had, and get my gf to randomly put them in a 24 shipper. Half the price, uber the awesome.

 

Not if you factor in the cost of petrol & customs, @JonnyBeers

 

Plus the element of surprise would be gone.