Costco Brewer's Advent Calendar (2020)

Wife did for me last year drank about half before I quit super tinny n oxidized but some people loved them...good luck

 

You think there is a reasonable likelihood that we are actually going to make it to 2021?

 

This would be the first year I would actually be on board, but I'm still not going to stores and I can't instacart it. Too bad cause 2020 is the year of "Fuck it. I'll drink that."

 

still not going to stores?! That’s rough.

 

That made me laugh... when I read your reference to doing "research" I assumed that meant you were starting to drink the contents early. The thought never occurred to me that you were really going to look at BA ratings as "research" on the quality of the contents.

 

My wife gave this to me last year. No beers were outstanding, but most were enjoyable.

 

I don't know. I'm kind of loving having everything just show up at my house. Grocery delivery is awesome.

 

Frankly, considering their buying power and the excellent job they do with wine, Costco could have done a much better job with beer.

 

~ half of those beers were in last year's Costco box (indicated by bold).

My average rating for the 20 beers I had (I bought the box off of a friend after he had consumed 4 of the beers) was 3.47, ranging from a low of 2.55 to a high of 4.21, with most being in the 3.5 to 3.8 range.

But, I got the remaining 20 beers in the box in late February (as I recall) so they all had a bit of age on them, especially the last few since I spread them out over the next few months (!?!).

 

Now THIS is extra credit research! Well done!

 

Probably not
See mummy revealed as Egyptian coffin is opened for first time in 2,500 years

 

Are you saying we are cursed?

 

Yeah, pretty much

 

My rating of 2019 was an A- for selection.
2020 was relatively disappointing, currently a C+ based on selection.
Why the rapid drop ?
2019 hit my sweet-spot. My beer strategy is to try as many different brewers as possible. From the 2019 case, I believe I had 18 brewers new to me, or 75% of the 24 beers. The other beers, made inexpensive Christmas gifts to my nephews. Fine. Mission Accomplished. A great find indeed, since I'd only been to Bavaria once and only for two days. It pays to find locals who can find micros for you.

So, I eagerly anticipated Kalea's 2020 Calendar. But, it turns out to be less curated than I thought. This year, there are only five new brewers, or 20.8% of the case. Another 6 beers were brews I had not tried, but were repeats of brewers from 2019. And 13 beers -- over half -- were repeats from last year. While a few may be worth repeating, I probably won't as I try to save my allowable calories for new brewers (or saisons.) But even as gifts to my nephews, Kalea's Calendar is still a good value. It also is great marketing to spread the mission of Bavarian beer.

Bottom-line: if you want to maximize new brewers for every Advent Calendar that you buy, then buy one every three years.