Craft Beer Advent Calendar Thread

Gas is minimal, plus I can fill my tank in BHam for $10-15 cheaper there, which outweighs that cost. And customs generally doesn't care with Nexus. Element of surprise, that's why you get someone to pack it! I'd rather have that than the commercial release. And I'll be honest, 24 beers we don't get here already? Why don't we get them? There's a very simple answer to that question. West Coast is JACKED with new beers, hard to beat what's available and can't even keep up locally. Even last time I was in Calgary the singles selection was pretty awesome (beer, I'm talking about beer )

 

Phillip's has just annouced , http://www.canadianbeernews.com/201...ease-date-launches-website-for-snowcase-2014/, prost

 

Parallel 49 and Central City announced one today to.

 

Interesting, be cool to see what they have in there!

 

BCL has the snowcase in. Just picked up mine at the cambie store!

 

Has anyone picked up any of the calendars yet? Really want to know what's in them.

 

I've got:

* A list of 22 of the beers in the Craft Advent calendar, in no particular order
* A list of all the beers in the P49 / CC collab one, also in no particular order

If you'd like either, please PM and I'll send it over.

 

Without getting into specifics (still want the surprise, heh), does the P49/CC advent calendar look compelling according to your list? Is there a good number of non-standard beers included? I'm hoping it isn't all the standards from each of their lineups with just a couple of special beers thrown in. Was hoping it would be, save for a few fillers here and there, mostly new/seasonal specialties made specifically for this case.

 

Without going into detail- I'm afraid that's a very accurate description.

 

Having received the list from @Lurkaholic , all I can say is i'm happy with my decision to not purchase any of this year's calendars.

 

Ah nuts. Oh well, lesson learned for next time.

 

These things (All 3 different advent boxes) are sitting around EVERYWHERE. Seems like beer geeks aren't the only ones not overly impressed. Over-saturated the market this time that's for sure.

 

There's going to be lots left over in Alberta too, a whole lot.

 

I do believe all of the Craft Calendars have been spoken for in Edmonton, at least. Not sure about the other 2, though.

 

Well day one of the Parallel 49/Central City advent calendar yielded a beer called, Schwarzwald. "This is an imperial porter with huge amounts of cherries and cocoa nibs to give a black forest cake flavour." Sounds interesting! It's in the fridge for later tonight. Looking forward to trying it.

Anyone else open their first day yet?

 

I grabbed a discounted CC/49 calendar a few days ago and much like the chocolate advent calendars from my childhood it was consumed before the first of December. Well I guess I have yet to drink the BB impy porter and the BB Thor but I might age them for a while.

 

Not sure if you folks out west get access to Shmaltz's Hanukkah gift pack, but I find it is a fun and cheeky alternative to these beer advent calendars. I got one for $30, it includes 8 Shmaltz beers, candles for your "beer menorah" and details on a contest for best designs. The beers may not be the best, but they have originality in naming and marketing at Shmaltz. A good bit of fun. Beernukkah runs from December 16-24 this year.

 

I understand that everyone wants the IPA's as fresh as possible, but you do know this 'style' was conceived to survive a voyage to India. Yes the flavour will change, but it's still very drinkable.

What I don't understand are the less than 5%, filtered and force-carbed brews that have much less chance of surviving. Today's bitter was a sour drain pour. This doesn't do the brewery justice and it's extremely poor value for the consumer. There's simply no point in shipping these beers around the world just to be poured down the drain.

I understand that this is a lot of work to put together, and I don't think the cost is unreasonable. But why package a beer that won't last? If you must put a few pasteurized brews in there, that's fine, but I think the bulk of it should be bottle-conditioned (and perhaps a bit stronger).

All that said, I've continued to support the Beer Advent... there have been some really great brews that I would not have had the opportunity to try... and I'm also a sucker for variety (and a daily surprise).

 

When we select beers, or breweries, we leave it up to the brewery to decide which beer they would like to add into the Craft BeerAdvent Calendar. We give them parameters in which the beer ahs to fall, in terms of shelf life, bottle conditioning, alcohol content (not above 11.9), bottle size, etc..

Some breweries decided to make a special beer, some decided to submit a beer from their regular lineup, if its within our set parameters.

Certainly we have some influence on what they send, but we still rely on the Breweries knowledge of their beers - they know best (or should know best) what beer fits into these parameters and what still good to drink in 1/2 year from whenever we ship.

As much as I hate to sat it, but it comes back to the brewery's decicion of what to send.

 

By the way, I looked at the average score's last year for the Beer Advent and the Phillips Snowcase. The beers submitted were certainly on-par, but the freshness was occasionally an issue:
http://www.bartowel.com/beer-advent-calendars/