Last year I got a Kalea one from Groupon. They have 5 different ones this year but they don’t appear to be available in the UK. They don’t post to the UK either.
I took a look at the Beerhawk one. You can get a list e-mailed to you. Four I’ve already had. A couple of interesting ones but also some supermarket ones (including one I bought today).
Currently thinking either Honestbeer (£65, all cans) or a Belgian one from Amazon at £90. May message the Belgians and see what’s in it - listing mentions something like 9 Christmas beers, 6 trappist and a Kriek. I need to step up on my Belgian beers as I have been slacking on but it would be annoying to end up with the few ticks I’ve had.
The NZ online place that does advent calendars announced there’s a few weeks ago. Did seem extraordinarily early, but I guess this way they’re essentially getting preorders which’ll make it easier for them. I am pretty tempted as I will actually be home most of December this year. Obviously there’s the concern of buying a box of 24 new beers and finding I’ve had half of them before, but the whole point is the excitement of pulling out an unknown beer every day… If I know what’s in it it’s going to be less fun, but if I don’t it might be a waste of money.
Fuck AbInBev. Fuck BeerHawk. Always surprises me that people here are generally supportive of them. That list doesn’t look too impressive anyway, most easily available, many from supermarkets. Far better options available.
HB&B seems expensive but I reckon it’ll be one of the top ones, you can guarantee you’ll be getting awesome beers.
Honestbeer? I presume you mean HonestBrew? I suspect theirs will be decent, if I remember correctly last year’s was favouring pale ales - didn’t have it myself but I seem to remember some comments about that.
I’ve no experience with the Belgian ones but if you’re after Belgian ticks it sounds like a good idea?
One major one not mentioned is Hoptimism, theirs had excellent feedback last year and will likely be one of the best around. I don’t know if they reveal the list early though.
My issue is the same as many here where I kind of want it to be a surprise but at the same time I wanna know what I’m getting because I want to be drinking new stuff not beers I’ve had before. So I don’t bother with them.
I shall make my own this year; give the wife a box and 24 bottles/cans (all with plenty of date left on them) next week. She will then pack them in what ever order she likes and I will have forgotten what I have given her by 1st Dec.
Just hope I don’t re-buy any of them before Christmas by mistake.
Ouch, hadn’t noticed that! That’s probably the most expensive I’ve seen, working out to ~£5.20 a beer. That said, I would expect some amazing beers at that price. Also reading the description: https://hoptimism.co.uk/products/hoptimism-advent-calendar
It sounds like a lot of thought is being put into it. So despite the high cost, could definitely be worthwhile. Could be worth getting in touch and asking for a list, or examples of what might be included at least, to get a better idea of worth (assuming you’re comfortable paying that in the first place of course). Same to be said for any of these really.
As some of you realise from my bottleshop directory I regularly buy beers online from various different shops, so I’ll keep an eye out and post here any others I see announced.
Yeah both seem good. I’d lean towards Hoptimism as it stands. I reckon I’ll have had a bunch of the Beer Gonzo ones already (Neon Raptor, Black Iris, NM, possibly the 3F depending what it is).
Unrelated to advent calendars but Hoptimism are definitely one of the best online bottleshops in my opinion, I also like the fact that they usually mark out of date or short-dated beers on the website and sell them at a discount. Plenty of other shops don’t do this.
If you’re interested in the breweries/beers they offer (which is often all the latest “fuss”) then I rank them up there with HonestBrew, Hop Shop Aberdeen, HB&B, GhostWhale, and RADBeer. Everyone I think already knows Beer Gonzo and BeerMerchants too, they’ve both been around for ages. They’re all great shops and I typically rotate between buying from any of them, depending on who has what stock in at the time I’m ordering.
*puts on BBC voice* of course, hundreds of other bottleshops are available to buy from.
Back to advent calendars, if you’re a Mikkeller fan remember that they do a “Julepakkekalender”. Looks like it’s a bit too early as I don’t see a 2018 version on their site yet, but it could be up to 24 new Danish ticks I suppose. I think previous years sold for 1000 DKK (currently around £120) - possibly a bit expensive for a single brewery’s beers, but just thought I’d mention it in case someone’s interested.
To Øl similarly do a “To Ølekalender” at 900 DKK.
HeinetownBeaverken Beavertown advent calendar pre-orders “coming soon”. No idea if it’s just their own stuff or includes guest breweries. Do they even have 24 different beers out at any one time? Doubt it. So this must include some guest beers.
£95. Another one adding some personal touches and doing a little extra. Some excellent breweries featured though not a complete beer listing revealed. You get to choose your Christmas Eve beer (well, the style at least); one of sour, Belgian, barleywine or stout - no specifics other than it is something special that they claim would retail for over £10. Free shipping and you also receive a 10% discount voucher for a future purchase.
This one actually sounds rather enticing and is at a slightly lower price point than many others so far. Surprising because not gonna lie I’ve found BottleShop’s online offerings to be rather expensive since they launched earlier in the year and have favoured other online retailers because of this. Appreciate their commitment to cold-chain and especially US imports though. Worth a peep for sure.
My wife got me the beerhawk one. I know fuck them @LazyPyro. Lol, still at least 20 new ticks in there for me from what I can tell. She ordered another but not sure which or when it arrives. M&S has some collab pack out to that I will probably grab. Nothing to interesting but tickers got to tick.
I am doing my own Advent Calendar this year. I was going to get another German one but there are too many repeats in them.
So I have a garage full of beer I haven’t drunk in 10 years, so I’m doing a Advent Calendar of Struise, De Molen, Westvleteren, Rochefort, Orval, Boon, Drie Fonteinen of various ages.
I’ll write out numbers 1 to 24 and get my sister to blind label them for me.
Sounds good to me.
Oh and a BrewDog Rip Tide stout from like 5 years ago.
And a JW Lees Harvest Ale from the 2005 I think.
And a Harveys Imperial Stouts.
Just shit that needs drinking. Will post on here as I drink them…