RECENTLY someone in the office told me that they could remember the days when all you found behind the doors of Advent calendars were pictures.
Looking at the Brewdog Advent Calendar I’ve been tasked with reviewing, it’s safe to say we’ve come a long way.
Craft Beer Advent Calendar, £55 from Brewdog
I can’t imagine the German Lutherans who came up with the Advent calendar in the 19th century envisioned that within a couple of hundred years, their idea would have morphed into a 10kg box containing 24 cans of beer. (Then again, being German, perhaps they did).
Anyway, I’m not complaining — it’s certainly more fun to review two dozen cans of beer than pictures of the Nativity.
With that said, read on for my full Brewdog Advent Calendar review.
Brewdog is one of the only craft beer breweries I can think of that is big enough to offer a calendar like this.
There isn’t a single repeat beer here, and inside you’ll find lagers, IPAs, stouts and even a few seasonal specials included. It’s a testament to how big the brand has come.
Admittedly, the box is a bit naff; when you open one door it’s hard not to open another three with it by accident, and the novelty-Christmas-jumper design isn’t going to be winning any awards.
But if you like Brewdog beer, you won’t care about that. This is a box that allows you to try a new Brewdog product every single day.
Of course, you probably won’t like every single beer included and I’m sure cans like the Rocky Road stout will ruffle the moustaches of beer traditionalists, but it’s nice to see the brand bringing some fun to the festive season.
My only other small issue is the price. After doing some rough maths, I think that if you could buy all of the beers separately on Brewdog’s website (which you can’t), it’d cost you about the same as buying the Advent calendar.
Admittedly that’s not the intention of this calendar; instead, it’s a way to sample a wide selection of Brewdog beer without having to buy a ridiculous number of multipacks.
However, it would have been nice to see some sort of cash saving — the thinking being that only a small percentage of people will actually like every single beer offered in the calendar.
Craft Beer Advent Calendar, £55 from Brewdog
I’m the reviews manager at Sun Shopping, and at this time of year, I get the opportunity to review a wide variety of Advent calendars, containing everything from IPAs to eye creams.
Beer calendars are some of my favourites to review — it’s great to feel like you’re being productive while making your way through 10 kilos of beer. It takes me back to my days of working in pubs.
Once I’d managed to get the weighty calendar home, I blasphemously opened every door and have since been trying the beers while rating the overall calendar for its design, variety and value for money.
Craft Beer Advent Calendar, £55 from Brewdog
The Brewdog Advent Calendar is extraordinarily heavy.
This might feel like an obvious point to make — after all, the box contains 10kg of beer — but I made the mistake of getting the calendar delivered to The Sun’s office, and after lugging it home I feel the need to warn any potential buyers to get it delivered to their house, not their workplace.
Design-wise, it’s not winning any awards; Brewdog has gone down the novelty route, and the result is a box reminiscent of a supermarket Christmas jumper.
It hits all the classic Christmas notes — red, green, snowflakes, trees — but considering the effort Brewdog has put into curating a festive selection of beer, it could have put a few extra minutes into popping it into an attractive box.
I feel like the design is especially important with an Advent calendar such as this one, which is 65.5cm wide and 37cm tall; realistically you’ll have to have it out somewhere in your house for the entire month.
Brewdog does get brownie points for making its calendar fully recyclable, though its flimsy cardboard construction means that when you open one door, it’s easy to accidentally rip open another a the same time.
Realistically, though, most buyers of the Brewdog calendar won’t be buying it for its design; it’s the contents that count.
Brewdog has packed 24 different beers into its calendar, and it’s a well-curated selection.
There are Brewdog classics (Punk IPA, Hazy Jane and Lost Lager, for example), a couple of festive specials including one named after the Christmas film Elf, and some limited editions that are now sold out on the Brewdog site.
Craft Beer Advent Calendar, £55 from Brewdog
To like every beer here, you’ll need to have a pretty open mind and palette; the selection ranges from middle-of-the-road lagers like the 3.4% Cold Beer to more outlandish choices like the 6.8% Rocky Road Marshmallow Stout.
This is something that I was pleased to see; after all, Brewdog has made a name for itself thanks to its bold approach to beer-making, and I’d rather not like a couple of beers included than be sent a box full of nondescript crowdpleasers.
There are a couple of other Brewdog signatures here, too, including some hoppy, fruity IPAs like Hazy Jane Guava and Hoppy Xmas, and some high-alcohol beers like the 8.4% King Crush and the 8% Arcade Made.
Despite the esoteric selection of beers, I enjoyed almost all of them; the Marshmallow Stout was a surprise winner, and I also liked the fruit-infused IPAs like the Hazy Jane Peach.
In fact, the only beer I didn’t like was the aforementioned King Crush; an 8.4% Mango Passionfruit Milkshake IPA was just a step too far for me.
The Brewdog calendar is £55, and Standard UK delivery is thrown in for free (if you want next-day delivery, you’ll have to fork out £2.95).
As I mentioned earlier, that doesn’t save you much money compared to buying the beers separately.
However, that’s not something you can actually do (most are only available in multipacks and some are sold out), and if you compare it to other Beer Advent Calendars, it’s more affordable anyway.
For example, the Beer52 Advent Calendar, which also contains 24 beers and comes with a free tasting glass, is £64.99 — a tenner more expensive than Brewdog’s. However, the Beer52 calendar does claim to be worth over £140, which Brewdog can’t compete with.
A better comparison might be the Beavertown Advent Calendar, which like Brewdog’s, contains beers made by a single brewery and comes with a free tasting glass.
The Beavertown calendar is £69 — £14 more than the Brewdog calendar — and contains a lot of repeat beers.
The Brewdog Advent Calendar is available from the Brewdog website.
There you’ll also find the company’s other festive offerings, which include a festive 12 beer selection box and even a Christmas cocktail selection.
I’d recommend the Brewdog Advent Calendar for anyone looking for an affordable beer Advent calendar containing a varied selection of brews.
While I do have issues with the design of the calendar, its contents make it a must-have for beer non-traditionalists who are likely to love a high-strength, unusually-flavoured beer as they are a middle-of-the-road lager or stout.
I wouldn’t recommend it for more traditional beer drinkers, or those looking to try beers from a selection of breweries.
