Beer Advent Calendar a DIY Experience
A few years back we stumbled upon something amazing, the Beer Advent Calendar from Costco. What beauty does this package behold?
This package was met with mixed reviews. While a pack of 24 beers all from Germany is my dream come true, it was not the case for Matt. He is not at all a fan of German beers but did find one or two he enjoyed but for the most part. That first sip usually resulted in some sort of facial contortion and a few grumbles.
Not from the year we purchased the Beer Advent Calendar from Costco, but check out the Beer Me Guys Review of the 2018 Calendar.
Warning: Language
A few years passed, and we enjoyed finding different holiday beers every year, but always found ourselves talking about that Advent Calendar.
Aldi had one, but it wasn’t always available in the US. Last year we finally noticed it in the store, amongst others. Again, the variety wasn’t perfect for us. Obviously these variety packs are made to appeal to many, and we love the Aldi Cheese Advent Calendar, but the beer one, we felt we could be picky.
Advent Calendars
I’m going to assume that if you’re here, you’re familiar with the concept of an Advent Calendar. But if you’re not, I’ll give a quick synopsis.
Started by German Lutherans in the 19th and 20th centuries, an advent calendar is a special calendar used to count down to Christmas. Usually the first day of Advent varies from year to year, so most calendars start on December 1. Most feature the holiday countdown with each number representing a tiny gift. Paper covering small pockets, packages to open, cardboard boxes with perforated flaps, all methods used in modern calendars. Each day the beholder opens the corresponding number to find their treat or gift.1
The Solution- A DIY Beer Advent Calendar
The idea came about out of necessity. Don’t all great inventions come about that way? We wanted a beer advent calendar tailored to our tastes. Our specific beer tastes vary, so we decided to create two separate calendars. Matt is the ultimate IPA guy, while I prefer stouts, sours, and those German beers he cringed about. We would each choose 24 beers and figure out the rest from there.
The main goal was to find brews neither of us had before. That can be tricky when your checked in beers on Untappd are over 1,000 each.
Time To Go Shopping
I’d say 75% of our purchases came from Total Wine, an alcohol retailer with various locations around the country.
Total Wine sells Wine, Beer, Champagne, and Spirits. You can look in our store by local breweries, seasonal, around the world, and more. They sell in 4-6 packs, 12 packs and cases, and some are available by the single bottle/can. You are able to create your own six pack and try a variety of beers.
We also checked out Albertsons Grocery Store which also sells beer by the bottle or can.
In the process of searching for beers we were intrigued by, we did find a few that we were unable to purchase individually. For these, we went with smaller packs when possible 4 or 6, adding one to the advent calendar, and the rest we wouldn’t touch until we pulled the first out of the calendar.
Putting Together a Beer Advent Calendar
During the shopping process, we just kept Matt’s choices on one side of the garage fridge and mine on the other. But that wasn’t going to do. We were able to grab a box for cases of wine or liquor during one of our Total Wine trips. Taller than most of the beers we bought, I figured it would be good to test out.
Once we got home, I grabbed 12 of Matt’s advent beers and placed them inside the box. Everything fit just fine. Now to cover and number…..
I grabbed a roll of lighter colored wrapping paper and covered the top of the box. I taped all the edges tight, in the hopes they would hold on better as individual ones were removed from the package and the paper was torn. Not a perfect solution, but it would work for us. We grabbed more boxes on another trip so that each beer was to be a surprise.
If you’re looking for another option, try writing the name of each beer down on a small piece of paper. Fold each piece of paper and place into a bowl. Each night pull out a piece of paper to reveal your beer.
You could also just fold the paper once, and number each piece of paper for each day of your advent calendar.
A Tiny Home for each beer
A decision was made partway through the December 2020 to follow suit with the blog Crafting Cheerfully’s Beer Advent Calendar. They used shipping tubes taped adhered together in five rows of five tubes with numbers for each date. The beers were hidden inside each tube for the surprise factor every day.
Since we didn’t order the tubes until partway through the month, we weren’t able to use them for the entire month. It was decided to use them for the second half
The tubes were fairly easy to put together. I was able to crank them out while watching tv one night with Rudy by my side.
We wrote out the names of our remaining beers on small slips of paper. It was decided that we would do this because the beers we had left were already cold, and we didn’t want to leave them out in the tubes. Not sure how the tubes would fare out or if they’d even fit all together in the fridge, we decided on this option.
We then took each others remaining beer names and slipped them into the tubes for each other for the element of surprise each day. Since we ordered a pack of 25 (only 24 arrived, another story for another day), we split them in half for the rest of December.
For Christmas 2021 we will place the bottles and cans inside the tubes and label the closed tubes for each day 1-25. Yes there are usually only 12 days but this is about creativity right? We will open the tubes in the morning to see what beverage waits us then send them to the fridge to chill throughout the day.
Order shipping tubes for your Beer Advent Calendar!
And now, the Calendars.
You’re here because you want to make a beer advent calendar. You’re curious how it works, and you may also want some ideas of beers to purchase.
Get in the holiday spirit any time of year by checking out our alcohol based calendars over the years:
Fancy a drink? Check out more beer related posts here.
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Distinct Beers: 3,302 As of October 24, 2022
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Distinct Beers: 1,957 As of October 24, 2022
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[…] is the holiday season and it’s time to go shopping. Several local breweries make packages of their Beer Advent calendars during this time to make your […]
Nice! Thanks!