November 30, 2018

4th Annual Holiday Drinking Advent-ure Calendar

It’s our favorite time of the year, it’s time for our Annual Holiday Drinking Advent-ure Calendar! You’re either going “woo!” with excitement now or you’re saying, what the heck is that?! If you’re not familiar with this event please check out our inaugural post from last year to familiarize yourself with this concept. Also happy 3rd blog anniversary to us! Thanks for sticking with us over the years and if you’re new, thanks for tuning in and we hope you decide to stay awhile.

How the Beer Advent-ure Calendar Works

Each couple provides 4 cans or bottles of 6 different Christmas or winter themed beers (4×6=24 beers to give out).
Each couple will split 1 beer per day for 24 days.
We host a little party to distribute the beers and go over the process with everyone.
Its important to come with an order than makes sense. You don’t want to drink 5 IPAs in a row then 10 heavy spiced ales. Mix up the beers!
We then number the beers and put them in a decorated box which serves as the “calendar”.
This year, we also gave everyone adorable, vintage Santa glasses to enjoy their beer out of.
After everyone drinks the beer we will discuss our thoughts and feelings on the beer via text, call, email or FaceTime.
Beard & Broad will post every day about the beer, a little background and our thoughts.
At the end of the calendar, we will post our final reflections

IMPORTANT: This year we added a twist! We are only doing OHIO Christmas/Winter beers. We thought that since there were so many Ohio breweries we should focus on those ones for a change. This actually proved to be a little difficult because a good number of them either don’t make Christmas ales or they don’t distribute them.

Meet the Elves

We asked this year’s participants some very important questions to help you get to know them better!

1.) What’s your Christmas Spirit Animal?
2.) What’s your favorite out of state Christmas beer?
3.) What’s your favorite Christmas/winter activity?

Beard & Broad
Beard: 1.) Murray Pup. During winter he’s snuggly and lazy, but once he’s outside he’s a maniac. He loves snow. He eats it, rolls around in it, and just runs around the yard when it’s covering our grass. I feel like this is representative of my two moods around the holiday. I love staying home and doing nothing, but also enjoy going to Christmas parties and being around lots of people around the holidays.
2.) Saint Bernardus Christmas Ale. I’m a huge fan of robust, heavy beers when it’s cold outside. Porters, stouts and especially dark Belgians. In my opinion this is one of the best of its style and probably one of the best beers I’ve ever had.
3.) Relaxing on the couch with a Christmasy beverage watching movies with friends.
Tannenbaum Wine Trail. We do this every December and it’s something I look forward to every year. We rent a a limo/party bus and get driven around to all the wineries in Geneva sampling everything. It’s super cheap, I dress like a Christmas idiot, and we just run around through these places like (respectful) goofballs. It also happens to be with a group of friends we don’t normally hang out with so it’s a nice change of pace.

Broad: 1.) Obviously a cat! They love Christmas. They love getting into the Christmas tree, trying to unwrap the gifts but also love snuggling up on the warms blankets and couch. They love doing all the things I love to do during winter.
2.) I am obsessed with Xocoveza. We happened to be at Stone when they first released it and it was love at first sip. It is one of my all time favorite beers and I wish I could drink it year round.
3.) We have a very specific weekend Christmas routine that I love. We snuggle up in the living room, all the candles lit, lots of blankets, Christmas beers in hand and watch all of our favorite Christmas movies on the couch with the animals.

Adam & Alex
Adam: 1.) Kermit the frog in a muppet Christmas Carol. I love the muppets more than most human adults should (Scott and Christa actually made and bought me a muppet one time bc they rule) and Kermit in MPC is the perfect example of me in Christmas season. He’s nostalgic, partakes in all the holiday events, is dapper as can be and knows that the most important things during the holidays are friends and family. My ACTUAL holiday season spirit animal is Clark Griswald. A man who just wants the perfect Christmas full of tradition, warmth and happiness.
2.) Bell’s Christmas Ale. You know all the various flavors you expect in a Christmas beer? Bell’s has all of those in a perfect balance.
3.) SAUCEMAS. this is our annual “party” where all our friends (basically this group) comes over and gets bombed watching Christmas movies in jammies. It’s the drunkest I get every year and I get to do it with people I love. One saucemas Alex fell asleep on a dog bed. Another one I slept on the stairs.

Alex: 1.) Christmas spirit animal and why. My Christmas spirit animal is Rudolph from the now controversial Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. Who wouldn’t want to travel to the Island of Misfit Toys with the Abominable Snow Monster? I’m a dear of a reindeer, why don’t I fit in?!
2.) Delirium Noel is my favorite out of state Christmas Beer. I love Belgian beers and this one has a holiday twist with caramel and spices.
3.) I also love our Saucemas tradition. I love watching all of our favorite Christmas movies with our friends. It never disappoints!!

Scott & Christa
Scott: 1.) My Christmas spirit animal is the wolf. I appreciate they always use the buddy system to survive, which is important now that I’m a dad, and more importantly my mom had a sweet jean jacket made for me featuring this wonderful creature that I’ll never, ever get rid of (or wear again since it’s child size).
2.) I had to skim through my reviews of our previous winter beer tastings, and once I saw it, I remembered…the Sierra Nevada Celebration was definitely my favorite. I’m still a homer for Cleveland Christmas beers, but the Celebration is just delicious.
3.) My favorite winter time activity is movies!!! It’s really my favorite year-round activity, but it’s especially great during winter because there’s no excuse to leave the house, you get to layer with blankets and thanks to our hemisphere tilting away from the sun our house feels like a dark theater by 6pm.

Christa: 1.) I am a Galapagos Penguin, strictly because they are the only penguin to live in the northern hemisphere (where I live). Brief PSA: If you see some cutesy holiday materials with penguins and polar bears playing together, that is grossly inaccurate and disrespectful. Polar Bears inhabit the North Pole. Penguins inhabit the South Pole and southern continents. They would never ever meet, ever. So I am a chill AF Galápagos penguin, enjoying the warmer climate and cooler waters of the Humbolt Current, wearing an unnecessary scarf not even remotely worried about a polar bear crossing my path. Also, they are small and can’t do a lot of things and flop about… which is how I too live my life.
2.) My favorite out of state holiday beer is Xocoveza from California. I rarely drink stouts and wasn’t excited about it when it was part of our rotation the first time a few years ago but it’s taste changed how I feel. It’s why I always try new beers and why I am not entirely sure what my preference is. I know I love a good IPA but this beer taught me that your tastes can and should evolve. And, let’s be honest, it’s fun to say out loud.
3.) My favorite winter time activity is baking. I love to eat and my friends will tell you all about my boyfriend cookies (basically, if you eat one, you want to date me). Baking takes focus and knowing the right amounts of ingredients, it quiets my over analytical brain. It’s one of the few times you get to see people enjoy the fruits of your efforts. Plus… cookie dough!

Tony & Megan
Tony: Tony “Tinsel Toes” – Back for another year! Very excited to be part of the beer advent calendar again! I’ve been looking forward to this all year, drinking lots of beers with Beard and Broad to prepare, and I’m coming in with an expanded, evolved beer tasting pallet…..Ok still very much an amateur, but I love trying different beers and learning more about the different styles. So bring on the spices, hops, sprinkle some spruce tips in there, and lets do this!
1.) This year I will be channelling my holiday spirit animal, Snoopy from Charlie Brown’s Christmas. He’s cool, calm, and collected but its apparent that he loves the holidays (doghouse is always decorated), likes hangin out with his friends (Charlie), and occassionally breaks out of his shell to have a good time (see his dance breakdown to Schroeders piano in the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown)
2.) Anchor Brewing’s Christmas Ale. Smooth dark beer with hints of holiday spices. Its nice, real nice Clark 👌
3.) Going to downtown Cleveland with Megan Mistletoe. Checking out the lights, grabbing some drinks, maybe seeing a show, and just exploring together. Lights, beers, and a fun atmosphere gets me in the holiday spirit…….ok also meeting up with the beerventure crew at a local bar, chuggin beers, and gettin in a holiday music inspired dance-off works too.

Megan:1.) My cat Nicholas because he was a Christmas present 10 years ago and he’s as white as a Cleveland snow storm. I’m sure he’ll make a cameo somewhere in the beer calendar pics.
2.) Last year I really liked the Rusty Rails Snow Flyer Porter. I like porters in the winter and I remember buying this as a gift for friends.
3.) It’s difficult to decide between baking cookies with my sisters and watching Christmas movies while cuddling under a warm blanket. My sisters and I have a handful of recipes we make every year which usually includes a couple of old Swedish recipes. It’s perfect because we catch up and carb overload but I also really enjoy cozying up with a certain Tony tinsel toes and a cup of baileys and watch Bing do his thing.