The continuing saga of advent calendars
2022 and everyone’s blasé about covid. The biggest news this year is Russia’s misguided war in Ukraine whilst back in the UK we have the Tories, who brought us fucking Brexit, continuing their shambolic government by ousting that waste of space Boris Johnson, crashing the economy under Truss and then reintroducing austerity to cover their mistakes whilst blaming the war and covid. Their ineptitude in handling the energy crisis has led to over 10% inflation and they wonder why everyone is striking for more pay just to survive.
Anyhoo, the important news is that Honest Brew is no longer and went into administration back in June, which is why this years brew-off was delayed as, being honest (sorry), I wasn’t going to bother as I couldn’t find a good replacement for Honest Brew who had been the staple contender throughout the past four years.
I did get Beer-52’s calendar as last years was good and they’d altruistically taken on Honest Brew’s subscribers, thus my £60 or so that had been building up since last December didn’t disappear into the ether.
At the last minute (9th December, in fact) BrewDog’s calendar was reduced by ~20% making it a more appealing purchase, so here we are, BrewDog vs Beer 52 for the 2022 Craft Beer Advent Calendar Brew-Off.
As usual, I’ll compare the beers from both calendars on a daily basis. BrewDog beers on the left and Beer 52 on the right.
Verdicts are purely subjective and based more on anticipation of how good the beer will be. No Tasting Notes this year as I’ve not been taking note of how good the Beer 52 beers have been. (It’s the 11th of December as I start this so I’m already half way through Beer 52’s calendar and whilst there have been no bad beers so far, I don’t recall any being exceptional, either)
The Running Total will feature again, showing the daily cost of each beer to see if, at the end of the month, the calendars are actually worth it. The prices come straight out of Google Search and reflect the cheapest found. Prices in italics are guesstimates if no price can be found from UK sellers.
Overall Verdict
Nearly 20% of the beers were lager variants and only 15% were stouts or porters. Not the best of calendars this year.
Beer 52 win the verdicts 60% of the time and on value, an estimated £77 for an outlay of £65, it wins too.
BrewDog’s calendar was full of cheap’ish beer and you could have bought the drinks for less than the calendar which is bullshit, really. More so if you paid the full price of £65. The calendar design was lovely, but even if you factor that in, BrewDog’s made a reasonable profit on the calendar this year.
Day Twenty Four
Cold Beer from BrewDog
Beer 52 have Hypnagoga from Omnipollo
Verdict
Two pale ales to round out the calendar. A small win for Beer 52 due to the larger can
Running Totals
BrewDog: £48.77 (+£1.25)
Beer52: £77.24 (+£4.29)
Day Twenty Three
Just Desserts from BrewDog
Sunny Disposition from Swedish Hyllie Bryggeri grace Beer 52’s door
Verdict
IPA vs stout, a win for BrewDog
Running Totals
BrewDog: £47.52 (+£2.50)
Beer52: £77.24 (+£4.29)
Day Twenty Two
BrewDog give us Puppet Master, a West Coast IPA
Beer 52 have Turning Point Brew Co’s Spacial Frequency
Verdict
Two more good looking beers, a draw.
Running Totals
BrewDog: £45.02 (+£3.25)
Beer52: £72.95 (+£3.40)
Day Twenty One
Almost Famous, a NEIPA from BrewDog
Orbital Movement is a DDH Hazy IPA from To Øl with Beer 52
Verdict
Another draw
Running Totals
BrewDog: £41.77 (+£3.25)
Beer52: £69.55 (+£3.89)
Day Twenty
BrewDog give us Hop Fiction
Beer 52 have Tiny Rebel with Pump up the Jam
Verdict
Puns aside, it’s a close call but Tiny Rebel win it for Beer 52. Recently had their BrewDolf snowball IPA which was good, so looking forward to this one.
Running Totals
BrewDog: £38.52 (+£2.50)
Beer52: £65.66 (+£2.20)
Day Nineteen
BrewDog have Lost in Guava
Beer 52 present Basqueland with Husk
Verdict
Two lagers, nobody wins!
Running Totals
BrewDog: £36.02 (+£1.25)
Beer52: £63.46 (+£4.29)
Day Eighteen
BrewDog have another stout variant with Cake Cartel
Hamer & Sikkel, a porter from Brouwerij De Molen with Beer 52
Verdict
Another draw, stout and porter makes me very happy!
Running Totals
BrewDog: £34.77 (+£1.56)
Beer52: £59.17 (+£3.20)
Day Seventeen
Layer Cake from BrewDog
71 Brewing give us Extra Stout for Beer 52
Verdict
Stout Day! A draw.
Running Totals
BrewDog: £33.21 (+£3.25)
Beer52: £55.97 (+£3.49)
Day Sixteen
Silk Road from BrewDog
Brlo’s Happy Pils features for Beer 52
Verdict
Default win for Brewdog.
Running Totals
BrewDog: £29.96 (+£2.50)
Beer52: £52.48 (+£2.99)
Day Fifteen
The original Hazy Jane from BrewDog
Final Squeeze from Mobberley Brewhouse with Beer 52
Verdict
Another novelty win for Beer 52 with Final Squeeze, a grapefruit pale.
Running Totals
BrewDog: £27.46 (+£1.43)
Beer52: £49.49 (+£3.49)
Day Fourteen
5am Saint from Brewdog
Varionica Craft Brewery have Tulum with Beer 52
Verdict
Varionica, a new brewer to me so Tulum looks interesting. A novelty win for Beer 52.
Running Totals
BrewDog: £26.03 (+£1.38)
Beer52: £46.00 (+£3.49)
Day Thirteen
BrewDog give us a variant with Hazy Jane Guava
Brew by Numbers have #11 with Beer 52
Verdict
A draw, both look to be good beers.
Actually, #11 was supposed to be in door number eleven, but I opened door 13 by mistake. However, if #11 would still have won and today would still have been a draw if the beers were switched.
Running Totals
BrewDog: £24.65 (+£1.43)
Beer52: £42.61 (+£3.12)
Day Twelve
BrewDog have Dead Pony Club
Hop Drops by Rye River with Beer 52.
Verdict
Good beers both, but Hop Drops wins on novelty for Beer 52.
Running Totals
BrewDog: £23.22 (+£1.36)
Beer52: £39.49 (+£3.49)
Day Eleven
Lost Lager from BrewDog
Christmas Chameleon from Brew York graces Beer 52’s door
Verdict
Knockout for Beer 52
Running Totals
BrewDog: £21.86 (+£1.12)
Beer52: £36.00 (+£3.30)
Day Ten
BrewDog give us Albino Squid Assasin
Beer 52 have Outlier Cartel’s Poke the Bear
Verdict
Another two good bears, another draw.
Running Totals
BrewDog: £20.74 (+£2.50)
Beer52: £32.70 (+£3.49)
Day Nine
Double Hazy from BrewDog
Round Corner Brewing Bullroarer with Beer 52
Verdict
Close one again. Double Hazy NEIPA is a beast of a drink and the Bullroarer APA looks interesting. Draw.
Running Totals
BrewDog: £18.24 (+£3.25)
Beer52: £29.21 (+£3.49)
Day Eight
Candy Kittens from BrewDog
Beer 52 have Haze Charmer from Troegs
Verdict
This should have been a closer result, but I’ve had Candy Kittens before and found it too sweet. More an alchopop than an NEIPA. Beer 52 FTW.
Running Totals
BrewDog: £14.99 (+£3.25)
Beer52: £25.72 (+£3.69)
Day Seven
Hazy Helles from BrewDog
Beer 52 present brewers Gweilo with Choco Rock Stout
Verdict
You know me well enough by now, easy win for Beer 52.
Running Totals
BrewDog: £11.74 (+£2.19)
Beer52: £22.03 (+£3.49)
Day Six
Planet Pale Ale from BrewDog
Bevog’s Kramah IPA for Beer 52
Verdict
Beer 562 win today, if only because the artwork of Kramah sell it.
Running Totals
BrewDog: £9.55 (+£1.50)
Beer52: £18.54 (+£3.49)
Day Five
BrewDog’s perennial Hoppy Xmas makes an early appearance.
Brewery Garden teams up with Hercules to give us Session IPA for Beer 52.
Verdict
I like Hoppy Xmas, really! Bought two 24 can cases on the cheap four years ago for something like £0.90 a can. But the Session IPA has novelty value so Beer 52 wins the day.
Running Totals
BrewDog: £8.05 (+£1.73)
Beer52: £15.05 (+£3.29)
Day Four
Punk IPA, the one that started it all for BrewDog
Ronin Fermentation Project give us Soigne in the Beer 52 door.
Verdict
Classic IPA vs pilsner. Sigh, anything other than a glorified lager would’ve had the Punk, but lagers are the bottom of the barrel no matter how much Nelson Sauvin hops or other nonsense is in it. BrewDog it is.
Running Totals
BrewDog: £6.32 (+£1.50)
Beer52: £11.76 (+£3.12)
Day Three
Tradional favourite Elvis Juice from BrewDog.
Wiper and True make another appearance for Beer 52 with Certain Facts, a cardamom stout.
Verdict
Stout over IPA any day, but (spoiler, since we’re not doing tasting notes) it was not that good. Spiced drinks just don’t seem to cut it for me as they usually spoil the drink and this was no exception. So BrewDog by default
Running Totals
BrewDog: £4.82 (+£1.73)
Beer52: £8.64 (+£3.15)
Day Two
BrewDog’s Mail Order Martian milkshake IPA.
Beer52 supply Mash Blond IPA from Patronaat Haarlam and Oedipus.
Verdict
Close, but I think BrewDog just edge it here. I like the smoothness of milkshake style IPAs.
Running Totals
BrewDog: £3.09 (+£1.73)
Beer52: £5.49 (+£2.15)
Day One
BrewDog off to a slow start with Cold Front, a Vienna style lager.
Beer52 have a porter with the long name of Have You Heard About the Brindle Whippet? from Double Barrelled.
Verdict
Porter vs Lager, easy win for Beer 52.
Running Totals
BrewDog: £1.36
Beer52: £3.34
Unboxing
As per 2021, Beer 52’s calendar is as simple as it gets. This year, the “holes” seem smaller making it hard to get a beer out without tipping over the box, which just bursts all the doors open. As you can see, I had to break into the box just to get to the beers.
BrewDog’s calendar has changed from the previous years (not sure if it’s new this year or came in last year when I didn’t get one). It’s now a tall and thin “book style” calendar. The beers are all sitting vertically in the windows which open fully making grabbing a beer simple.
Both came with bonus glasses too this year and BrewDog slipped in an extra pack of sweets too. Hands-down win for BrewDog.
