Daily Star blitzes beer creation calendar with combined outcomes – final door was a let down

On Dec 10, 2024

Christmas is in full swing and Brits are scrambling to carry out their favourite festive traditions. Things are no different here in Daily Star Towers, where each year we take on the annual beer advent calendar which, much like last year, we endeavoured to neck in one night.

This year we are reviewing the Brewdog Craft Beer Advent Calendar which has a pre-December RRP of £55, although if you arrive a bit late to the party this will likely have dropped down to more like £44. This year’s Star lineup to take on the challenge that no one ever asks for, yet we deliver on time and time again, looked to offer a mixture of experience and youthful enthusiasm.

Chief Reporter Charles Wade was leading the line supported by returning Senior Reporter Harry Thompson who had the youthful exuberance of Social Video Reporter Jess Fitch and Apprentice Content Creator Josh Whorms to help them along the way.

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The beers started off well, with each drinker asked to offer a score out of 10 for each tipple they took on. The calendar was varied, and four of us were taken on a journey from everything from IPAs to ales to stouts to some experimental beers that had to be seen to be believed.

Cheif Reporter Charles is an old hand at this Daily Star tradition — Chief Reporter Charles is an old hand at this Daily Star tradition

Check out our accompanying video on The Daily Star social channels.

Josh made a claim for having landed the best beer of the night early, giving a score of 8 for his can of Arcade Made which he found behind the door of December 13. But this was later toppled when Harry ripped open number 17 and pulled out the Christmas spirit-addled ALD IPA, a beer born out of a well-resolved trademark dispute on Twitter (now X) between BrewDog and supermarket Aldi.

This is a banging little beer and received a night-topping 8.3/10, while the the firm’s ability to collaborate through adversity makes it taste all the better. It’s nice to be nice, you know?

Another years, another beer-laden advent calendar — Another year, another beer-laden advent calendar

A lot of the beers came in at the perfectly respectable 6-8 out of 10 range, in our completely arbitrary and not at all grounded in any kind of expertise or science scale. Not every day is going to blow your socks off, but the main reason for this is that there is too much variety for one person to feel like they are on to a winner day after day.

We’ll also hold our hands up and admit that our not-particularly-scientific approach of each person drinking every fourth beer means that varying tastes make it hard for some to real belters to do well, while some less exciting beers may be right up their drinker’s street. One member of the team, for instance, fell in love with Josh’s Tropical Storm on December 21, despite him only giving it a respectable but by no means year-making 7.0. Had that person been the one to pull it out of the calendar, it could have won the night.

Josh thought he had had the pick of the beers

Jess laid claim to the low point of the night, giving December 11’s beer a mere 4.5. This would be more than fair except she gave it to a can of Hazy Jane, one of the brands most loved and widely-available cans – we reckon this might be another reflection on our imperfect scoring system – although we vow to never change and will be back with all the same problems next year. Mark our words.

By the time we sidled up to the 24th the meeting room we were trying not to get spotted in smelt like a brewery and the pub beckoned. All having had six cans there was some concern over who would get the final beer.

It started getting a bit weird after December 20 or so

Being the most senior, brave Chief Reporter Charles stepped up the wobbly plate, only to be saved by the boozy bell when he pulled out a very nice looking BrewDog glass. He said it didn’t taste very nice and would have made more sense on day one.

All in all this was a very enjoyable advent calendar which we’d happily order for ourselves in the future. We’ll see you next year for more inherently flawed but fun-to-make advent calendar reviews.

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