When Mr. FFID was a child his mother put a little present in his stocking every day in the month of December. The first Christmas we spent together he started to apply this same little tradition with me and ever since I get a small gift every day in December each year. Cute, isn't it?
At the start of this year I was browsing Pinterest and saw a Beer advent calendar and thought 'Oh my, this is perfect for Mr. FFID, I will make one for him this December!'. The month of November is dragging so much that I couldn't possibly wait for more one day to give it to him. He was over the moon (he's definitely marrying me next year) and when I posted a picture on my Facebook page I got lots of reaction so I decided to share this here too for anyone who would like to surprise the craft beer nut in their life!
If you google 'beer advent calendar' there are a few ideas out there but I went for the most practical option, I mean some people suggest using Pringles tubes to put the beer in and make a tree shaped calendar, I'm sorry but eating 24 packs of Pringles isn't ever going to happen in my house!
So here is what you need for a craft beer advent calendar 'à la French Foodie':
- a big cardboard box to store them
- Christmassy tissue paper sheets (I got mine in Dealz for €1.49 for 15 sheets)
- Numbered tags from 1 to 24 ( I got mine in Tiger for about €2)
- Sellotape
- Gift wrap
- 24 Craft beers (craft beers start at around €3/€4 so when you do the calculation, a craft beer calendar isn't cheap)
To find the beer I went to the best off licences I could think of. The first place I went to, I think the guy thought I was crazy asking for 24 Christmas beers. You won't be able to find 24 Christmas craft beers but there are quite a lot in fairness, at least 12 were specifically seasonal / christmas beers. For the rest, try to get winter brews, stouts, porters and anything with spicy, coffee or chocolatey notes (it's Christmas after all). I also stuck to beer with green, red and gold labels for a Christmas theme.
Then go home and start your calendar, if you have cats put them away or they are going to try to ruin your work...
Wrap the cardboard box with gift wrap.
Wrap each beer in a tissue paper sheet and put a numbered tag on it
Then it's up to you, you can stack them horizontally from number 1 to the top to the 24th beer at the very bottom but vertically is fine too.
I made the box a little tacky and Christmassy by putting tinsels and Christmas baubles around it too.
Now the best bit is when the craft beer lover in your life see the advent calendar...
Beery Christmas!
