DIY Beer Advent Calendar

I’ve mentioned before that we’re big into Advent calendars at our house. There’s always one for the kids, but this year I wanted to make a special DIY Beer Advent Calendar for my husband (and me – who am I kidding). I know there are lots of ways to purchase one.  But I wanted to select local craft beer we love and some new beer we haven’t tried yet. I also wanted it to look fun and special. 

Beer needs a beer fridge

I had this idea for a little beer fridge made of boxes and set to work finding supplies and building it. To do this I needed doors that would open, the perfect “beer fridge” colour and I needed enough space for 24 beers. I found bankers boxes with a flip top lid and the perfect paint colour – Country Grey Chalked Paint from Rust-Oleum made a plan and got to work. I’m pretty new to spray paint but I am very impressed with the results. The ‘fridge’ looks great. 

To account for the doors opening, I used a hot glue gun to affix a thicker cardboard between the two levels of the fridge and on the bottom. Then added a small strip of painted cardboard in front of the spacers for a seamless look. 

The 24 Beers of Christmas

I’m not going to get into the notes for all the beers in the #Decembrew calendar here, but I’ll be chatting them up on Instagram all month long. Follow us @theinspiredhome for all the scoop. I will tell you that Old Tomorrow Brewery’s Monty’s Golden Ryed Ale is first. I worked with Jon Montgomery in the spring and he created this awareness video for me, then the brewery donated this brew to my fundraiser. So this one got first spot. 

 Finding the Brews

Earlier this year, I held a fundraiser and 6 Toronto breweries donated beer for the event so they were first on my list. Then I looked for other beer I knew my husband loved (or I love) and then sought out others we haven’t tried. There are SO MANY BREWERIES in Toronto now, I could have filled 5 more fridges. I’m keeping track so I know next year we can unwrap a whole new batch. 

1. Old Tomorrow Monty’s Golden Ryed Ale 
2. Woodhouse Brewing Co. Lager 
3. Descendants Harbinger 
4.  Sawdust City Skinny Dippin’ Stout

5. Great Lakes Brewery Canuck Pale Ale* (this is a place holder for the Winter Ale, available soon)

6. Nickel Brook Brewing Co. Naughty Neighbour 7. Camron’s Brewing Ambear  8. Hurry Hard 

9. Collingwood Kingpost ESB 10. All or Nothing Brewhouse Hopfenweisse 

11. The Hamilton Brewery Blue Collar Pale Ale 12. Henderson’s Best

13. Junction Brewery Conductors Craft Ale 14. Collective Arts Stranger than Fiction Porter

15. Bellwoods Brewery Wizard Wolf Session Ale 16. Railway City The Witty Traveller

17. Lake of Bays Spark House Red Ale 18. Manitoulin Brewery Company Swing Bridge

19. Black Creek Apricot Ale 20. Sweetgrass Brewing Co. Golden Ale

21. Amsterdam Brewery Tempest Imperial Stout 22. Muddy York Brewing Company Muddy York Porter

23. Split Rail Brewing Co. Amber Ale 24. Left Field Brewery Go Ahead Gose

DIY Beer Flight Paddle

Why yes, that is a beer flight paddle under that beer. This calendar was built for sampling and sharing, so I also made beer flight paddles to make it easy to taste and compare. The Rust-Oleum Chalk board paint makes it easy to remember what beer is in each glass. ( I always mix up which one is which)

If you were filling a beer fridge, what would you add? 

 

Disclosure: Paint for this project was provided byRust-Oleum as part of our ongoing partnership. All views and choice of brews are my own.