Best beer Advent calendars 2023: 24 days of Xmas cheers
Get in the festive mood with a daily selection of the best ales, lagers, stouts, IPAs and more with the UK’s best beer Advent calendars
Everyone loves a good Advent calendar – they’re bright and festive, help count down the days to Christmas and hide a tasty piece of chocolate behind every door. Sounds perfect, right? Well, now imagine that every piece of chocolate has been replaced by a crisp, refreshing, hand-selected beer. Read on and we’ll reveal the best beer Advent calendars for providing the hoppy Christmas you’ve been hankering for.
There are lots of beer Advent calendars to choose from, based on a number of fun themes, seasonal and otherwise. The best feature a mouth-watering range of beer varieties, with everything from lagers, ales and IPAs to pilsners, stouts and sours making an appearance. If that isn’t enough to get you feeling festive, several of the goodie boxes featured in our roundup also come with snacks, accessories and other fun extras.
And if you’re worried about your friends and family getting jealous of your brew-lliant Advent calendar, then make sure to check out our guides to the best traditional Advent calendars, best beauty Advent calendars and the most unusual Advent calendars, so that you can find their perfect Advent calendar, too.
But enough about things that aren’t beer: keep scrolling to discover everything you need to have a Beery Christmas and a Hoppy New Year!
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Best beer Advent calendar: At a glance
- Best no-frills beer Advent calendar: Beer Advent Calendar | £89
- Best for packaging: Beavertown Craft Beer Advent Calendar | £69
- Best for Star Wars fans: Stormtrooper Beer Advent Calendar | £49
- Best overall: Virgin Wines Beer Advent Calendar | £80
- Best for popularity: Brewdog Beer Advent Calendar | £50
The best beer advent calendars to buy in 2023
1. Virgin Wines Beer Advent Calendar: Best beer Advent calendar overall
Price when reviewed: £80 | Check price at Virgin Wines
Inside Virgin Wine’s wreath-emblazoned calendar box you’ll find 24 high-quality beers from a range of well-known breweries. While the full line-up for this year hasn’t been made known yet, you can expect offerings from Beavertown, Tiny Rebel, Siren and more. Highlights from last year’s calendar included Tiny Rebel’s Passionfruit New England IPA, Two Tribe’s Mexican-style lager and Siren’s lemon and Earl Grey infused pale ale, with plenty of similarly interesting options waiting in the wings for this year.
You can also save yourself some money on postage by picking up either of Virgin Wine’s gin or wine Advent calendars while you’re grabbing your own hopped-up variety.
Key details – No. of beers: 24; Size(s): 330ml
2. Beavertown Craft Beer Advent Calendar: Best beer advent calendar for packaging
Price when reviewed: £69 | Check price at Beavertown
Housed in a colourful cardboard container emblazoned with some psychedelia-infused Christmas artwork in true Beavertown style, the brand’s Craft Beer Advent Calendar is our favourite option for overall presentation. As well as being well-packaged, the calendar comes with some neat extras, including a Beavertown glass and a high-quality tree ornament.
Now, onto the beer! The Beavertown Advent Calendar comes replete with 24 different varieties of craft beer, including the core range of favourites like Neck Oil IPA, Gamma Ray APA and the easy-drinking Satellite Super-Session IPA, as well as new launches and Christmas specials. Expecting all manner of beers, ranging from Chocolate Porters, Brown Ales and Rye IPAs to Dunkels, Pilsners and NEIPAs to make an appearance.
Key details – No. of beers: £24; Size(s): 330ml; Extras: Glass, tree ornament
3. Stormtrooper Beer Advent Calendar: Best beer Advent calendar for Star Wars fans
Price when reviewed: £49 | Check price at PrezzyBox
Sci-fi fans have long pondered why the famed Imperial Stormtroopers, despite their reputation for deadliness, have managed to miss our heroes with blaster shot after blaster shot in various battles all across the galaxy. Looking at this sumptuous collection of Stormtrooper beers they probably get for free by the caseload, we’re beginning to understand why.
This official Star Wars-themed Advent calendar is the perfect pre-Christmas gift for anyone in your life who likes lightsabers and strong beers. The boxset features 12 beers, including a brown ale, an NEIPA, a robust stout and a pilsner, all with prettily designed Stormtrooper cans that you’ll be sad to throw away at the end of it all. Along with the beers, you also get some cute beer mats, a bag of beer snacks and a Stormtrooper-themed glass to drink from.
Key details – No. of beers: 12; Size(s): 330ml; Extras: Snacks, beer mats, Star Wars glass
4. Beer Advent Calendar: Best no-frills beer Advent calendar
Price when reviewed: £89 | Check price at PrezzyBox
This beer Advent calendar is just called “Beer Advent Calendar”. It has no franchise branding or particular theme. It comes with no extras. Hell, the box isn’t even particularly flashy. Yet we wouldn’t have it any other way, because what this Advent calendar does have is a full contingent of 24 delicious beers from some top brands.
Inside you’ll find a range of bottles from respected craft beer producers such Thornbridge, Alechemy Brewery, The Wild Beer Co and more. With so much variety packed into this calendar, every day leading up to Christmas will be filled with genuine excitement and curiosity, as you wonder what tomorrow’s beer will be: a laidback Session IPA? A crisp, tasty lager? A delicious ruby ale? If you’re an adult looking to recapture the feeling of being a child at Christmas, this is probably the best place to start.
Key details – No. of beers: 24; Size(s): 330ml
5. Brewdog Beer Advent Calendar: Best beer advent calendar for popularity
Price when reviewed: £50 | Check price at Brewdog
Thanks to the roaring success of their Punk IPA, Brewdog have risen up the ranks of the craft beer world, with the brand now featuring widely on supermarket shelves and even opening their own chain of branded pubs. Year on year, their beer advent calendar is a sell-out success thanks to its prettily packaged selection of firm favourites and exciting exclusives.
On offer this year are classics like the brand’s Punk IPA, Hazy Jane IPA and grapefruit-infused IPA, Elvis Juice, as well as new and exciting new beers and exclusives, including their Arcade Made DDH IPA, Black Heart draught stout and Shore Leave amber ale. The website also lists a ‘secret beer’ as part of the line-up, so there’ll be a surprise in store for you even if you read the full line-up in advance.
Key details – No. of beers: 24; Size(s): 440ml, 330ml; Extras: Glass