Advent Time!

November is over, and now we’re on the fast track to Christmas. The kids have their advent birds and Tammy has started leaving me an “interesting” beer each morning.

(Little does she know that I will start something for her tomorrow. Better late than never.)

As I did last year, I’m going to record the beers and my thoughts, because it’s easy to forget.

1. Heathens Brewing Asgard Ale: Light and hazy. Had a citrusy or acidic bite to it that made Tammy think of Kvass. Brewed in Calgary.
2. Zywiec: almost a cervesa, easy drinking and light. Not a strong flavour. Would be easy to drink a lot of these on a hot day.
3. Hacker Pschorr Münchner Gold: golden beer. Much more flavour than the Z. A little bitter, but a malty taste as well.
4. Zubr: a malty beer, light amber. It disappeared quickly. I guess I liked it!
5. Banded Peak Changes in (L)Attitude: had a very rich taste. Coconut was there, but not overwhelming. Definitely would drink again.
6. Asahi Super Dry: good if light beer. Turned the last 1/3 into a mini boilermaker to zest it up.
7. Erdinger Weißbier Dunkel: have to keep this one away from Tammy. She really liked it. It was a good malty beer, not bitter.
8. New Level Brewing Krampus Christmas Ale: Everything you could wish from an imperial eggnog stout. It was delicious and dark and strong.
9. Flying Monkeys Sparklepuff: a triple IPA. Light color, had a lot of sediment in it (not sure if that’s normal). Bitter, but not undrinkable. I’m not an IPA fan, but I enjoyed it.
10. Collective Arts Blueberry Crumble Pastry Sour: Unexpected. It was blue-purple and tasted strongly of blueberries and was very sour. I would not have guessed it was beer.
11. Collective Arts Stranger Than Coffee and Maple Syrup: Very good. Very easy to drink considering it is as black as coffee.
12. Spitfire Amber Ale: an amber ale. I didn’t mind it at all. Tammy didn’t like it.
13. Golden Pheasant: a had a good flavour for a light-coloured beer. Reminiscent of a Belgian beer if anything.
14. Quidi Vidi Aloha Sour: a light-coloured sour. Not nearly as offensively sour as the Blueberry Crumble, but still sour.
15. Birro Dello Stretto Premium Lager: was good, went well with our asian potstickers and rice. Enjoyed it and would drink it again if I found it on a menu.
16. Le Corsaire Anne Bonny: a light beer. A bit of hops. Not particularly memorable, but good.
17. Howe Sound Brewing Pothole Filler: Oh. My. God. This smacks you in the face when you taste it. It is strong and very dark. Tammy called it Guinness on steroids. Not an easy drinking beer, but I really enjoyed it. Would recommend it!
18. Pumphouse Brewing Crafty Radler: a good Radler. Nice flavour.
19. Paulaner Münchner Hell: a good lager. Went well with dinner (pasta).
20. Howe Sound Brewing You’re My Boy, Blue: Definitely a blueberry-flavoured wheat beer. Much less shocking than the Blueberry Crumble. I enjoy a beer like this in the summertime.
21. Harviestoun Brewery Old Engine Oil: a nice, dark thick stout. Yum.
22. Collective Arts Stranger than Fiction: not as distinctive as the coffee and maple syrup one above, but still delicious.
23. St Ambroise Raspberry Ale: this is one that I have had a fair bit in the past. I like St. Ambroise beers, and their raspberry ale is a fixture in their mix pack. Refreshing.
24. Lindemans Pecheresse: is this beer? Tastes more like sparkling peach juice. Everybody liked it. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t beer.

And of course, it’s time for the Advent of Code. It’s day 3 and so far, so good. Here’s a link to my code repository. I’m going with Perl as my main language this year, although I’ve got some Swift, PHP and Pascal written as well. Adam’s friend Jeff has made an independent challenge called Advent of Qode, and I’m giving that a go as well.

We got the Christmas tree up tonight. A real nightmare trying to get the strands of mini lights to work, so Tammy and I went to Walmart and got new lights.

Happy holidays!