Friday Fun: Make the holidays tolerable by funding this Beer Advent Calendar

Advent has 24 days, and a case of beer has 24 glorious cans or bottles. Coincidence? Probably, as Advent can technically run for 22 to 28 days, but regardless, the case concept is still the perfect companion for the 24-day slog to Christmas. And to make those daily drinking habits during the holidays acceptable, we introduce you to the Beer Advent Calendar.

“And before you ask, yes, a Beer Advent Calendar is what you think it is. Replace the chocolates in the childhood advent calendars with 24 craft beers, and you’ve got yourself a much less stressful Christmas season,” explained Julian Bergstein, a chemical engineer who shares a love for beer packaging with his spouse, Elaina Mastrilli. “My wife and I are passionate about craft beer packaging to the extent that we have a small startup company, the Thirst Amendment, which only produces packaging for beer.”

So, we’ve got a husband and wife team who love craft beer so much that they are starting a business in the beer novelty packaging industry. Hmm … that’s definitely the type of insanity we’d like to support. Crowdfund this sucker!

Hold up: What’s this product all about?

Fair question. Much like a traditional chocolate advent calendar, a Beer Advent Calendar is a box in which 24 beers are hidden under 24 numbered flaps. Each day from December 1 through December 24 a single numbered flap is opened to reveal a surprise beer for you to enjoy on each of the 24 days in anticipation/horrible fear of Christmas.

“For Elaina and I, beer has always been a go-to present for each other, and that’s how this tradition and our company evolved,” Bergstein said. “We knew it was a gift that was going to be used and the other person would appreciate. For me, the Beer Advent Calendar was much more. December 1 rolls around and you’re excited to get out of bed, which is not easy to do on a cold winter morning with a warm bed. Before getting dressed, you run down stairs and pop open the first compartment to reveal your first mystery beer. After the excitement of seeing your first beer, you pop it in the fridge and head to work.”

Luckily, the beer will be warm, so as not to tempt your religious commitment to immediately drinking alcoholic presents after they are opened.

“All day at work you think about that awesome beer,” Bergstein said. “Maybe you read its ratings on BeerAdvocate. Maybe you compare it to the beers your college friends got in their Beer Advent Calendars. Either way, the anticipation of that beer is tantalizing. You get home from work ecstatic about that ice-cold brew and finally get to taste it. Once it’s done, you think about how excited you are to wake up the next morning and repeat the process.”

The key features:

• 24 Independently opening lids: Each beer is kept a surprise until the day you open it. It’s completely collapsible: The design collapses to 17 in. x 22 in. x 1 in., which makes for easy storage in the off season and reduces the overall cost by lessening our shipping expenses.
• It assembles in less than one minute: User experience played a large role in our design. We wanted to ensure that no additional gluing or assembling was required once you received your Beer Advent Calendar. The product pops open and is ready to use with little effort.
• Made from strong cardboard: Designing the product to support the weight of the beer from the bottom allowed for use of cardboard without compromising on strength and durability. The use of cardboard also allows an environmentally friendly material while lowering the cost of the product.
• Holds most 12-ounce bottles and 12- to 16-ounce cans: Because it’s important to be able to accommodate a wide variety of tastes, the Beer Advent Calendar was designed to fit almost all single serving bottles and cans on the market. This ensures that regardless of your beer preference, the Beer Advent Calendar would work for you.