Eighty-Eight Beer Advent Calendar – Beer Eleven

I learned how to adjust my desk chair at my office today! I’ve been in this office for a few weeks, but it still feels like “not mine” – this small little change has made such a difference towards making me feel like I have ownership over the space I work within. And just in time for the holiday break, lol. Classic Erin moment. 

Today’s blog post is not about classic Erin moments. (Though… that might not be a terrible idea for the future?) Today’s post is about the second last beer of my Eighty-Eight beer advent calendar. How are we already here!? 

I will take a moment to reflect on the experience before I move into the beer. I do think it was well worth the money ($88, naturally) and I appreciated the opportunity to try new beers at a place I am familiar with but have a “go to” beer. I think next year, if there is no beer exchange, I will buy another advent calendar. However, I think I would be more likely to buy one of the ones from a liquor store so I could be exposed to new breweries as well. 

All that to say… onto the beer!

Day Eleven Clue

Beer Eleven clue

The Day Eleven clue read “Don’t forget the water wings”. Well, I had a pretty good idea of what this one might be – could it be the classic “Wave Pool”?

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Eighty-Eight Beer Advent Calendar – Day Ten

Day 20 tortilla soup!

Today is a very special night. This blogmas post is being written in real time. Like, I’m still drinking the Day 10 beer as I write it. It is incredibly cold out in Calgary – like this insane frigid air from Siberia, aka the coldest air on earth, has swept in. I was lucky enough to work from home today and, despite a dream of going to barre at 5:15 tonight, I am officially hibernating. 

Tonight is a night for soup, Hallmark movies, and the Day 10 Beer.

Day Ten Clue

Beer Ten Clue

The Day Ten clue read “Just in case you’re all alone.” And boy, oh boy, was I able to guess which beer it was!!

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Eighty-Eight Beer Advent Calendar – Day Nine

Happy Day 18, everyone! I cannot believe how fast this month has gone by. This happens pretty much every month, I think, but I’m always surprised when it’s almost the 25th. (This is when I get paid. It’s not a Christmas reference. But also it is.)

Anyway, I must admit that I am a little bit burnt out. Nothing to do with blogmas, only to do with having too many fun things to get up to. If you read yesterday’s post, you can probably read between the lines that I left my house at 7:30 am on Friday and only returned home to sleep between then and 10 pm on Saturday.

Today was a very similar vibe – I left home at about 8:30 for Pilates at Junction 9, then headed directly over to my mom’s house for the annual holiday baking tradition. I followed that up with picking up some sushi from Kinjo Express, where they are always so lovely, then finally tried to grab some veggies for Christmas. (I was not super successful. I’m not paying $9 for snap peas and $6 for a cauliflower, thank you. I will follow the flyers and find a better price.)

Rylee helping baking

But look at how cute our little baking helper was! (She was helping by tearing apart a Toblerone box.)

Anyway, when I got home for the next two hours, I just read in the bath and then laid on my bed, scrolling on my phone. Which I literally never do. Like I said, burn out.

I finally rallied, though. I did slightly more meal prep than I expected to actually achieve at – vegan banana muffins for breakfasts and lentil quesadillas for lunches. And I washed my sheets. And now I’m writing a blog post. The world is my oyster, my friends. And speaking of oysters…

Day Nine Clue

Day 9 Clue

Actually, I’m not speaking of oysters at all. I’m just too tired for good transitions. So instead, please read the Day Nine clue which states “You deserve to sleep in”. This time I was pretty sure it was not Hammer Pants…

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Eighty-Eight Beer Advent Calendar – Day Eight

It is Day 16 of Blogmas (in the home stretch no matter how many days I’m doing), and I have so many fun unexpected holiday plans this weekend. Tonight I’ll be heading out to Market Collective with my mom to hopefully finish my gift shopping and definitely buy some delicious hummus. Afterwards, Megan and I are going to hit up Cold Garden to get festive with some Kegnog (yes, it is exactly what it sounds like). And then I think Claire and I are going to try to see the Lunchbox Theatre holiday show tomorrow! 

But before I can do any of that? It’s time to talk about Beer Eight…

Day Eight Clue

Day Eight Clue

The Day Eight clue read “The gift we always wanted but never got”. Is this one Hammer Pants!?

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Home Alone Taproom Pop-Up at Eighty-Eight (and Day 7 of the Advent Calendar)

What’s up, y’all! It’s T-minus 11 days until Christmas, Hanukkah is starting at nightfall on Sunday, Kwanzaa in 12 days, and numerous other celebrations are popping up all over the place. Time is just racing now and, here in the holiday of Blogmas, we’re already at another beer on the beer advent calendar.

I don’t have a particularly interesting story about what I did while drinking this beer (and it’s one that I’m familiar with, so no fun beer facts to discover)… so instead I’m going to talk about something super cool that is happening at the Eighty-Eight taproom during these upcoming busy 11 days. 

Home Alone Taproom Pop-Up at Eighty-Eight Brewing

Home Alone Taproom Pop-up

Yesss, that’s right! Kevin McAllister, the Wet Bandits, and all your favourite Home Alone easter eggs have settled in at Eighty-Eight and it is truly epic. The amount of work they must have put in to transform this space (which is always pretty stunning) is truly incredible. Like… look up there! They re-created the flight board! 

Every inch of the space is covered in wrapping paper, presents, and other Home Alone related Easter Eggs. I mean, there are cardboard figure cutouts up against the second floor windows, so that when you are outside it looks like there is a party on, in classic Kevin McAllister fashion. And if that’s not enough, there is a full-on Home Alone Easter Egg scavenger hunt to keep you busy!

Home Alone Taproom Pop-Up Menu

Oh yeah, they’ve also made some little changes to the menu. The Wet Bandits – not just movie villains, but also a super intense beer. It’s a Triple IPA, with a 10.1% ABV and an 88 IBU. Yes, I am scared of it, thank you. For those like me who can’t commit to a full 10% beer, they are also offering Marv and Harry pre-set flights. 

And they’ve really committed to the bit by giving their menu a little visual makeover too. Look! The cheese pizza is renamed. We love commitment to a theme. (As a quick note, I hit up Eighty-Eight with Claire and Megan the other day to enjoy some brews and pizza. The cheese pizza is amazing.)

Omg, I still have a whole beer to reveal here! I promise, I’ll keep it quick. 

Day Seven Clue

Day Seven’s clue read “Relax, put down the work, it’s holiday time”. Hmmm..

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Eighty-Eight Beer Advent Calendar – Day Six

Another day, another blogmas post coming in just under the wire. I’m going to have to do a round up post on the social medias of all these late night blogmas posts, I think.

Today was a really great day, though. I have a holiday tradition of taking a day off work and going shopping with my dad to help him pick out gifts for my mom. I do a weekday morning workout class, my dad buys me a tea, we hit up a few stores, and then my parents and I go for a fun late lunch. This year, I took a Strength and Sweat class with the incredible Nicole Bouwman – I don’t get to take her class often because she teaches when I work. You should 100% take advantage of the thing I can’t do and take her Monday 0930 or Saturday 1030 class. I got my favourite Cardamom French Toast tea from David’s Tea, we bought my mom some very exciting gifts. And then we headed over to one of my local pubs, Penny Black, and I had a restaurant burger for the first time in ages. Delicious.

And now I’m going to write about a beer I was afraid of.

Day Six Clue

Beer 6 Clue

The Day Six Clue read “Did you say night-cap??” and I will be honest that I had no idea what this clue was leading up to. I also still might not know what it was referencing. Maybe the drink knocked that smart part of my brain out of my head?

Because once you follow me through the cut, you’ll understand why I say this.

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Eighty-Eight Beer Advent Calendar – Day Five

Let me say, y’all, I have never been more glad that I have a beer advent calendar to fall back on during Blogmas. I know a lot of people pre-write their posts, but that isn’t for me, fam. I prefer to share my life as it is unfolding and also I prefer to live in a state of utter chaos. Because I make healthy choices. 

Anyway, today has been super full and tomorrow suggests it will be the same. Classic Saturday – working at Movelology, doing some Pilates, gluing a carpet back together, going to Rylee’s Christmas concert, buying bras… Tomorrow will be equally busy, full of barre, the Saskatoon Berry Farm holiday market, some crib, and recording MOA. I also have to watch the Shadowhunters episode by tomorrow and three movies for Academy versus Audience by Tuesday. So, as you can imagine, I’m very glad that I can write a short little post about beer today!

Let me take a minute to talk about Rylee’s Christmas concert first, though. Adorable. Toddlers are the cutest. But it definitely reinforced for me how young she is (she turns 3 at the end of the month). When I’m playing with her, I feel like she’s such a big kid and has grown up so much, but then I saw, like, the 4 year olds in her class and they were so much bigger. She’s very cute though. 

Also- parents of toddlers? Y’all should stop talking when the emcee is. Even if she has a microphone. Man, did the amount of people who kept talking give me anxiety… Anyway! Onto the beer!

Clue Five

Day 5 clue

Clue Five read “One toot is all you need”. I didn’t have a good immediate guess, but once again the Eighty-Eight website gave me a fairly good guess… 

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Eighty-Eight Beer Advent Calendar – Day Four

A classic scene featuring me at Eighty-Eight
A classic scene featuring me at Eighty-Eight

You guys! I am hyyyyyypped to share this beer! It is Day Four of the Eighty-Eight Brewing advent calendar. All of the beers I’ve tried so far have been delicious (duh, I love this brewery), but this one? This one?! 

It is new to me and I am officially obsessed. People who read last year’s blogmas will probably be able to guess what type of beer it is, because I am nothing if not consistent in my tastes. But we’ll get to that. First I want to finally take the opportunity to talk about Eighty-Eight Brewing Company.

Eighty-Eight is a Calgary-based brewery that launched in 2018 – their name is a reference to ‘88 Winter Olympics which, of course, was in Calgary. The names of their beers are all throwback references to the 80s and their taproom is also evocative of that decade. We love to see a consistent theme! Eighty-Eight is dedicated to creating an inclusive environment and they put their money where their mouth is. Just check out their Community Partnerships on their website. LOVE IT.

The summer of 2020 is the first time I remember drinking an Eighty-Eight beer, though. I distinctly remember doing outdoor yoga with Megan and Claire, then swinging by a Bridgeland liquor store to grab something to drink on Megan’s outdoor patio as we all sat 6 feet apart. Instantly, I the cute design of the Tiffany can drew me in and I quickly became obsessed with the rose saison. In the spring of 2021, my dad and I did a zoom tasting of four Eighty-Eight beers with their brewer. It was shocking to discover how many of their IPA variations I liked. In the spring of 2022 when Moveology opened, I discovered their taproom was essentially just down the road and I was hooked.

And then. And then.

I found out that this company was co-founded by the husband of one of my best friends from junior high. Ugh. I love Calgary!

Day Four Clue

Beer 4 Clue

But enough about me, onto the beer. The Day Four clue read “Sneak away for some you-time this season”. Nothing immediately came to mind for me, but I checked out their taproom menu and happened to notice a little beer named “The Hall Pass”…

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Eighty-Eight Beer Advent Calendar – Day Three

Winter is upon us, my friends. No, the official first day of Winter isn’t until Dec 21, but the weather will not be told otherwise. (And who decided that winter started in late December anyway? Obviously someone from a temperate climate!) As I write this, I am looking at the snow falling gently from the sky – so beautiful, so likely to double my commute to work tomorrow, despite the fact that we should all be used to driving in the snow by now. 

This is not our first snowfall this fall… or even this week! The snow started falling on Sunday night while I was making dinner with my siblings and enjoying the third beer from my Eighty-Eight Brewing advent calendar.

Boom! How is that for a segue, y’all?! But before we get into the big reveal, let me share the…

Beer 3 Clue

Day Three Clue

As you can see, the Day Three clue read “You’ll always be our favourite” and I assumed it was a reference to their beer Hammer Pants. Because… well… Hammer Pants. Who doesn’t have a special spot in their heart for these voluminous beauties?

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Miracle on 1st Street (Proof) – Pop-up Holiday Bar

Readers from last year’s Blogmas will remember that I truly love a pop-up holiday bar. I love kitsch, I love special drinks, I love a theme – how could I not be head over heels for a pop-up? Last year, I was all about the tiki drinks but this year Claire and I decided to go a little bit more upscale and check out the Miracle on 1st Street pop-up at Proof!

I forgot to take any pictures of the decor, so thank goodness for being able to embed instagram posts!

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