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 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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Eighty-Eight Beer Advent Calendar – Day Two

Christmas Decorations

It’s beginning to feel a lot like the holiday season! Sometimes, when you don’t have kids who are getting hyped for the holidays, it can be hard to inspire yourself to decorate seasonally. (Okay, when I say “sometimes”, I mean “sometimes for me”. I know there are a lot of fantastic single ladies out there who are very into changing their decor when the seasons change. But I fear change, so it is not me.) 

But! I publicly announced that I needed to declutter my living room this weekend, which meant that I was very shamed into actually doing it. And once I was already moving things around, I might as well decorate. And by “decorate”, I mostly mean “put Christmas balls on surfaces”. I like to optimize the little decor I have. And I also like sparkly things.

And I also like enjoying a beer from my advent calendar while I’m haphazardly decorating! 

Day Two Clue

Day 2 Clue

The Day Two clue read “Just wanna have fun”. 

I actually just spent an evening at Eighty-Eight with friends of the blog, Megan and Claire, and I know they have a really fantastic seasonal White Wine Spritzer IPA called “Cyndi”…

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