For those that follow us on social media (thank you for that!), you know that we spent the better portion of last month drinking a different packaged local beer every day as part of what we called our Buffalo Beer Advent calendar. I can’t really tell you where the idea came from – perhaps it was born from many late nights surfing the Internet while watching How I Met Your Mother or Friends reruns, maybe it was something my wife Jill said to me, either way I don’t remember. Regardless, it was a truly memorable experience and one we will continue to do to for years to come. But essentially what this was, was 24 days straight of drinking local beer, which doesn’t sound like a bad thing.

Perhaps the best thing about Buffalo Beer Advent was reintroducing ourselves to staples of the Buffalo beer scene that we haven’t drank in a bit, including Big Ditch’s Low Bridge and Resurgence’s Sponge Candy Stout. We also enjoyed plenty of instant classics like Big Ditch’s Deep Cut and FIP, welcomed Four Mile to the canning community with their Polynomial Pale Ale and Allegheny IPA and reacquainted ourselves favorites like Resurgence CitMo IPA, 12 Gates West Coast Style IPA and Flying Bison Low Gear. And that’s not even to mention that a pair of Thin Man collaborations made the cut, including Fuzzy Dunlop IPA with Captain Lawrence and Smooth Maneuvers New England IPA with Sloop and Collective Arts.

24 days of Buffalo Beer Advent:

December 1 – Thin Man Brewery / Captain Lawrence Fuzzy Dunlop IPA
December 2 – Resurgence Brewing Sponge Candy Stout
December 3 – Big Ditch Brewing Low Bridge Hoppy Golden Ale
December 4 – Four Mile Brewing Allegheny IPA
December 5 – Woodcock Brothers Brewing IPA
December 6 – Southern Tier Brewing 2xStout
December 7 – Resurgence Brewing IPA
December 8 – Big Ditch Brewing FIP IPA
December 9 – Woodcock Brothers Brewing XPA 13
December 10 – Four Mile Brewing Polynomial Pale Ale
December 11 – Flying Bison Brewing Low Gear Session IPA
December 12 – 12 Gates Brewing West Coast Style IPA
December 13 – 42 North Brewing Asylum Porter
December 14 – Resurgence Brewing Cosmic Truth
December 15 – Hamburg Brewing Frosty the IPA
December 16 – Ellicottville Brewing Ski Bum
December 17 – Resurgence Brewing CitMo IPA
December 18 – 42 North Brewing LuchaBrew Mexican Lager
December 19 – Thin Man Brewery / Collective Arts / Sloop Brewing Smooth Maneuvers
December 20 – Woodcock Brothers Brewing Stiff Mitten Spiced Winter Ale
December 21 – Flying Bison Brewing Blizzard Bock
December 22 – Southern Tier Brewing Winter Warmer
December 23 – Hamburg Brewing OMS
December 24 – Big Ditch Brewing Deep Cut Double IPA

Above all else, any chance we get to promote Buffalo beer, we’re going to jump at it, and this was a great way to bring attention to many of the packaged local beer options that are available. Like I said, we’ll be doing this again next year and by then who knows how many more options we will have at our fingertips. We are already looking forward to it.

Brian Campbell is a co-founder/Brand Manager of the BNBA’s enthusiast arm, Buffalo Beer League, and writes the weekly Buffalo Beer Buzz column. If you have beer news that should be included in the Beer Buzz, Brian can be reached at buffalobeerleague@aol.com, on Twitter (@buffbeerleague), Instagram (@buffalobeerleague), Facebook (@thebuffalobeerleague) and www.buffalobeerleague.com.