For Christmas of 2015, my wife bought me a really cool present: BeerAdvent Calendar 2015 from Kalea. In truth, my wife got me a lot of nice presents (she’s the best wife ever), but the nice thing about the Beer Advent Calendar is you get it early. You have to, since it’s comprised of 24 different imported German beers in a box with little doors that you open, one per day from December 1^st through December 24^th. All of the beers are listed on the side of the carton, however, so be careful not to look and spoil the daily surprises!

I love German beer more than beer from any other country on Earth, so this was definitely right up my alley. My one criticism of the calendar is there are not enough bocks and doppelbocks (not fair!), but otherwise it’s just an amazing way to sample 24 German beers I’ve never seen before. I get mine at Costco here in Georgia and pay on average $59.95 for the box. That might sound steep, but when you distribute that price over 24 different half liter cans, it only works out to $2.50 per can. Not a bad deal at all looked at that way.

Last year was a difficult year indeed, as Covid ravaged the world and it was not a sure thing that the Kalea Advent calendars would reach our shores. I braved Costco every week in September, masked with an N95, and finally scored my prize. For 2021, challenges of a different kind arose. Inflation and supply chain woes, thanks again to the persistence of Covid and the way it turned the global economy upside down in 2020, threatened once again to disrupt calendar distribution. On their Facebook page, however, Kalea promised that the calendars would arrive, and arrive they did. I found one at Costco in the second week of September, bought an extra for my future son in law, and stored mine safely away until December. The calendars sold for the same $59.95 they almost always have. Perhaps this was true in other years and I simply did not notice, but this year there were two box styles. One shows all of the included beers on the side, and the other does not, in case you want a true surprise each and every day.

On December 19th, opening the Day 19 door revealed a can of Meine Grosse Liebe (My Big Life) from Egerer of Bavaria. Egerer is by far the biggest contributor to the Kalea Beer Advent calendar. Year after year they not only add many of their own beers to the mix, but they contract brew some for others. Meine Grosse Liebe is described as "Helles Bier aus Bayern"-another Helles style beer, on which the calendars are always heavy. But just how heavy? We have been tabulating by style in my past few reviews this year, let's finish collating the data and see just for sure. We've already tabulated the styles from the 2015 through 2018 calendars, plus part of the 2021. Adding in the 2020 and 2021 and ALL of the 2022, we get:

As you can see, with all seven of the calendars I have enjoyed over the years added up, Helles is the predominant style. Out of a total of 168 beers, 38 have been in the Munich Helles style, 23% in total. Indeed, this year has been the most Helles-heavy yet with 9 total. One of them is Egerer Meine Grosse Liebe.

About the beer they say on the beer tasting app:

A beer as it should be: sparkling and fresh. Full-bodied and spicy. The perfect accompaniment for enjoyable moments, alone or in pleasant company. Brewed according to the purity law of 1516, only the highest-quality ingredients from the region go int…

And that's it. It just trails off like that.

Egerer Meine Grossee Liebe Helles Bier Aus Bayern has an alcohol content of 5.1% by volume. Ingredients on the can are listed as water, barley malt, rye malt, and hops. My can is stamped EXP 2023/05.

Egerer Meine Grossee Liebe Helles Bier Aus Bayern pours to a brilliant golden color with a thick fluffy white head and a nose of fresh bready malt. Taking a sip, the beer is clean and malty with crisp biscuit and fresh bread notes. A gentle bitterness tries to balance but the beer finishes gently sweet and a tad nutty malty. This one is all about the malt, and is very tasty indeed! Out of all the Helles beers this year, I like this one second best after the Marie Hausbrendel.

I’m greatly enjoying my 7th annual Beer Advent Calendar with the day 19 beer. Here’s looking forward to the remaining 5, and another assortment of 24 in 2022. We’ll be on the lookout next year at Costco, and following the beers on their Facebook page.

The beers of the 2021 Beer Advent Calendar:

Day 1  Herrngiersdorf Grantler Hell

Day 2 Hoamat Weissbier

Day 3 Egerer Alms Hell

Day 4 Rheder Husarentrunk

Day 5  Kraftbierwerkstat Der Schwarze Bock

Day 6 Herrnbrau Zwickl Kellerbier

Day 7 Kurpfalz Bräu Helles

Day 8 Egerer Wiener Lager

Day 9 Teisnacher 1543 Festmärzen

Day 10 Käuzle German Pilsner Style

Day 11 Schwarzbräu Marie Hausbrendel Hell

Day 12 Ladenburger Weizenbock Hell

Day 13 Landgang Pils

Day 14 Flötzinger Hell

Day 15 Perlernzauber IPA

Day 16 Loncium Vienna Style Lager

Day 17 Propeller Bier Turbo Prop Pilsner

Day 18 Erlkonig Hell

Day 19 Meine Große Liebe Helles

Day 20 Graminger Kirta Dunkles Weissbier

Day 21 Wittmann Urhell

Day 22 Schlossbrau Rheder Original Pils

Day 23 Furst Carl Kellerbier

Day 24 Kartauser Doppelbock Dunkel