What the literal helles...Day 15 give us lump of coal in our stockings with a very pedestrian helles/lager/pilsner. Verhaeghe Export Helles is a very forgettable helles. It's like drinking...wait, what was I talking about?

If you've been following along at home, then you know we've tried one beer from Samuel Smith this calendar. It was a raspberry sugar bomb. We have higher hopes for the Organic Chocolate Stout on Day 14. Rich, chocolatey and loaded with copious amounts of sugar, it feels like the base beer would be amazing if they left out the organic sugar.

We love Brasserie de la Senne. They are a great Belgium brewery and make wonder craft beers. Zinnebir is one of their standard offerings that never fails to please. We've had many enjoyable moments over this beer in the past. It's an easy Belgian blonde ale with fruity hoppiness.

From Beligum to Ireland, we get to try Boyne Winter Ale. It is literally like drinking water. Not just one of the worst beers we've had in the calendar, but one of the worst beers we've ever had.

Whomever put this box together has a major thing for Beligum beers. Out of the 11 beers so far 5 of them have been either Belgium or Belgium inspired beers. I imagine we'll see a few more before this calendar is done. Corsendonk does really good beers and their Pater Dubble Ale is a delicious brown ale and a real treat.

We always welcome a beer from Omnipollo. Day 10 doesn't disappoint. It's a classic Omnipollo pale ale called Maz. It's one of the hightlights of the calendar so far and nice change from the brown and sweet beers which have dominated the box so far.

We continue our exploration of the Scandinavian beer scene with a Norwegian Jul Ol. This is our third Jul Ol and perhaps the most forgettable. It could be best described as brown. If you could drink beige. Day 9 is best left and we move on.

Day 8 brings us something from a Danish microbrewery we've never heard of. Kloster Bryggeriet is in Jutland on the grounds where a Danish monastery was based. They specialize in traditional monk abbey beers. Christian 3 is a caramel ale with an addition of humle hops.

Samuel Smith has been around for forever. When there were no craft beers in the US, there was Samuel Smith. But it was always too expensive to buy compared to other offers. Day 7 is the Samuel Smith Organic Raspberry. It's another strong sugar bomb of a beer. Probably the most candy like drink we've ever had.

Kihoskh has been partnering with Mikkeller for years producing dozens of beers. This is our second release from Kihoskh and Mikkeller called Hazy Pale Ale. It's a smooth sexy little Christmas number that fills us with holiday cheer.