I haven't been posting regularly, so you probably didn't notice that I stopped posting beers from this year's Red Racer and Parallel 49 Craft Crossing advent calendar after Day Five. I stopped posting for a couple of reasons, but perhaps the most important one was because, frankly, close to half of the 24 beers with included were undrinkable. We're not shrinking violets when it comes to craft beer. We're game for anything. Or so we thought. As we struggled through this questionable collection we imagined the staff at these two fine breweries having a good laugh about the swill they were shipping to those of us who eagerly await the craft beer advent calendars. I have never poured out so much beer. Take the three pictured here (please): Day 18 is Gary's Gourd Squash Ale. How can I describe it? Mild low-sodium soy sauce with a definite squash flavour. It's probably the best of the three, but we still couldn't take more than a few sips. Day 19 is Please Sir S'more Stout. The only good thing about this is the name, and it's still not the worst. Finally, Day 24. Christmas Eve brought us Jitter Buzz Imperial Coffee Stout. Now, we're big stout fans and, while we're not regular coffee drinkers, we do appreciate the taste of a good cup. But this puppy tastes more like ashtray than Java. The coffee's there, but this brew tasted like it had been steeped in cigarette butts. In fairness, it must be tough for two breweries to come up with 24 interesting and tasty brews in small batches. That said, if the international craft beer advent calendar doesn't come back for 2016, we'll be making our own from the fine selection of craft beers available to us in the Pacific Northwest. And we'll certainly include Parallel 49 and Red Racer selections among them. We're grateful to these breweries for putting themselves out there and wish them all the best for 2016. Cheers.