Countdown to Christmas: Illinois Craft Beer Advent Calendar brings holiday cheer(s)

With Halloween freshly in the rear view, it may feel like it's too soon to start thinking about Christmas. But the countdown is definitely on for Advent calendar season.

And it's not just candy and treats for kids behind those perforated little doors.

The Illinois Craft Beer Advent Calendar has 24 special days in store for lovers of limited-release beers.

Now in its fourth year, the Advent calendar was born of the pandemic as a way to help small breweries around the state. Luke Goucher, who owns Lodi Tap House restaurants in Maple Park and Utica and is also one of the owners of Obscurity Brewing in Elburn, came up with the idea as a way to boost sales.

“All of our brewery friends were looking for ways to generate revenue,” he said. “Since then it's just gotten bigger and better.”

While the pandemic wasn't good for much, it did loosen restrictions on liquor and beer deliveries to customers in Illinois. While some of those exceptions have gone away, the calendar is able to be sold through the Lodi Tap House website and then delivered to 25 different locations around the state where customers can pick up their prepaid order.

Goucher said the first year they started with somewhere between 750 and 1,000 cases. Now they're up to 3,500, and they sell out every year.

The calendars are $94.99, plus a $10 delivery fee, unless it is picked up at one of the Lodi Tap House locations. Otherwise, there are 25 pickup locations around the state, most of which are the breweries involved in the project. When you order the calendar, you specify the location for pickup, each of which is assigned a date and a three-hour pickup window.

Deliveries range from Nov. 2 to Dec. 1. As of this week, the calendars were about 70% sold.

“The breweries love it because we tell them to make whatever they want and have fun with it,” he said. The only stipulation is that it has to have Christmas-themed can art with the Lodi logo on it. Aside from that, the brewers just have to meet a price point.

“They have a blast, and they're coming up with some really cool stuff.”

Each brewery offers a one-off beer that is only available in the Advent calendar.

Aside from the creative freedom, the brewers appreciate the sales. The 3,500 calendars translates to 15 barrels, or 144 cases, for each brewery.

“So that's about a $7,000 order that we're buying from the breweries. And in the last couple of years of COVID, they were saying that was the single biggest order they were getting a year and it was helping keep them afloat,” Goucher said. “Those were powerful words. And, at the same time, consumers loved it because they're all unique beers that they couldn't get anywhere else.”

Suburban breweries such as Art History in Geneva, Phase Three in Lake Zurich, Mikerphone in Elk Grove Village and Noon Whistle in Lombard have offerings in the 2023 calendar. Over 60 breweries expressed an interest in taking part. “It's like picking your favorite child, you know, it's really hard to narrow it down,” he said.

Five breweries this year are new and the rest have been involved in previous incarnations.

Goucher said one of the main appeals of the box to craft beer lovers is availability, since many downstate brewers don't have distribution in the Chicago suburbs and vice versa.

“Here's this magical tree of beer, they're all one-offs you can't get anywhere else and they're all from Illinois, and that's the fun of it,” he said.

In keeping with the Advent theme, Goucher wanted to team up with a charity that was in the spirit of the season. He chose Toys for Tots because it's a charity everybody would support.

“We wanted something that's going to be impactful for Christmas, and you have to be a real Grinch if you're not getting behind a donation for gifts for kids,” he said.

They've raised about $15,000 in the first three years, he said.

Goucher said he's tried “every single beer for all the years” and said the most fun part of it is not knowing what you're going to get until you open the door. While the breweries are listed on the box, they keep the style of beer they made a mystery.

He said there was a lot of variety this year, including a few IPAs, an imperial pumpkin stout, a lambic and several styles of ale.

“Two breweries have 10+% ABV Imperial big beers in there, and you can't get beer like that for what I'm paying these guys,” he said. “They're just throwing it in because they're having fun, and that's when it gets awesome for me.”

While logistics such as storage space keep Goucher from scaling the project up, he also has no plans to stop.

“It's a ton of work, but it's a labor of love. Plus, it's profitable and it helps all the breweries,” he said. “And people love it. So it's a perfect blend for the holidays where we're giving people something they want and we're having fun too. So why not?”