It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Beer: 2019 Edition

As you know, the winter holidays are a time for overindulgence in every facet of your life:  eating, drinking, loving, bad sweater wearing, giving, binge watching, co-worker groping, felching, etc.  Winter is my favorite beer season because I love dark beers.  Like last year and several other prior years this decade, I will once again be engaging in a 24-day weight-gaining enterprise I call It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Beer -- a daily look at a different beers throughout December.

Like last year, I have a beer advent calendar, but unlike last year, it is not from a local craft beer shoppe.  Quite the opposite.  I was in Costco a few weeks ago, as one is when one has a Kerry Gold butter addiction.  But before I could even get to the dairy section, I came across this magnificent box.

It's full of 24 500ml cans of various German beers.  They're not necessarily going to be "winter" beers, but that's fine.  I'll have plenty of Great Lakes Christmas Ale and similarly wonderful dark, spicy, and delicious beers over the next month.  Those will be complemented with these fine German selections, brewed in accordance with the Reinheitsgebot -- which, incidentally, is the nickname my wife has given to my wang.

Like in years past, I'll report back to you via this here blog with a non-technical description of each beer and the following information:
-Name
-Brewery
-Location
-ABV (if available)
-IBU (if available)
-"Good for drinking if" comment
-Rating (out of five stars, by quarter star increments)

As in years past, I may not get a chance to post every day, so I may have a few "catch up" posts, where multiple beers are reviewed.  And without trying to jinx myself, the best part of this beer advent calendar is that the Germans don't tend to make hoppy beers.  Prost!