Beer52 have a slightly unusual approach for an online beer merchant. You don’t (generally) get to choose your beers; you hand over £24 a month, and in return they send you a box of 8 “carefully curated craft beers”.

As a bit of a control freak, I find this a little un-nerving. When I buy beer, I enjoy the process of browsing and selecting. I could (and do) spend an age stood in a good beer shop staring at all the labels, trying to whittle those that have caught my eye down to a number I could carry or afford.

But not everybody has the time or the inclination to shop for beer as I do. And there’s an added benefit to letting someone else do the choosing for you – you can end up with beers that you would never give a second glance.

The sample case Beer52 sent us is a case in point; it was a fairly eclectic selection of mainly European beers that I would never have grabbed from the shelf if left to my own devices. And while yes, a couple of them were a little boring, there are also a couple of gems that I’ll be hunting out again.

Freigeist Bierkulture Hoppeditz (7.5%ABV) is my kind of dark beer. A sticky sweet and gently hoppy aroma, but with a more substantial palate – sweet, slightly bitter burnt sugar, building resinous hops and dark fruit with a deliciously lingering finish.

Oppigards Indian Tribute (6.6% ABV) definitely wins the “I need to buy a case of this” prize; a generous, sweet floral hop nose and a sweet toffee and light fruit flavour, with a nice resinous hop kick at the end. Yum!

So it’s an interesting tool of discovery, and at £3 a bottle – including delivery – it’s pretty decent value. It turns up in an impressively robust box (possibly the best I’ve seen), which even has a (fairly pointless, IMHO) food pairing “guide” on the side.

If there’s a fly in the ointment, it’s their choice of courier – myHermes. Certain couriers make me think twice about ordering from websites, and while I accept that not everybody feels the same, it would be nice if Beer52 mentioned their courier choice somewhere.

So there you go; a different way to expose yourself to some beers that you might otherwise miss. What could be better?

COMPETITION

Beer52 have offered us two cases of beer to giveaway and we’ve set up an unusual joint competition for you between Kavey Eats and Pete Drinks. Each winner will receive a box of eight beers selected by Beer52. The prize includes free delivery to UK Mainland addresses.

Running the competition across both blogs gives you 6 chances to enter, all of which go into one big list from which two winners will be drawn randomly.

HOW TO ENTER

You can enter the competition in 3 ways via Pete Drinks and another 3 ways via Kavey Eats – the more ways you enter, the higher your chances of winning:

Entry 1 – Blog Comment
Leave a comment below, telling me about your favourite bottled beer.

Entry 2 – Twitter
Follow @PeteDrinks, @Kavey and @Beer52HQ on Twitter. Existing followers are, of course, welcome to enter! Then tweet the (exact) sentence below.
I’d love to win a box of craft beers from @Beer52HQ and Pete Drinks! http://bit.ly/PDbeer52 #PeteDrinksBeer52
(Do not add the @PeteDrinks twitter handle into the tweet; I track twitter entries using the competition hash tag. And you don’t need to leave a blog comment about your tweet either, thanks!)

Entry 3 – Instagram
Follow @PeteDrinks, @KaveyF and @Beer52HQ on Instagram. Existing followers are, of course, welcome to enter!
Share an image of a bottle of your favourite beer via your Instagram feed. In the caption include the name of the beer, both instagram usernames @PeteDrinks, @KaveyFand @Beer52HQ and the hashtag #PeteDrinksBeer52

Entries 4-6 – KaveyEats.com

Visit KaveyEats.com for instructions.

RULES & DETAILS

• The deadline for entries is midnight GMT Wednesday 24th December 2014.
• Kavey Eats and Pete Drinks reserve the right to alter the closing date of the competition. Changes to the closing date, if they occur, will be shown on this page and the related page on KaveyEats.com.
• The two winner will be selected from all valid entries (across both blogs, both twitter hashtags and both instagram hashtags) using a random number generator.
• Entry instructions form part of the terms and conditions.
• Where prizes are to be provided by a third party, Kavey Eats and Pete Drinks accept no responsibility for the acts or defaults of that third party.
• Both prizes are one box of 8 craft beers selected by Beer52 and and include delivery within the UK Mainland.
• The prizes cannot be redeemed for a cash value.
• The prizes are offered and provided by Beer52.
• Only one Kavey Eats blog entry per person. Only one Twitter #KaveyEatsBeer52 per person. Only one Instagram #KaveyEatsBeer52 per person. Only one Pete Drinks blog entry per person. Only one Twitter #PeteDrinksBeer52 per person. Only one Instagram #PeteDrinksBeer52 per person. You may enter all six ways but you do not have to do so for your entries to be valid.
• For Twitter entries, winners must be following @PeteDrinks, @Kavey and @Beer52HQ at the time of notification. For Instagram entries, winners must be following @PeteDrinks, @KaveyF and @Beer52HQ at the time of notification. Blog comment entries must provide a valid email address for contacting the winner.
• The winners will be notified by email, Twitter or Instagram so please make sure you check your accounts for the notification message. If no response is received from a winner within 14 days of notification, the prize will be forfeit and a new winner will be picked and contacted.

DISCOUNT OFFER

As well as the competition, Beer52 have also set up a special discount code for our readers. Use special code KAVEYPETE10 to take advantage of a £10 reduction on any subscription, including the gift subscription. Use KAVEYPETE30 for £30 off the £48.99 gift box (which adds a book and wooden bottle opener to the usual selection of 8 beers).

Kavey Eats and Pete Drinks received product samples from Beer52.