Saturday, November 26, 2011

Beery Christmas: Beer Gifts For Your Beer Nerd 2011 Edition


Turkey Day is over and the gift giving holidays are right around the corner. I say gift giving because why limit your gifts to only Christmas. I'm pretty sure they receive gifts during Hanukkah too! I came up with a nice little list of 10 items I think your significant beer nerd other would love to have! Enjoy!


1) Beer shoes




I really love these shoes from Brewshoes. I was going to have a beer clothing list but these shoes are so baddass I gave them their own. These shoes are not only great looking dress shoes but they also have a beer design on the sole of the shoes. Classic.

2) A membership to beer of the month club

Beer of the month clubs are a great idea. In the immortal words of Uncle Eddie from Christmas Vacation, "Clark, that's the gift that keeps on giving throughout the entire year". How truly wise of Uncle Eddie. You can receive beer all year long! My recommendation is to use www.craftbeerclub.com. I was fortunate enough to get a three month trial and loved the beers I received. All three months found me with beers I have never had a chance to try before. And that is hard to do.




3) Subscription to beer magazine and/or craft beer books

I recommend the following:

Magazine:

Draft Magazine


and Beer Magazine


Books:

The Oxford Companion to Beer by Garrett Oliver


The Great American Ale Trail by Christian DeBenedetti


Brewed Awakening by Joshua Bernstein


4) Beer memorabilia

I recommended this last year and will recommend it again. I love local New Orleans beer memorabilia and I'm sure your beer nerd would too. ebay is the easiest place to find what you are looking for. Some good ones to look up if you are from New Orleans are: Falstaff, Regal, Jax and Dixie.

5) Beer candy


What beer nerd wouldn't want hop infused chocolates? Check out Hopcandyinc.com for some great gift ideas for this holiday season and according to their website get your orders in early!

6) Beer T shirts


All beer geeks love beer shirts. All my peeps know that's pretty much all I wear. I will wear more than just craft beer shirts too. I love the old school beer shirts like the one pictured above. I recommend going to WearYourBeer.com. And yes they are a sponsor on this site! For a more local flair you can go to Funrock'n at 3109 Magazine St. They have some iron logos of breweries such as Falstaff and even Schwegmann's beer. They have shirts or you can bring your own.

7) Mixed beer case

Getting a mixed case of beer is always a great idea! Either from your local beer store like Steins Deli here in New Orleans or if you think your local beer nerd has exhausted his/her local resources go online. I recommend www.brewforia.com.

8) Homebrewing Equipment

Pic courtesy of Brewstock.com

Perhaps your local beer nerd has been considering homebrewing. Go to your local homebrew shop and either have the owner put together a kit for you or you can get a giftcard so your beer nerd can put together their own. Here in New Orleans the place to go is Brewstock which is located uptown at 3800 Dryades St.

9) Beercentric Restaurant Gift Certificate

pic courtesy savorcraftbeer.com

Most likely you live in a town that has a great restaurant that supports the craft beer movement. Buy your beer nerd a gift card to the restaurant! This gift can benefit you as well as most likely you'll be taken to dinner! Score! Some great craft beercentric restaurants here in the New Orleans area are my friends over at Squeal BBQ and also at Boucherie and Gordon Biersch.

10) Become a member-owner of a brewery


In Austin, Texas is a co-operative brew pub called Black Star Co-op. For a small fee of $150 you can buy your beer nerd one share in the brewery. And what are the benefits of being a member-owner? According to the brewery website:

-Voting power!
-Member appreciation events
-Patronage refunds
-Bragging rights
-”Beer with the Board” specials
-Free “Birthday” Beer
-Eligibility to join University Federal Credit Union www.ufcu.org
As the co-op develops, more benefits will become available.

This is such a unique and fun gift!!


If you have any fun beercentric gift ideas please share them with us!


Cheers!

The Beer Buddha

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

These are great ideas. I've bought my brother The Oxford Companion to Beer and he loved it! Here are some other cool gift ideas for the beer snob. http://frankenmuthbrewery.com/blog/brewery/creative-holiday-gifts-for-the-beer-snob/

Cari Caramonta said...

Love these ideas! Thnx Buddha!