Okay gang what are the best presents for craft beer lovers out there? Besides just getting a bunch of bottles from John's. Info: - Person lives in Southern California - - anybody know of any decent breweries down there? Events? - person is into home brewing, very basic stages (I don't know much about that scene. Suggestions?) - I have looked into beer of the month clubs, quality looks spotty and expensive - - What do people think are some of the best clubs? If any - Would rather give something else, suggestions please and thank you (:
Part 1 of a 3 part series on beer geek gifts http://newschoolbeer.com/2014/12/2014-beer-geek-holiday-gift-guide-part-1.html
If this person is into homebrewing then a gift certificate to a local home brew store or an online store like northernbrewer.com or morebeer.com will always work. Without knowing his homebrew equipment, its quite hard to recommend any specific ingredients or supplies. Just please don't by him a Mr Beer or similar type kit. As a homebrewer myself there is nothing worse than getting a random $30 beer kit thinking you will enjoy the "irish red ale" that has probably been on a shelf somewhere for a few years.
Agreed with jaredmull. It's too late to get a 55 LB bag of malt, so maybe a gift certificate is the next best thing! It might be a little early for him, but you've got to start all-grain sometime? It might be the push that he needs. Myself, I would be very happy to receive a bag of English pale malt, and I would put it to good use!
Southern CA has lots of good breweries, so many that you might want to get a teensy bit more specific. Wouldn't necessarily want to suggest a brewery excursion thats 3+ hours away from him even though it's in SoCal. Also, without knowing specific styles/breweries/beers are his favorites or how much of a beer nerd he is, our suggestions will still be fairly generic. - You're right to be wary of the value of beer of the month clubs. They're a dubious value in my opinion; shipping a few bottles at a time is really cost-inefficient, and the beers he'll get are a crap shoot. - Homebrew supplies/kits can be a great gift, but without knowing what he already has or if he's extract or all-grain brewing, you may get him something that's not useful. Maybe a gift cert to his local homebrew store? - Breweriana (glassware, bottle openers, brewery merchandise) is easier to ship than beer. Has he been to OR, maybe mentioned that he liked a particular brewery from here? If I were to receive a beer gift from somebody out of state, I'd be just as happy to get something from a cool out of state brewery as I would from someplace local to me.
I would also generally not recommend beer of the month clubs, but I had a good experience after my wife got me this one last year: http://store2.craftbeertemple.com/beer-of-the-month-club/ It's a good way to get a few things that are only available in the Chicago area if the person is into "ticking" at all.
Will keep that in mind. First successful brew is coming out next week. Learned the hard way that you can't trust California water to produce good beer ahaha (he's from Portland like me, recent transplant to SoCal). I just don't know what the spots are in his area to make that happen. But I think that might be the line of gifting I'm trending towards.
Thanks this cite is awesome! immediately gravitated towards the Gigantic calendar. He collects their bottle art
Got my beer geek friend something from this place. You can order online and pick it up in person in SE Portland. http://walnutstudiolo.com/products/reusable-leather-6-pack
